What are the winning lottery #s for next week?
Duke plays two Q1 or Q2 OOC based on last year's finishes and one of those is Texas Tech at home who loses nearly everyone.
Syracuse only plays one road game (forced to in ACC/Big 10 challenge) and that is their only Q1 OOC game and only OOC game against a team that finished in the top 60 in the Pomeroy rankings (which the new NET is set to more closely resemble).
We play two road games and three neutral court games against major conference opponents. Those are all losable games. Then we play the defending national champs Nova 2-3 times in conference along with a bunch of other really well run programs that are all capable of beating any team in the country.
Duke plays:
Kentucky neutral (Q1)
San Diego State neutral (Q1/Q2 border)
Auburn/Xavier neutral (Q1)
Gonzaga/Arizona/Iowa State/Illinois (Almost definitely Q1)
Indiana home (Q1/Q2 border)
Texas Tech neutral (Q2)
St John's home (Q1/Q2 border)
That's 7 Q1 + Q2 games
Syracuse:
Yukon neutral (Q2)
Iowa/Oregon neutral (Q1)
Ohio State road (Q1)
Buffalo home (Q2)
That's a weak schedule, but still not worse than ours and they definitely have 2 Q1 games.
The point is this season is supposed to be special now that Heron is eligible. The only thing we should be worried about on selection Sunday is if we get a 4 or 5 seed, not if we make it or not. Unfortunately the weak OOC schedule gives us 0 margin for error.
Temple would be the 9th best team in the Big East. Rutgers is worse than DePaul. Georgia Tech is worse than DePaul. Cal is WAY worse than DePaul. If we lose to any of those teams it would be a complete embarrassment with our roster, and how could you expect to go 10-8 in the BE if you can't sweep these crappy teams?