Are We Still A 2 Seed,

[4everwarriors]

Big East championship team, and Final Four contender?

[🏀]

Big East championship team, and Final Four contender?

3-seed. BE contender and dark(as night)horse contender for the Final Four.

[NavinRJohnson]

Why not? Because we lost road game to an SEC team? Unless anyone expected MU to go undefeated, I'm not sure what has really changed. Sometimes you lose.

[MerrittsMustache]

Right now? No. The Tournament starts in 3 months though so our potential seed right now doesn't matter.

[wojosdojo]

Unless anyone expected MU to go undefeated, I'm not sure what has really changed. Sometimes you lose.

A LOT of people here thought we were going to win en route, thats the only thing thats questioning the loss. I think the rankings get to everyone especially (the players) when Im watching games hoping the higher ranked team loses.

[ATWizJr]

Big East championship team, and Final Four contender?

No.

[mu_hilltopper]

Nope.  And we never were a 2 seed.  

People were basing our elite status on 6 cupcakes, and 3 decent wins: UW, Ole Miss, Washington.  Sorry, beating the crap out of cupcakes doesn't mean you are elite.

UW is clearly a great win.  But would anyone like to bet that if we played that game 10 times, UW wouldn't win most of em?  I wouldn't.

Washington?  Washington has been exposed as a bubble team, if not headed to the NIT, losing to Nevada and South Dakota State, among their 5-5 record.

Ole Miss is another bubble team, more likely NIT.  Add a loss to another NIT team, LSU, and that should not give anyone the idea this is the year we'll win the Big East, who oh by the way, has 6 top 15 teams.  

Just like always, we have a narrow margin of error in every top 20 game we'll play this year.

Don't get me wrong .. Marquette isn't terrible .. just not as elite as a 1-2-3 seed needs to be.

[Windyplayer]

Big East championship team, and Final Four contender?

Big East championship team, yep. Final four contender is a stretch. I still love this team. Like another poster said, we lost to an SEC team on the road--and that SEC team was shooting lights out including hitting some circus shots. These things happen, and they'll likely happen a few more times before the 2011-2012 campaign comes to an end.

[wadesworld]

UW is clearly a great win.  But would anyone like to bet that if we played that game 10 times, UW wouldn't win most of em?  I wouldn't.

I do.  UW is not a very good team.  We are much better than them.

If we get a healthy Otule back sooner than later we will be a top 3 seed.

[4everwarriors]

Yo Dudes, anyone who's half objective and has a basketball IQ above 50 (put this in to exclude F*ckin'), can ready see this team has major exploitable warts.

[Windyplayer]

Don't get me wrong .. Marquette isn't terrible

Really going out on a limb there.

[BCHoopster]

Have to be at least 12-6 in conference and win at least 2 games in NY.  Then we could be 4-5 seed.  It is along ways away.  Otules comeback is critical.  Need more height, Chris
would have been a big help last night against there center.  Gardner and Wilson are to small.  The gauntlet starts with Vandy, then Villy, GT, Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville.  You will
no soon enough if they can be a top seed.  3-2 would be a great start.

[robmufan]

I know we lost one game...but lets be honest here, there is a lot of overreaction. We all know that size is an issue, but i believe we have been able to win a good amount of games the past couple years without it.

Who cares at this point what seed we might be. You are telling me if we go 12-1 in OOC, or even 11-2 we go from a 2 seed to a bubble team?  It seems like that is what many here are thinking...

[ringout]

Big East championship team, and Final Four contender?

4ever asks, as he runs naked in the middle of Wisconsin Ave. with a hard hat on, screaming "the sky is falling".

[ATWizJr]

Why not? Because we lost road game to an SEC team? Unless anyone expected MU to go undefeated, I'm not sure what has really changed. Sometimes you lose.

I think that after beating Wisconsin, people had a reasonable expectation that MU would enter BE play udefeated.  Now, I'd say look out for Vandy.

[Silkk the Shaka]

With Otule at 100%? Yes. Without him, 4-5 seed, 4-5th in Big East.  Still a very good season, but not amazing like it could be.  We need 40 mpg from a true center.  Hope he's able to give it a go.

[4everwarriors]

I think that after beating Wisconsin, people had a reasonable expectation that MU would enter BE play udefeated.  Now, I'd say look out for Vandy.

Beware of the Panthers.

[ATL MU Warrior]

I think that after beating Wisconsin, people had a reasonable expectation that MU would enter BE play udefeated.  Now, I'd say look out for Vandy.

I think that many people understood that once Otule went down we were going to be in a world of trouble against the LSUs and Vandys of the world.

Teams with athtletic size are going to beat us all year, unless Chris gets healthy enough to return.  

[Silkk the Shaka]

I would add that we've played 4 top 100 teams so far this year.  Two on the road, two neutral, and zero at home.  We've gone 3-1, and two of those games were played without our starting center. 

Last year we played 4 top 100 teams in the non-con portion of our schedule.  Two neutral, one home, one away, and we went 0-4. 

We have two more coming up, both at home.  Win those and we have an excellent resume heading into conference season.  Get Otule back by the end of January, close out the season strong and we definitely still have a shot at a 2 seed.  It's going to be harder now, but it can happen.

[brewcity77]

I think that many people understood that once Otule went down we were going to be in a world of trouble against the LSUs and Vandys of the world.

Teams with athtletic size are going to beat us all year, unless Chris gets healthy enough to return.

+1

If Otule played yesterday, we win that game.

And I don't just mean that as an Otule-lover...if DJO holds on to the ball, or the other guards hit their shots, or LSU doesn't hit those few wild threes, we also win, but Otule would have made the difference.

[MerrittsMustache]

With Otule at 100%? Yes. Without him, 4-5 seed, 4-5th in Big East.  Still a very good season, but not amazing like it could be.  We need 40 mpg from a true center.  Hope he's able to give it a go.

Otule is the only "true center" on the roster. He averaged less than 18 minutes per game last season and MU seemed to do OK.

[tower912]

Henry Sugar, is there a large enough sample size available yet to determine MU's defensive efficiency with and without Otule?

[Silkk the Shaka]

Otule is the only "true center" on the roster. He averaged less than 18 minutes per game last season and MU seemed to do OK.

So you're saying now we're playing zero minutes with a "true center"?

I'm definitely counting Gardner.  He is a college center.  He operates exclusively on the low block.  We need both of them ready and able to play 40 mpg combined to reach our full potential.

[wadesworld]

Yo Dudes, anyone who's half objective and has a basketball IQ above 50 (put this in to exclude F*ckin'), can ready see this team has major exploitable warts.

Just like when your superior basketball IQ to the rest of the board let us all know we had no shot at beating Wisconsin.  We lost one game so far.  Did you expect us to be 13-0 in non-conference?  I didn't, and I know you didn't because you expected a loss over Wisconsin at least.  Teams lose games they shouldn't and win games they shouldn't.  It happens.  It's a long season and a lot can happen.  Get over yourself.

[brewcity77]

Otule is the only "true center" on the roster. He averaged less than 18 minutes per game last season and MU seemed to do OK.

MU got to the Sweet 16, but a lot of people were griping all year long as the 14 losses mounted up. CO will never be a 40-minute player, but I think he'd have seen 22-24 mpg this season, with Ox picking up the rest. We'd at least have 35-38 minutes of true center play per game.