USF game looms a little larger tonight

[ChicosBailBonds]

We'd be back in first place by ourselves after the Pitt win.

[MUWarrior06]

Woulda shoulda coulda.

We didn't.

Get over it.

Had UCONN not lost to G Town we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Had Louisville not laid an egg vs ND they'd be in first

[dsfire]

Rutgers?

[LastWarrior]

We'd be back in first place by ourselves after the Pitt win.

Let it go... no need to keep bringing it up.  It was a bad loss and we all know the ramifications of the loss.  Let it go... please!

[buckchuckler]

What year did Uconn lose to rutgers?

[MUWarrior06]

Rutgers?

My mistake, I saw their schedule wrong. GT

[SERocks]

The way I see it is that we have to play UConn, Pitt and Louisville yet. 

We control our own destiny from this point forward.

Florida has nothing to do with anything.

[ATWizJr]

chico's is right. lost opportunity.

[MuMark]

We weren't good enough to avoid a stumble for the entire season.

Dissappointing but not really surprising when you have the smallest team in major college basketball.

Other teams have the ability to overcome their weaknesses by physically dominating other teams. They have Thabeet to block 9 shots, alter 9 more and get 20 rebounds to overcome bad shooting. They have Blair or Hansboro or Griffin to get cheap points on offensive rebounds.

We have Dwight Burke and Pat Hazel.

I mean come on.

We should be happy as hell that have only 2 losses with 6 games to go in probably the best conference in the country.

[Pakuni]

If MU hadn't lost to Dayton, Tennessee, South Florida and Villanova, they'd be #1 in the country right now.
Lost opportunity.

[ATWizJr]

Disingenuous to mention USF in the same breath with Tennessee, Dayton and Villanova, wouldn't you say?

[IAmMarquette]

Disingenuous to mention USF in the same breath with Tennessee, Dayton and Villanova, wouldn't you say?

Disingenuous, perhaps, but equally poignant.

[Tugg Speedman]

No this is an internet discussion so nothing is unreasonable.  

That fact that we are not undefeated at all is a sign of how poor a choice Buzz was as our coach.  Keno Davis would have us 24 and 0 right now.  

The fact that we actually lose games ever now and then is also a warning we might not win the national championship.

[Pakuni]

Disingenuous to mention USF in the same breath with Tennessee, Dayton and Villanova, wouldn't you say?

Why? Would MU be ranked #1 with losses to Dayton, Tennessee and Villanova, but a win over USF?

Seriously, what's the lost opportunity?
The opportunity to be in first place on Feb. 16? Do they give out trophies for that? Would the former coach have hung a banner reading "2-16-09"?
Why is it remotely important to be all alone in first place with a third of the schedule left to play? Particularly when the regular season title is, for all intents, meaningless.

[ATWizJr]

Well, it's disingenuous to compare a loss to a team with an 8-16 record to losses to teams whose combined record is 59-16.  Not analogous.

And, of course, the bad loss affected our RPI, our national ranking, our BE standing, and made it tougher to win the conference, to finish in the top four, and to gain the bye-bye.

I'm not a Buzz detractor or a Crean lover, and the loss is not a catastrophe.  Nor is it being portrayed as such. Just a lost opportunity.  Surely you can agree to that. (and yes, I am calling you Shirley!)

[The Lens]

Would the former coach have hung a banner reading "2-16-09"?

LOL

[tower912]

Yeah, it sucks for the first time in basketball history, a team lost a game it should have won.   Never before has a team lost a conference road game to an inferior foe.   To honor our disgrace, we should cancel the rest of the season, since obviously we have nothing left to strive for.     Win tonight, go 2-3 or (miraculously 3-2) over the last 5, take our double bye and move on.    And yes, I believe 13-5 gets us the double bye. 

[RubyWiscy]

Every loss is a lost opportunity. I don't really get your point. As meaningless to wish we won the game as wishing we had a great big man. Doesn't exist so quit worrying about it.

Gotta look forward. Pleanty of time and opportunity left to control our own destiny and that is the most any team can ask for.

This is gonna be a fun next few weeks.


(Wow, what strange sentence configuration. I need to contact my English teacher for a refresher course.)

[MUfan12]

We'd be back in first place by ourselves after the Pitt win.

Pope Catholic. Sky Blue. Economy Sucks.

Film at 11.

[ChicosBailBonds]

If MU hadn't lost to Dayton, Tennessee, South Florida and Villanova, they'd be #1 in the country right now.
Lost opportunity.

  Except that MU was picked to lose to Tennessee and Nova, and Dayton is now a top 25 team.  Nor were those three conference games. 

Other than that, dead on.

[ChicosBailBonds]

No this is an internet discussion so nothing is unreasonable.  

That fact that we are not undefeated at all is a sign of how poor a choice Buzz was as our coach.  Keno Davis would have us 24 and 0 right now.  

The fact that we actually lose games ever now and then is also a warning we might not win the national championship.

I would have made the lost opportunity comment if Al McGuire was the head coach.  I don't know why everyone is getting so defensive.  It was a lost opportunity, no matter how you cut it.  And yes, it looms a little larger every time one of the top 4 teams in this league lose another game because they are losing to other top teams, where we are the only one in the group that has a loss to a bottom four team.

Those types of losses knock you down in seeding, again don't know how it can be construed as anything but a lost opportunity.  No one is saying bad losses don't happen, of course they do.  Doesn't make the loss any less of a killer, however.  MU has to grab one now that they aren't supposed to, which is a much bigger challenge.

[Ready2Fly]

I said after Mbakwe left that the makeup of this team is such that we would probably lose two games we "shouldn't" lose in conference and win two games we "shouldn't."  @USF was one of those we shouldn't lose, but it was a road game, and a classic trap game.  I flew down for it, and it sucked, but it was something I expected at some point from the beginning of the season.  Would you rather have lost @ND, with that being considered before the season a game we were expected to lose?  Not me.  There's one more game we could win that we're not supposed to.  @L'Ville, @Pitt, UConn, or @G'Town.  Let's go out and get it.  Of course, there's also a game out there we're expected to win that we could still lose......

If someone told me before the season we'd start off 10-2 in conference, I'd have taken that in a hearbeat, regardless of where the losses came from.

[NYWarrior]

It was a lost opportunity, no matter how you cut it.  And yes, it looms a little larger every time one of the top 4 teams in this league lose another game because they are losing to other top teams, where we are the only one in the group that has a loss to a bottom four team.

Those types of losses knock you down in seeding, again don't know how it can be construed as anything but a lost opportunity.  No one is saying bad losses don't happen, of course they do.  Doesn't make the loss any less of a killer, however.  MU has to grab one now that they aren't supposed to, which is a much bigger challenge.

Of course, after starting off 9-0 in the league one can rightly argue that MU already grabbed one "that they weren't supposed to".....see Syracuse at PC, Ville at ND, UConn losing at home to a 4-8 Georgetown team, UC coughing up a home game against PC.  Only Pitt has yet to stub its toe in this regard.  The other 15 have.

Gotta move on.

[Shack]

I agree that USF was a huge lost opportunity but if the team keeps focusing on it there will be a few more lost opportunities the rest of the season.   Need to get that game out of their head (if they haven't already) ASAP.  

[Pakuni]

  Except that MU was picked to lose to Tennessee and Nova, and Dayton is now a top 25 team.  Nor were those three conference games. 

Other than that, dead on.

So, if I understand this correctly, losing games when you're "picked to lose" (by who?) is not a lost opportunity.
Losing games to teams that, 11 weeks later, enter the top 25 do not qualify as lost opportunities.
Gotcha.

p.s. I'm pretty sure the game at Villanova was a conference game. At least that's what the standings to my left suggest.