Thoughts on season to date

A lot of people are disappointed after today's outcome including myself.  But I think if we all looked at this in the beginning of the year we would have signed for 8-7 right now.  This was always a 3-4 year project and the good news is everybody should be back next year.  We still need some upperclassmen strength to get through these big east battles.  We have definitely improved over the season.  Let's just enjoy the rest of the ride see how things play out.  Win 2-3 and a game in the big east tourney we should be OK.

Would be a lot happier if G'town Cuse Ville and Pitt games were more competitive and went down to wire. Lot of games of late going to 3 or 4 OTs and would like to see us show more fight and at least take teams down to the wire and make them earn their victories and not just coast to easy victories.

If we had one of the Charleston games, Asheville and Rutgers back, people would be light years happier.

My thoughts are that the team loses its sense of urgency far to often. Last year D lo might not have been a good defender but I saw fire in him. This year I see none of that unless its a two point game with five minutes left. With such a week interior line we need our perimeter defenders to make it tough on opposing guards to pass the ball. At least make them try to make interior passes. Credit pitt with making a few end of possession shots today. The Johnson corner 2 in the first and the corner three by moore in the second were both back breakers.  This is a team who simply can not afford to take a break on the defensive end.

The wheels tend to fall off this team after hanging with stronger teams for a half or a bit more than a half.  At least they hang for a long while with stronger teams. 

This group does compete against top ten teams for long stretches and does bounce back from losses. 

I look back to the first hoya game when there was legit talk that they regressed from last year's losing season.

With at least four games to go they are at worst an NIT team.  This is an improvement from last year.

It would be nice to see this group gain 12 months of growth and toughness in the next five day.  Since that's not happening I'm looking forward to seeing this team put forth a strong effort in the BET and then do what a young Sealy and Werdann team did in their NIT run in 89.

In general, I am happy with overall direction and future prospects for the program. I believe that a post presence (i.e. Sanchez) would have helped immensely this year.

My recurring concern is a lack of urgency/hustle when getting back on defense after a turnover, missed/made basket...Personally I would much rather coach pull a guy (and have a fit) for this transgression than for a turnover or ill advised shot..lack of effort irks the &^&*Y&* out of me.

Could have been better. 30 good years followed by 19 not so good years. Could call that 30 years 35 years.

I expected the NCAA tourney this year, so it will be a disappointment if that doesn't happen.  With that said, my expectations were based on Branch not getting hurt and being the PG we sorely lack, and Sanchez being the real deal, which everyone seems to say he is. 

If you told me before the year that Sanchez wouldn't play, and that Branch would get injured during a critical stretch, I would have tempered my expectations.  Accepting that reality, I'm okay with the NIT, and I think this group would actually benefit from playing in that.

The two things I'm most happy about are the progress in Pointer's game and CO's development throughout the year.

Moose is dead on too in his comment.  I think even just winning the Murray St. and Asheville games would have changed people's perspective (figuring we are bound to lose a game to an inferior conference team like Rutgers, as all Big East teams seem to do).  If we drop the Providence game, I'll take that back.

At the end of day, there's yet another March Madness, and we're on the outside looking in. I'm not interested in injuries, inexperience, eligibility issues & early defections as an excuse. They could be an excuse for any program.

Eventually, it has to be your turn. If that is next year, and next year we really do make a dramatic improvement, then okay, I'm in. If not, then things really haven't changed all that much.

It took Jay Wight 3 seasons with that 1st great class of his to break through. I thought 19 wins with Sanchez and 16 without so I'm not going to go crazy but our lack of shooters to me is a real big deal

Agree with both Poison and maher.  Wright was able to keep his first class together for long enough that it paid dividends.  We lost Mo, but I don't see anyone leaving this year, and next year should be a tourney trip no question.  As I said in a prior post, in retrospect if you told me no Sanchez and Branch getting hurt, my expectations would have been less.  So in that regard I'm okay with where we are, but need to see how these next 3 play out.

If we had one of the Charleston games, Asheville and Rutgers back, people would be light years happier.

Nah 'cause expectation woulda been thru the roof on this here board and losin some of the BE we lose woulda brought out the wolves.

Quote from: Moose on February 24, 2013, 05:55:59 PM

If we had one of the Charleston games, Asheville and Rutgers back, people would be light years happier.

Nah 'cause expectation woulda been thru the roof on this here board and losin some of the BE we lose woulda brought out the wolves.

But going into the year what did people expect our BE record to be?  Non conference is where we had probably 2 more losses than most expected.  Most expected us to lose 1 game in Charleston and maybe one other.  Cross country to SF fine, ok.  But honestly in the BE what did people expect?  Maybe another game (Rutgers).  Most of the other losses are what they are. 

All I know is take back Murray and Asheville and 18-9 is a lot easier to accept than 16-11.

Quote from: Choz4Life on February 25, 2013, 08:24:05 AM

Quote from: Moose on February 24, 2013, 05:55:59 PM

If we had one of the Charleston games, Asheville and Rutgers back, people would be light years happier.

Nah 'cause expectation woulda been thru the roof on this here board and losin some of the BE we lose woulda brought out the wolves.

But going into the year what did people expect our BE record to be?  Non conference is where we had probably 2 more losses than most expected.  Most expected us to lose 1 game in Charleston and maybe one other.  Cross country to SF fine, ok.  But honestly in the BE what did people expect?  Maybe another game (Rutgers).  Most of the other losses are what they are. 

All I know is take back Murray and Asheville and 18-9 is a lot easier to accept than 16-11.

I said I thought we'd finish top 6-8 in the league back when we still had Sanchez penciled as a starter and gift on the sidelines.  We lost a few bad early season games which hurt us certainly, and made our record look worse than we are.  Nobody will confuse us for a top tier big east team.  In the end though, regardless of record, we are playing like a team with that type of record.  Bubble team/NIT team. 

If we had Sanchez, and Gift, I think it would have helped our frontcourt woes quite a bit, especially as our young players came along.  Looks like Lavin too the long view instead of the short one, in order to get our young guys lots of experience. 

Id still like to win a few more games.  I think we have it in us to have an 18+ win season which is solid considering, even if not an NCAA team.  I'm not ready to write the kids off in the last 3 games and BET. 

I'm a supporter of Lavin, but do criticize our offensive approach. My question to the board is how long will it be before we reach a Marquette level of annual competitive success. Is next year going to be a success, which can be sustained for the most part? Reloading v. Rebuilding.

All I know is take back Murray and Asheville and 18-9 is a lot easier to accept than 16-11.

No doubt.
Tho, USF hurt me more.

Quote from: Moose on February 25, 2013, 08:31:57 AM

All I know is take back Murray and Asheville and 18-9 is a lot easier to accept than 16-11.

No doubt.
Tho, USF hurt me more.

Yeah, definitely the worse of the two teams.  But like I said in another thread beating Murray avoids Baylor and I think we beat Colorado

So there's another win haha

let's be honest.  most of us thought after year one's run, we'd be relevant in year three.  if kennedy hadn't been hurt....

that's what he have.  too many "what ifs".

in over a quarter century, we have had only three teams with single digit losses...one with looie and two with jarvis. 

we've lost recruits to transfers...ineligibilities...reneging on loi's...our best player one and done...and now the big east can no longer use its name as a recruiting tool.

this year is as good as could be expected under the circumstances.

i'm afraid this will always be a team of "what ifs".

We are looking to finish with 18-19 wins and that is awesome considering playing without Sanchez.  Sanchez would have helped in so many areas this team is deficient in.  Guys need to hit the weights big time and work on skill in the offseason.  They need to bully teams to create turnovers next year.