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This team has improved in the half court and that has made a big difference. It remains to be seen how well we will handle full court pressure as that was also a weakness early in the season. We turned it over a few times yesterday against Tulsa's pressure. I want to see us throw it over the top of a press and make the opponent pay with layups. Our perimeter shooting was better yesterday, too. Just a good all around game from our guys

We need to finish in the top 4 so that we can get a bye for the first two rounds. Then just need to win 3 games for AQ instead of 4. Hopefully we won't finish in the bottom 4 which would require 5 wins.

Charleston Pony wrote:Hurts that UNT lost @ Charlotte today. Road wins in AAC play are not easy and the game next week @ UNT will really be tough, especially with the greenies coming off that loss...and Wichita State, even in a down year for them is always tough on their home court. Another tough week ahead for the Mustangs

Charlotte is actually pretty good! That win is looking better and better. Why do you say it hurts us that UNT lost to them?

shadowman wrote:We need to finish in the top 4 so that we can get a bye for the first two rounds. Then just need to win 3 games for AQ instead of 4. Hopefully we won't finish in the bottom 4 which would require 5 wins.

Our AAC road schedule is going to be really tough. We just might find out this week if this team is good enough to finish among the top 4

highlander wrote:

Charleston Pony wrote:Hurts that UNT lost @ Charlotte today. Road wins in AAC play are not easy and the game next week @ UNT will really be tough, especially with the greenies coming off that loss...and Wichita State, even in a down year for them is always tough on their home court. Another tough week ahead for the Mustangs

Charlotte is actually pretty good! That win is looking better and better. Why do you say it hurts us that UNT lost to them?

UNCC has been pretty good at home but they showed poorly in their non-conference games and didn't play any high caliber teams (except for Duke where they got whipped by 24 points). Their best non-conference showing was an OT loss @ UCF. They did beat FAU in Charlotte and that has them rising but UNT is higher ranked team and we get the greenies twice so it would have helped for UNT to have won that game. We need more "quality" wins on the resume to have any hope of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tourney. As AAC teams all start beating each other it's going to hurt us because the AAC doesn't get the respect it might deserve nationally. We really need to beat UNT twice, beat Memphis and possibly win @ FAU to score points with the committee come March Madness time. Otherwise, this team is going to have to win the AAC Tourney and get the auto bid.

highlander wrote:Charlotte is actually pretty good! That win is looking better and better. Why do you say it hurts us that UNT lost to them?

I should add that UNT's loss dropped them to # 76 in the NET rankings. If they had won, we would have had an opportunity to earn a Quad I win in Denton this week. We just don't get many Quad I opportunities and those wins are big in the committee's eyes. The P5 teams get those all year long because of the P5 bias that exists

Charleston Pony wrote:

highlander wrote:Charlotte is actually pretty good! That win is looking better and better. Why do you say it hurts us that UNT lost to them?

I should add that UNT's loss dropped them to # 76 in the NET rankings. If they had won, we would have had an opportunity to earn a Quad I win in Denton this week. We just don't get many Quad I opportunities and those wins are big in the committee's eyes. The P5 teams get those all year long because of the P5 bias that exists

I think we can afford 2 losses the remainder of the year and lose the conference final, and that would earn us an at-large bid. That would make us 26-8 (including 2-1 in the tournament). That has to count for something.

Things would be very different right now if we had beaten Memphis.

highlander wrote:Things would be very different right now if we had beaten Memphis.

and Dayton and Wisconsin...those were all Quad I opportunities

Charleston Pony wrote: and Dayton and Wisconsin...those were all Quad I opportunities

True. I think we're a better team now than when we played those teams.