Kenpom has us winning 68-67.
Just noticed Xavier already beat Tennessee this year.
If we're really as bad as we looked against Tennessee we might not win a game until February.
The same KenPom that had us beating Tulane by 20-30 pts?
Yep, then Tennessee beat Xavier by 15 in the Bahamas. Xavier went 0-3 in the Bahamas, including a loss to USC.
Go Spiders!
Amen. I hope we get curbstomped.
Big game. At least as an illustration of where we are at, and what we can expect for the rest of the season.
The UT game took away any hope I had of us actually being good this year. That was a terrible performance... but can still have a decent season if we win games like Richmond / @ Xavier.
I disagree that UT is a "bubble team"... they'll be going to the NCAAs. Likely a single digit seed, unless they completely underperform this year.
Why?
It's sad that Richmond is considered a 'big game'.
This. Richmond is pretty good again this year and will be tough. But there was once a time when we were #1 and playing another top-5 team in Illinois, and that's what we thought was a "big game" in December. Evidently, the Creamy Goodnesses of the world have bought into Ron's and Buzzdick's bullshite and get excited for our big game against a solid A-10 team.
Richmond isn't all that good.
Their renovated building, however, is a big improvement.
Haven't been there in a while - didn't know they renovated the Robins Center. Last game I went to in Richmond was at VCU's newish place, which was darn nice.
ALL OF THISA "decent" season (a.k.a an acceptable season) isn't beating Richmond and Xavier. It's winning at home and on the road in the thick of the ACC. A decent season would mean sweeping the rest of our non-con, sweeping our six games against the bottom five, beating ND and FSU at home and stealing 1 or 2 from the top 6 (Cuse, Pitt, Duke, UNC, Clemson, UVA).
That would put us 20-21 wins heading into ACC tournament with a (9-9 or 10-8 conference record). Again because of the S.O.S. that would still leave us with work to do to get off the bubble (probably would need two wins in the ACC tournament).
Point being that beating Richmond and Xavier might be a prerequisite to a decent season but it doesn't guarantee or even indicate one.