I know that Tulsa turned it on as the season progressed but the 2nd loss to TCU wasn't even close & it was only a couple of games before C-USA play began. I know the BIG XII is strong this year but TCU is really bad.

TCU lost every single conference game and in most games they weren't even competitive (only 3 games where they were within 10). TCU had to come from behind to escape with a 3-point victory to lower division Alaska Anchorage. TCU is six games behind the 2nd worst BIG XII team (TT) & is the 1st team in BIG XII history to finish 0-18 in regular season conference play.

How did a C-USA co-champ lose twice to an all-time bad team like TCU? Is this an indictment against C-USA as a whole or is it a double aberration where lightening actually did strike twice?

I only saw the second game.

Somehow we managed to blow a ten point lead and turn it into a ten point loss in ten minutes.

Anyone claiming Tulsa to be a really good team is smoking crack. We are an average team that is playing good basketball against marginal competition right now. We shot very poorly from the charity line early in the season. Awful. We had some injuries but really let alot of games slip away in the last five minutes.

Our team is very young and the OOC exposed that. I think most of us are shocked with the way the season turned out.

TCU is better than Tulsa

How did Tulsa lose a home game to Oral Roberts ? Tulsa is a very young team that has improved a lot as the season progressed. [/u]

(03-12-2014 10:47 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  TCU is better than Tulsa

June Jones just got a ten year extension.

The key is that Tulsa plays mostly sophomores a freshman and one senior. It took most of the season for these players to get the playing time they needed to become better. They are better now!

(03-12-2014 10:11 PM)Indiana Bones Wrote:  How did a C-USA co-champ lose twice to an all-time bad team like TCU? Is this an indictment against C-USA as a whole or is it a double aberration where lightening actually did strike twice?

Totally fair criticism.

I didn't see the games and don't know much about Tulsa. I would suspect it is both an indictment against C-USA and an example of how young players can develop over a season.

I don't think it is any secret that the OOC season was a disaster for C-USA. Aside from LA Tech, each of the co-champs flunked every test they had outside of the conference

Tulsa: No big wins and the TCU losses are just humiliating
MTSU: Blown out by two elite teams, beaten by very mediocre Belmont (by double digits at home) and Ole Miss teams
USM: Skulldrug by Louisville

And then on the flip side of that, the team that had the best OOC wins (UAB) falls asleep at the wheel in conference play.

If we want respect as a conference, we have done absolutely nothing to earn it.

(03-13-2014 11:08 AM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 10:11 PM)Indiana Bones Wrote:  How did a C-USA co-champ lose twice to an all-time bad team like TCU? Is this an indictment against C-USA as a whole or is it a double aberration where lightening actually did strike twice?

Totally fair criticism.

I didn't see the games and don't know much about Tulsa. I would suspect it is both an indictment against C-USA and an example of how young players can develop over a season.

I don't think it is any secret that the OOC season was a disaster for C-USA. Aside from LA Tech, each of the co-champs flunked every test they had outside of the conference

Tulsa: No big wins and the TCU losses are just humiliating
MTSU: Blown out by two elite teams, beaten by very mediocre Belmont (soundly) and Ole Miss teams
USM: Skulldrug by Louisville

And then on the flip side of that, the team that had the best OOC wins (UAB) falls asleep at the wheel in conference play.

If we want respect as a conference, we have done absolutely nothing to earn it.

we have to get them on a neutral court....it's the only option we have...

(03-13-2014 11:11 AM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(03-13-2014 11:08 AM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 10:11 PM)Indiana Bones Wrote:  How did a C-USA co-champ lose twice to an all-time bad team like TCU? Is this an indictment against C-USA as a whole or is it a double aberration where lightening actually did strike twice?

Totally fair criticism.

I didn't see the games and don't know much about Tulsa. I would suspect it is both an indictment against C-USA and an example of how young players can develop over a season.

I don't think it is any secret that the OOC season was a disaster for C-USA. Aside from LA Tech, each of the co-champs flunked every test they had outside of the conference

Tulsa: No big wins and the TCU losses are just humiliating
MTSU: Blown out by two elite teams, beaten by very mediocre Belmont (soundly) and Ole Miss teams
USM: Skulldrug by Louisville

And then on the flip side of that, the team that had the best OOC wins (UAB) falls asleep at the wheel in conference play.

If we want respect as a conference, we have done absolutely nothing to earn it.

we have to get them on a neutral court....it's the only option we have...

I get what you're saying and yeah, that is the hard part and it would make a difference.

But a top team in a respected conference wins on the road at Ole Miss. Dayton went down to Oxford and won. Why couldn't MTSU do it? That's not an easy game, but if you're going to get run by Florida and Cincinnati and lose to Belmont at home, you better go to Oxford and beat Ole Miss if you want any kind of respect from outside the conference.

A top team in a respected conference doesn't go up to Louisville and forget how to play basketball in its only non-conference test. Louisville can do that to teams (see: UConn)...but if that's your only big non-conference game and you want respect, you better go up there and play competitively.

And a top team damn sure doesn't lose TWO games to TCU.

If our opportunities, as a conference, are limited, then we better make them count for something. Those games against the middle to lower tier major conference teams are more important to me than the games against the powerhouses. If MTSU goes into Florida and loses, that's no big deal. That is expected. Just don't look like fools (like we did against Louisville) or it reinforces the idea that a top C-USA team is a joke to top major conference teams. Most power conference teams can't do that. But if MTSU goes to Ole Miss and loses, that reinforces the notion that a middle tier team in the weakest major conference is as good or better than the top team from C-USA. If Tulsa loses twice to TCU, that says to people that one of the top teams in C-USA is on the level of the worst Big 12 team. Are those assumptions true? Probably not. The truth doesn't matter, though. What matters is the perception of the people who are determining our TV contracts, committee members determining whether or not we should get an at-large bid, etc.

(03-13-2014 12:44 AM)TulsaEye Wrote:  The key is that Tulsa plays mostly sophomores a freshman and one senior. It took most of the season for these players to get the playing time they needed to become better. They are better now!

Well TCU started 3 true freshman a junior and a senior in 1 game against Tulsa and started 2 true freshman, a sophomore walk-on, a junior, and a senior in the other.

Not exactly a experienced ball club either.

But on the bright side, our ninth place team beat the outright Big Ten Champs!

(03-13-2014 02:33 PM)itsbraille49 Wrote:  But on the bright side, our ninth place team beat the outright Big Ten Champs!

And UAB over UNC.

(03-12-2014 10:47 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  TCU is better than Tulsa

Maybe early in the season but not now.

(03-13-2014 11:08 AM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 10:11 PM)Indiana Bones Wrote:  How did a C-USA co-champ lose twice to an all-time bad team like TCU? Is this an indictment against C-USA as a whole or is it a double aberration where lightening actually did strike twice?

Totally fair criticism.

I didn't see the games and don't know much about Tulsa. I would suspect it is both an indictment against C-USA and an example of how young players can develop over a season.

I don't think it is any secret that the OOC season was a disaster for C-USA. Aside from LA Tech, each of the co-champs flunked every test they had outside of the conference

Tulsa: No big wins and the TCU losses are just humiliating
MTSU: Blown out by two elite teams, beaten by very mediocre Belmont (by double digits at home) and Ole Miss teams
USM: Skulldrug by Louisville

And then on the flip side of that, the team that had the best OOC wins (UAB) falls asleep at the wheel in conference play.

If we want respect as a conference, we have done absolutely nothing to earn it.

Don't forget Charlotte with wins over Michigan and Kansas State.

(03-13-2014 02:33 PM)itsbraille49 Wrote:  But on the bright side, our ninth place team beat the outright Big Ten Champs!

Michigan with Mitch McGary, at that....and Kansas State.

If only Charlotte and UAB had remembered to show up for conference play...

(03-13-2014 03:44 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-13-2014 02:33 PM)itsbraille49 Wrote:  But on the bright side, our ninth place team beat the outright Big Ten Champs!

Michigan with Mitch McGary, at that....and Kansas State.

If only Charlotte and UAB had remembered to show up for conference play...

Cupcake non conference schedules don't prepare them for conference play.

I think the reason is that TU played poorly both games because our best player was in a slump at the time and we couldn't get a rebound or FT to save our lives. But I think there is a higher mountain for TCU to climb in the B12 where they are easily overwhelmed by a league that is strong top to bottom. I don't think we could say that about CUSA. So TU has a few gimmees on the schedule and TCU, when they reach conference, do not. Also, TCU did not have to play AT TU this year (one was a neutral site) - we beat them at home last year. So I imagine we are somewhat better and they a beaten up.

We will have to be more resilient next year in a conference very similar to the Big 12. IMO

(03-13-2014 12:51 PM)tcufrog86 Wrote:  

(03-13-2014 12:44 AM)TulsaEye Wrote:  The key is that Tulsa plays mostly sophomores a freshman and one senior. It took most of the season for these players to get the playing time they needed to become better. They are better now!

Well TCU started 3 true freshman a junior and a senior in 1 game against Tulsa and started 2 true freshman, a sophomore walk-on, a junior, and a senior in the other.

Not exactly a experienced ball club either.

In the OOC part of our schedule Tulsa was not only battling inexperience but even more importantly we had no on court leadership and it really showed early on. It took TU most of the season well into the conference games to get that achieve leadership.

(03-13-2014 03:44 PM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-13-2014 02:33 PM)itsbraille49 Wrote:  But on the bright side, our ninth place team beat the outright Big Ten Champs!

Michigan with Mitch McGary, at that....and Kansas State.

If only Charlotte and UAB had remembered to show up for conference play...

This really was a huge problem for the conference as a whole. If UAB and Charlotte had gone 12-4/13-3 each, the conference would receive a lot more respect based off the UAB wins over Nebraska(I know, how is that a good win?) and UNC and the Charlotte wins listed above. As a whole, the conference actually did have a lot more nice wins OOC, but when conference play started, teams were all over the place. Hopefully next year the teams that pick up the best wins OOC don't crap the bed.(and no, I'm not forgetting La Tech and their win at OK, but we need more than that as a conference)

By Tulsa winning both the regular season and tourney championships it only makes them getting swept by lowly TCU that much more perplexing.