Zags at .500 in December?

My reactions:

The Zags were pretty much embarrassed by the Cougs tonight (Not a single starter reached double digits, they shot 38%, and pretty much played hot potato with the ball coughing it up 24 times) and sit at 4-4 on the season with a pretty daunting schedule ahead with road games at N. Dame, W. Forest and Baylor on top of some challenging home contests with Ok. State and Xavier, might we see a sub .500 GU squad roll into conference play?? (Worst start for a Few coached team to put it in perspective)

They ARE playing strong opponents, but wow, with Marquette being their only signature win thus far, without winning some of these it almost seems like the Zags will have to either run the table in conference play or win the WCC tourney to make it in the post season. With the shaky OOC play by the conference overall, it's kind of tough to get a grip on how everyone stacks up, with the exception of the Gaels and the sorry Toreros its all looking pretty damn wide open... Should be curious to watch how it all unfolds

My reaction-

Umm.... mine

My reaction:



To all those Final Four predictions their fans were making prior to this season.

Purplegeezer wrote:Umm.... mine

Quoted for truth.

Hopefully a win by ND will put them below .500

I assume R54 will give a full scouting report after the ND game.

Schadenfruede running amok here? Don't we want the WCC recognized as a quality league?

Wet blanket.

But that said, as I mentioned earlier, the entire conference is doing a pretty good job at not distinguishing themselves (UP and SMC are the ONLY teams over .500, yeesh) If things keep going as they are now it could very easily be a one-bid kind of year...

Looking forward to our win in the Kennel.

up7587 wrote:Schadenfruede running amok here? Don't we want the WCC recognized as a quality league?

I absolutely want the WCC recognized as a quality league, and I root for St. Mary's, USF, Santa Clara, LMU, Pepperdine, and San Diego whenever they play a non-conference game. But when Gonzaga beats somebody, it's never seen as a "WCC win." It's seen as a Gonzaga win, and it enhances their reputation without doing anything for the conference as a whole.

I for one am happy to welcome them back to earth.

Well, we are a "crappy conference", so maybe they are just trying to fit in!

I also like seeing this:

Portland: RPI Rank: 54 SOS Rank: 60

Gonzaga: RPI Rank: 129 SOS Rank: 70

Better record, better RPI, better schedule. Although the upcoming schedules for both teams will surely make the SOS flip flop.

Rob's Jacket wrote:

up7587 wrote:Schadenfruede running amok here? Don't we want the WCC recognized as a quality league?

I absolutely want the WCC recognized as a quality league, and I root for St. Mary's, USF, Santa Clara, LMU, Pepperdine, and San Diego whenever they play a non-conference game. But when Gonzaga beats somebody, it's never seen as a "WCC win." It's seen as a Gonzaga win, and it enhances their reputation without doing anything for the conference as a whole.

I for one am happy to welcome them back to earth.

ACEZ

Any Club Except Zags

I like being able to root for Patty Mills since (A) he's a Blazer (B) he's wasn't a Zag and (C) he doesn't own part of the Whitecraps.

RiseUP wrote:I also like seeing this:

Portland: RPI Rank: 54 SOS Rank: 60

Gonzaga: RPI Rank: 129 SOS Rank: 70

Better record, better RPI, better schedule. Although the upcoming schedules for both teams will surely make the SOS flip flop.

Yeah, that is nice. I feel great about our chances to beat them at home; I'm not so sure about the Kennel. Plus guys, it's very early...although Gonzaga seems to be a team that peaks early. Their roster is still pretty impressive.

When we beat them, I'd rather take them down from a higher perch though. I never thought that a win over Gonzaga might actually lower our RPI! Hahahaha... We've got to play them less frequently.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:

up7587 wrote:Schadenfruede running amok here? Don't we want the WCC recognized as a quality league?

I absolutely want the WCC recognized as a quality league, and I root for St. Mary's, USF, Santa Clara, LMU, Pepperdine, and San Diego whenever they play a non-conference game. But when Gonzaga beats somebody, it's never seen as a "WCC win." It's seen as a Gonzaga win, and it enhances their reputation without doing anything for the conference as a whole.

I for one am happy to welcome them back to earth.

ACEZ

Any Club Except Zags

I like being able to root for Patty Mills since (A) he's a Blazer (B) he's wasn't a Zag and (C) he doesn't own part of the Whitecraps.

Ditto,if we need to rely on the Zs then we deserve to be a one bid conference, obviously UP 7587 you haven't seen Mickey and the boys from Moraga play this year, their the team we need to try to emulate, not a bunch of lazy, lost boys from Spokane...they are gonna be tough but down from average (zaggetes)...will beat um in CHILES CENTER if gray doesn't go get hot, Sacre (keep putin the ball down in the paint for D.Rogers to steal),& Harris stays mentally sqrewed up behind his injury....a for the kernel that's probably awin for them...they usually play way over their heads there.

James brought up a good point about the zaggetes they always peak early...thus embarrassing the Wcc conference getting drilled by someone come march madness...I wish our home and home with them were later...we always get their top, early games before their annual tailspin to THE TWILIGHT ZONE...LOL..

Can we change this to Zags below .500 in December now? ND sure tried to give that game away but managed to hang out with some clutch free throws by Hansbrough

GU just lost to #22 Notre Dame, and they're now 0-4 against ranked teams I think. Has anyone in the WCC beat a top 20 ranked team this year?

Has anyone in the WCC beat a major conference team this year? Looks like GU over Marquette, SMC over Texas Tech, SCU over Rice, and USF over Colorado are all I could find. Not many bball powers on that list.

up7587 wrote:Has anyone in the WCC beat a major conference team this year? Looks like GU over Marquette, SMC over Texas Tech, SCU over Rice, and USF over Colorado are all I could find. Not many bball powers on that list.

Saint Mary's beat Saint Johns.

Some people call the Big East a major conference in Basketball.

Purplegeezer wrote:

up7587 wrote:Has anyone in the WCC beat a major conference team this year? Looks like GU over Marquette, SMC over Texas Tech, SCU over Rice, and USF over Colorado are all I could find. Not many bball powers on that list.

Saint Mary's beat Saint Johns.

Some people call the Big East a major conference in Basketball.

Yes, the Big East is a strong conference, however, St. John's is one of the weaker teams right now. UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, and Notre Dame are all Top 25 teams with relatively high RPIs. St. Johns...not so much. I don't think that Marquette was ranked when GU beat them...even though the have been a strong team in recent years. While I was watching the ND vs GU game today, they said that GU was 0-4 against ranked teams...

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html

up7587 wrote:Has anyone in the WCC beat a team I deem worthy from a major conference team this year? Looks like GU over Marquette, SMC over Texas Tech, SCU over Rice, and USF over Colorado are all I could find. Not many bball powers on that list.

Fixed your question.

This is a terrible non-conference season for the WCC. It hurts us because no matter what happens in WCC play, win or lose, because it makes the quality wins harder to come by and the chances for bad losses increase dramatically. Hopefully the WCC can finish on a strong note these next few weeks

Taking a look at the realtimerpi site, I notice not only that we're the highest ranking WCC team, but we also count as one of Kentucky's three "quality wins." If this is the direction our program is headed in a season after losing four starting seniors, count me a happy fan.

Purplegeezer wrote:

up7587 wrote:Has anyone in the WCC beat a team I deem worthy from a major conference team this year? Looks like GU over Marquette, SMC over Texas Tech, SCU over Rice, and USF over Colorado are all I could find. Not many bball powers on that list.

Fixed your question.

Actually, the key words from the orginal posted question were ranked team, and from what I can tell the answer is no. (I guess I should clarify that I mean top 20 ranked team...not top 64.) On the one hand, I like that we're currently the best team in the WCC, but, on the other hand it would be nice if two teams had potential to go to the big dance from the WCC. It's one think to beat a team with a big name like Marquette because of their past success; it's another thing to beat a team that is ranked in the AP top 20 or in the top 20 in RPI that is performing well right now.

It's looking like this is going to be a down year in basketball on the west coast since the Pac-10 is also struggling. If we do well in conference play and continue to improve on the road, that could bode well for us. I'm curious to see if our 2-3 zone could finally cause some problems for Gonzaga; their offense is much worse without Boldin.

I personally don't give a damn if more than one team from the WCC gets in or not, as long as we are the team that gets The bid. We just need to concentrate on the Pilots. Thinking that we have to worry about Gonzaga and Saint Mary's is a bit much.

I think it might be close to the point where we need to stop thinking about sneaking into the back door of the dance and start thinking that we have to go out and win the WCC outright and WCC tournament. Then let the other conference teams wring their hands about how they slipped this year.

Then even if we don't win the conference Bid outright, I think it will be pretty hard to keep UP out if we have 22-23 wins.