Virginia (11-20-12)

[Maduro]

did we schedule any home games this season?

[UNT90]

Why do we not have a hope of winning? We are playing the game, aren't we?

Zero hope at St. Louis. Maybe a flicker of hope against Lehigh since we are at home.

We will be lucky to score 20 points in the first half against St. Louis. They play great defense all the time, not just in spurts. Combine that with our inability to hit shots, and you have the recipe for a blowout. If I were a betting man and the line was anything less than 16 points...

Lehigh is a very good mid-major that will give us fits. They know how to get their potential lottery pick touches, and lots of them. 98 shots in 5 games for McCollum. Oh, and he is shooting .500 from both the 3 point line and overall. Hung 36 on Baylor and 35 on Fairfield. Low game was 17. Thankfully, they have had similiar showings in their shots at the big boys (although no loss to a D2 team) and they aren't very good defensively, so those are the only things that gives me a glimmer of hope.

This team needs to play A LOT better to beat UTA, much less St. Louis or Lehigh.

[gksmith]

These are the kind of teams NT needs to beat to make a good showing come tournament selection time.

I'm not ready to start bashing Benford but I am close and I think there are a lot of others here who feel the same.

Edited November 22, 2012 by gksmith

[GRN-WHT]

My thoughts exactly. But this thing needs to start clicking quickly.

If we do not get a signiature win in OOC play then the national media will not notice anymore what happens afterwards. If the national media don't notice, even if we get to the tournament, we will be stuck with a 14th seed at best in the tourney and with little chance to advance. It is as bad as this: if we end up with a 24-6 record and the signature win is MTSU, the signature loss to a D II team, then the comittee will not care at all that 24-6 looks nice. They will stick us as 14 or 15.

This is not how a breakout year to become the regional powerhouse looks. This chance is probable to not come again for a looong time if it s squandered this time. Very, very frustrating.

No matter what happens from here out, the chance to get noticed by the media was lost in the first 2 games.

And, no matter what happens from here out, getting a 14 seed in the tourney would be a miracle. A loss to AH, bad losses early to anybody with a name combined with playing in the Sun Belt has play-in game written all over it.

Don't overlook UTA, they only lost to OU by 4.

Edited November 22, 2012 by GRN-WHT

[GrandGreen]

I think the UTA game on Wed will tell us a *whole* lot about this team. It is a home game against a pretty tough opponent. We have 7 games under our belts, so we need to be able to go out and win this type of game. If the team is gelling at all and if things are coming together, this is a game you have to win.

UTA is a team that NT should have absolutely no problems with, so the only thing that game will tell us if NT struggles is that this team is still having big problems.