The Official Beat the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City in the NIT Quarterfinals Thread

Mistachill said:
This is why context is so important. Again, on the surface 24 wins sounds great. But a couple of things:

1) Who do we compare ourselves to? Yes, Towson fans would be doing backflips but we (hopefully) don't reside where they live. So, I guess you're right that we should appreciate where we are relative to a lot of other schools. But I would rather focus on the level of schools that we aspire to be mentioned with.

2) I focus more on the losses than the number of wins. The number of losses and who we lost to and when the lost happened. Remember, we padded that win total with a lot of home games against some pretty crappy teams.

3) I agree, I think we're in a good place as a foundation to build upon. I think our program is committed to winning nationally. I have more confidence in the current coach getting us where we need to be than I had with the previous coach. In spite of NIL I see no reason we can't attract big time talent to VCU.

4) Considering this coach had to cobble together a roster on the fly, we had a solid season. More importantly, we advanced deeper into the tournament and deeper into the NIT than UR. Always a good thing to throw cold water on their little bounce back season that was long on awards and short on actual accomplishments. Hope they enjoy their little fictious regular season "championship."
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Co- Championship
 
HBK said:
I don't see anyone excusing poor play. There is a big difference between an excuse and a reason. So many people sadly need don't seem to know the difference. This was about a poster suggesting a guy gave up (quit). That's all this was about, and it is the worst thing you can say about any athlete. No one is excusing poor play. The whole team sucked last night, with maybe one or two exceptions. Some guys haven't played well in a few games and some in a month or so. No one is excusing it.
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I mentioned Max did not seem to be himself after the last game. I NEVER meant he was giving up and I apologize if that is how my words were interpreted. IMO Max’s season was at the level of Ace. Without him we would have floundered too many times to recall. He was the rock when we needed a lift (as was Bam at times). Most impressive was how his defense improved after the first five or so games. Clearly, something personal or physical did not seem to be the same the last few games. If he decides to come back along with Bam and Zeb and others already mentioned we will contend for the A10 championship and (IMO) get back to the big tournament. Just add one physical big man and don’t lose what we already have. GO RAMS.
 
Mistachill said:
1) Who do we compare ourselves to? Yes, Towson fans would be doing backflips but we (hopefully) don't reside where they live. So, I guess you're right that we should appreciate where we are relative to a lot of other schools. But I would rather focus on the level of schools that we aspire to be mentioned with.
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In my view, three teams in the A10 had successful seasons -- Dayton, Duquesne, and VCU. I'd put them in that order, as well.

-Dayton was nationally ranked (at times, inexplicably) for much of the season, had a second-team All American, and won a game in the NCAAs. On the downside, they collapsed at the end of the conference season and lost their first A10 tournament game, leading to a much lower seed in the tourney than they otherwise would have had.

-Duquesne won the A10 tournament and a game in the NCAAs. They were a good team that would have had a much better resume if they hadn't lost their first FIVE games in A10 play.

-VCU had a near total rebuild last offseason, but just missed out on a top 4 spot in the A10. They made it to the A10 Championship game and won two road games in the NIT. Our downside was losing several very winnable games against quality opponents in the OOC.

Some enthusiastic people might be willing to put Richmond on this list because they were the 1 seed in the A10 tournament, but losing their first game in that tourney and then losing their first game in the NIT pretty much squashes that "accomplishment" in my view.
 
The context absolutely matters when talking about 24 wins, but... what was the context this year?
 
If we had a full roster early, the close losses to Iowa State, Boise State and Memphis may have turned out differently. If so, we might have been treated more like Dayton, resting on early season laurels. Even getting Bairstow and Bamisile back, they missed a lot of time and players' roles changed midstream. It was a tough situation to begin with, putting a bunch of guys together who hadn't played together before and who hadn't played for the coach before.
 
Ramdog said:
Hope we get good at dealing with this. With the new rules this may be an every year occurrence
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It's true that the churn will be an every year thing. Hopefully it's not the the extent that we dealt with this past season -- having nine spots to fill. I think filling 5-6 is going to be typical between graduations and transfers, assuming there's not a coaching change or some other outside influence like declining the NIT and not telling anyone.
 
Ramlove81 said:
But this shows me something, that I don't think of often around this time. We won 24 games and we are calling it a DECENT season. Many, maybe most, programs and fans would be doing back flips and a happy dance over a 24 win season.
We expect, at the very least, 24 win seasons. We expect this even in a coach's first year when we lost most of our team from last year. I say this to show where our program is and to say that's a good thing, yes not hanging my hat on it, but finding something to build on.
Let's see what this off season brings, I'm expecting us to be better next season.
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I’d say anyone that was expecting the season we had is either a psychic or needs a psychiatrist.
 
I understand disappointment with a loss but the negativity about it, the players, the coaching is astounding. Get over it. We put together a winning season, post- season wins after devastating loss of players after last season’s break up. I realize I have been a Ram fan longer than many of you have been alive. That won’t change for me. How about the rest of you?
 
Ramdog said:
Lose at home to Norfolk st…go the road and beat Nova and the AAC regular season champ back to back
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Yeah, it boggles the mind how different the team looked from game to game. Norfolk state did make it to post season play. So maybe I’m hindsight that loss wasn’t so bad ?
 
Dr Joe said:
I mentioned Max did not seem to be himself after the last game. I NEVER meant he was giving up and I apologize if that is how my words were interpreted. IMO Max’s season was at the level of Ace. Without him we would have floundered too many times to recall. He was the rock when we needed a lift (as was Bam at times). Most impressive was how his defense improved after the first five or so games. Clearly, something personal or physical did not seem to be the same the last few games. If he decides to come back along with Bam and Zeb and others already mentioned we will contend for the A10 championship and (IMO) get back to the big tournament. Just add one physical big man and don’t lose what we already have. GO RAMS.
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I don't think it was you, Doc, to whom I was referring. It was another poster.

You're right, Max hasn't seemed himself since the St. Joe's game in the A10 tournament. He hasn't played as well as he is capable of playing in the NIT. It happens. People have slumps.

Peace, Doc.
 
Mistachill said:
I don't know. The Bairstow/Bam thing sounds like a reasonable crutch on the surface. Maybe a couple of those bad losses are avoided and we're maybe in the bubble discussion. Who knows. But the reality is we had a regular season winning percentage of 58% before they joined the lineup, 61% with them in the lineup. We still lost three straight games leading up to the A10 tournament and lost to a lower seeded team in the A10 championship with them both in the lineup and healthy.

Yeah, everybody would love to see what would happen if conditions were perfect. Very few teams avoid dealing with adversity at some point in the season. I think we pretty much saw what this team is and for the most part got what "could have been." I look at it the opposite direction, how bad could this season have been if Bairstow and Bam didn't return?
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I don't use it as a crutch, but what could have been if they'd been able to play. Who knows, maybe we still lose the Norfolk State, Memphis and Iowa State games even with Bam and Sean. Perhaps having those two makes no difference, perhaps it makes a big difference. We'll never know. The reality in sports is this: you play the hand your dealt. No excuses.

Kansas has been hit hard by injuries, and their play suffered over the last month of the season. Lots of teams go through it. Others may use it as a crutch, but to me it's just a what if scenario to consider in the immediate aftermath of a season. That consideration goes away quickly and I move onto the next season, as I am doing now. On to the future!
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
I’m not worried about Odom especially with the players he’s going after (Though it’s another matter if we can actually get them but I appreciate he’s ambition.). I’m concerned that simply some players are performing way below expectation and I can’t see that improving much.
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Do you have a list, or partial list, of who he's really going after? (I should probably check the recruiting thread. Duh!!)
 
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