Monday is all about Respect

[Warrior4Ever]

Run Forrest Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Make Harangoofy run all night and he'll be hanging onto his shorts by halftime.

[patso]

Our team gets no respect. Seton Hall beat G'Town and it means nothing. Let's beat ND G'town Pitt and Louisville and we will make them apologize

[CTWarrior]

Do any of you honestly think we're the 10th best team in the country?  We haven't beaten a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee yet.  In fact we got smoked by double digits both times we played a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee, although we all know the Tennessee game was closer than the final score.  (I consider a top 50 team to be a team who would get at large consideration for an NCAA tournament berth.)

So I certainly can understand why people think we are overrated.  We are a nice team, but we are probably somewhere between 15 and 30.  At the beginning of the season I thought we were about an 7/8 seed in quality and I thought we'd be 17-2 and 6-0 at this point of the season on our way to an 11-7 Big East finish. 

[NavinRJohnson]

So I certainly can understand why people think we are overrated.  We are a nice team, but we are probably somewhere between 15 and 30.  At the beginning of the season I thought we were about an 7/8 seed in quality and I thought we'd be 17-2 and 6-0 at this point of the season on our way to an 11-7 Big East finish. 

That makes sense, and I find it difficult to disagree...the problem as I see it is for that to be true, you have to come up with 20 or so teams that are clearly better than MU. Honestly I have a hard time doing that.

Wake, Duke, UNC, UConn, UL, Pitt, Oklahoma, probably MSU, maybe Clemson...ummm...ummm....

A win tonight would certainly help settle the argument for me. Much like Providence, this is a bit of a tipping point game that will go a long way in determining if MU is a top of the BE team with UL and UConn, or a middle of the BE team. Not that a loss would say all that much, but a win certainly would.

[mviale]

Do any of you honestly think we're the 10th best team in the country?  We haven't beaten a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee yet.  In fact we got smoked by double digits both times we played a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee, although we all know the Tennessee game was closer than the final score.  (I consider a top 50 team to be a team who would get at large consideration for an NCAA tournament berth.)

So I certainly can understand why people think we are overrated.  We are a nice team, but we are probably somewhere between 15 and 30.  At the beginning of the season I thought we were about an 7/8 seed in quality and I thought we'd be 17-2 and 6-0 at this point of the season on our way to an 11-7 Big East finish. 

wow - Nostradamus went to MU

[Dish]

I think Navin hit the nail squarely on the head.

People get caught up in where we are ranked and what that says about MU. Look at the flip side, and see what it says about everyone ranked below us as well. Is there a team there that makes you think MU can't go toe to toe with?

An MU win tonight is probably, for most, unexpected, and would just solidify an already strong season. I honestly don't think an MU loss tonight says much one way or another about this team. ND is a brutal place to play, MU should go into this knowing they're playing 5 on 8 tonight (I'm throwing the refs as three on the floor for ND). An ND loss tonight and they're in serious big time trouble, even to make the NCAA's. I'd be shocked if MU didn't get anything less than ND's best effort tonight.

[CTWarrior]

wow - Nostradamus went to MU

Hardly Nostradamus.  If you go back to the pre-season prediction thread a most people had us pretty much where we are now with considerable slippage moving forward, which makes sense given the back-loaded nature of our schedule. 

Thus far we are pretty much where the consensus of MU fans thought we'd be and I don't think that consensus thought of us as a top 10 team, which is basically why I don't think we're a top 10 team now.

I do understand and agree with the argument that it is nearly impossible to figure out who, exactly, the teams are that deserve to be put ahead of us. 

[Dish]

This didn't resonate with me until I just went to the ND message board.

If we win tonight, people will still call us over-rated, because we still wouldn't have beaten an NCAA caliber team on the road. 

[Big Papi]

Do any of you honestly think we're the 10th best team in the country?  We haven't beaten a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee yet.  In fact we got smoked by double digits both times we played a top 50 team outside of Milwaukee, although we all know the Tennessee game was closer than the final score.  (I consider a top 50 team to be a team who would get at large consideration for an NCAA tournament berth.)

So I certainly can understand why people think we are overrated.  We are a nice team, but we are probably somewhere between 15 and 30.  At the beginning of the season I thought we were about an 7/8 seed in quality and I thought we'd be 17-2 and 6-0 at this point of the season on our way to an 11-7 Big East finish. 

After the top 7 teams (Duke, UConn, Pitt, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Louisville) who is definitively better than us?

Everyone else has as many or more warts than us.  Are we definitively better than the rest?  NO but we have done what we needed to do but at least be in the running.

For comparisons sake lets take a look at some teams that are in the running:

Texas: 2 best wins are at Villanova and at Wisky, both teams we have beat as well but at home.  The warts for Texas is 4 losses to ND, Michigan St., at Arkansas and at Oklahoma.  If we beat ND tonight, we look better than Texas.

Michigan St.: 2 best wins at Texas and at Minnesota.  Good wins on the road but I don't care how improved Northwestern is, they still lost to them at home and got blown out by North Carolina and lost to Maryland.  We beat ND tonight and I have a hard time putting Michigan State ahead of us.

Syracuse: good wins against Florida, Kansas and Memphis but they do have 4 losses albeit against very good competition.  If we beat ND, I think we are right there with them.  Oppps need to edit this, I forgot that they lost to Cleveland State.  A very bad loss that we don't have.

Clemson: their 3 big wins are at Illinois, South Carolina and Florida.  The Illinois win on the road looks real good but the SEC is weak this year so I don't think S. Carolina and Florida are better than our wins against Villanova, West Virginia or Wisky for that matter.

Butler:  One big win at Xavier, next 2 best wins are Northwestern and UAB.  You can't definitively put them ahead of us.

And on and on and on.  At this point in time we haven't proven that we are or are not a top 10 team but neither has anyone else below us.  A win tonight at ND and we take a huge step forward compared to the other teams listed above.