No more losses in 2004?

49ers Basketball Forum 🏀
1

Just looking at our schedule more closely, and I don’t see why we can’t wait until 2005 for our next loss.

You have to think we’ll dispatch of LBSU, Rutgers, LA-Lafayette, Georgia State, UNCA, ECU (05) all at home. Also, if we are as good as we think we are, we should take care of Alabama at HOME also.

On the road…at Valpo will be tough, but they’re down this year I think. At Davidson should be a walk in the park. Indiana will be reeling by the time we go to Bloomington, and then we BETTER take care of business in the Cable Car (laugh) Classic.

That would get us to January '05 and road trips to UAB, Cincy, and Marquette.

What do you guys think??

2

I think you’re very optomistic sir.

Rutgers
Bama
Indiana

All circled games for me. And there will be one that we don’t see coming. It’s known as “The Joey Beard [Boston U.] effect”, and it translates to a career game. Most recently experienced by George Leach (IU) in Halton Arena a couple years ago and Alex Loughton (@ODU) last year. :huh:

3
[i]Originally posted by bobblinlutz[/i]@Oct 20 2004, 12:23 PM [b] At Davidson should be a walk in the park. [/b]
At Davidson SHOULD be a walk in the park, but somehow that game always finds a way to get interesting.
4
[i]Originally posted by bobblinlutz[/i]@Oct 20 2004, 12:23 PM [b]Just looking at our schedule more closely, and I don't see why we can't wait until 2005 for our next loss.

You have to think we’ll dispatch of LBSU, Rutgers, LA-Lafayette, Georgia State, UNCA, ECU (05) all at home. Also, if we are as good as we think we are, we should take care of Alabama at HOME also.

On the road…at Valpo will be tough, but they’re down this year I think. At Davidson should be a walk in the park. Indiana will be reeling by the time we go to Bloomington, and then we BETTER take care of business in the Cable Car (laugh) Classic.

That would get us to January '05 and road trips to UAB, Cincy, and Marquette.

What do you guys think??[/b]


I’ve been saying this since our schedule was released :smiley:

Valpo becomes a really trick game as Mitch will only have maybe 2 weeks of practice in before that game. That and they are a good team, but we are better. A good early season test for us, we did pretty well in our first early season road test last year.

we should beat Alabama. They are talented, but they beat us by what, 5? 7? points at their place last year. Given we didn’t play a terrible game, but we didn’t play our best(neither did they probably). But we have them here, we don’t like them, they beat us and steal our recruits, we’ve gotta take this one for the coaches. Smack them around by 20 and see how Gee is feeling about his decision(not to mention how he’s going to feel on that bench for a couple of years). I could see us loosing this game, but we’ve got to do a better job protecting our home court this year, and this is the game to make a statement with. A win will probably put us in the top 25 if we don’t slip up anywhere before.

Indiana is where is gets really tricky. This is the only game I can really justify us loosing ini our OOC. We are better then them, yes, but we jsut don’t play them well for whatever reason. And they will have played a lot of really really good teams by that point and it might be starting to pay off by the time we get up there. Michigan St. had a similarly brutal OOC sched. last year and they started to heat up and were almost unstoppable. Gotta hope they are still reeling and learning when we get there, but compared to some the other teams tehy will be facing, we will look like a winnable game to them, maybe they underestimate us and we can sneak out with a W.

The other games there are just no excuses for, none. LBS, Georgia State, UL-L, Davidson, UNC-A and the Cable Car teams are cupcakes for us. None of them should be within 20 of us. Rutgers isn’t as bad as those others but still no excuse, a home game and the guys whould be well prepared with 5 games under their belt(exhibition/Canada/LBS) by that point, we are their season opener.

I know we SHOULD be undefeated going into UAB on January 12, but it’s Charlotte, we will almost certainly loose somewhere, I’m hoping we get out with only one loss and I will be very dissapointed if we have more than 2.

5
[b]I think you're very optomistic sir.

Rutgers
Bama
Indiana
[/b]

I’m sorry, but if we’re as good as we think we are this year, we SHOULD EXPECT to win each of these games. We think we’re top-20 (concensus I read on this board, anyway) and Rutgers and Indiana are NOT top-20 teams. Rutgers is at home for God sake. We should walk all over them. We should be able to beat Indiana at their place this year. Look at their schedule leading in to that game.

And, yes, Bama is talented and coming off an extraordinary year. But, they’re coming to our place.

Again, this isn’t (in my opinion) the same old Charlotte team. We have a Wooden candidate for the first time in my lifetime (I think). A 7-footer who has to have gotten better. Senior leadership in Eddie and Plav. A straight-up player coming off the bence in Drayton. And a guy who’s been known to step it up in big games running the point.

In my eyes, this is not the same old team that we could count on losing some games they were supposed to win (GW last year, for example).

If we’re the program we think we are, then we have to think like it. We SHOULD NOT lose another game in 2004.

6
[i]Originally posted by bobblinlutz[/i]@Oct 20 2004, 03:11 PM [b] A 7-footer who has to have gotten better. [/b]
Who would that be? :silly:
7

Amen bobblin. Couldn’t agree more. No apologies. I expect perfection for the rest of 2004, and all season long in Halton.

8
[b]At Davidson should be a walk in the park.[/b]

This game will not be a walk in the park. It never is. They are good this year. We are better on paper, but we were better on paper 2 years ago and they wiped the floor with us. I agree the talent gap is wider in our favor this time, but this game is their National Championship, especially when it’s played at Belk Arena. Somebody with a Media Guide, let us know how many times we’ve beat Davidson at Belk Arena by more than 15 points. I think we’ll win, but it won’t be a walk in the park.

I think Alabama will be the best team we’ve EVER played in Halton as far as non-conference games go, and it should be billed as such. Indiana was a big game when we hosted them three seasons ago, but they were not near as talented as 'Bama is this year. Not only does Alabama have their own Wooden candidate, Chuck Davis became a go-to guy their last two games in the NCAAs. He had 19 against 'Cuse, and 24 against Okafor and UConn. Pretty impressive. We won’t be beating them by 20, if we beat them.

The three games tossed around are the only three potential defeats I can possibly see during non-conference: Valpo, 'Bama, and Indiana. Davidson will be tough, be I think we’ll win. The others we should win by 15+, even Rutgers.

9

Alabama is tough this year, they have a 7 fter also who can play, seems like they have a lot of weapons we will have to stop them, ie., it will take D to win not offense.

Valpo, very good coach and they are expected to win their league, also on the road, this could be a tough one.

La-Laf, is also suppose to win their league.

10
[b]This game will not be a walk in the park. It never is. They are good this year. We are better on paper, but we were better on paper 2 years ago and they wiped the floor with us. I agree the talent gap is wider in our favor this time, but this game is their National Championship, especially when it's played at Belk Arena. Somebody with a Media Guide, let us know how many times we've beat Davidson at Belk Arena by more than 15 points. I think we'll win, but it won't be a walk in the park. [/b]

I’ll go on record right now as saying we’ll win by AT LEAST 15 at Davidson, probably more like 20. I don’t care if they play 6 against us, they are NOT in our league, period.

Here’s what I’m saying…people on this board want to talk about us being able to play with the big boys, but still expect us to struggle w/ teams like Davidson?? Come on now, that’s down right blasphemy for this team.

11

By the time we play Davidson on December 8th, the Wildcats will have faced Missouri, Duke, Saint Joseph’s, and Georgetown. I really don’t think we’re their National Championship this season.

12

We always wait until January to wake up, and I don’t see this year being any different. We perpetually put ourselves under the radar with a stupid loss or two before the end of the year. :blink:

13
[b]By the time we play Davidson on December 8th, the Wildcats will have faced Missouri, Duke, Saint Joseph's, and Georgetown. I really don't think we're their National Championship this season. [/b]

Georgetown is the only one of those teams playing at Belk Arena, but I don’t think they care as much about beating them as they will us. The other games are on the road or at a neutral arena where their crowd won’t be a factor. They were only better than us at maybe one position talent-wise two years ago, but they shot the lights out because we played ZERO defense. They outplayed us in every facet of the game. If they shoot like that again this year, the game will be close. If the game was at Halton, I say no problem. There is an 8 point swing in the odds in going to Belk Arena though. I still don’t think it will be as easy as everyone seems to think.

14

One of our main goals this year should be to go undefeated at home.

15
[i]Originally posted by NovaNiner[/i]@Oct 21 2004, 01:58 PM [b] One of our main goals this year should be to go [b]undefeated at home[/b]. [/b]
I agree. Coach Meier has made that a goal of the women's team this season. No reason why the men can't do it too.
16
[b]They were only better than us at maybe one position talent-wise two years ago, but they shot the lights out because we played ZERO defense. They outplayed us in every facet of the game. If they shoot like that again this year, the game will be close. If the game was at Halton, I say no problem. There is an 8 point swing in the odds in going to Belk Arena though. I still don't think it will be as easy as everyone seems to think. [/b]

Look, I don’t think you guys are seeing my point on this one. The expectations for this team should be much HIGHER than for our past teams. The only expectations that should be in the same ballpark were those that we put on the Demarco/Colson Senior-led team. In some polls that year we were top-25.

But this year is DIFFERENT. We have a Wooden candidate ranked as one of the top 50 players in America, top-5 PF. We have Senior leadership. We are coming off a season where we shared the Conference Title with some VERY GOOD teams.

This is NOT the same old Charlotte team. People, join me in raising the bar this year!!!

17

My expectations are high, Bobblin, but expecting to drill Davidson at their place is still a little arrogant to me when they are picked to finish first in the Southern Conference and knowing that rivalry games are always tough. We should be, at worst, 10-2 going into conference play with the talent we have. I expect that, and I think the team would say that is definitely do-able.

18
[i]Originally posted by bobblinlutz[/i]@Oct 21 2004, 03:48 PM [b]
[b]They were only better than us at maybe one position talent-wise two years ago, but they shot the lights out because we played ZERO defense. They outplayed us in every facet of the game. If they shoot like that again this year, the game will be close. If the game was at Halton, I say no problem. There is an 8 point swing in the odds in going to Belk Arena though. I still don't think it will be as easy as everyone seems to think. [/b]

Look, I don’t think you guys are seeing my point on this one. The expectations for this team should be much HIGHER than for our past teams. The only expectations that should be in the same ballpark were those that we put on the Demarco/Colson Senior-led team. In some polls that year we were top-25.

But this year is DIFFERENT. We have a Wooden candidate ranked as one of the top 50 players in America, top-5 PF. We have Senior leadership. We are coming off a season where we shared the Conference Title with some VERY GOOD teams.

This is NOT the same old Charlotte team. People, join me in raising the bar this year!!![/b]


I agree. The bar should be raised. We should expect to win all of those games at home. I could live with 1 road loss out of those you listed but there is no reason we couldn’t win all of them. We are a veteran team and we won’t have Butter’s 3+ turnovers a game to set us back this year. Hopefully we recover from these injuries and they won’t nag us all year.

This is the year we bring it all together.