With a 23 point win against Dartmouth last Sunday, the Wildcats finished up the Big East pre-season with a 10-2 record, losing only to Delaware and Minnesota. Neither were totally unexpected, but the fact that we were never really in the game against Minnesota and the wheels fell off in the second half against Delaware were certainly disappointing efforts. The LadyCats have one non-conference game remaining against Penn in a few weeks to win the Big Five outright. They are guaranteed at least a share of the title as Penn lost today at home against St. Joes. A win against Penn is all the more important in positioning the team for a possible NCAA berth. All told, the team had a fine start, winning a lot of games by 10+ points, a rarity in these parts, especially against good mid-major teams like Bowling Green, South Dakota State and Princeton, with other key wins over Temple and St. Joes. Disappointing offensive lapses of late against Temple, LaSalle and Delaware are hopefully not an ominous omen of things to come. All of that left us with a fine RPI and strength of schedule ranking which should hold up all the way through the season end if we can win more than half of our remaining games.
Starting with Cincinnati on Sunday, every Big East game is big for the team this year. I would suggest that an 8-8 record might not be enough to get to the big dance, unless at least two of those wins come against marquee teams. So nine wins are what we probably need and those most likely would start with two against Providence (home and away), Cincinatti, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh (all on the road) and Marquette at home (payback game). Two more prospects are the home and away with Syracuse (especially if their coach once again tries to zone us the whole game). That's about it for the games we should win (on paper) for eight wins. Assuming that we could win all of those, at least one more win would still be needed from either DePaul, USF, Louisville, Notre Dame or St. Johns (at home) or UConn, Rutgers or Georgetown (all on the road). The likely prospects would be USF who we have never beaten, Rutgers who we have not beaten for about 10 years, and St. John's. The rest would be an upset of minor to major proportions.
Nine wins in the Big East with a win over Penn puts at 20 wins going into the Big East Tournament with a bye on Friday to face a bottom feeder on Saturday, with a win there also important for NCAA selection committee. The Big East overall is down this year and we may only get six or seven teams into the NCAA so there will be little room for a letdown. Charlie Cream's ESPN bracketology has us on the outside looking in, not even in the first four out at this point. Starting out with a win over Cincinnati and getting a big upset over DePaul would be a big kickstart to getting us votes in the national polls and some more recognition in the bracketology talk. One game at at time - it all starts tomorrow with Cincinnati. Even on their court I think we are 10+ points better than they are. Hopefully we can get up early and keep up the offensive pressure to avoid letting an inferior team hang around to the end and possibly steal a win from us (see Marquette 2012).
Go Wildcats!
Starting with Cincinnati on Sunday, every Big East game is big for the team this year. I would suggest that an 8-8 record might not be enough to get to the big dance, unless at least two of those wins come against marquee teams. So nine wins are what we probably need and those most likely would start with two against Providence (home and away), Cincinatti, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh (all on the road) and Marquette at home (payback game). Two more prospects are the home and away with Syracuse (especially if their coach once again tries to zone us the whole game). That's about it for the games we should win (on paper) for eight wins. Assuming that we could win all of those, at least one more win would still be needed from either DePaul, USF, Louisville, Notre Dame or St. Johns (at home) or UConn, Rutgers or Georgetown (all on the road). The likely prospects would be USF who we have never beaten, Rutgers who we have not beaten for about 10 years, and St. John's. The rest would be an upset of minor to major proportions.
Nine wins in the Big East with a win over Penn puts at 20 wins going into the Big East Tournament with a bye on Friday to face a bottom feeder on Saturday, with a win there also important for NCAA selection committee. The Big East overall is down this year and we may only get six or seven teams into the NCAA so there will be little room for a letdown. Charlie Cream's ESPN bracketology has us on the outside looking in, not even in the first four out at this point. Starting out with a win over Cincinnati and getting a big upset over DePaul would be a big kickstart to getting us votes in the national polls and some more recognition in the bracketology talk. One game at at time - it all starts tomorrow with Cincinnati. Even on their court I think we are 10+ points better than they are. Hopefully we can get up early and keep up the offensive pressure to avoid letting an inferior team hang around to the end and possibly steal a win from us (see Marquette 2012).
Go Wildcats!