Must Win Tonight v. PC to Salvage Season

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Tonight is pretty much a must win to salvage any sort of  postseason play this seson.  Down 0-4 with 3 home losses makes it pretty much impossible for this group to claw back to .500 in BE play.  Going to be tough - PC is old, experience and playing really well right now.

Would love to see the boys find a way to execute the game plan and come out with a W tonight! Let's make it happen. Fingers crossed.

[BM1090]

Agreed. Must win. I thought if they beat Creighton they would win 4 in a row. No luck there. Maybe they can still make it 3 in a row.

Is anyone out for PC? The line swung from MU +2 to MU -2.

[hawk]

Way early for the "must win" stuff.  The tale of this team starts with De Paul, St. Johns, Georgetown and Butler.  So far all this season shows is that MU is not a top 25 team.  I for one am not shocked by that.  9-11 in conference would be a good result and a little run in the conference tourny might steal a id.  The big east  has 4 ranked and 2 others receiving votes teams. I would be happy with some growth this season and an NIT bid.  Have to start somewhere and that would be a good place.

[BM1090]

Way early for the "must win" stuff.  The tale of this team starts with De Paul, St. Johns, Georgetown and Butler.  So far all this season shows is that MU is not a top 25 team.  I for one am not shocked by that.  9-11 in conference would be a good result and a little run in the conference tourny might steal a id.  The big east  has 4 ranked and 2 others receiving votes teams. I would be happy with some growth this season and an NIT bid.  Have to start somewhere and that would be a good place.

Even if you sweep those 4 teams (unlikely) you have to find 2-3 other wins.

[BrewCity83]

Way early for the "must win" stuff.  The tale of this team starts with De Paul, St. Johns, Georgetown and Butler.  So far all this season shows is that MU is not a top 25 team.  I for one am not shocked by that.  9-11 in conference would be a good result and a little run in the conference tourny might steal a id.  The big east  has 4 ranked and 2 others receiving votes teams. I would be happy with some growth this season and an NIT bid.  Have to start somewhere and that would be a good place.

Agreed.  They could (mathematically) lose tonight and still go 16-4 in conference.  Now I know this doesn't look like a 16-4 team right now, but the schedule will get easier...

[MuggsyB]

100% correct.  Absolute must win game this evening.  I believe we will will get the W and back on track.

[Mu8891]

So ... please tell me none of you think
MU will sweep Gtown, DePaul, SJU and Butler ?!  They will go about 4 / 4 ... give or take a game ... in that group.

Right now ... as bad as they are, I don't see where MU gets to even 7 BE wins.

[The Sultan]

It literally is not a must win.

[brewcity77]

If you are hoping for an NCAA berth, then it's probably close to must-win. Even if we sweep Butler/DePaul/Georgetown, we need to get at least 4, more likely 5, other wins in our remaining 9 to make the field of 68 with 5 on the road.

If you are happy with an NIT berth, then we probably only need 2 more wins if you get that B/D/G sweep, so there's a decent chance of continuing to play past the BET.

If you are just looking forward to this team being better in February and March than they are in December and January, then tonight is absolutely not a must-win in any sense of the words.

[The Lens]

The Midgets started off 2-5, including a bad loss to DePaul.  We thought that was a flawed team that had some flukey pre conf success.  Then they righted the ship.

You never know.

[The Sultan]

If you are hoping for an NCAA berth, then it's probably close to must-win. Even if we sweep Butler/DePaul/Georgetown, we need to get at least 4, more likely 5, other wins in our remaining 9 to make the field of 68 with 5 on the road.

If you are happy with an NIT berth, then we probably only need 2 more wins if you get that B/D/G sweep, so there's a decent chance of continuing to play past the BET.

If you are just looking forward to this team being better in February and March than they are in December and January, then tonight is absolutely not a must-win in any sense of the words.

If we lose tonight, we can still make the NCAA tournament.  Therefore it is not a must win.

[brewcity77]

The Midgets started off 2-5, including a bad loss to DePaul.  We thought that was a flawed team that had some flukey pre conf success.  Then they righted the ship.

You never know.

They did, but that felt more predictable. Per kenpom, when the Midgets finished the regular season 9-2, that included 7 wins in an 11-game stretch over sub-65 teams. We have 7 games against sub-65 teams left, but the other 9 are against top-50 teams. Our conference schedule this year is tougher than the one the Midgets faced. So much for that "New Big East is weaker" fiction people like to peddle.

[DoctorV]

Agreed. Must win. I thought if they beat Creighton they would win 4 in a row. No luck there. Maybe they can still make it 3 in a row.

Is anyone out for PC? The line swung from MU +2 to MU -2.

Very strange. Line continues to move towards MU. Seems extremely surprising that Marquette would be favored

[hawk]

For this team to succeed this season they have to figure out how to have more than one guy to have a good game at a time.  It is the pain of youth that there is a wide range of outcomes game over game.  Prosper and Joplin had good games and oso didn't then Oso goes off for 20+ and  Lewis struggled a bit and prosper and Joplin didn't do much.  If you can imagine a team with Prosper, Igadoro, Lewis Kolek  and jones all playing well at the same time you can imagine an NCAA worthy team

[dgies9156]

If you are happy with an NIT berth, then we probably only need 2 more wins if you get that B/D/G sweep, so there's a decent chance of continuing to play past the BET.

Yuck, I say, YUCK!!!!!

[brewcity77]

Yuck, I say, YUCK!!!!!

I want to see this team in the NCAAs, but if I knew going in that the options were one-and-done in the NCAAs or winning a few NIT games (and maybe all the NIT games) then for this team, I'd take the NIT. Those games at the Al in 2018 were tremendous fun and Shaka is undefeated in postseason non-NCAA tournament games. No, it's not the Big Dance, but while I'll always take the NCAA bid beforehand, there is no doubt in my mind that the most fun postseason under Wojo was the 2018 NIT. Winning games and cheering for the team you love trumps getting blasted by a superior opponent on the first day.

And I'd definitely take NIT over no postseason at all.

[MU82]

If you are hoping for an NCAA berth, then it's probably close to must-win. Even if we sweep Butler/DePaul/Georgetown, we need to get at least 4, more likely 5, other wins in our remaining 9 to make the field of 68 with 5 on the road.

If you are happy with an NIT berth, then we probably only need 2 more wins if you get that B/D/G sweep, so there's a decent chance of continuing to play past the BET.

If you are just looking forward to this team being better in February and March than they are in December and January, then tonight is absolutely not a must-win in any sense of the words.

I'm "looking" for us to win every game. But I know that's not realistic. Also not realistic is thinking we'll rout PC (or any team, really). So I'm hoping that we can do what we've been doing -- hanging in games, rallying when necessary (and it's always necessary), being close at the end, and then actually pulling one out, as we did vs. Ill, Miss, WV and KSU (and UNH and SIUE). Need somebody to step up big down the stretch, need a little luck, maybe need a ref's call, whatever. And need to avoid tragically bad plays and/or poor coaching decisions.

[NCMUFan]

Hoping for a competitive game with this time MU having more points at the end than the opponents.  If not, well life goes on.

[muwarrior69]

Is Kam playing?

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

If we lose tonight, we can still make the NCAA tournament.  Therefore it is not a must win.

Lol, you're taking it far too literally.  A loss tonight makes going 10-10 that much harder.  Big difference between 1-3 and 0-4, just like there was big difference between 1-2 and 0-3 on Saturday.

Anything is possible, but for MU to have any realistic shot at making the tournament (which is a benchmark this program should strive to achieve every season), this game is a must win.

[Uncle Rico]

Is Kam playing?

Yes

[BM1090]

Reeves is questionable but looks like he will play

[Dr. Blackheart]

What's the line of a runaway bat, ice skating slippery floor or a Parka'ed up brother of a player entering the floor to call a time out?

[Spotcheck Billy]

What's the line of a runaway bat, ice skating slippery floor or a Parka'ed up brother of a player entering the floor to call a time out?

My wife still brings up Cooley ducking from the bat when she sees him on broadcasts.

[Dr. Blackheart]

My wife still brings up Cooley ducking from the bat when she sees him on broadcasts.

Honestly, one of the most fun and coming together games played at the BC. I miss Marquette Nation.