royalfan

Wow, that just shows how damaging a loss to a mediocre/weak team at home is. Penn St. Purdue and NW would all qualify as that.

Yup. They have the absolute perfect system IMO. Efficiency is off the charts in relation to their talent at both ends of the court every season. Especially on defense. Tremendous coach. Royal it was the first time I had seen them and I was NOT impressed with their offense. As was mentioned above, they flat out play great defense (I have gotten to see them a couple more times). I also agree they have a great coach. Yeah I don't think they are all that impressive either. Agree that they seem to be a shooter short of what they normally put out there. They won't be easy to beat, but it doesn't seem like they are as good as most of their teams, at least when using the eye test. Have been thinking the same about Syracuse and they finally went down tonight. Those two teams find ways to win, but not always the prettiest thing to watch.

No kidding. Was trying to look a ahead a bit to see what the tourney might look like, but there are just way too many close games in this league to even try this far out. Should be a very interesting tourney.

Side note, I have to think this is good for us since we play Illinois twice and Minny once. Seems simplistic but I am not missing anything with that logic am I?

I think some of this looking ahead stuff gets a bit overblown. Just because they miss 15 treys in a row and lose to a fiesty Illinois team doesn't necessarily mean they were looking ahead. Every team in this league is hungry and is going to give em hell each and every game. Sometimes they simply play well and win. It doesn't always have to be because a team was looking ahead.

Just curious, where do you get your numbers from? A live lines feed from a place like therx.com is a good free place. I am not exactly sure where they get their sometimes innacurate opening line information. The real opener to me is when bookmaker, pinnacle, 5 dimes etc open up for wagering. Line opened at 5 where I could actually be it, a while after that mystery opener. That mystery opener is probably good enough for purposes of discussion here though.

preliminary opener. Sounds about right.

Words cannot describe how big that win was. It was even bigger than any computer can tell us. We had shown no ability at all to win a game against anybody worth a damn away from Lincoln. And we were running out of time to do it. And with Indiana and Illinois struggling, it would not have been considered a tremendous one either. We may have been down to quarterfinal game in Big 10 Tourney to get it done. Instead we did it. Winning there is a top 20 road win by anyone this season. We have one of those 20. There is reason to believe we could win a game on a neutral court against anyone now(even though I don't necessarily think so). Many teams don't have that proof that we now have. I am not sure exactly what we need to do, but it seems like 10-8 with one win would have us right in the mix. 9-9 with 2 tourney wins as well should put us in the conversation also. It is going to be very tough to go 5-1 and win one game in tourney. I don't see how we are left out if we do that. Obviously it depends on other bubble teams, and conference tournies. If we can beat Penn St. and Purdue, it will be time to start paying closer attention to those types of teams. Had we lost at Michigan St, I am not sure 10-8 and a win would have had us all that close.

It seems to me that we are going to need Rey to get it going to maximize our potential. We are very close to not having enough scoring out there with some of these lineups. Very fine line to walk with Rey. He is very capable of turning this around. I hope like hell he can, as he can make a huge difference spacing the court.

The leveraging money thing is a little overblown. It is complicated and this isn't really the time or place for a lengthy discussion on it. That being said, I am not sure how to answer your question. It depends on what you mean by always. Yes, the favored team should win. This is always the case. If a team is favored by two or more I would always predict them to win, even if I thought the other team would(over time they will be right more than I am if they are giving a team this edge). The money line will tell you exactly how often they should win. There very few exceptions to this and they have to do with things most cannot access. Do I think the favorite will always win? The answer would be a resounding no. Upsets happen all the time. The main point is that there is no better indicator of expected result. There are a handful of guys with models that are capable of hammering Vegas on a regular basis in college hoops. Those would be the only exceptions. But for all practical purposes, the Vegas line is an incredible guide as to what is what. I realize that some people do not like lines and don't believe in them. They may think it takes the fun out of forming their own opinion etc., and that is fine. Just having a lot of experience with it, those are my thoughts.

Illinois on the road would figure to be the toughest, but none will be particularly easy on paper. I think Penn St. is slightly more dangerous than Purdue. NW would figure to be the easiest. We are not that good. We must keep grinding. I think we can beat or lose to anyone in league anywhere. Still believe closer to bottom than top in trems of margin for error. Was encouraging that we probably didn't even play our best Sunday and won.

I think you are correct. And if Biggs were still here and we are better without him Miles would have figured it out IMO. But it doesn't really matter anymore. We are playing good basketball without him and we have another scholarship. He was not a difference maker and did make some losing plays at key moments.

It is awesome watching the Creighton fan's get their panties in a wad. They are so obsessed with all things Nebraska that all of the longest threads on that dumpster fire of a forum are the ones involving the Huskers. Can you imagine if we ever get good and they were to struggle? You seriously might have some folks on suicide watch over there. And I am only half kidding.

The most accurate way of picking winners is looking at the line. That will be a more accurate picture over the long run than anything else by a significant amount.

Yeah Kobe is surprisingly an extremely inefficient 4th quarter player. As for Petteway, while he is obviously clutch and a fine closer, the 57 percent is an aberration and can be chalked up to small sample size. The more shots he takes in that situation, the more likely the percentage will gravitate towards the norm. Being clutch is hard to measure. It drives numbers based guys crazy. It is somewhat similar to old school baseball scouts liking tools, and sabermetrics guys liking numbers.

I am not sure where I can watch this thing in Cabo, but going to try and find a way.

Great idea. If it would be listened to more than whatever else they are programming I would think it would be possible. And if we ever get good, I would think it would be.

It has to suck to be one of the Creighton fans that hates the Shockers and us more than they like their own team. They are so jealous of the Shockers it is starting to make me a fan. And it is absolutely hilarious that they talk negatively towards the Valley when they defended it so hard in years past. And the clowns that think that they are in a better league than we are become especially entertaining. It is awesome that they have to suffer during the season that lines up perfectly for them.

Yup. They have the absolute perfect system IMO. Efficiency is off the charts in relation to their talent at both ends of the court every season. Especially on defense. Tremendous coach.

Props to Benny tonight. He made a difference. We need this out of him. Tough kid. If we can squeeze out enough scoring, he can help. It is a fine line. I think Miles understands how to massage it. Also props to Rivers. I kind of like that point guardless lineup with Rivers in there with a big, Petteway, Shields and Rey. The good thing is that people are starting to understand their roles with the more limited lineup combos. Benny needs to work hard on shooting in the stretch run as he is going to need to be able to knock down a wide open uncontested trey. I think he has it in him to do that.

Not gonna happen. I just want to see us take a step up. Lets battle these guys. And if they happen to play bad lets stun em.

We can pry just leave him in there.

What you drinking? I need some of it.

Should be a close one. This is a game we need to man up and get the job done somehow. If we get a 7 point lead we have to get it to 12. They are good enough to make a run so we have got to pounce on them if we get a chance. And another crappy start not likely to work.

Sort of a false opener. When lines came out that you could actually bet it was 3. So that is more of a real opening line.