Following the program for nearly 15 years now, we may be working on reversing a trend. It is almost considered to be an annual rite of passage for a Niner fan to sweat out the last few weeks of the year. On the verge of recognition, dropping a game that we shouldn’t, sweating out the at-large bid process, dealing with the excitement and disappointment of an 8/9 seed, losing in the 2nd round of the Dance and saying “wait 'til next year.”
This tied for first place, National Ranking, Tournament “lock”, fighting for seed status with 3 weeks left is pretty cool…and a lot more fun…and a lot less stressful.
Hope we continue to stay hungry and take care of business. This fun ride could get even better.
Well, I’ve been following the program religiously for 28 years, and this beats the crap out of crying by the radio (after I’m supposed to have already brushed my teeth and gone to bed) listening to the likes of Jacksonville wax the niners.
I felt that after we beat St. Louis last week that Charlotte may be headed for something special. The loss to Rutgers and Alabama have hurt but I felt like then that if we learned from them and did improve we had somethng special. Our free throw has a team has improved. We are playing more as a team rather then hoping one player can score 30 points for us to win, though we have 3 guys that are capable of carrying us on any given night.
I honestly believe that the ECU loss (as bad as it was) woke us up big time (especially Withers). I recall reading on here that it sounded like Lutz was crying in the post game interview (or that he had been crying).
Maybe that emotion struck a nerve in our team and has started something beautiful…
It has been fun, but let’s take care of business with the likes of Tulane, USF and Southern Miss. We know we’ll have our hands full with Louisville and Memphis, but those lesser regarded teams are the ones that can come up and bite you in the ass!
Tulane is another dreaded trap game with Memphis completing the sandwich. I actually am quite nervous about it. Tulane has nothing to lose and we come to Fogleman with a ranking on our chest. Bobby needs to tell the guys to press them and run like crazy, blowing them out early. If Tulane hangs around it could be bad.
If you go back and look at the Memphis and Louisville scores against Tulane both of those teams put up over 100 on them. Hopefully they will want to run with us and we will be firing on all cylinders…
I think that what is different about this team is that instead of just one player being the key dominant figure in our offense, i.e. Rodney White, Jobey Thomas, Diego, etc., we have three legit scorers and the team finally has role players that step up at the right moments and provide key minutes, points and rest for the starters. I think that this is a major reason why the team has not lost 7 or 8 games this year and has not besides a bad loss to ECU had some real letdowns this year.
Lutz has the team prepared for what they will face in the next couple weeks with the remaining conference schedule and then the conference tournament. If they ran the table and then won the conference tournament, I think they would end up with a #2 seed in the tournament. I know that sounds preposterous, but it is a reality. Not to get ahead of myself, but I see them as being as finishing the season strong, losing two more games, 1 to Louisville, and the conference USA tourney final and then getting a 5 seed in the tourney.
It is important that some players, like Iti, begin to log meaningful minutes because as we all know, if we live by the 3, we will also die by the 3. Our inside presence would go a long way to solidifying as in the tourney to make a long run like Marquette did a couple years ago.
[i]Originally posted by NJNinerFan[/i]@Feb 18 2005, 12:29 PM
[b] If they ran the table and then won the conference tournament, I think they would end up with a #2 seed in the tournament. I know that sounds preposterous, but it is a reality. [/b]
It would be hard for them to deny us a really high seed. That's for sure. I think if we win out and then win the conference tournament we could end up with a 3 seed, under the right circumstances. If you have some upsets here and there, MAYBE in a real long shot a 2 seed. But I think it would take a whole lot for us to get a 2 seed.
I’d take a lower seeding with more favorable match-ups over a higher seeding with less favorable match-ups. A big part of making a March run is the match-ups you get.
Unless we blow up I think we are somewhere between a 4-7 seed with outside chance at a 3 depending on how higher ranked teams finish and how conference tournaments go.
un·chart·ed ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-chärtd)
adj.
Not charted or recorded on a map or plan: uncharted waterways; the uncharted desert.
Unknown: The nation’s geopolitical strategy is yet uncharted.
I’m the eternal optimist but I worry about our interior defense. If somehow, someway ITI steps up…I think we have a chance to go DEEP. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’re going to run out of horses on the inside and get worn down. We could make up for it if BP gets hot when it counts. I’m not concerned with Curt and Eddie. I know they will deliver.
I agree with all the posts above that this is the Niners best chance to go deep in the tourney and I really believe we can go to the sweet 16 and beyond this year. The fact that we have three and really 4 different scorers (7 scored 20+ during season) bodes very well for us.
My biggest concern is that the tournament is decided by defense and guard play. I do not think that either of these is a strength of the team. With Baldwin’s shoulder and Plavich being hot and cold but not consistent this could be our achilles heel.
If Plavic gets on a roll and Iti steps up to play better interior defense when he is in the game, then I think we go deep in the tourney without it we might be one and done. This team has the opportunity to make a real statement for Charlotte basketball over the next 8 weeks and I cannot wait to see it happen.
[i]Originally posted by NJNinerFan[/i]@Feb 18 2005, 11:29 AM
[b]
It is important that some players, like Iti, begin to log meaningful minutes because as we all know, if we live by the 3, we will also die by the 3. Our inside presence would go a long way to solidifying as in the tourney to make a long run like Marquette did a couple years ago. [/b]
We don’t live or die by the three. We beat DePaul (a great team) with 2 three pointers.
They torched us from three point land.
We win off of rebounding and forcing turnovers. We win off of getting to the line more times than our opponent. We die at the hands of weak defense, poor ft shooting, and turnovers.
Last year we got shot out of games because we relied on Plavich and Demon for those points. This year, PLavich plays an integral part of our offense, but we rely on Eddie and Curt. When those two are off, we’re in far more trouble than when Plav is.