Valpo is ND's latest cream-puff victim, 10-3
by ShermanOaksND (2017-04-26 00:29:43)
Edited on 2017-04-26 00:50:26
Post Reply Return to Jake's Field

Next: Eastern Michigan. Today was the first of 13 straight home games for ND, of which 7 will be against OOC opponents -- all of whom currently are below .500 on the season. (This includes Northwestern and Western Michigan, neither of whom were on the original schedule released last November.) In fact, of ND's final 16 games, only 3 are against a team currently above .500 -- vs. No. 2 Louisville from May 5-7. The only other remaining ACC series for ND are this weekend against Duke (21-21, 8-13) and the only remaining road series at Boston College (16-22, 6-15).

With ND now at 19-22 (8-13), a .500 or better regular season suddenly seems plausible, particularly with this mostly-soft schedule. Even if UL sweeps ND, it's not hard to imagine ND going 4-2 combined against Duke and BC and 5-1 in the last 6 OOC (home) games. That would make the season record 28-28.

Do you think Swarbrick would make a coaching change at that point? I don't.

EMU falls tonight, 5-0 *
by ShermanOaksND  (2017-04-26 21:07:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

King of the MAC
by ndgotrobbedin97  (2017-04-27 16:47:52)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Which, is sadly preferable to last season when I got to witness a 3 game series loss to Ohio University in South Bend.
Thats' rough. At least I got to see us sweep bc last year
by cbo86  (2017-04-28 08:29:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

but that was more relief than excitement.
We can't win because the weather. Or something.
by mikeybates  (2017-04-26 11:45:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Never mind that there are 3 top 25 programs in similar climates (Oregon State, SJU, and scUM), and 8 in the top 50 in RPI, by my count.

Do we play more cream puffs than other ACC programs? *
by acrossdmiddle  (2017-04-26 10:38:39)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Pretty close
by mikeybates  (2017-04-26 11:53:10)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

By my count we play 31 ACC teams and, among 26 OOC games, 22 are vs. teams with an RPI of 100 or lower.

I forgot that we lost 10-2 to a 3-41 Lafayette team that ranks 294/299 in RPI. Good grief.

"we lost 10-2 to a 3-41 Lafayette team that ranks 294/299"
by ShermanOaksND  (2017-04-26 13:32:19)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Seriously, the discussion on whether to keep Aoki should begin and end with that. The only mystery is how there could be 5 teams worse than a 3-41 club.
JS: "Well, he had to overcome a lot of his own incompetence
by KevinPS  (2017-04-26 13:40:53)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

and he did that at an elite level. And, I've been around elite coaches for, let's see, 35, now 36 years. You can't blame him for being incompetent."