MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - Printable Version

MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - Printable Version

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Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - SamAtoms1980 - 01-11-2018

Our next five games will all rate high in difficulty.Â Getting this win was hewge.

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - d4cohn - 01-11-2018

(01-11-2018, 09:45 PM)winflop link Wrote:I was really happy with this win:
- 3 game conference win streak (something Dawkins maybe did once in 8 years)
- road win
- close win

I will pay more attention to where we are in pac12 standings after the first half of the conference season. After only 2.5 weekends it matters a lot who you have played.

But I think we are 9 wins from a ticket to the Big Dance.

The 3-game winning streak has been a positive sign, but we dug ourselves a deep hole with our showing in non-conference play. We have 4 RPI sub-100 losses (of which 2 are sub-150), including a home loss to the #184 ranked team in RPI. Furthermore, we lost all four non-conference RPI top 50 matchups, with all but the Ohio State game being uncompetitive routs. Finally, it took a half-court heave and 2 OT's to record our two best wins. Otherwise, our best win from the non-conference is a home win over Northeastern (ranked #120 in RPI).

Having said all of that, I will be happy with just seeing the team develop and build for the future, regardless of the postseason. Unless we go on a substantial, and arguably unprecedented, run in a pretty mediocre Power 5 league (2, maybe 3 bid league currently) with only 2 elite teams to make up at least 80-90 spots in the RPI, we are going to have to win it all in Vegas to make March Madness.

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - TreesAndBirds - 01-12-2018

(01-11-2018, 11:48 PM)Card15 link Wrote:[quote author=winflop link=topic=18534.msg221084#msg221084 date=1515732343]
I was really happy with this win:
- 3 game conference win streak (something Dawkins maybe did once in 8 years)
- road win
- close win

I will pay more attention to where we are in pac12 standings after the first half of the conference season. After only 2.5 weekends it matters a lot who you have played.

But I think we are 9 wins from a ticket to the Big Dance.

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - Card Fan in OR - 01-12-2018

Dont have much to add to the observations here, but Ill add mine, anyway.

But, first: I havent watched a MBB game in yearsjust lost interest. Tonight I wanted to get a look at some of the new names as well as some of the more senior members. I have to say that this team looked way, way better than I possibly imagined. There were things to carp about (observations below), but the athleticism and offense were so much more than I was expectingand just very good. Davis, Pickens, Okpala (hope I have that spelling right) and more. Okpala really impressed me with his fluidity, agility, and overall play. I think he is already very good, and hope there is much more to come.

While I always like the team to do as well as possible, I wont judge this season on going to the NCAAs or not. Ill judge more by progress and development, both of the team as a whole and, especially, of the freshmen.

OK, what I would like to see look better:

Our defense at times look stout against a very sloppy opponent, but at times looked almost lost. How many times were there uncontested drives for easy layups? Too many for me.

Defensive rebounding I just cant even give It a C.

Like to see better free throw shooting. We were in the 50s for much of the game, but then Okpala (Right?) started really draining them and Travis hit a few. Havent see final stats.

I just didnt see most of the fouls the way they were called. Maybe I dont know what to look for.

Overall, this team looks much, much better than I expected. I anticipate lots of improvement down the road, hopefully this year, but also in years to come.

One more shout-out to the passing and movement. As I said, havent watched much in recent years, but the passingcrisp and intentioned reminded me of the Montgomery years. Keep it up, guys and coaches!

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - winflop - 01-12-2018

(01-12-2018, 12:15 AM)TreesAndBirds link Wrote:Obviously the Big Dance would be far preferable, but I agree it looks pretty unlikely now.

Agreed. I would consider an NIT bid a success given the awful start to the season because it requires a .500 or better record. But if the conference really is Arizona, ASU, and the rest then I think 9 more conference wins and finishing 12-6 (or better) is possible if they sustain the level of play we've seen the last 3 games. It's a big if, but it's not impossible.

I do think that either tournament committee will look past the bad losses at the beginning of the season given the personnel differences compared to what we have now.

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - Treebound - 01-12-2018

Agree with much of the postings here.Â I was at the sc game and was very impressed with Okpala.Â He can take the ball to the hoop with both strength and agility.Â Da Silva will get better as he gets stronger.Â

As for the Dance, given all the pre-season injuries, if we play well in conference I think we get the bid.Â Much more work to do at this point, but remember that Bernard is on that committee and that can help should we be on the bubble.Â This is going to be fun to watch, especially if the students start coming to Maples again.Â I sure hope so!

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - GK3 - 01-12-2018

Hard to figure how the season will end up going.Â We have to keep in mind that Kezie did NOT play at all during the preseason.Â We had injuries that lasted multiple games among other players.Â It wasn't until the conference season started that we finally were able to field the team we expected to field in November.Â The team will continue to improve simply because they are now getting used to playing with each other.Â
If you had told me that we could basically have an night on the road where Humphrey and Travis didn't even score 10 points between them, I would have said that we would lose the game for sure.Â
It is a lot to ask of this very young team to win a lot of big games on the road as freshmen and make the tournament, but I don't think they are counting themselves out at all. A win Saturday night would be brobdingnagian.Â Teams used to figure that if they shut down Travis and Humphrey, it wouldn't make any difference if Pickens went off on them, as there was no one else who could score. Now we actually have 5 people whom we can put on the floor at the same time who can score, and play defense.Â It has been awhile since that has been the case.

Re: MBB: Stanford at Wazzu - donkey687 - 01-12-2018

I absolutely love the enthusiasm and hope we see continued improvement but discussion of a NCAA or even NIT tourney berth seems absurd to me.

We play 18 games in a weak Pac 12. We have played 4 of our easiest games on our Pac12 schedule and two of our wins were somewhat improbable and a little lucky. We will be clear underdogs in 10 of our remaining 14 games (every game except at Cal, WSU, Oregon and OSU at home). If you look at current rpi, we have to play the top 7 Pac 12 teams on the road and the top 3 Pac 12 teams at home.Â To go, 7-7 down the stretch would require us to play a lot better than we have played in our last 3 games.Â We would probably need to go 11-3 to be a NCAA bubble team and 9-5 to be an NIT bubble team.Â I don't see 9 wins on the schedule.Â One thing that works against us is that of the 7 Pac12 teams that we play twice, 5 of them are the best five teams in the Pac12 (Arizona, ASU, UW, UCLA and USC).Â Beating those teams twice seems unlikely.Â I really hope I am wrong, but evidence to date suggests that I am not.Â Finishing .500 or better in conference play should be a measure of success in my opinion if we can accomplish that after the poor non-conference results.