Up to 12 in NET

Aike

Heisman
Mar 17, 2002
75,313
45,920
90
It’s all gonna come down to how hard we guard and how well we shoot the 3 ball. We may die from it but you can also ride it a long way.

Yes. Have to remember that it’s hard to guess us too, especially on a quick turnaround.

The biggest thing about missing JR, besides his obvious talent and system knowledge, is that he gave us redundancy. If either JR or Koby were firing, we were good. If both, then lights out.

Now we need everyone to step up. Will probably need timely threes from some combo of the freshmen/Ansley/Carr.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
43,005
76,628
113
Yes. Have to remember that it’s hard to guess us too, especially on a quick turnaround.

The biggest thing about missing JR, besides his obvious talent and system knowledge, is that he gave us redundancy. If either JR or Koby were firing, we were good. If both, then lights out.

Now we need everyone to step up. Will probably need timely threes from some combo of the freshmen/Ansley/Carr.
That’s one thing I’m counting on. We are hard to prepare for and non conference teams especially on a quick turnaround may not be able to do as well stopping us. If we can win the first game each weekend I’ll feel good. Obviously we have to win to advance, but the second game will be the hardest to guard us.
 

TheDude73

Heisman
Jan 7, 2006
23,930
23,088
113
The matchups are KEY, but we know how this goes, even without Cal. We'll be lined up with the exact kinds of teams that we've had issues with this year - physical, high defense, high octane offenses. There are mid majors that will make the dance that will match up well with us - maybe not in the first game, but the first weekend for sure. And the committee will make damned sure Pope and UK don't get to waltz right on into the S16.

I predict our bracket will be misery. With 12 likely SEC teams going in, it will be very hard to not run into one of them in the 2nd weekend.

And you can GUARANTEE if Arkansas squeaks in, they will be lined up directly in our bracket somewhere, probably early.
 

TucsonCat

All-Conference
Sep 10, 2022
2,807
3,424
0
We do best against unathletic teams. And that first game should be some minor league conference champion. Idaho Valley A&M or Racist Televangelist Online Diploma Mill. Then second game, hopefully the other team is a little tired and not prepared for it offense.
 
Jan 3, 2003
145,534
15,709
0
Without JR we definitely are not among the elite teams, but I think we are still comfortably Sweet 16 level. Get to the second weekend and anything can happen.
I would agree with this.
In a OAD setting, anything can happen, so yes we could win an E8 game. But the odds of winning 2 or 3 such games in a row are low and lower.
So matchups matter!!!
And getting MORE from the complimentary players (Garrison, Almonor, Chandler, Noah, Perry), or at least 2-3 of them is VITAL. As is not having a bad game from Brea (or any of our starters).
 

chasingwildcat

All-American
Dec 23, 2024
3,285
6,715
113
When you play mostly Q3 competitions, your metric will be inflated...

LSU could not even guard our simple ISO and easy cut...
 

bucsrule8872

Heisman
May 30, 2005
24,397
29,352
0
Duke passes Auburn up in NET.

They have the same record, but Auburn has played a way tougher schedule.

Auburn is 15-3 in Quad 1 games and Duke is 6-3. Auburn has played twice as many Q1 games and won over twice as many Q1 games with the same amount of losses.

Both teams are 6-0 in Quad 2 games.

I guess Duke’s 15-0 record against Quads 3 and 4 is the difference.

The numbers just do not make sense to me.
 

chasingwildcat

All-American
Dec 23, 2024
3,285
6,715
113
Duke passes Auburn up in NET.

They have the same record, but Auburn has played a way tougher schedule.

Auburn is 15-3 in Quad 1 games and Duke is 6-3. Auburn has played twice as many Q1 games and won over twice as many Q1 games with the same amount of losses.

Both teams are 6-0 in Quad 2 games.

I guess Duke’s 15-0 record against Quads 3 and 4 is the difference.

The numbers just do not make sense to me.
When you always play against bad teams, your metric will be inflated


We look like champion level team when playing against LSU...
 
  • Like
Reactions: St.PatterSoN-54-

ukcatz12

Heisman
Mar 27, 2009
5,199
12,325
0
But I thought these computer programs were suppose to keep that kind of stuff from happening.
They do. Duke is legitimately just that good this year. Everyone is way to focused on the ACC being a bad conference this year and using that as a reason why Duke is overrated, because let's face it, we all hate Duke. But they are elite this year.

Could the go home early in the tournament? Sure. Any team can. But that won't mean they were overrated or that losing early was caused by their weak conference.
 

ukcatz12

Heisman
Mar 27, 2009
5,199
12,325
0
How it adjusts for Duke to send Duke as #1?
Because even after adjusting for bad competition Duke's stats are still so good they're #1? Duke is elite this year even if they've been beating up on bad competition. They're also #1 on Kenpom by quite a large margin.

None of these advanced metrics and analytics are just raw numbers. They're all adjusted for competition. The specific formulas to come up with the rankings aren't really published, but the stats are adjusted so that, for example, a Duke 30 point win against Miami is worth less than an Auburn 5 point win against someone like Tennessee (that's just a random example to give an idea of how the metrics are adjusted).

Even after adjusting all Duke's numbers down to account for that they're still #1.
 

bucsrule8872

Heisman
May 30, 2005
24,397
29,352
0
Because even after adjusting for bad competition Duke's stats are still so good they're #1? Duke is elite this year even if they've been beating up on bad competition. They're also #1 on Kenpom by quite a large margin.

None of these advanced metrics and analytics are just raw numbers. They're all adjusted for competition. The specific formulas to come up with the rankings aren't really published, but the stats are adjusted so that, for example, a Duke 30 point win against Miami is worth less than an Auburn 5 point win against someone like Tennessee (that's just a random example to give an idea of how the metrics are adjusted).

Even after adjusting all Duke's numbers down to account for that they're still #1.
So basically the numbers do lie because Auburn is better than Duke.

They have played tougher competition and won tougher games, but since Duke blew out a bunch of weak teams and Auburn didn’t play many weak teams, the numbers are skewed.

And yes, I know Duke is elite. I am not comparing Duke to LSU, I am comparing Duke to Auburn.

Duke is great this season.

But Auburn is better. By the eye test and on paper.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
43,005
76,628
113
The matchups are KEY, but we know how this goes, even without Cal. We'll be lined up with the exact kinds of teams that we've had issues with this year - physical, high defense, high octane offenses. There are mid majors that will make the dance that will match up well with us - maybe not in the first game, but the first weekend for sure. And the committee will make damned sure Pope and UK don't get to waltz right on into the S16.

I predict our bracket will be misery. With 12 likely SEC teams going in, it will be very hard to not run into one of them in the 2nd weekend.

And you can GUARANTEE if Arkansas squeaks in, they will be lined up directly in our bracket somewhere, probably early.
I don’t think they can match us up with an SEC team before the round of 16 at earliest even if they have to drop a team a seed line.
 

bthaunert

Heisman
Apr 4, 2007
29,518
21,619
0
The matchups are KEY, but we know how this goes, even without Cal. We'll be lined up with the exact kinds of teams that we've had issues with this year - physical, high defense, high octane offenses. There are mid majors that will make the dance that will match up well with us - maybe not in the first game, but the first weekend for sure. And the committee will make damned sure Pope and UK don't get to waltz right on into the S16.

I predict our bracket will be misery. With 12 likely SEC teams going in, it will be very hard to not run into one of them in the 2nd weekend.

And you can GUARANTEE if Arkansas squeaks in, they will be lined up directly in our bracket somewhere, probably early.
Honest question...do you really believe that the committee looks at Kentucky and talks about how they want to make it more difficult for them than other teams?
 

Old Blue Fart

All-Conference
Mar 23, 2014
1,570
4,041
76
Without JR we definitely are not among the elite teams, but I think we are still comfortably Sweet 16 level. Get to the second weekend and anything can happen.
Aike: 100 % agree with you but it was once said that the NCAA is more about matchups then W/L records. Really good teams can face a weaker team but if style of play or a certain matchup is not good for a team, (Tennessee for example; great defensibly but struggles on offense at times and facing a team like UK, we are a bad matchup forcing them to match buckets on the offensive end)

So who knows, if the right teams are in our bracket and we pose enough offensive matchup issues for these teams, we could sneak into a Elite 8 with some luck.
 

Wildcats1st

Heisman
Sep 16, 2017
18,949
28,911
0
They do. Duke is legitimately just that good this year. Everyone is way to focused on the ACC being a bad conference this year and using that as a reason why Duke is overrated, because let's face it, we all hate Duke. But they are elite this year.

Could the go home early in the tournament? Sure. Any team can. But that won't mean they were overrated or that losing early was caused by their weak conference.
Weak conference doesn’t serve as the iron needed for duke to become what they need.
 
Jan 10, 2015
18,396
30,508
62
Duke passes Auburn up in NET.

They have the same record, but Auburn has played a way tougher schedule.

Auburn is 15-3 in Quad 1 games and Duke is 6-3. Auburn has played twice as many Q1 games and won over twice as many Q1 games with the same amount of losses.

Both teams are 6-0 in Quad 2 games.

I guess Duke’s 15-0 record against Quads 3 and 4 is the difference.

The numbers just do not make sense to me.
What did they say on our broadcast that Auburn has more quad 1 wins than Duke and 2 other teams that were in the top 6 combined. They named them but I don't remember who they were. That's insane that Duke is back ahead of Auburn in any metric!
 
  • Like
Reactions: *Fox2Monk*

Lukasz0brzut

All-Conference
Oct 3, 2011
7,105
3,432
90
So basically the numbers do lie because Auburn is better than Duke.

They have played tougher competition and won tougher games, but since Duke blew out a bunch of weak teams and Auburn didn’t play many weak teams, the numbers are skewed.

And yes, I know Duke is elite. I am not comparing Duke to LSU, I am comparing Duke to Auburn.

Duke is great this season.

But Auburn is better. By the eye test and on paper.
They’re as elite as the top 15 teams in the country. Don’t get caught up in recent results.
 
Jan 30, 2018
16,155
24,635
0
Duke passes Auburn up in NET.

They have the same record, but Auburn has played a way tougher schedule.

Auburn is 15-3 in Quad 1 games and Duke is 6-3. Auburn has played twice as many Q1 games and won over twice as many Q1 games with the same amount of losses.

Both teams are 6-0 in Quad 2 games.

I guess Duke’s 15-0 record against Quads 3 and 4 is the difference.

The numbers just do not make sense to me.
The NET values blowouts over really bad teams over close Quad 1 wins. I mean we made a bigger jump beating up on LSU then our road Quad 1 close wins vs Oklahoma.

Dook has been given way too much credit in all rankings for beating up on teams with losing records. 13 of their wins are against mostly teams with losing records and are few .500.
 

TucsonCat

All-Conference
Sep 10, 2022
2,807
3,424
0
Funny. Kentucky climbs 3 spots after a quad 3 win over crappy LSU, don't hear any bitching or befuddlement about that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatguy87

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
38,321
59,957
113
I wonder if there's any chance we can realistically push towards a 2-seed. I mean realistically in the sense that winning the SECT is probably not in the cards for this team.. but.. if we beat Mizz and win two in the SECT? That might be enough for a 2-seed.
Problem there is that 4 of the 8 one and two-seeds are in the SEC, and I just dont see them dropping past us even with a 1st round SECT exit. They too will have the SOS behind them.. Duke is locked in, Houston is probably locked in. Probably too much to ask (as I answer my own question).
 

EliteBlue

Heisman
Mar 27, 2009
16,751
20,269
0
Yes. Have to remember that it’s hard to guess us too, especially on a quick turnaround.

The biggest thing about missing JR, besides his obvious talent and system knowledge, is that he gave us redundancy. If either JR or Koby were firing, we were good. If both, then lights out.

Now we need everyone to step up. Will probably need timely threes from some combo of the freshmen/Ansley/Carr.
This. Makes an off night from Brea a killer. Pre-Jax injury you just needed 2 of Oweh, Jax.Brea to hit their averages…and Oweh was a 90% lock
 
Jan 10, 2015
18,396
30,508
62
I wonder if there's any chance we can realistically push towards a 2-seed. I mean realistically in the sense that winning the SECT is probably not in the cards for this team.. but.. if we beat Mizz and win two in the SECT? That might be enough for a 2-seed.
Problem there is that 4 of the 8 one and two-seeds are in the SEC, and I just dont see them dropping past us even with a 1st round SECT exit. They too will have the SOS behind them.. Duke is locked in, Houston is probably locked in. Probably too much to ask (as I answer my own question).
I wouldn't see why not we have beaten 2 projected number 1 seeds (Duke , & UT twice). If we can do the scenario you're talking about it should be able to be possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: *Fox2Monk*

fatguy87

All-American
Oct 8, 2004
13,764
9,093
0
We were like 13 point favorites against LSU and won by 31. That's 18 points above expectation. Expect a big jump in rating.

We were 3 point favorites against Oklahoma and won by 1. We played worse than expected.

Duke basically plays a team a system expects them to beat by double digits and then they win by 20+. Last night, they played Wake. Wake is about as good as LSU. They were 20 point favorites and won by 33. Against Illinois, they were about a 10 point favorite and won by 43. Huge blowouts well above expected performance will result in large rating improvement.

We play Missouri next. If we lose by 1, we could move up. If we lose by 8, we might move down.

Our rating might be low when considering the top end quality of our wins because we've tended to play quite poorly in our losses. Ohio State, Georgia, Miss, Auburn, Alabama, and Arkansas were all double digit losses. Our rating would be better with the same exact record if we lost those games by a smaller average margin.