CBS has MU at #25 this week

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

http://cbsprt.co/UyCTgo

[kneelb4zerg]

That's silly. Am I the only one who thinks Parrish and Goodman are hacks?

[MU_Iceman]

And well they should be there.

[warriorfan4life]

That's silly. Am I the only one who thinks Parrish and Goodman are hacks?

Yeah, I am with you. With a one point home win and OT home win, we jumped 42 spots in the RPI. We stayed the same in the Pomeroys. Not a big shock in which set of ratings I trust more. I think we are a bit better then our Pomeroy ranking, but much closer to 57 then 25.

[kneelb4zerg]

We aren't the 25th best team in the country. No way. 40-45 range at best.

Our luck evened out a bit this week to balance the Butler/GB losses. That's it.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

I think the issue is that this year more than any other year I can remember there aren't many good teams. It has to be super hard to differentiate between some of these teams because there are just a lot of teams with warts. Maybe it just speaks to the weakness of college basketball this year.

[kneelb4zerg]

I think the issue is that this year more than any other year I can remember there aren't many good teams. It has to be super hard to differentiate between some of these teams because there are just a lot of teams with warts. Maybe it just speaks to the weakness of college basketball this year.

Probably. But GP/Goodman are paid to do so...and they are comically anti-Pomeroy. They annoy me.

[MUBasketball]

I love Parrish, I think he's hilarious. I listen to his radio show in Memphis from time to time. Plus, he obviously talks a lot of college hoops, so that's a bonus.

[MU_Iceman]

We aren't the 25th best team in the country. No way. 40-45 range at best.

Our luck evened out a bit this week to balance the Butler/GB losses. That's it.

MU got two wins this week that NO ONE in this thread thought they would get. Well, except for one of us. Is it really THAT hard to evaluate this team people?? C'mon?? I realize a lot of you like to underestimate so you can be all shocked when they surpass your expectations, but give credit where credit is due. I wonder what you guys will think when they start 4-0??

[TedBaxter]

I think the issue is that this year more than any other year I can remember there aren't many good teams. It has to be super hard to differentiate between some of these teams because there are just a lot of teams with warts. Maybe it just speaks to the weakness of college basketball this year.

This is the correct answer.

Not a ton of good teams, even in the top 25. Marquette has a chance to be good this year, if they start to gel more on the court offensively. Outside of Louisville and Syracuse in the Big East, the jury is out on the rest of the teams in the conference and that's similar to most of the conference around the country, although the Big Ten has probably 6 schools who are guaranteed to get into the NCAA so far with a couple more having a chance depending on if they can get to .500 in the conference.

[kneelb4zerg]

MU got two wins this week that NO ONE in this thread thought they would get. Well, except for one of us. Is it really THAT hard to evaluate this team people?? C'mon?? I realize a lot of you like to underestimate so you can be all shocked when they surpass your expectations, but give credit where credit is due. I wonder what you guys will think when they start 4-0??

I thought they would get both wins. They were favored in both games.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I thought they would get both wins. They were favored in both games.

I also thought they'd get both wins. Predicted it both before the season on Cracked Sidewalks and in the past week in the Scoop Prediction challenge. Not exactly rocket surgery to say a team will win 2 games they are favored to win by Vegas, Pomeroy, and RealTimeRPI :D

[MU_Iceman]

I also thought they'd get both wins. Predicted it both before the season on Cracked Sidewalks and in the past week in the Scoop Prediction challenge. Not exactly rocket surgery to say a team will win 2 games they are favored to win by Vegas, Pomeroy, and RealTimeRPI :D

Yes but many MU fans are VERY down on this team and figured at best they'd split these games. I know you are one of the one's(as am I) that feel this team has Sweet 16 potential or greater. I've felt that since before the season started, and I haven't wavered. The talent is there, whether people want to see that(or believe it) or not.

[mutpm]

I'm excited the team got 2 wins this week, but let's not go overboard and think they are now one of the top 16 teams in the country. In 80 minutes of regulation, MU won by 1 point. Both games came down to 1 possession and fortunately, MU got both. At the end of the day, these games usually even themselves out. After the Butler and UWGB games, MU is now back to even.

The part I'm most encouraged by was the turnover problem from the last couple of non-conference games appears to be corrected. I will feel a little more confidence in this team once some jumpers fall. They are at just 18.2% behind the arc through the 2 games and at least 3 of the ones they have made could be considered lucky (Cadougan at the horn, Blue's bank in, and Trent's shot clock beater). This is just a really bad shooting team and it's tough to consistently win when shots don't fall.

The next hurdle to get over is a road win. This team has played 2 games on the road and have been downright terrible in both.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I'm excited the team got 2 wins this week, but let's not go overboard and think they are now one of the top 16 teams in the country. In 80 minutes of regulation, MU won by 1 point. Both games came down to 1 possession and fortunately, MU got both. At the end of the day, these games usually even themselves out. After the Butler and UWGB games, MU is now back to even.

The part I'm most encouraged by was the turnover problem from the last couple of non-conference games appears to be corrected. I will feel a little more confidence in this team once some jumpers fall. They are at just 18.2% behind the arc through the 2 games and at least 3 of the ones they have made could be considered lucky (Cadougan at the horn, Blue's bank in, and Trent's shot clock beater). This is just a really bad shooting team and it's tough to consistently win when shots don't fall.

The next hurdle to get over is a road win. This team has played 2 games on the road and have been downright terrible in both.

As easy as it is to be negative, we're 1 possession in each game from beating Butler and Green Bay too. And it isn't always the best 16 teams that get to the Sweet 16. But I think this team has Sweet 16 potential and beyond. Buzz has never has this kind of depth. Sometimes it takes awhile for a team to come together and reach their potential. This team still isn't there. They may never get there. But if they do, I don't think they're one of the 16 best teams in the country, I think they're one of the 4 best.

[TedBaxter]

Yes but many MU fans are VERY down on this team and figured at best they'd split these games. I know you are one of the one's(as am I) that feel this team has Sweet 16 potential or greater. I've felt that since before the season started, and I haven't wavered. The talent is there, whether people want to see that(or believe it) or not.

There is no doubt some talent on this team. There is also some obvious restrictions with outside shooting and on-court leadership still needing to be resolved. That's not being down on the team, but instead it's admitting you need to improve.

[Goose85]

It doesn't matter if we are worthy of 25 or not. If you are in the also receiving votes, and most of the teams between you and #25 lose, and you beat the #15 team in the country on tv, you move up. We would be in the teens somewhere had we not lost to GB.

The key is, when you are in the top 25 your scores are always scrolled during games and your games get more hype. The longer we are in the top 25, the more likely it is that people on the selection committee think we are a lock.

Nice for recruits to see we are ranked too.

[mutpm]

As easy as it is to be negative, we're 1 possession in each game from beating Butler and Green Bay too. And it isn't always the best 16 teams that get to the Sweet 16. But I think this team has Sweet 16 potential and beyond. Buzz has never has this kind of depth. Sometimes it takes awhile for a team to come together and reach their potential. This team still isn't there. They may never get there. But if they do, I don't think they're one of the 16 best teams in the country, I think they're one of the 4 best.

Completely agree. There are about 50 teams that have Sweet 16 potential this year and MU is definitely one of them. I just get a kick of how people get so excited about close wins and think they are better than they really are. As most have said all season, this is a good team that has the potential to be better than good. Their body of work so far has shown me there is a better chance this team underachieves than overachieves. I WANT to be wrong, but that's what I've seen through 14 games this season.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

It doesn't matter if we are worthy of 25 or not. If you are in the also receiving votes, and most of the teams between you and #25 lose, and you beat the #15 team in the country on tv, you move up. We would be in the teens somewhere had we not lost to GB.

The key is, when you are in the top 25 your scores are always scrolled during games and your games get more hype. The longer we are in the top 25, the more likely it is that people on the selection committee think we are a lock.

Nice for recruits to see we are ranked too.

True, but since the UWGB loss, we haven't been receiving votes. I don't think we'll crack the top-25 yet this week. If we win at Pitt, we will.

[MU_Iceman]

Completely agree. There are about 50 teams that have Sweet 16 potential this year and MU is definitely one of them. I just get a kick of how people get so excited about close wins and think they are better than they really are. As most have said all season, this is a good team that has the potential to be better than good. Their body of work so far has shown me there is a better chance this team underachieves than overachieves. I WANT to be wrong, but that's what I've seen through 14 games this season.


I guess you'd have to state your definition of both "overachieving and underachieving" before making a statement like that. of course everyone's definition of both those terms would be different. For example...Underachieveing for this team, to me would be missing the NCAAs. In fact, I will go so far as to say that would be a MAJOR underachievement. An overachievement would be winning the National Championship.

[mutpm]

I think this team is 10-8 in the Big East and is looking at 8-10 seed in the NCAA. I've thought all along this is a team that would finish between 6th and 8th in the Big East.

Louisville, Syracuse, and Cincinnati are the class of the conference. I don't see MU finishing ahead of any of them. I have MU in the group of Pitt, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and UCONN.

[MU_Iceman]

Cincy just lost at home to SJU. Now granted it's one game, but if you are truly the cream of the crop in the conference, that's a game you HAVE to win. Same thing for tonight for them with Notre Dame coming in. Pitt is incredibly overrated and they play At Georgetown Tomm night then MU at home Saturday. VERY conceivable they start BE play 0-4. Not sold on Georgetown either. You saw why Saturday. Uconn?? They are just meh.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

A 3-0 start would be absolutely huge for this team. Don't get me wrong 2-0 is awesome already, I was one that predicted 2-3 in our first 5... That is looking pretty unlikely right now. I'd love to force PITT further into the cellar right now.

Again I don't think this team is out of the woods yet, everyone keeps saying that if two possessions went another way we'd only have one loss right now, however that could be flipped the other way and I could say if two possessions went the other way this team would have 5 losses and be 0-5 right now... The reality is that there are a lot of flawed teams in CBB right now, MU being one of them.

[Phantom Warrior]

I honestly think some poeple on this board are semi-delusional. This team is shooting 29% from behind the arc for the season. If this team finishes with 10 wins in the conference and gets one more in the conference tournament, I will be thrilled. A successful year for this team is getting into the NCAA Tournament.

[Markedman]

Not sure how anyone can think this team is likely to get to the sweet 16 or better. Yes I know the term used here was potential but considering Ohio made the sweet 16 last year and Richmond made it 2 years ago then pretty much any at large team has the "potential" to make it to the sweet 16.

This is how I evaluate this team. We are now almost half way through the season and we have not yet played what I would consider a complete game. Not once have we played a game where I thought "man are we good" or "If we play like this we can beat anyone".

We are what we are..... a hard working team that struggles on offense to score the ball. I will root for this team just as I have in the past but I am not going to be a blind homer and say they are better then they are until they start doing it on the court.

Happy to eke out 2 quality home wins against good but hardly great teams. Pitt is certainly beatable but we haven't exactly shined on the road this year.

[bleedbluegold03]

We are now almost half way through the season and we have not yet played what I would consider a complete game. Not once have we played a game where I thought "man are we good" or "If we play like this we can beat anyone".

using your own argument, and applying a "glass half full" approach, an argument could be made that having not yet played a complete game, this team has 3 solid-very good resume wins and 1 abysmal loss.

I think this team is just a little less sexy than the squad we whipped out there last year. Having 2 All Big East, NBA players and playing a run and gun style offense acts as a strong foil character to the ugly, grind out basketball we are playing this year. This is the first year in Buzz's tenure that I think we as a fan base are significantly under selling the team on average.

I won't make any outlandish predictions on where the rest of conference play will lead us, but I can definitely say that I am much more confident in this team today than I was seven days ago.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

We had a good week, but I agree with others that we are not a sweet 16 team at this time. There is a long way to go still and we have yet to show we can win on the road. Granted the opportunities have been few and far between but I don't think as it currently stands this team is that good... Yes folks say that we will progress through the season, but under that logic won't every team progress? What we need is to progress more than other teams so we can create separation from all the teams in the middle of the pack, and that I'm not certain will happen, not saying it can't, but I'm on the wait and see plan.

[Tmreddevil]

using your own argument, and applying a "glass half full" approach, an argument could be made that having not yet played a complete game, this team has 3 solid-very good resume wins and 1 abysmal loss.

I think this team is just a little less sexy than the squad we whipped out there last year. Having 2 All Big East, NBA players and playing a run and gun style offense acts as a strong foil character to the ugly, grind out basketball we are playing this year. This is the first year in Buzz's tenure that I think we as a fan base are significantly under selling the team on average.

I won't make any outlandish predictions on where the rest of conference play will lead us, but I can definitely say that I am much more confident in this team today than I was seven days ago.

bleed - I agree with your confidence level with one caveat: lets see how we handle conference road games. Florida and UWGB games do not exactly instill confidence. However, our schedule is very favorable this year, so I think they can break 10 conference wins if they compete better on the road. If they don't, we're probably looking at 8-10 wins in conference, with few road wins and squarely on the tournament bubble, IMO.

[bleedbluegold03]

at first glance this may sound crazy, but i would contend big road wins (in comparison to home wins) matter little to nothing in the selection committee's eyes and post season success.

In the past 5 year's Big East, you win every one but 1 or 2 of your home games, beat the teams you should beat on the road and you're into the NCAA tournament. I don't think a committee will ever say, "well it was between you and another team, and we went with them because they got a win on the road." A NCAA game atmosphere is more like a OOC tourny, with no real crowd advantage outside of playing a top 3 seed.

It is convenient to look at two of our losses and say we're a bad road team, but on the contrary, Florida is just superior to us in every way imaginable and UWGB had no crowd to speak of whatsoever.

For the rest of the schedule, Marquette could not beat another NCAA tournament team and still get into the tourny. Even just beating every team who's program we've been better the last five years and we're comfortably in ( vs. SHU, vs. Prov, vs. USF, @ USF, vs. Dep, @ SHU, @ Nova, @ Rut, @ STJ) with 11 wins and keys wins with UW, UConn and Gtown. Now if you're contending that an @ SHU, @ Nova, @ Rut or @ STJ is where we may get tripped up for a couple Ls, I could take that argument and contend we'll get Pitt at home. That still has us with 10-8 and comfortably in with 4 quality wins.

As many have stated, continued early departures have diluted the overall talent of the game, and in years such as this, marquette will reap the benefits

[kneelb4zerg]

They still need to win a few on the road. And any road win will be tough with a team that can't shoot straight.

[MU_Iceman]

at first glance this may sound crazy, but i would contend big road wins (in comparison to home wins) matter little to nothing in the selection committee's eyes and post season success.

In the past 5 year's Big East, you win every one but 1 or 2 of your home games, beat the teams you should beat on the road and you're into the NCAA tournament. I don't think a committee will ever say, "well it was between you and another team, and we went with them because they got a win on the road." A NCAA game atmosphere is more like a OOC tourny, with no real crowd advantage outside of playing a top 3 seed.

It is convenient to look at two of our losses and say we're a bad road team, but on the contrary, Florida is just superior to us in every way imaginable and UWGB had no crowd to speak of whatsoever.

For the rest of the schedule, Marquette could not beat another NCAA tournament team and still get into the tourny. Even just beating every team who's program we've been better the last five years and we're comfortably in ( vs. SHU, vs. Prov, vs. USF, @ USF, vs. Dep, @ SHU, @ Nova, @ Rut, @ STJ) with 11 wins and keys wins with UW, UConn and Gtown. Now if you're contending that an @ SHU, @ Nova, @ Rut or @ STJ is where we may get tripped up for a couple Ls, I could take that argument and contend we'll get Pitt at home. That still has us with 10-8 and comfortably in with 4 quality wins.

As many have stated, continued early departures have diluted the overall talent of the game, and in years such as this, marquette will reap the benefits


Exactly Bleed! Those that predicted 9-9 or 10-8 or worse for this team in the BE apparently don't pay attention to just how seemingly easy it will be to get to 10 wins or more. Win your home games...that's 9 wins right there, win a couple of VERY winnable road games in Hall, USF, Rutgers, SJU, NOVA and you are already at 11 wins, and that's not even counting in the fact they very well may win ALL of those road games, plus @ Pitt.

[IrwinFletcher]

Exactly Bleed! Those that predicted 9-9 or 10-8 or worse for this team in the BE apparently don't pay attention to just how seemingly easy it will be to get to 10 wins or more. Win your home games...that's 9 wins right there, win a couple of VERY winnable road games in Hall, USF, Rutgers, SJU, NOVA and you are already at 11 wins, and that's not even counting in the fact they very well may win ALL of those road games, plus @ Pitt.

It sounds easy to "win your home games...."

But we have Syracuse and Notre Dame at home. Syracuse will be extremely difficult to win regardless of the venue and though many don't want to admit it, ND is a very good team that will present some matchup problems for us.

SJU and Rutgers just pulled off big upsets last week. We could easily go to Rutgers, play like crap and lose, just as easily as we could play out of our minds and beat Syracuse at home. With this team and this conference, it is a crap shoot game to game. That is why just about everyone has predicted us from 8-10 to 10-8. Any of those scenarious are likely because we, along with 13 of our 15 conference brethren have holes on our teams. When you have holes, you are not going to be able to play well consistently. When you don't play well consistently, it is hard to beat really good teams at home and pretty good teams on the road.

Lets hope the outside shooting improves, the defense, rebounding and FT shooting stay strong and maybe things go well the rest of the way.