The Official Beat the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City in the NIT Quarterfinals Thread
- Thread starter WillWeaverRVA
- Start date
Well said. As I posted last night, Utah is just a better team than we are, particularly at their place. This VCU team exceeded my expectations this season. Frankly, it feels like a "what could have been" season, had we been able to suit up Sean and Bam from game one. Regardless, I liked Odom from the start and he has done nothing to change my mind that we are in good shape and moving in the right direction.
Havoc2Ut2
Elite Member
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2014
- Posts
- 14,442
- Likes
- 23,127
Agree 100%. After watching them again I can't imagine how the committee managed to leave them out of the dance. Hate to see the season end, but these guys gave us a decent season and yet another 20 win plus season. Odom can flat out coach, but nothing was going to stop the Utes last night. Props to the guys. Happily surprised we got this far. Now if we can just get everyone to come back for next year's season we could be pretty darn dangerous.
Mistachill
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2009
- Posts
- 21,098
- Likes
- 38,408
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?
Last edited:
WillWeaverRVA
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Posts
- 24,366
- Likes
- 50,429
Torvik has Utah beating Indiana State 83-82 with a 53% chance of victory. I hope the Sycamores destroy them.
rambunctiousrowdyram
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2020
- Posts
- 6,160
- Likes
- 7,400
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.
Dalai Rama
Elite Member
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2020
- Posts
- 252
- Likes
- 555
Who is Odom going after?
The team was 5-26, with lots of open looks. Was it elevation, tired legs, travel, just a bad shooting night? I don't know but we missed a lot of good shots. Out defense wasn't really the problem, the game was fast with lots of possessions and we held a team that scored 91 on Iowa to 74. Held them to 43% shooting, but a lot of the makes were 3's. We shot 32% over all and 19% from 3. Poof, that's the game. We make some shots and they don't get runouts and some easy shots at the other end, this is s different game. Well, that's what ifs. Point I'm making is this game wasn't as bad as the score looks, we just couldn't hit shots we usually do.
Seem to me JNel has a lot of heart, but is under sized and not the kind of super quick he needs to be to excel as an undersized guard. I'm glad to have him, he's not going to be a star or probably even a starter, but he doesn't need to be if we've got others filling that roll.
Mistachill
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2009
- Posts
- 21,098
- Likes
- 38,408
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."
Utah has been a different team on the road all season long. We'll see who shows up. Hinkle will almost be a home game for ISU. Actually I'd hate to see a team we lost to by 20 get beaten badly. Utah wins the whole thing with 15 to 20 point wins, we don't look so bad.