NDOM, I respect your analysis and you make many good points. Here is my breakdown of the rest of the schedule.....
At Villanova..... I think we will put up a better effort but come up short. LOSS
Providence..... Up and coming team but we get them at home. WIN
Depaul...... They lost some guys from last year, it shouldnt be close at home. WIN
At Seton Hall...... On the road but they just arent very good. WIN
Marquette...... Depends on the health of Dominic James, toss up. LOSS
At Uconn....... Young team that will continue to improve. LOSS
At Rutgers....... Worst team in the league. WIN
Pittsburgh...... No Cook or Fields means they arent very deep, and they are a different team away from home, see losses at Dayton and Cincinnati. WIN
Syracuse...... Another team decimated by injuries, its going to be a long year for the Cuse. I see them struggling BIG TIME the rest of the year. WIN
At Louisville..... I think the second best team in the league behing G'Town. LOSS
At Depaul....... See previous game against them. WIN
St Johns....... Young team that wont be able to win at the JACC. WIN
South Florida...... Senior Day, Win for Rob Kurz........WIN
That puts us 12-6 in the big east, 22-8 overall, more than enough to get in, but if you still have doubts, 12-6 would probably put us around 5th or so in the league, so we would end up playing the 12th seed in round 1 of the BET, so we should get one more win to sure things up.
Please feel free to argue anything I have said.
They can be very good at times (see victories over K State, who just beat #9 Texas A&M, Uconn, and WVU) Or they can be very bad (At Marquette and G'Town) Next week at Nova is a big game. Its not the end of the world if we lose, but man if we can win that would be so huge. This team has the talent to make a run past this first weekend of the big dance, but at the same time could they end up 19-9 and in the NIT, absolutely. It depends on how much they want it, b/c the talent is there.
The problem, and it is a bigger one than some of us think, is WHERE half these wins come from. Long Island U. Monmouth. EMU. COLGATE. NOBODIES. 41% of the wins ND has had under Brey come against THAT echelon of non-entities. Against traditionally capable programs, and the meat of the Big East, ND is 50-50. Against RANKED competition, they're something like 10-16. This is a mediocre program trading on name recognition once earned by the footballers to get frequently undeserved Big Dance invites. And, unless they play a more challenging pre-conference schedule, and step up the level of play, the speculation will continue to be whether ND gets to the first weekend of the Dance. It SHOULD be concentrating on getting to the THIRD weekend.
I suugest you go to the ND athletic program website and check it out. Most of the Brey resume has been against VERY undistinguished competition.
Thanks NDOM. I just have trouble accepting the lowering of expectations, and becoming satisfied with things like doing well in the conference tourney. It seems this began with Davie when he was the FB coach, and has infected the basketball program, and, pretty obviously, the AD's office.
Just a minor shift of gears.... Don't you think that stacking the preconference schedule with WHODAT'S weakns ND's recruiting potential? Personally, if I was a hot shot high school player, it wouldn't exactly light my fuse to have the chance to play EMU (Eastern Mighigan, for you folks from other parts). The EMU's and Monmouths and Long Island U's are where typically undersized, but coachable high school players go because they can't get offered by a Big Ten, or Big East, or ACC school. This is NOT how you get ready to play in one of the top three conferences in the country, not to mention the Tournament.
Dude I feel exactly the same as you do about our basketball team. I will always root for them no matter how bad they are but its just sad to see them play such a week early part of schedual before the big east. And I like Brey as a person and he is a descent coach, I just dont think he's gonna be the guy to take ND basketball to the top. I cant see Notre Dame finishing in the top 3 ever. Notre Dame will make the tournament here and there and make the NIT from time to time but they will never be a Kansas, North Carolina, or Duke on a regular basis. Now the football team on the other hand, Thats a squad that will out fear in their opponents here pretty soon. THATS where Notre Dame basketball should be as well.
AMen. Personally, I see NO reason to consider an NIT invite an accomplishment. Jeez, the TOP teams in THAT Tourney couldn't crack the top 65! I think ND Nation's MINIMUM expectation should be an NCAA bid every year, and getting to the second weekend MOST years. This may take a while, mostly because we've all been trained to assume it's impossible. But, like my old Marine buddies like to say, "The Impossible just takes a little longer".
[/B]
Thats a great quote.
Thanks, pal. Here's one that might not sound so good, but it is important to face facts. I've got a lot of Domer pals who call Boston College Fredo, as in the Godfather, Fredo. Well WE'RE Fredo, now. BC has been to at least the last FOUR straght Tourneys. We haven't. On the gridiron, we haven't beaten them since 2000.
I'm not being negative, but we've got to face facts. under Wadsworth and White, ND athletics have slipped BADLY. The situation is certainly redeemable. Hell, Fredo's been to the last four NCAA Big Dances. WHY CAN'T WE DO THAT? But we won't right the ship if we keep talking about things are not so bad now. We're Fredo. THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH.