MU and Louisville--closing out their games

[mug644]

I was in Providence the other night and the incredible finish after allowing PC to have its way much of the night reminded me a bit of how strong we finished against Cincy. I had been saying to my buddy that even though we were down, our senior leadership could easily pull us back into it. I'm too lazy to do the research, but haven't we outscored out opponents something like 60-20 in the last 8-10 minutes of our last two games?

Then I read an article about Louisville, saying how they feel that there will always come a time near the end of a game where they know their opponent is gased, and doesn't have the legs to keep up with Sosa, Williams, Samuels et al.

So, I'm thinking that this year's team, with the senior leadership, with the high energy backcourt and with their training (remember that video of their preseason workouts?) will not give up on a single game. They know that they can come back in any game, and that they need to finish every game strong. Putting it another way, I think that this team can go to eleven, when other teams have to stop at ten.

(For what it is worth, I think the Rutgers game is an odd outlyer, where the team didn't close out a solid victory. But Buzz has openly acknowledged that he essentially sat back too soon, putting in his thin bench earlier than he should've.)

Sure it might still come back to haunt us, perhaps with not having the energy at the end of the season, during the tough 5 game stretch to end the regular season, or during the slog of the Big East tournament (wow, how helpful might bye games be then). Or, a team like UConn or Georgetown might just grind us so much that we can't get to eleven.

Still, despite knowing that we haven't been really tested in the way that many teams have been, my hopes for the season have never been higher. We've passed just about every test so far, and the outlook is good.

[DoubleMU0609]

Putting it another way, I think that this team can go to eleven.

 

[NavinRJohnson]

[BuzzSucksSucks]

And hopefully that will get into the heads of the opposition at some point, knowing that we'll be pushing it to eleven when they're wanting to dial it back.