SMU Section F wrote:Personally I'm cheering for all of the top teams in the American to continue winning; obviously unless they're playing SMU. The national regard for our conference this season is pretty low (and deservedly so), so we can't really afford to "eat our own". The teams at the top really need to take care of business against the little guys.
I think SMU will be favored in just about every remaining game, especially now that the @Cincinnati game has passed. I'm not saying we have to win them all, but I'll definitely be disappointed by any losses. I also think we'll be the favorite to win the conference tournament, even if we end up in second or third for the regular season.
Tulsa has a nice win at Temple and had nice wins over UConn and Memphis at home.
SMU will be a pickem against Tulsa, And we will not be favored at UConn, and possibly Memphis if we lose those other games.
Looking at the schedules and assuming losses away against good teams:
Tulsa has 3 losses left. SMU has 3 losses left. Cincy has 3 losses left.
Tulsa has the best chance to win the league.
I would not be surprised to see Cincy win at Tulsa and all three teams finish in a 3 way tie for first.
This is far from conclusive, but here's at least one source that agrees with me. Closest ones are the three you indicated obviously and @Tulsa is essentially a "pick 'em", but the fact that we're currently favored in all of our remaining games is interesting at least.
As for my prediction, I think we go 2-0 versus Tulsa, but lose a couple of others. We're skilled enough to win out, but I have a hard time thinking that's realistic.
(And no disagreement that schedule-wise, Tulsa is set up best to win the league.)
Little late giving my take... I don't typically watch non-SMU games due to general lack of interest in other teams, but I took the time to watch the 2nd half of the UCONN-Cincy game last night, and I came away with the following observations:
1. Cincy's defense remains quite good. No shock since we lost to them earlier in the year, but I was reminded of this during the game. 2. UCONN does not really scare me after this game (obviously, the road game will be tough regardless). Boatright was shut down (till late second half) and there wasn't much else that UCONN could do. Not a lot of other quality options for UCONN in my opinion. Just didn't look like an imposing offense. 3. High-low game for UCONN had some nice moments. Given our willingness to collapse to the ball in the paint, we have to be careful not to let Brimah get free. 4. It felt like the referees were not calling traveling very tight at all. Cincy players in particular seemed to think it was okay to shuffle both feet before jumping for a shot or putting the ball on the floor on numerous occasions. Wonder how they would do in a tighter called game. 5. Cincy had great anticipation. Our passing needs to be crisp if we're going to take care of business against them at home.
