Buffs Basketball at this point in the season

[MtnBuff]

Buffs had a solid OOC including a big win over Xavier then manage to lose their first 7 conference games and look bad doing it. Season written off, whoops not so fast.

Now they win 2 in a row including beating a team ranked 10th in the country and the look like a completely different team.

Season no longer a waste but all things considered what makes a good finish now.

Assuming that they won't get to the NCAA if they don't win the conference tourney and while they did it once I don't see that happening again. To get an at large would require at least what 20, maybe 19 wins. Again that would mean only losing one or two the rest of the way, Not likely for even the best teams in the league.

So what would make this a good season? Would you be happy with 15-17 wins and an NIT bid?

 

[DBT]

So what would make this a good season? Would you be happy with 15-17 wins and an NIT bid?

No

 

[jkppkjjkp]

Buffs had a solid OOC including a big win over Xavier then manage to lose their first 7 conference games and look bad doing it. Season written off, whoops not so fast.

Now they win 2 in a row including beating a team ranked 10th in the country and the look like a completely different team.

Season no longer a waste but all things considered what makes a good finish now.

Assuming that they won't get to the NCAA if they don't win the conference tourney and while they did it once I don't see that happening again. To get an at large would require at least what 20, maybe 19 wins. Again that would mean only losing one or two the rest of the way, Not likely for even the best teams in the league.

So what would make this a good season? Would you be happy with 15-17 wins and an NIT bid?

At this point, it's just about seeing the guys who will be here next year buying into TadBall. How this roster, that is so full of 4th and 5th year players, took so long to show that they were in step with their coach is baffling and concerning to me; especially when you think about how it all went in 2014-15 as well.

That said, the season should be deemed far short of expectations if an NCAA bid is not secured.

 

[tante]

We have almost no chance of making the dance. The losses at ASU and WSU are just too much to overcome. To have four conference games decided by a basket and we lose all four is so uncharacteristic for a Tad coached team.

 

[aghcsm]

Buffs had a solid OOC including a big win over Xavier then manage to lose their first 7 conference games and look bad doing it. Season written off, whoops not so fast.

Now they win 2 in a row including beating a team ranked 10th in the country and the look like a completely different team.

Season no longer a waste but all things considered what makes a good finish now.

Assuming that they won't get to the NCAA if they don't win the conference tourney and while they did it once I don't see that happening again. To get an at large would require at least what 20, maybe 19 wins. Again that would mean only losing one or two the rest of the way, Not likely for even the best teams in the league.

So what would make this a good season? Would you be happy with 15-17 wins and an NIT bid?

Couple of items. First, "solid" OOC is not accurate, IMO. Erratic is more like it. Beating TX (although they've since proven lousy), playing ND close on a neutral court, beating the X-guys - all good signs. Losing to CSU at home, barely getting by with little effort teams like Fort Hays & EW - (being down 19-2 at home is still a shocking thought) - I'd call that erratic rather than solid. "Solid" means to me beating the typical OOC powderpuffs soundly by playing well, winning games you should win, being competitive against better teams and perhaps upending one of them.

Second, going 0-7 is bad, but we didn't necessarily look bad doing it. Sure the Washingtons & ASU games had some poor play, but they were road games we traditionally might have lost handily. Really we could//should have won all 3.

Finally, we won 2 in a row, but in only one of them did we play like a completely different team.

What I'm saying is this has been a complex, erratic, inconsistent team. with performance ranging from superb to lousy, and with little to no explanation of why, except for the obvious tendency to play up or down to the opposition.

I suppose the NIT would be a nice conclusion to the season, it would mean we maintained some consistent positive play over the last 6 weeks of the season. But I don't know that 17 wins makes the NIT.

 

[BuffsNYC]

Buffs had a solid OOC including a big win over Xavier then manage to lose their first 7 conference games and look bad doing it. Season written off, whoops not so fast.

Now they win 2 in a row including beating a team ranked 10th in the country and the look like a completely different team.

Season no longer a waste but all things considered what makes a good finish now.

Assuming that they won't get to the NCAA if they don't win the conference tourney and while they did it once I don't see that happening again. To get an at large would require at least what 20, maybe 19 wins. Again that would mean only losing one or two the rest of the way, Not likely for even the best teams in the league.

So what would make this a good season? Would you be happy with 15-17 wins and an NIT bid?

Nope, a good season for this squad requires a trip to the NCAA. It appears unlikely at this point. Personally, I would be quite happy to watch the Buffs at the Garden in the NIT finals, but that wouldn't make it a good season.

 

[MtnBuff]

Couple of items. First, "solid" OOC is not accurate, IMO. Erratic is more like it. Beating TX (although they've since proven lousy), playing ND close on a neutral court, beating the X-guys - all good signs. Losing to CSU at home, barely getting by with little effort teams like Fort Hays & EW - (being down 19-2 at home is still a shocking thought) - I'd call that erratic rather than solid. "Solid" means to me beating the typical OOC powderpuffs soundly by playing well, winning games you should win, being competitive against better teams and perhaps upending one of them.

Second, going 0-7 is bad, but we didn't necessarily look bad doing it. Sure the Washingtons & ASU games had some poor play, but they were road games we traditionally might have lost handily. Really we could//should have won all 3.

Finally, we won 2 in a row, but in only one of them did we play like a completely different team.

What I'm saying is this has been a complex, erratic, inconsistent team. with performance ranging from superb to lousy, and with little to no explanation of why, except for the obvious tendency to play up or down to the opposition.

I suppose the NIT would be a nice conclusion to the season, it would mean we maintained some consistent positive play over the last 6 weeks of the season. But I don't know that 17 wins makes the NIT.

Agree with your term "erratic" for the OOC. The OOC performance should have been a warning to us about this team prior to the conference schedule but I think many if not most of us bought into the idea that this was a tourney team. Had we taken care of business in the conference though our OOC would have been a positive in terms of seeding for the tourney. Seems like the committee is more concerned with wins and losses than how they won or lost those games.

The conference games though are not so much about losing but how we have lost. In all those games prior to Oregon State we failed to put out effort in significant parts of the game, a couple we just flat out looked disinterested.

In the overall perspective anything short of the NCAA tourney for this team is a failure but considering how the team played in most of January coming back to get an NIT bid has to show a significant turnaround.

 

[DBT]

Didn't know where to put this. Looks like Yaz didn't play at Stanford. At least I don't think he did. I'm beginning to wonder if he'll be around next year or opt to return to Europe? I would hate to see that.

 

[jkppkjjkp]

Didn't know where to put this. Looks like Yaz didn't play at Stanford. At least I don't think he did. I'm beginning to wonder if he'll be around next year or opt to return to Europe? I would hate to see that.

I think it's worth watching too, he played 15 minutes against Oregon State, 8 against Oregon and 3 against Stanford.

On the season he's averaging 11.5 minutes. I figure he's the type of guy who plays in that 3-8 minute range as a minimum, but then mixes in the 15-20 minute games when he's hot, there's a good matchup, or foul trouble dictates it. Hard to see him getting more time next season though, Derrick White and Josh Fortune's minutes should get gobbled up by Peters, Brown and Schwartz.