Moving On to Rayball
- Thread starter ArcherSPS
- Start date
I think borderline NIT is reachable for this team. Watched the St. Louis and TCU games. Looked great in one and awful in the other. But we actually look like a legitimate decent Divison I team for the first time since Stansbury left us bankrupt and I like the effort we play with. The SEC still sucks, so we should have a chance to get close to .500 in conference.
Looking forward to seeing how the women's team is going to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to watch a single game. But I am interested in how they'll do.
I agree the NIT is reachable. As patdog said we actually have the look of a DI team now. We have some size and athleticism. I really like how we play defense especially Fred Thomas. He is all over the place. The defense will keep us in games, but the offense has to find some consistency.
Last edited:
I wouldn't
say we looked "awful" in the TCU game. We certainly didn't shoot it as well as we did vs St. Louis, though. TCU probably had a little to do with that. There's no way that this team shouldn't be in the NIT, at the very least.
say we looked "awful" in the TCU game. We certainly didn't shoot it as well as we did vs St. Louis, though. TCU probably had a little to do with that. There's no way that this team shouldn't be in the NIT, at the very least.
Based on the limited games I have seen I think we have a good foundation to build on and could make some noise this year. Ware looks a whole lot better and has a good jumper when he is on. Johnson has settled into the guy that scraps his buckets off the boards. Thomas can contribute when he is on from three.
Sword is the difference, as everyone else has said, if he gets healthy. He is the one guy that can drive defenses nuts that you have to have to get over the hump into post season.
I do think this will be a good season to gauge Ray's coaching as we have a full roster with some returning players.
Edited to add: I find it interesting that we have two football players on the roster.
Sword is the difference, as everyone else has said, if he gets healthy. He is the one guy that can drive defenses nuts that you have to have to get over the hump into post season.
I do think this will be a good season to gauge Ray's coaching as we have a full roster with some returning players.
Edited to add: I find it interesting that we have two football players on the roster.
They're 7-0 and got 2 ap votes for top 25. I don't know how good they are but saying they're not good at all is a guess
Like I said
I wouldn't use the term "awful" when describing that game, and I certainly wouldn't say they beat us like a drum, but that's your opinion so whatever.
I wouldn't use the term "awful" when describing that game, and I certainly wouldn't say they beat us like a drum, but that's your opinion so whatever.
Let's just be clear on what an NIT team looks like. We will need to be in the 65-75 RPI range, and probably at least 19 wins to be in the mix, but 20 or 21 would be more likely to be what we would need. We're currently 40 RPI but that's certain to change drastically when conference play starts. The next two are really big games for us, on the road at Tulane and Oregon State. Both are winnable, but that's the same thing Tulane and Oregon State are saying about us. After that we have four RPI killers so really need to pick up quality(ish) wins when the opportunity presents itself. Florida State will be another good chance.
We have the look of a team that is just one star player away from being in contention for an NCAA bid. We have some size, a lot of athleticism, and hustle but we still don't have that one guy that defenses have to game plan for. Maybe Sword will be that guy but he looked pretty rusty in his first two games.
Our team reminds me a little of some of the Alabama teams the last several years. Good D but will struggle to score at times.
Our team reminds me a little of some of the Alabama teams the last several years. Good D but will struggle to score at times.
They're not as terrible as they have been, and they certainly didn't beat us like a drum. We played a bad last three minutes of the first half which allowed them to run the lead out to 9, then we were dead even in the second half. They did keep the lead in the 8-12 range the majority of the second half but we fought back to within five late in the game. We just had a terrible shooting night, which isn't going to be surprising from this group. I was disappointed that Dunlap didn't get more run but he hasn't exactly shot his way onto the court thus far.
The box score certainly wasn't pretty. We shot below 40% from the field and below 20% from the three point line.
Nit and signing malik should be the goals this year. If we add malik to our core (ware, Thomas, sword, Daniels), we're an ncaa team next season
Yeah it is a good comparison. We are definitely more athletic and have no problem hustling on both ends of the court.
That kind of RPI may be very difficult for this team considering our nonconference schedule and the weakness of the SEC.
Yeah
our numbers certainly weren't that dissimilar to theirs, that why i say my opinion of it does not constitute a game where one was "beat like a drum." Hell we each scored the same for the second half. At one point it was a somewhat tight game. To each his own, I guess.
our numbers certainly weren't that dissimilar to theirs, that why i say my opinion of it does not constitute a game where one was "beat like a drum." Hell we each scored the same for the second half. At one point it was a somewhat tight game. To each his own, I guess.
I agree with that also. Somehow someway get Newman here. Side note, I'm very curious to what kind of player Demetrius Houston will turn into. That guy is an athlete.
I don't know if the league is any weaker this year than it has been in the past. It's not good, that's for sure. Our non-conference is not THAT bad and I think you will see the power conference teams rise in the RPI during conference play (TCU, FSU and Oregon State) and then throw in Utah State and Tulane who both need to exceed expectations.
I was traveling back from the Egg Bowl and wasn't able to watch. Based on the stats, neither team looks that great. But its just one game and sometimes you have scrappy games.
The true test will be after three or four SEC games. We'll see whether our defense has actually improved and whether we can actually post respectable shooting stats.
The true test will be after three or four SEC games. We'll see whether our defense has actually improved and whether we can actually post respectable shooting stats.
We were at the TCU game the other night. Besides being in a ****** mood because of the other men's team, RayRay needs to find some sort of offensive threats. We were lousy on offense. Our D was pretty decent. I was very impressed that we turned TCU over a few times on the full court. That's a committed team right there. Unfortunately, they can't hit the broad side of the barn for the most part.
We are currently hitting .471 from the field with this team. You have to go back over a decade that find an MSU team that hit a higher percentage of shots overall.
We had a bad shooting night. That doesn't make this a bad shooting team. Streaky, yes. But not bad.
I didn't claim we'd hold .471 for the whole season. My point was simply that "can't hit the broad side of a barn for the most part" is premature while we're still on pace for our best shooting season in quite a few metrics in a long time. 3 of our 5 best shooters(Ready, Houston, Dunlap) and a high percentage guy(Sword) have struggled thusfar. Those guys' numbers are going to improve. And our SOS is better than you imply -- at least at this snapshot in time.
If you want to break it down to "first 6 games vs previous first 6 games", you can -- I didn't see the purpose for the point I was attempting to make. Which was simply that it's way too early to assume we'll be a terrible shooting team based on performance in a single game on a Saturday when we shot 55.6% a day earlier on the same weekend. Inconsistent yes, terrible no.
Your assessment is correct. We can't shoot for ****. Engie is purposely ignoring that we've had over 50 layups and dunks against much smaller much less athletic teams. Layups and dunks tend to pad the shooting stats. We are tall, athletic and lean but we are not a good shooting TEAM.
TCU is 8-0 with a 12 point road win in Oxford. Their game against us is actually the second closest game they've had all year, in terms of the final score.
ETA: I didn't realize the post I was responding to was 3 days old.
Last edited:
Why did we outshoot OM so significantly against TCU? Nevermind that theirs happened in their own building. Maybe Stans teams should have dunked more**
Sure do wish we'd have cut our 48% 3 point shooter like you not only advocated, but blew the boards up over, about this time last year. What am I "purposely ignoring" on that?
Last edited:
Thomas is a near a 50% 3 point shooter for what is nearing half a season worth of overall games. He's been lights out ever since Ray benched him that one game last year...
Last edited: