Listening to DC area sports radio last night, Chris Knoche (former American coach and member of Maryland's broadcast team) mentioned that he listened to the game on Sirius/XM driving home from Richmond (went to the VCU game for some reason), and the Michigan State radio guys made it sound like they were playing against JMU and all three refs. Pretty funny, considering the facts of the matter.

I think JMU has a lot to prove still. We came off a big win against UVA and then crapped the season away.

Played better last season and then lost to USA in the tourney.

They have proven they can win the big game, but have yet to prove they can be consistently good to great game in and game out.

I hope that this MSU win is the game that makes the JMU basketball team great all year.

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(11-08-2023 10:26 AM)PolishFalconDuke Wrote:  Listening to DC area sports radio last night, Chris Knoche (former American coach and member of Maryland's broadcast team) mentioned that he listened to the game on Sirius/XM driving home from Richmond (went to the VCU game for some reason), and the Michigan State radio guys made it sound like they were playing against JMU and all three refs. Pretty funny, considering the facts of the matter.

That is pretty funny. Was at the game and went back and watched when I got home from Michigan and I thought the refing was a bit better than what I saw live, but overall we definitely got more screwed than MSU. The one bald ref was very good, but the shortest ref with dark hair made every call against us.

I think the long COVID break really killed the season where we beat UVA. Not being eligible for the tournament was hard enough to deal with, but then they didn't look the same after that break. Really looking forward to seeing how we look from here, I think we'll see a team that's more where we want to be but we'll see.

I'm also really anxious to see how the rest of the conference looks and really hope it has continued to improve. An at-large is probably damn near out of the question still at this point, but if the conference as a whole can take another step forward then it'll be a little more possible. I don't know if we can manage to get through the whole regular season with just two or three losses though, and that might be what it takes for a shot at an at-large.

Timing when we lose will make a difference too. Hopefully we can keep it going and stay undefeated for a while though, that would certainly help. If we can stay undefeated and start getting votes or even get ranked while this win is still fresh in everyone's minds then that will make it easier to keep the perception high and bounce back when we drop one. Michigan State beating Dook would really help too.

(11-08-2023 10:44 AM)hburg Wrote:  I think JMU has a lot to prove still. We came off a big win against UVA and then crapped the season away.

Played better last season and then lost to USA in the tourney.

They have proven they can win the big game, but have yet to prove they can be consistently good to great game in and game out.

I hope that this MSU win is the game that makes the JMU basketball team great all year.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

didnt we have a ton of injuries at the end of year we beat uva. Takal, Vodo, probably missing some others.

(11-08-2023 02:00 PM)PGJMU Wrote:  

(11-08-2023 10:44 AM)hburg Wrote:  I think JMU has a lot to prove still. We came off a big win against UVA and then crapped the season away.

Played better last season and then lost to USA in the tourney.

They have proven they can win the big game, but have yet to prove they can be consistently good to great game in and game out.

I hope that this MSU win is the game that makes the JMU basketball team great all year.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

didnt we have a ton of injuries at the end of year we beat uva. Takal, Vodo, probably missing some others.

I'd like to see how By's first season would of played out if Matt Lewis was not injured.

I hope some of you will now realize how important OOC games are to a program. Every season I hear some of the same posters making comments regarding the lack of importance of these games. A team getting off to a good start sets the tone for January and February. The fans buy in. The team builds confidence. Very seldom will a team dance without an effective November and December.

(11-08-2023 04:16 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I hope some of you will now realize how important OOC games are to a program. Every season I hear some of the same posters making comments regarding the lack of importance of these games. A team getting off to a good start sets the tone for January and February. The fans buy in. The team builds confidence. Very seldom will a team dance without an effective November and December.

Drives me nutz. OOC very important. Hate the "we have a long season in front of us".

While true the OOC frequently sets the foundation for the year, and if you are an NCAA caliber team the OOC results are huge in seeding or at-large possibilities.

and you have no chance of an at-large bid if you don’t play a challenging OOC schedule.
The Sun Belt isn’t going to help your SOS.

Worst case scenario is you take some lumps and have fewer wins, but the team is forced to improve on its weaknesses and is more prepared to win the conference tourney for the autobid.

Boo on the doo-doo games

(11-08-2023 04:16 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I hope some of you will now realize how important OOC games are to a program. Every season I hear some of the same posters making comments regarding the lack of importance of these games. A team getting off to a good start sets the tone for January and February. The fans buy in. The team builds confidence. Very seldom will a team dance without an effective November and December.

I think this is a bit silly. Yes, teams that play well for the first half of the season, also generally play well for the second half of the season. Turns out, those are just good teams. We've come out and beaten GMU, ODU, and UVA to start the season, only to crap the season away.

Fans and players will become confident when we become a consistent winner, which we have not done in a very long time. Difficult or easy schedule doesn't matter. Look at our football team. It became even greater by beating cupcakes and weak CAA opponents. Yes, we had playoff results eventually, but EW created hype and never beat a playoff team!

I'm good with scheduling OOC with the goal of winning that bracket math, but I'm curious just how aggressive our OOC would need to be and how much we'd need to win, for it to actually make a difference if we lose in the SBC tourney.

In summary, just win.

(11-08-2023 10:03 PM)JMU08 Wrote:  

(11-08-2023 04:16 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I hope some of you will now realize how important OOC games are to a program. Every season I hear some of the same posters making comments regarding the lack of importance of these games. A team getting off to a good start sets the tone for January and February. The fans buy in. The team builds confidence. Very seldom will a team dance without an effective November and December.

I think this is a bit silly. Yes, teams that play well for the first half of the season, also generally play well for the second half of the season. Turns out, those are just good teams. We've come out and beaten GMU, ODU, and UVA to start the season, only to crap the season away.

Fans and players will become confident when we become a consistent winner, which we have not done in a very long time. Difficult or easy schedule doesn't matter. Look at our football team. It became even greater by beating cupcakes and weak CAA opponents. Yes, we had playoff results eventually, but EW created hype and never beat a playoff team!

I'm good with scheduling OOC with the goal of winning that bracket math, but I'm curious just how aggressive our OOC would need to be and how much we'd need to win, for it to actually make a difference if we lose in the SBC tourney.

In summary, just win.

GMU and ODU were not Quad 1 or even Quad 2 wins...From a Mid Major perspective; The short answer with the NET ranking system is it's not so much about the W/L record but who you play. The goal is to play the toughest schedule you can even though you may lose 70% of those games. Getting the opportunity to play and beat a quad 1 program is big for any mid major outside of Gonzaga. You get to keep those NET points for the entire season, positioning the program for post season play and seeding. Having a bad lose hurts a lot less when you can bank the big win points.

Obviously way too early to think about March but I think it's a realistic expectation to win the not so great Sun Belt, NET Rankings starts to become important. https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...-explained