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Ok, we sit here today at 11-12 (4-6 in the SEC) with a month to go and 8 games remaining on the schedule. VU still has UT, UK, Aub, Fla 2x as well as some more winnable games with SC, LSU and MSU with most of the roster healthy ( exceptions Wright and Dort).

I think at best this team can win 4 of those 8 which would still make the season end with a losing record. If they do go 8-10 in the SEC then a first day game likely won't occur which would make it even harder to obtain a winning record so I'm seeing the NIT as a very best scenario but still unlikely as that would mean getting to the semis in the SEC tournament as well as needing to beat those teams below you and possibly a Florida or Auburn. It doesn't feel great and as we know at the end of the season, we can hold our collective breaths to see who runs to the transfer portal and we know it could be ugly.

Does anyone see a better scenario?

I think this is largely dependent on Wednesdays game. IF they pull off an all time upset, they will have all the confidence in the world going down the home stretch.

We have already won more than some predicted, so who knows. Let's see if we can beat UT and take them all one at a time. If UT has another cold night and we are red hot, we beat them even with a lot of orange in Memorial. So let's hope for that...

I predicted 13 wins before the start of the season, and that looks like a pretty good guess now -- plus or minus 1.

Much like the year when the refs allowed Grant Williams to shoot 24 foul shots including the unbelievable flagrant foul which gave them the game, I believe we will see a repeat. The officials will protect ut’s ranking and not give us a chance for an upset!

I'm hoping "the Memorial faithful" and students propel us to the upset. Ready for some magic.

charlestonalum wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:47 pm We have already won more than some predicted, so who knows. Let's see if we can beat UT and take them all one at a time. If UT has another cold night and we are red hot, we beat them even with a lot of orange in Memorial. So let's hope for that...

Those who predicted we would only win 10 games did not have an understanding of the talent we have on this team. We have enough talent on the team to make the tournament - this is not an exaggeration. Wright has not played as well as I would have hoped, but that was made up by both Manjon and Robbins playing a lot better than I thought they would. I really wish that Dort were healthy for this game - with zero sets run for him he played well in limited minutes due to his size and athleticism.

My fear is that after two really bad shooting nights against good defenses that they will have a correction night against our defense, which has been horrible in conference play. As in we are giving up 116 points per 100 possessions in conference play. So despite having the 5th best offense in conference play, we are getting outscored by over 11 points per 100 possessions due to the porosity of our defense.

Ndorefin wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:48 am Much like the year when the refs allowed Grant Williams to shoot 24 foul shots including the unbelievable flagrant foul which gave them the game, I believe we will see a repeat. The officials will protect ut’s ranking and not give us a chance for an upset!

They did Saturday. At the end of the game the Auburn shooter attempted a 3-pointer to tie it and a UT defender ran into him as he shot it and the refs didn’t call the foul.

UT is a really good team. With Wright back and Lawrence continuing to up his game we have a legit, albeit not so large, shot at an upset.

Interested to see how the team and the HC do after UT's first run, especially if it results in a double digit lead....especially with a gym that could be majority orange. The team and the HC seemed to throw in the towel and pout after Alabama's first run and it only got worse from there. UT is that good and we can lose by 20 while still playing reasonably well.

The Ole Miss game saw the team focused and we used Stack's coaching smarts to win a close one. Win or lose we need to see the same mojo all around vs. UT. To me the effort of all involved rather than the final result will be the key to how the season ends up.

Jason94 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:53 pm...We have enough talent on the team to make the tournament...

I presume you mean NCAAT. So if we don't, what do you think it means?

The ceiling is basically the same as it has been (sans after the Arky game when we were thinking it could be a shade higher). We should have 2-3 more conference wins. The floor would be just 1, and I'd be shocked and faint if we hit 4. Half of our remaining 8 games we have no shot in, and could get blown out in any of them.

To those thinking we have ANY shot at beating UT, pass me a glass of that koolaid! 8-)

dallasdore wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:40 pm The ceiling is basically the same as it has been (sans after the Arky game when we were thinking it could be a shade higher). We should have 2-3 more conference wins. The floor would be just 1, and I'd be shocked and faint if we hit 4. Half of our remaining 8 games we have no shot in, and could get blown out in any of them.

To those thinking we have ANY shot at beating UT, pass me a glass of that koolaid! 8-)

We could easily beat them. They’re not UCLA under John Wooden. You probably thought we would lose to Kentucky and Florida in football. Sports doesn’t work like that. The games have to be played. Upsets happen. We definitely have a shot. I always expect to win until we don’t. And I expect the players do also.

Dickeys Nightmare wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 5:33 pm

dallasdore wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:40 pm The ceiling is basically the same as it has been (sans after the Arky game when we were thinking it could be a shade higher). We should have 2-3 more conference wins. The floor would be just 1, and I'd be shocked and faint if we hit 4. Half of our remaining 8 games we have no shot in, and could get blown out in any of them.

To those thinking we have ANY shot at beating UT, pass me a glass of that koolaid! 8-)

We could easily beat them. They’re not UCLA under John Wooden. You probably thought we would lose to Kentucky and Florida in football. Sports doesn’t work like that. The games have to be played. Upsets happen. We definitely have a shot. I always expect to win until we don’t. And I expect the players do also.

When is the last time that we beat UT? This coaching staff hasn’t done so I don’t think. I expect Vandy’s best effort of the season. Losing to the vols sucks.

Just looked it up. 11 straight losses…

cc11316 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:23 pm Ok, we sit here today at 11-12 (4-6 in the SEC) with a month to go and 8 games remaining on the schedule. VU still has UT, UK, Aub, Fla 2x as well as some more winnable games with SC, LSU and MSU with most of the roster healthy ( exceptions Wright and Dort).

I think at best this team can win 4 of those 8 which would still make the season end with a losing record. If they do go 8-10 in the SEC then a first day game likely won't occur which would make it even harder to obtain a winning record so I'm seeing the NIT as a very best scenario but still unlikely as that would mean getting to the semis in the SEC tournament as well as needing to beat those teams below you and possibly a Florida or Auburn. It doesn't feel great and as we know at the end of the season, we can hold our collective breaths to see who runs to the transfer portal and we know it could be ugly.

Does anyone see a better scenario?

you are correct. nit is our ceiling. i'd love to be wrong. go 2 L UT....go 2 L!!

Sorry guys, but I see this as another scheduled loss. Then if we play lights out, the refs won't let us win.

cc11316 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:23 pm

I think at best this team can win 4 of those 8 which would still make the season end with a losing record. If they do go 8-10 in the SEC then a first day game likely won't occur which would make it even harder to obtain a winning record so I'm seeing the NIT as a very best scenario but still unlikely as that would mean getting to the semis in the SEC tournament as well as needing to beat those teams below you and possibly a Florida or Auburn.
Does anyone see a better scenario?

The NIT no longer requires a winning record. If we manage your scenario and go 8-10 in the SEC, we will go to the little dance get a chance to replicate last year's NIT run.

Have we lost or beat an SEC team this year that was not predicted? Was the Arkansas win an upset? Just an idle question waiting on UT.

charlestonalum wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:54 pm Have we lost or beat an SEC team this year that was not predicted? Was the Arkansas win an upset? Just an idle question waiting on UT.

We've not lost any SEC games that we were favored to win, mainly because we haven't been favored too often - basically Ole Miss and USC are it. Arkansas was a good win and UGA was nice because it was on the road. We've actually had very good luck in SEC play, as we've won our close games for the most part but all the blowouts have been against us. The teams we've beaten have a combined league record of 11-29. The teams we've lost to have a combined league record of 38-12, and even that is deceiving as we've played UK and Bama twice.

Overall, outside of the Ark game the wins and losses has gone generally as expected. I'd say the issue was how poorly we played in the preconference and that we have at times laid an egg in our losses. When you take the whole thing into consideration, 8 wins was always something that was possible (and with a 10-3 preconference record would have been enough to be on the bubble), so at least we've played somewhat better at times. The lineups have been generally set up so that we don't get any consistency however, which is the most frustrating aspect of following this particular team.

dore74 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 3:12 pm UT is a really good team. With Wright back and Lawrence continuing to up his game we have a legit, albeit not so large, shot at an upset.

Interested to see how the team and the HC do after UT's first run, especially if it results in a double digit lead....especially with a gym that could be majority orange. The team and the HC seemed to throw in the towel and pout after Alabama's first run and it only got worse from there. UT is that good and we can lose by 20 while still playing reasonably well.

The Ole Miss game saw the team focused and we used Stack's coaching smarts to win a close one. Win or lose we need to see the same mojo all around vs. UT. To me the effort of all involved rather than the final result will be the key to how the season ends up.

I think the jury is still out - Ole Miss is a very bad team playing without their best player. We should have won that game. It would have been nice to see us blow the doors off of a team at home coming off of a bad loss where the team was focused and ready to play. A good effort against UT (win or lose) would show that the team has completely shaken off the Bama game.