Wow, do you watch basketball at all?
Lost more? Really? Both teams lost ALOT...3 very important starters plus a role player.
The difference is...and as I said at the time... Pitt has better players, better depth and more experience coming back than we do. They have size up front. They have a better coach.
Pitt is a better team than we are. It has been clear for a long time. The fact that they are 14-2 doesnt mean that we should have less than 6 losses. You sir, are the misguided one.
Do me a favor--list all the returning Pitt players that you consider better than Hayward.
Hell, list all the returning Pitt players that you consider better than Butler.
Now calculate how many games of D1 starting experience each team had returning:
Now tally up the returning points, rebounds, assists.
Now list the recruiting classes for both teams along with their RSCI rank and any All-American or other status.
Now do you understand?
and playing against Levance Fields and Blair last season has helped to prepare the players that are stepping up this year.
I'm just curious as to the differences that you see playing against Fields, & Blair as preparation to step up the following year as compared to playing against James, McNeal and Matthews.
I seem to remember McNeal and James in particular being recognized for their defense, which sure seems like it would make for BETTER preparation than Fields & Blair.
Yet you seem to be making the case that because Pitt's retuning players played against Fields and Blair, they would be better able to rise up and play a more prominent role.
BEFORE our highest ranked recruit and sure to be staring point guard was lost for the season, BEFORE our second highest ranked recruit and sixth man (who likely would have moved into the starting lineup) left the team and BEFORE the only true center in the rotation was lost for the season, Big East coaches and writers (and national writers) picked MU to finish 12th or 13th in the conference. We now have the smallest team in Big East history, no center and not even a true power forward. Our starting point guard is an undersized career backup 2 guard and his backup is a 5'8''(in very thick shoes) 150lb refugee from the Mid American Conference. In spite of all this you and Willie Warrior think this team is underachieving. Maybe you two know more than all the experts who get paid to opine about the game. Maybe you two know more than everybody else on this board. Nothing either of you has written to this point convinces me.
Did you intentionally ignore the losses Pitt has endured this year?
Pitt lost their only returning starter Jermaine Dixon for the entire pre-season practice, plus the team's first eight games.
Pitt lost another expected starter Gilbert Brown to academics, missing the first 11 games.
Now, with all the objectivity and honesty you can muster--do you think that if MU had lost Hayward (our equivalent to Jermaine Dixon) to injury for all of pre-season practice plus the first eight games, and we lost Butler (expected starter, like Brown) for the first 11 games--that we would be 9-2 by that point? And undefeated since?
