Three Weeks and Counting

[Goose85]

Three weeks and counting until MU embarks on one heck of a wild month of hoops.

Three weeks from today MU takes on the #4 team in the country - Ohio State.

Ten days after that MU faces Butler, where a win would likely pit MU against the #12 team in North Carolina. There is a chance we could also face #24 ranked Texas after that one.

Just over a week after that MU goes on the road to take on the #10 team in Florida.

After that one, MU's next game is against instate rival and the #21 ranked team Wisconsin.

In the span of one month (Nov 9 to Dec 8) MU is on pace to play four or five highly ranked teams.
This is going to be one heck of a month and a wild ride for MU fans. No complaints about playing only cupcakes.

After that we can relax and look forward to the Big East schedule (ha).

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

The amazing part is that these are all winnable games, I absolutely don't think we will win them all, but I don't think you can point to any one of those and say we don't have a good shot.

[IWB]

When you lay it out like that, how can anyone not say that this is one of the toughest schedules in the country?

[ydouask23]

most say its tough, but not the toughest because our buy games are so atrocious. Its important two win 2 of the above games just to have them in our back pocket. 10-8 in the BE and a few Non con marquee wins usually does the trick.

[Nukem2]

most say its tough, but not the toughest because our buy games are so atrocious. Its important two win 2 of the above games just to have them in our back pocket. 10-8 in the BE and a few Non con marquee wins usually does the trick.

Disagree on the buy games. Colgate is part of the Maui tourney and is a team with a 2nd year coach with some optimism . Savannah St. and NC Central are picked by Blue Ribbon as 1st and 4th in the MEAC. SE La is picked as 4th in the Southland. UMBC is down for sure. Those buy games are not all that bad. Watch out for Savannah St.

[IWB]

When it comes to the buy games, the key is picking the teams that will win their conferences, and it looks like we did that.

ydoyouask - I hear you on the buy games bringing it down, but what schools in the top tier of college ball do not have buy games? Everyone does, yet
MU always seems to be slighted because of them.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

When it comes to the buy games, the key is picking the teams that will win their conferences, and it looks like we did that.

ydoyouask - I hear you on the buy games bringing it down, but what schools in the top tier of college ball do not have buy games? Everyone does, yet
MU always seems to be slighted because of them.

In past years, Marquette had some atrocious buy games, and most of those you could spot before the season started. This year the buy games aren't nearly as bad as many are thinking. Nukem is dead on, Savannah State and NC-Central are both solid teams. I think Savannah State will be dancing come March, and I think there's a pretty good chance Southeastern Louisiana could be as well. Another potentially strong team is Green Bay, who have an excellent PG and borderline NBA center. I think they could compete for the Horizon title. The only two real stinkers are Colgate (Maui, not Broeker's fault) and UMBC.

It's all about RPI. I'm optimistic that Savannah State, NCC, and SE Louisiana can be top-250 teams, possibly even top-200. That would mean they act as (admittedly minimal) net positives for our RPI. And I hope Colgate and UMBC can finish top-300. Probably unlikely, especially for Colgate, but if you only have 2 real dogs, a strong rest-of-the-non-con can fix that. I think Ohio State, Florida, Wisconsin, Butler, and the rest of the Maui field qualifies.