Look at Cincinnati's upcoming schedule. There is a very good chance UC will be 18-1 heading into the MLK Day battle with Syracuse.

1/5 St. Johns
1/7 Notre Dame
1/12 at Rutgers
1/15 at DePaul
1/19 Marquette


Going to be key that the offense continues to improve but UC is going to be a solid favorite in all of those games.

It always looks good on paper, but I expect a few of those games to be very close and a loss wouldn't shock me. I believe St. John's has won two in a row here and I fully expect Marquette to bring their A game in need of a signature win.

I'm just glad that we already got a W in one of the 4 toughest conference games (@ Pitt, @ Cuse, @ ND, @ UL). Before the season I thought if we could go 2-2 in those games we'd be in great shape for our best finish in the BE.

I'd like to see us start clobbering st johns on a consistent basis given the recruiting battles we seem to have with them.

(01-02-2013 12:37 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  It always looks good on paper, but I expect a few of those games to be very close and a loss wouldn't shock me. I believe St. John's has won two in a row here and I fully expect Marquette to bring their A game in need of a signature win.

I'm just glad that we already got a W in one of the 4 toughest conference games (@ Pitt, @ Cuse, @ ND, @ UL). Before the season I thought if we could go 2-2 in those games we'd be in great shape for our best finish in the BE.

If you want to be serious contender to win the Big East you win all of those games.

(01-02-2013 12:49 PM)Bearcat_Bounce Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 12:37 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  It always looks good on paper, but I expect a few of those games to be very close and a loss wouldn't shock me. I believe St. John's has won two in a row here and I fully expect Marquette to bring their A game in need of a signature win.

I'm just glad that we already got a W in one of the 4 toughest conference games (@ Pitt, @ Cuse, @ ND, @ UL). Before the season I thought if we could go 2-2 in those games we'd be in great shape for our best finish in the BE.

If you want to be serious contender to win the Big East you win all of those games.

Which games are you referring to? The next 5 games or the 4 that I mentioned? I agree that you should win the next 5, but it won't be easy. As for the 4 road games I mentioned there are very few teams in the country, if any, that are good enough to run that table.

Didn't we lose at Rutgers last year?

As strong as this Bearcat team finishes in the second half, if they could just complete 3-5 more scoring opportunities in close to the basket in the first half (rather than settling for long jump shots) they should win all these upcoming games, most by double digits.

Bearcat RPI odds and ends:

Current RPI: 23
Current SOS: 117
vs. Top 100 RPI : 5-1
Vs. Top 50 RPI : 0-1

Top RPI wins
54 Oregon
64 Iowa St
71 Pittsburgh

Upcoming games:
107 St Johns
65 Notre Dame
97 Rutgers
203 DePaul
56 Marquette

Top RPI games remaining:
10 Louisville
19 Syracuse
25 UConn (twice)

(01-02-2013 01:32 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 12:49 PM)Bearcat_Bounce Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 12:37 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  It always looks good on paper, but I expect a few of those games to be very close and a loss wouldn't shock me. I believe St. John's has won two in a row here and I fully expect Marquette to bring their A game in need of a signature win.

I'm just glad that we already got a W in one of the 4 toughest conference games (@ Pitt, @ Cuse, @ ND, @ UL). Before the season I thought if we could go 2-2 in those games we'd be in great shape for our best finish in the BE.

If you want to be serious contender to win the Big East you win all of those games.

Which games are you referring to? The next 5 games or the 4 that I mentioned? I agree that you should win the next 5, but it won't be easy. As for the 4 road games I mentioned there are very few teams in the country, if any, that are good enough to run that table.

The next 5 games. They are some of the "easier" games on the schedule. I agree that a split in those 4 would be ideal. If UC could end up with less than 4 losses they could compete for the title.

I wouldn't call Notre Dame an easy game and there is a good chance we are underdogs in that one.

(01-02-2013 02:46 PM)subflea Wrote:  I wouldn't call Notre Dame an easy game and there is a good chance we are underdogs in that one.

At home? Really? Live RPI has us a 9 point favorite, 79% chance of a W.

Yes, at home. They were picked to finish above us in the preseason poll.

Then you have no clue what you are talking about. UC might not win the game, but there is no chance they will be an underdog.

I don't follow basketball closely, but can the RPI results be taken as reliable at this stage of the season? I'm not sure what all goes into the formula but the reason I ask is that, for instance, UC Santa Barbara's RPI is 86 and they are 2-8. They are ahead of teams like Rutgers (9-2), Memphis (9-3), Virginia (10-3) and Georgia Tech (9-2).

ND is 12-1 so far for 2012-2013.
9-0 at home and 2-1 on the road/neutral. With their one loss coming at the hands of Saint Joseph.
Their schedule so far has been very soft with their best win over then #8 UK but UK at least so far is not the same UK of last year.
Next best win would be maybe Purdue or BYU.

In general ND does not play as well on the road as they do at home.
Last year's ND went 6-11 on the road/neutral and 16-1 at home.

(01-02-2013 03:03 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  ND is 12-1 so far for 2012-2013.
9-0 at home and 2-1 on the road/neutral. With their one loss coming at the hands of Saint Joseph.
Their schedule so far has been very soft with their best win over then #8 UK but UK at least so far is not the same UK of last year.
Next best win would be maybe Purdue or BYU.

In general ND does not play as well on the road as they do at home.
Last year's ND went 6-11 on the road/neutral and 16-1 at home.

I've seen Purdue play twice. They're abysmal, which I think makes your point about their next best win not being very good.

(01-02-2013 03:01 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  I don't follow basketball closely, but can the RPI results be taken as reliable at this stage of the season? I'm not sure what all goes into the formula but the reason I ask is that, for instance, UC Santa Barbara's RPI is 86 and they are 2-8. They are ahead of teams like Rutgers (9-2), Memphis (9-3), Virginia (10-3) and Georgia Tech (9-2).

RPI heavily weights road games. UC-Santa Barbara has already played 8 road games (0-8) against 7 teams projected to finish in the top 100 of the RPI. That is why it over inflates programs that play a ton of OOC road games. Then, solid teams like Southern Miss at 9-4 are in the top 40 because they have only played 3 of 13 games at home. Bottom line, RPI sucks and sucks even more early in the year.

I want to win all those games. But more than that, I want to show offensive improvement while winning them, while maintaining defensive dominance.

We should split with Notre Dame this year. Each home team will take a win. I hate Notre Dame. Did I say that earlier???

(01-02-2013 12:37 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  It always looks good on paper, but I expect a few of those games to be very close and a loss wouldn't shock me. I believe St. John's has won two in a row here and I fully expect Marquette to bring their A game in need of a signature win.

I had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy as it looked on paper. St. John's owns us at 5/3 Arena. Lost three in a row here.