re: Tide Hoops | 25-12 (13-5)

There's been teams winning on the road...we just haven't been.

We got to play better down the stretch of games. Plain and simple.

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We didnt drop any on Kenpom fwiw, we were 9th before this game and are 9th now after it updated. Probably wont drop any in the NET either. Teams usually dont get punished for losing to top 10 teams on the road by 3 points In college basketball.

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A quality loss still hurts when Doug Shows goes in dry on our roster's weakness.

Lunardi might drop us from a 5 seed to a 6 seed.

The key under Oats is defense. That’s the difference in being dominant and being good but not great. Can we fix it? I don’t see how but I hope so. It’s based so much on personnel.

Year 3 we were trash defensively but still pulled a 6 seed due to our huge OOC wins. Fell apart towards the end of the season, though. Had quite a few guys that didn’t buy in. I don’t see that with this team. They’re going to keep fighting. The issue is we don’t have a major win yet.

With all of that said with both teams that were dominant defensively we lost in the Sweet 16 both times. Maybe sliding into the Dance as a 7 or 10 seed is when we get hot and go on a run. Basketball is a weird sport.

Offensively we’ve been pretty dang consistent. There hasn’t been one game yet where we had a real stinker. That’s a good sign imo.

Pringle and Wague have to learn how to defend better 1 on 1. Pringle constantly bites on fakes and leaves his feet. Plant your feet and keep your arms vertical in those situations. Trying to time a block perfectly when we’re in foul trouble isn’t smart.

Clemson and Ohio State are both ranked in the top 26 on KenPom. We haven't lost to a bad team yet. The teams we have lost to returned most of their players from last year. Our losses so far are,,,

#1 Purdue
#10 Creighton
#25 Clemson
#26 Ohio State

We don’t have any bad losses. Granted we need to get some good wins at some point.

So close. Sears was crying after the game, feel so bad for him. These losses will turn into wins, stick with it.

Clemson lost theit first game of the year today barely vs Memphis. Game was @Memphis and Clemson only lost by 2. They’re really good and playing like a top 4 seed.

We came close to beating Purdue and Creighton on the road in hostile environments with the two teams shooting about a combined 30 more free throws than us, and we lost by about a combined 8 points. I view this as a positive, you can view it as a negative and continue with your “we may not make the tournament” spiel if you wish.

I’m afraid Nelson and Estrada might be like AAAA baseball players. Way too good for mid major and okay high major teams but not good enough to be go to options for a top 20 team.