Bobby seems to think we can do it, I'm less than enthused by the possibility.
We've got Georgia on the road this week, a game I do think we can win. Arkansas is a potential winner too, but in truth, we haven't played well against Arkansas the past two years. Despite their W-L column, I do not have a tremendous amount of confidence in that win.
I am about 90-95% we aren't beating LSU. Which means that going .500, assuming we can beat both Arkansas and Georgia, is going to come down to beating South Carolina at home.
In order to beat South Carolina at home, someone is going to have to sack up and stop Devan Downey. Whether that means limiting his ability to touch the rock or making sure that you get a body in front of him and draw charges, someone needs to demonstrate defensive intensity.
You'll have to excuse me for the bitter tinge to my post today, but this weekend's game against Florida was neither pleasant nor fun to watch. I give benefit of the doubt when you have to go into the O-Dome to play, but let's be honest, we weren't competitive. I'm fine with losing but at this point in the year, I can't say I expect to watch game's that are over at the end of the first half. The games against Tennessee and Florida in the second half have been very disappointing to watch. I just can't say that I've seen the kind of improvement I was hoping for out of this team this year. They aren't bad, but they're not great. But on the bright side, I'd rather have disappointed expectations than no expectations and nothing to be excited about for basketball season.
So that being said, we can still get to 8-8. But is there anybody who is really excited about watching us play in the NIT? Who else wants to fast-forward to the Jenkins era (and to getting this extremely talented class a lot more experience?)
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Things could be worse, you know. The Dores are an inexperienced team, but there's no shame in Vandy making some noise in the NIT.
Good luck with the last four games.
The frustrating thing is the whole SEC is down so I would have liked to have seen steady improvement throughout the year instead of every other game. They looked terrible against UT and Florida and good against UK. Not saying we have to beat all the big boys away from Memorial but Stan is right we weren't even competitive. I would be shocked to see us win 3 of our last 4. No way we beat LSU. I think we beat Georgia and prob Arkansas but I don't see us winning against USC.
i think we beat georgia tonight. usc is a challenge but we can step up and get a big win at home. if we do that it means we've gone 6-2 in our last 8 games. i don't care what you think but that is picking up momentum and doing a lot better at the end of the year. at ut and at uf are hard places to play. if we had played away first and had those at home we might have had a better shot. if we are 7-7 going into LSU why can't we step up and upset them? i think anything's a possibility and while 8-8 is more likely i honestly think this team can go 9-7 and pick up a few in the tourney and end up being on the bubble. even if we do that we're prob still NIT bound but i'm excited to see what they can do. never in a hurry to rush the season to an end.
I do love the enthusiasm anonymous. I must admit my mood is a bit refreshed today. I do think you've got a plausible point. A win tonight, and a huge homestand against South Carolina this weekend will go a long way to rejuvenating my spirits, and you're absolutely right about the momentum. Finishing the season strong and winning 6 out of your last 8 would be a very good accomplishment.
It's just hard to see that momentum at times when you're taking drubbings like we did at Tennessee and at Florida. While they are tough places to play, we weren't even CLOSE to in those games. That's what got me really down about the performances. I know that we can beat teams but I don't like to see such disparity between us and the teams at the top of the SEC East, particularly in a down conference year.
That being said, you raise an excellent point, and if we can put together a couple good wins this week, I'll be more optimistic.
Dunno about bubble consideration though, given the conference's low SOS and the pretty terrible RPIs of most teams.
Anything short of 9-7 in conference and an appearance in the SEC finals and there's no bubble for the Commies.
Still, I think 8-8 with a win in the SEC tournament would get us to 20 wins and should mean we host at least one NIT game. Given the youth of this team, and the injuries and health problems we've battled, that is nothing to scoff at.
The key game for the Commodores is Saturday's match-up with South Carolina. A win at home puts us in a great position to end the year strong and should give fans reasons to be optimistic going forward.
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