I hope so though I fear that unlike last year our defensive

I hope so though I fear that unlike last year our defensive
by Carlos Huerta (2022-11-25 20:46:53)
Edited on 2022-11-25 21:23:51

In reply to: Sure this team could make the round of 16 posted by Kayo

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limitations will prove to be an insurmountable flaw in too many games. I’d expect improvement with the addition of Hammond and the development of the freshman but tonight a poor shooting night meant we couldn’t compete with a mediocre team on a neutral court. That doesn’t give us margin for error against good teams even when we’re hitting shots.

This was a 100-125 ranked team based on RPI and KenPom

Not a terrible team but not one I would describe as mediocre either.

Winning tonight would have given this team some better margin against the next part of the schedule. Now, ND really needs to win at the very least against all the teams that are currently in the 100-150 range (Georgia, Florida State, Jacksonville) and must win against Boston University. I suppose 1 loss to the 100-150 range might not be a killer, but...

I think it's going to be a frustrating season. I just don't see our problem guarding fast guards or agile forwards improving enough from here on out to make a difference.

If our expectation is to be one of the 40 or so teams to get

an at large birth then to me a neutral court opponent in the 100-125 range would rank as mediocre. Our non conference resume needs to be more than avoiding bad losses.

Mediocre - semi-competitive - doesn't really matter

The main point is that we can weather this loss with the upcoming schedule. However, I haven't seen anything from this team to think we can actually make it through the next 9 games with some good wins and avoiding bad losses.

Hopefully Brey figures out how to pull a rabbit out of a hat again.