7 and 2 from here on out.

I think we'll probably lose to LT and UTEP on the road, but will win the rest. We have a 10-11 record right now and I think we are devloping into one of the 4 best CUSA teams. So I think our final regular season record will be about 17-13 going into the tournament in EP. Maybe a 4th seed with SM, LT and UTEP above us.

But then I've been wrong before.

BTW my dream seed would be for us to upset LT and have UTEP upset USM in the tourney - if those teams reached the final "four" in EP.

With this team it's hard to predict.......as a matter of fact for any team in CUSA it would be hard to predict!!!!! If Smith stays healthy that helps stabilize the team a little. I like your prediction but I wouldn't bet a nickel on it........nor would I bet on any CUSA team. The tourney should be interesting......whoever is in 10th place going into the tournament is who I predict will win it!!!

(02-02-2014 10:24 AM)jfisher Wrote:  With this team it's hard to predict.......as a matter of fact for any team in CUSA it would be hard to predict!!!!! If Smith stays healthy that helps stabilize the team a little. I like your prediction but I wouldn't bet a nickel on it........nor would I bet on any CUSA team. The tourney should be interesting......whoever is in 10th place going into the tournament is who I predict will win it!!!

Roger on that! My observations and predictions are kind of based on our conference record and league performance. With a little luck and a few fair calls from the refs, we'd be in first place - undefeated. The UAB game was a travesty and a farce the way it was called, especially the Technicals. And our game with UNCC was just an unfortunate collapse (or possibly fatigue) at the end. I think we could be poised for a run and when we are at full strength and playing our game, we could be the team to beat. But like you said, its sometimes a mystery with all the youth. I like our chances on down the line. This is a big game with LT. If we were to upset them, then we are definitely in the hunt.

With so much parity in this conference wouldn't even try to figure the final w/l record. TU has won ones I we would lose and lost ones I thought we would win. Just can't predict this team.

With so much parity in this conference wouldn't even try to figure the final w/l record. TU has won ones I we would lose and lost ones I thought we would win. Just can't predict this team. Yes the team is at near full strength which can only be a good thing.

In looking at the remaining schedule, I think it comes down to us and UNCC for the 4th seed. MTS who currently is tied with us still has to play LT and USM on the road, they are currently tied with us - 2 losses. We own the tiebreaker with them.

However UNCC has 3 losses, but only plays one of the big two left on the schedule. So you'd think that would give them their 4th loss. But unfortunately they own the tiebreaker with us for the 4th seed in EP. That UAB loss at home when we were "gamed" by the officials may cause us to miss a good seedpost this year. Right now, even if we take care of business, UNCC may get that 4th seed which makes our tourney chances very difficult.

The difference between CUSA and the AAC......if we were 17-13 going into the tourney and got to the semifinals of the AAC conference tourney, we would at least get an NIT invite........CUSA, same 17-13 and make the FINALS, won't even get us a NIT invite. The AAC will get at least 4 invitations to the big dance this year and I would expect that many or more just about every year.

(02-01-2014 11:01 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  7 and 2 from here on out.

I think we'll probably lose to LT and UTEP on the road, but will win the rest. We have a 10-11 record right now and I think we are devloping into one of the 4 best CUSA teams. So I think our final regular season record will be about 17-13 going into the tournament in EP. Maybe a 4th seed with SM, LT and UTEP above us.

But then I've been wrong before.

With the tremendous victory at UTEP, I'm going to revise my prediction "up" to 18-12. Dah!

We should beat UTSA today and are a probable winner in Denton.

I'd love to see a lot of TU fans in Denton for that game thursday to cheer TU on and make it "Chapman South". We win that game after we win today, and there'll be at least one more banner hanging in the rafters.

GO TU!

PS if you are going, be extremely careful.

There shouldn't be a lack of motivation going into the NT game......I figure we dispose of UTSA handily and the NT game is for all the marbles.....also hoping UAB has a great game. NT is such an up and down team it is hard to predict how they will play but I'm betting they put up a heck of fight. UTSA should.....and I emphasize should be an one of our easier games but NT might be one of our toughest games. I think we beat UTSA by 10-20 points and NT by 4-6 points!!!

Tulsa played uninspired ball against UTSA today and almost lost it. But pulled it out at the last min. Should beat NT but with this young team you just don't know.

They jumped out to big lead and got over confident......one of those cases where they kind of thought all they had to do was throw they jock strap out on the court. It's hard to change that attitude during the game. Probably a good thing before the last game at NT because they know they better play hard or they will get beat!!!

Hopefully we will look back on this UTSA game as a big lesson learned.

We can't play this type of game against UNT, our first round opponent in the CUSA tournament or anyone else & expect to win !

I was thinking if we lost that dad gum game it would be because of my stupid original 17 win prediction. I hope they don't make that come true in Denton.

I know one thing, if teams don't work on a zone defense really hard and play it against us, they are crazy. I never heard so many rim clanks in all my life! Yikes!

We need to get the ball inside more against the zone and not depend on our 3 ball.

imo

I agree with Rabid that we will see more & more zone until we solve it.

I think 2 keys for us are alternating Woodard & Smith in the middle/free throw line area & letting Ray play more minutes. Ray seems to be quick enough to drive, even against a zone.

It will also help if Wright keeps playing better & consistently hits his mid-range jumpers.

Very few teams practice against a zone........yeah, I know, they do, 5 minutes out of every 2 hour practice.....that's generally so the coach can say they practiced against it. If a team doesn't play zone against us they are crazy......I hope we spring a zone on a few people too......UTEP being the prime target for a zone. I don't think we can shoot "3's" much worse than today so that's the good news......maybe we got it out of system......or maybe we can figure out how to get the ball inside against a zone.

Well, we won our last 8 games & tied for the conference championship ! Great comeback from our early season problems. I really thought we were improving game by game, until our last 2. We grinded out 2 tough wins against UTSA & UNT, but I don't we played very well in either game.

I do think Rashad Ray played very well against UNT. He used his quickness to penetrate their zone. We need a good week of practice. We will need more players stepping up their game in El Paso.

(03-06-2014 11:22 PM)Tulsafanzz Wrote:  Well, we won our last 8 games & tied for the conference championship ! Great comeback from our early season problems. I really thought we were improving game by game, until our last 2. We grinded out 2 tough wins against UTSA & UNT, but I don't we played very well in either game.

I do think Rashad Ray played very well against UNT. He used his quickness to penetrate their zone. We need a good week of practice. We will need more players stepping up their game in El Paso.

Just about what I was thinking too. Good observations.

Good crowd of TU folks who made the trip. Good game overall -like you say, we could have played a better game though. I still think we are just too soft in the post and too immature there to really be a good NCAA caliber team. Evans really confuses me. I just think he views himself as a player that is playing inside, but is better on the perimeter. But he has an ugly habit of shooting us out of a game from the 3 pt line. Wright just doesn't have enough court awareness yet to keep from constant foul trouble and Smith just isn't a big body enough to muscle his way to a high % shot.

But I don't want to be too negative after a win. I expect to see a lot of zone in the EP.

There was a considerable amount of Blue there and I saw our signee, Michael Littlejohn (6-6 shooting G/F) attending as well as the usual suspects - Dr Gragg and Jim King among them.

On the tournament, we actually have the easiest bracket imo to the championship game. We drew a bracket with NT/Rice/Tulane, all teams we beat handily at some point and MT who we have beaten at home on our side. It looked like USM and LT may have a tougher bracket. The one I wanted to stay away from was UTEP who will play in their gym and would be very difficult to beat a second time there. So lets let the other top seeds do that.

So we have a shot imo. If not, then maybe the NIT?

A better finish than I thought it would be, even a month ago......the team and coaches deserves a big round of applause.....a good finish.....not a great one, considering the last two games. I agree we have a chance in the tourney and we definitely have the easiest way to the final game. Unfortunately, I think we will see nothing but zone in the tourney so we better be making some 3 pointers or we could lose to any team in the tourney. Ball movement is the only way to really beat a zone and getting the ball inside when the defense doesn't move fast enough......I hope we are only practicing against a zone everyday....forget the dribbling just ball movement.

I'm still not completely convinced we are a great deal better this year than last in this respect - we don't have to play Houston, SMU, Memphis anymore in conference. I think those teams going to the AAC this year has watered down our schedule in CUSA to the point that we didn't have to be much better to rise higher in the league. TBH, it would have been very difficult to beat SMU this year and Houston may be a lot better this year than last. And Memphis is, well, Memphis. UCF even looks pretty good to me -athletically. Those teams will present a lot of problems for us as a first year program in the AAC. I think we'll be somewhere in the middle of the pack unless our inside players really improve because from what I've seen this year, the AAC is probably one of the top 5 MBB leagues in the country athletically.

We are still young. But imo there is still considerable room for improvement to get to that next level. We need to turn up the hustle/toughness meter of our big men. To me thats the difference in the two leagues.