Now that everyone got their early Christmas present in Fedor finally being cleared, time to look forward to the new year and rest of the BE season.
For being 8-5 and 73rd in the NET rankings, I'm feeling slightly optimistic for the season outlook still. I wholeheartedly believe we can compete with the best teams in the league and country, just hoping for some consistency in 2025. Goal for this team for the rest of the regular season should be to get to 13-7 in conference play. Yeah, we'd still be on the bubble at 20-11 heading into BET play, but granted we can get a couple wins off St Johns, UConn, Marquette we should be okay.
Schedule broken into 4 segments: 2 really difficult stretches and 2 lighter stretches where you need to take care of business. Two tough stretches at beginnings of Jan and Feb, and a very winnable last 5 games.
Segment 1 (try to escape 3-2, but 2-3 okay): StJ, @Marquette, @Butler, Prov, @UConn. You would think two weekend games in Milwaukee and Connecticut would be auto losses, but any win there would be gigantic for the resume. Really need to protect home court with the Johnnies and Friars and hope Hinkle Fieldhouse magic is flat for an 11 AM tip.
Segment 2 (should go 3-0, but 2-1, okay): a breather to end January with @Depaul, SetonHall, Xavier. Any Xavier game (even at home) seems to always come down to the wire. Depaul better than traditionally, but no excuse losing to Depaul and Hall looks like hot garbage so that would be a horrendous home loss you can't afford.
Segment 3 (just try going 2-3): an even tougher stretch than early January to begin February with @Nova, @Prov, Marq, UConn, @StJ. This is a brutal stretch, not gonna lie, but this is 4 (or 5) Q1 opportunities just waiting for us here. Gotta snag one at home against the top 2 in the league and then 1-2 road wins would be huuuuuge here.
Segment 4 (4-1 goal, but 5-0 obtainable): Closing stretch of the year is very favorable for the Jays with Georgetown, Depaul, @X, @SH, Butler. Those are 4 games you're favored and a toss-up at Cintas. If Jays can be 8-7/9-6 heading into this stretch, then this gives them a fantastic opportunity to gain some wins and distance themselves from that .500 mark as much as possible.
My gut is telling me, just because of how poorly we've played on the road at times and how great we've shot at home that we finish out the regular season at 12-8 in BE play and 19-12 overall and squarely on the bubble. Hope Fedor jolts this offense into gear in the 2nd half of the season and we cut down on turnovers.
by SeattleJay » Tue Dec 24, 2024 1:29 am 
