Greendylan

I might be thinking of a different recruiting cycle altogether, but I remember a year when our early signee class was ranked top 25 or something like that but not necessarily the entire recruiting class that year.

There's always the possibility that there are other reasons and that he's just trying to take the classy route by focusing on position. He's a huge loss, but oh well. That's life in today's college basketball landscape. I'm really excited about our new commits, so hopefully this will be a win-win for both parties. Thanks for the memories, Mo!

Sounds great, but I do have questions: 1. Does anyone have a scouting report on DFW area second graders? If so, which ones are polished enough to start on day one as freshman during the 2030 season?! 2. Will we have the budget to both buy out Littrell AND afford our new AI coaching staff in time for the 2030 season?

Wow. That was . . . uninspiring. Hopefully they were just trying some things out on offense--things they never, ever try again.

The perimeter defense on Hollingsworth late in the second half and throughout OT was key. We had several guards really step up on defense when it mattered most. Also, I think the refs gave us some make-up calls in OT after the bizarre end to regulation.

OK, now we can complain about the officiating.

The universe just doesn't want us to ever beat this team.

I have to say, this is one of the more impressive basketball pregame threads that we have had. There have been some games when we've barely made it past the first page by halftime.

I believe you are correct.

I was just riffing on the 90s theme: the pre-alcohol-at-NT-sporting-events era. Pay no heed to my nonsense!

Yes, and there will be no alcohol sales to help us through it. The horror, the horror . . .

Well, if I'm not mistaken, we have now clinched a spot in the top pod.

Who said anything about a two-bid conference?

If we can't beat that team on the road, then we should not expect much from the next two games.

Bad time for a meltdown after what had been an impressive comeback

Totally agree. I would also add that a strong NET/RPI ranking could be relevant for NIT seeding, if we finish first in the regular season but don't win the CUSA tournament.

The next two seasons will likely both be rebuilding years. In some ways, even this past season was an early rebuilding phase, as evidenced by the fact that outside of Fine, Hamilton, and a few talented running backs, we really struggled against any team with a pulse. Next season will be much the same but without Fine and Hamilton, and those losses (especially the former) will probably drop our win total from 4 to 2-3. Not only will we almost assuredly lose all of our non-conference games against FBS opponents, but in all reality they will probably be blowouts. I hope I'm way off on all this...

Here's what I believe would be the ideal CUSA finish before pod play: 1. We win our final 5 games (obviously) 2. Louisiana Tech goes at least 5-1 (including a win over Charlotte tonight) 3. Western Kentucky goes 5-1. (They play 4 of their final 6 on the road, and 1 of their 2 home games is against Louisiana Tech, so I consider it highly likely that they'll lose at least 1. If they go 4-2, that would be OK too--maybe even crucial as insurance in case North Texas gets upset in 1 of our final 5. As of right now, we'll be favorites in all of them, but with 3 on the road, it's statistically more likely than not that we will lose a game.) If the above scenarios play out that way, then this will be the result: 1. North Texas will enter pod play as the top seed of the top pod. 2. North Texas will get home games against WKU and LaTech and 2 tough but winnable road games, which would likely be against Charlotte and one of the following: FIU, FAU, UTSA, or Old Dominion. 3. North Texas, Western Kentucky, and Louisiana Tech will all enter pod play with NET rankings in the top 100 (or pretty close anyway), and each of the above teams will have the opportunity to really boost its ranking by the end of the regular season. 4. North Texas could go 3-1 (maybe even 2-2) in pod play and still enter the CUSA tournament as the top seed and earn an automatic NIT bid.

Our current NET ranking is 77. LaTech is also in the top 100 and WKU will possibly be there soon, so pod play could really be a great opportunity for one of the above three to get another couple quality wins. Depending on how the cards fall over the next few weeks, one team from CUSA could maybe emerge from pod play with a NET ranking in the 50s and thus enter the conference tournament as a bubble team. https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

Rather than jinx it for us, I'll just say this: for whatever CUSA team makes the tournament, it is really important to get at least a 14 seed. If you look at historic winning percentages by seed, one of the biggest jumps occurs between 15 and 14. Obviously a 13 seed would be even better, but 14 vs. 13 is less important than 15 vs. 14.

WKU is beginning a tough stretch of their schedule tonight, so they could drop a few spots in the standings. But yeah, if I were to make a prediction, I would guess they'll end up somewhere 1-3. In reality, all of the top pod teams will be really hard to beat on the road, of course . . . but it's still fun to complain about heading up to Bowling Green.

If we make it into the top pod, it'll be just our luck that the schedule will send us back to Bowling Green for round two against WKU.

Javion Hamlet was really unstoppable for stretches of the first half.

You do have to give FAU credit, as they are the only CUSA team so far* to reach 3-0. And, 11-5 is nothing to sneeze at. They just won a weird game at Rice where they were up 55-33 at one point in the second half but then fell down by a point and finally ended up winning the game by 5. They seem to be a solid defensive team with good guard play and forwards who aren't afraid to stretch the defense and shoot threes. We will be favored, but this could be a tricky opponent to put away. *(Either Charlotte or ODU will also be 3-0 after they play each other Saturday.)

I'm scratching my head a bit about the LaTech-UTSA halftime score.