ASU Game Dec 8 at Staples Center

I don't need smiles.  I want killers like D'Lo Harrison.  His demeanor as time went on was perfect.  He'd rip your heart out and then the smile would come out.  I was t Lovett and Ponds doing the same.  Lovett definitely needs to be more of an assist guy like he was in HS because his passing ability is exceptional when isn't trying to be the primary scorer.  He certainly can be the primary scorer, but at his height, and with his ability, he needs to worship the pass a bit more.  It's his bread and butter and he's gotten shot-happy.  I think he's an amazing player... hopefully he learns that balance.  He's still a much better assist guy than Ponds when he utilizes that..

Funny you brought up Harrison who was another player that was unduly criticized on these boards for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball.
Bernard King and Patrick Ewing never smiled and as Fun pointed out Chris Obekpa used to grin like an idiot at inopportune times.

I think we are right where we thought we would be. Need Lovett healthy.
Only criticism that would be fair at this point would be the roster construction.

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They were Lovett away from potentially coming out of LA with a win vs. Arizona State and they're for real, beating Kansas as well.  If Lovett comes back and they take care of business vs. Iona and St. Joe's, you have to be happy with 10-2 going into conference play.  If the defense remains like this, they can hang in there against strong competition, even if they aren't deep enough to be at that level.  I'm not one for moral victories but I am seeing consistent year to year improvement in Mullin's teams.

I disagree. I don't think we can be happy with being 10-2 but also don't think we should hate it. We've played 2 teams that will be in the mix for a tournament berth come March and lost both. Assuming we beat Iona and St Joes and lose to Duke that puts us at 10-3 total in non-conference. Then assume we go 9-9 in BE play which I think is fair and we are 19-12 heading into the BET. That probably has us on the wrong side of the bubble needing to win a couple BET games

You can be realistic though.  We've won the games we were supposed to win (vast difference from last year), have won some that we certainly would've lost last year and lost a few that we played well enough to win.  Expectations have to be based on something, this team at this point is meeting or exceeding expectations.  Let's see what happens going forward.

Why even compare us to last year when we stunk. Of course we are better this year we have more good players and everyone expected and knew we would be better than last year. We started at rock bottom so anyone would have us improving in year 2 and 3. We have played two good teams and lost both. we have plenty of games coming up against good teams let's just hope we can win our fare share of them. As others say we shall see. We need some wins over over Nova, Xavier and the Hall to have truly arrived.

If you don't compare us to last year, what are you comparing this team to? 
Reading these posts its amazing how many expected this team to be undefeated before conference play... 

I don't think anybody here expected this team to be undefeated going into conference play, but this 10-2 start is on par with what this team is, which is a fringe tournament team. Again, if the 10-2 was with a win over Missouri and loss to West VA instead of loss to Mizzou and W over UCF that's a very different 10-2

So what you're saying is that this team is exactly who you thought they were, but that's just not good enough? 

No, I'm saying this team is exactly who I thought they were, so they aren't exceeding expectations by any stretch just yet

ok denny green

Man what a collapse by ASU.  Probably only rivaled by Oklahoma.  ASU was ranked as high as 3rd after beating Xavier and Kansas in the non-conference but they went 8-10 in the PAC 12 and just got whipped in the 8-9 game by Colorado.  Lunardi on ESPN has dropped them all the way down to LAST 4 in after essentialy being a LOCK for most of this season.  Assuming they squeak in those wins over Xavier and Kansas are going to bail them out.

Oklahoma not Ok St

Oklahoma not Ok St

I just corrected it.

Man what a collapse by ASU.  Probably only rivaled by Oklahoma.  ASU was ranked as high as 3rd after beating Xavier and Kansas in the pre-season but they went 8-10 in the PAC 12 and just got whipped in the 8-9 game by Colorado.  Lunardi on ESPN has dropped them all the way down to LAST 4 in after essentialy being a LOCK for most of this season.  Assuming they squeak in those wins over Xavier and Kansas are going to bail them out.

Hurley you jest.

Quote from: fordham96 on March 07, 2018, 09:49:01 PM

Man what a collapse by ASU.  Probably only rivaled by Oklahoma.  ASU was ranked as high as 3rd after beating Xavier and Kansas in the pre-season but they went 8-10 in the PAC 12 and just got whipped in the 8-9 game by Colorado.  Lunardi on ESPN has dropped them all the way down to LAST 4 in after essentialy being a LOCK for most of this season.  Assuming they squeak in those wins over Xavier and Kansas are going to bail them out.

Hurley you jest.

No he doesn't. And stop calling him Hurley.