From Rab today
Life on the road...
"To date 89 Big East conference games have been played and only 10 of those games have resulted in the visiting team coming away with a win. In fact, just 10 of our conference's 16 teams have managed to walk away from an opposing arena with a "W". It is early, but make no mistake about it...hold serve at home and go .500 on the road could very easily equal a Big East regular season championship. Easier said than done...this conference is brutal. The Big East schedule makers kindly sent us to West Virginia, Louisville and UConn to open Big East road play...easily 3 of the toughest venues not only in the Big East, but in college basketball overall. Now, there is absolutely no question that we whole heartedly participated in our own misfortune on the road...allowing teams to shoot .500, getting out rebounded and poor shooting are NEVER characteristics of a successful road trip"
The qualifier would be fine if they were close or well played games, but we all know they were not. Excuses sound pathetic when you absolutely crap the bed. Give me three loses like the Duke game and I'd chalk it all up to playing on the road in the Big East. But I think we all know that was not the case.
I saw that too .. his numbers are wrong. There are 45 wins and 45 losses in BE standings. (of course). That means only 45 games have been played .. I'm guessing he added the wins and losses together to come up with 89 (90).
10 games have had the visitor win. 10 of 45 is .222
Whether it's 11% or 22% .. it's low, point taken.
http://statsheet.com/mcb/conferences/big-east
.. and point taken, SoCal. How many of those away-losses were at least competitive.
You're right Hilltopper ( I should never trust Rab's numbers ;) ).... the bottom line, winning on the road is a beast.
Remember, that 2 of the 3 Big East teams that came into our building were also blown out.
No doubt that winning on the road is a bear. The disappointment, for me, comes in how we've played...not necessarily the losses themselves. I feel the same way about the Seton Hall game, which we won!
There is some reason to be concerned but I wouldn't put to much emphasis on these last two losses. In the Louisville game we couldn't buy a 3 and were still within striking distance halfway through the second half before they put us away the final6-8 minutes. We hit a couple of wide open thress and it becomes a tighter game and what, everyone is less glum around here? That game was no big deal. Louisville is a hell of team, finally healthy and has great talent.
UConn is a bit disturbing in that we were down by almost 30. Now that was a bad game. Okay so we had our one big stinker on the road. Again, based on strictly talent, UConn is way better than us albeit an inconsistent team. Add to the fact that any team with a talented frontline and especially one with a great shotblocker in the middle completely eliminates what little inside game we have with our penetration and I can see where the odds of winning are against us. Also like him or hate him, Calhoun is an established coach who has been very successful and I am sure he got his kids riled up by the fact that we beat them twice and fairly soundly at that. Again, it was a distrubing loss but it was only one loss.
Lets see how things shake out over the next couple of games. If we loss to DePaul at home than we can start with the sky is falling, we are doomed talk. I personally see us winning against Depaul and getting on a little bit of a roll with the softest part of the schedule coming up right now. If you look at the entire season, we have a good chance of being 7-3 after the next 4 games. Again that is based on how we looked against Duke, Wisconsin, ND, Providence, all fairly good teams. If you look at the last 2 games only, you might have a different take. I say lets be a little optimistic around here.
I don't know what the line on the DePaul game is going to be, but take Marquette and give whatever they're giving.
I predict a major bloodbath.
I'd guess MU would be favored by around 8 or 9.
Quote from: PuertoRicanNightmare on January 23, 2008, 10:17:52 AM
I don't know what the line on the DePaul game is going to be, but take Marquette and give whatever they're giving.
I predict a major bloodbath.
DePaul's tougher than you might think. They've been giving teams a run for their money. They're 4-2 in Big East play and have moved to .500 with a record of 9-9 overall. I'm not saying Marquette won't win, but a "major bloodbath" isn't for certain.
Quote from: HarveysWallbangers on January 23, 2008, 09:26:18 AM
No doubt that winning on the road is a bear. The disappointment, for me, comes in how we've played...not necessarily the losses themselves. I feel the same way about the Seton Hall game, which we won!
I agree with you... MU is actually EXACTLY where I thought they would be (record wise).
But, I wasn't counting on them getting blown out.
The good news however is that no matter how much you lose by, it's still only 1 game. MU is still 3-3 in the conference with a chance to getting on a winning streak with some home games and (hopefully) a winnable game at Cinci.
Quote from: Avenue Commons on January 23, 2008, 11:19:28 AM
Quote from: PuertoRicanNightmare on January 23, 2008, 10:17:52 AM
I don't know what the line on the DePaul game is going to be, but take Marquette and give whatever they're giving.
I predict a major bloodbath.
DePaul's tougher than you might think. They've been giving teams a run for their money. They're 4-2 in Big East play and have moved to .500 with a record of 9-9 overall. I'm not saying Marquette won't win, but a "major bloodbath" isn't for certain.
I can't speak for PRN but I do agree with him. Not that DePaul is bad, far from it. They are a decent team but there are a couple of factors that are in our favor with the two most important ones being that we are at home and Depaul does not have a great frontline that will cause us problems. Also we have a week off and with a week of practice time with TC after 2 bad games, I would imagine the team will be stoked to take it to someone else. I fully expect a double digit romp that is trending more towards the ND romp we had.