@GMU Game Thread - Sat 230PM - USA Network

[fatherspider]

Overall this has been Mooney's best coaching job from portalling to team building and playing the right combinations. But this is a concern. We have seen it down the stretch down the season with lack of adjustments to the other team clamping on King. He has had some other worldly shooting performances with guys in his face to bail us.

Good news is that hopefully we got that one out our system now instead of clunker in A10 tourney.
I'm still miffed that we are not sole A10 champions. Oh well.

If the Giants and Eagles have the same record but Eagles have the tie breaker beating the Giants twice they both ar NFC East champs? So you could have 9 NFC champs in 6 years?

I guess you are right but the press is sure saying they are Co-Champs and imo, they are. If the A10 does not specifically declare a champ through tie breaker then UR and Loyola are co-champs.
From the way the team played today, and the way coach prepared the team for this game, I think they thought co-champs was enough.
Any one saying this was a meaningless game is lost. It completely verified anyone saying this team was undeserving of an at large. It was a huge game to keep at large chances alive. It would have been great to have the committee decide to deny a 16-2 A-10 champ an invite after losing to lock Dayton in finals. But this game lets them off the hook.

 

[Eight Legger]

Yes and no. Dayton lost at Mason and vcu too, and we finished a game ahead of them. They also lost at Loyola, but we didn't. But they get a pass because they lost to Houston and northwestern and beat a 12th place Cincy, an irrelevant LSU and a decent St. John's, but we get no credit for beating the fourth place team in a six-bid league?

 

[Eight Legger]

Sister Jean says shame on you, Eight.

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That's cute, celebrating second place. Kudos to them, I guess.

 

[spider23]

Tie breaker is in our favor, see no.1 seed in a10 bracket, just kind of idiotic that A10 does not recognize it. But they are devoid of leadership. They put in place some kind of rules for trying to ensure teams scheduled well enough to be in NCAA contention. Have not heard anything about those ever working or being enforced and the national media craps on us as a 1 bid conference. Even though we are highly rated in kenpom conference rankings.
Again, it appears no matter how many teams are tied in an NFL division one team is crowned division winner.
I realize this is situational to this year; and if we had played Loyola twice and split I would understand it. But we have the direct head to head differentiator. And not sure why all the love for Loyola, seems like fair weather fans evidenced by the 15 at our game. Once they started winning they came back. Also seem a little VCUish by putting the vociferous trainers right on the court to taunt and post game Dayton scene, it seems they are firmly trending in the VCU direction. They seem like they went from disinterested to over the top. Hopefully we can use this year like a springboard and it does not turn out like the run that followed the VCU/Richmond #RVA year.

 

[GKiller]

The unbalanced league schedule has a lot to do with it. U don’t have that in pros within your division. Idc if they r co champs bc we r still considered reg season champs and 1 seed. How they view or others view doesn’t really matter to me, in this particular situation. Loyola backdoored it but u know if situation was reversed we’d have done the exact same.

Outright would have meant more if we beat goo moos & had that outright feather in cap in at large talk. Ppl who viewed our game as meaningless really don’t understand college bball well imo. I’m not saying the at large odds were good but they were there - the bubble weakens this time of year normally - & “outright” had a part of that. And if we r so upset about sharing the title we should have been locked in yesterday and done something about it.

Fact is yesterday game meant a LOT. Now maybe the unknown is removed and refocuses us. This might be an unpopular opinion but there was clearly a hangover from st joes game. The celebration was a little over the top. Look it deserved some celebration I agree but u have to be mindful when u still have work to do to accomplish bigger goal of NCAA. When a unc or uva team cuts net they r already ncaa locks. If a lower league team does it they know only path is auto bid. We weren’t in a position for a letdown but we got it. Maybe it was just 1 of those days and there was no hangover. That’s possible. But it looked that way for sure and Mooney had publicly stated they don’t talk postseason stuff like where they stand in at large picture etc so maybe our players didn’t have that extra motivation which is insane to me.

 

[spider23]

I do think the big celebration helped set up the big letdown. As much as it was said that the guys were locked in, it is just human nature. I did think we had a path if we won that one and lost in the championship game. That is debatable though with Lunardi and bracketologists giving us zero chance.

On the flip side we should be locked in as we should be playing like our basketball lives are on the line in Brooklyn.

Getting excited for the A10 tourney.

 

[WCUR11]

Will they be favored over St Joe?

I think maybe? They’re hot and Joe’s is not but hoping we don’t face Mason again after that atrocious performance.

 

[fatherspider]

"I do think the big celebration helped set up the big letdown. As much as it was said that the guys were locked in, it is just human nature."

Absolutely agree.

 

[spider fan]

Letdown yes, but now move on and play with Rodney Dangerfield "get no respect" attitude and crush the opposition no matter who they are. We are capable of beating any team we play in A-10 tournament.

 

[gcarter52]

We were due a trap game, now it is out of our system!

 

[WCUR11]

We were due a trap game, now it is out of our system!

Luckily this trap game didn't do too much damage to our metrics (not that they're going to impact much unless some crazy madness happens). Win anyway, 3 in 4 in Brooooooklyn!!!

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

NFL divisions don't have their own postseason tournament. Apples and Oranges.

The conference has always done co-champions. There were 3 just a few years ago. This is not a new thing.

It's new for us, of course, because we've never been in this position before.

 

[spider23]

It's new for us, of course, because we've never been in this position before.

Exactly. I'm hoping we can be in this position again next season. We are newbies to it. Hopefully this is a trend.

 

[urmite]

Exactly. I'm hoping we can be in this position again next season. We are newbies to it. Hopefully this is a trend.

I am hoping the last two portal seasons is a trend for us…

 

[SpiderDogg]

How is it possible that Jordan King has 10 points and takes only 12 shots across back to back games? Since the first VCU game there have been several games where the opponent have successfully schemed to severely limit him and Mooney has not had an answer. We will not win one game in the A10 tournament when he scores 10 points or less.

They had plenty of answers all year to go 15-3. Just not yesterday. Criticism of the game yesterday is valid but we’ve won plenty of games when they shut down king. See ya after the next loss I guess Debbie downer