2024 NCAA Men's basketball tournament

I’m getting there, but not quite…yet

 

Meanwhile that UK loss is still pissing me off

 

Yes half from today…

 

We’ve got a very, very difficult schedule ahead

 

Agreed, 10 SEC wins gets us in. Last night's win was huge, need to follow it up with a win on Saturday. If we can get to 5-5 with 8 games remaining, we'll give ourselves a chance. Would mean we pick up a Quad 1 win against UK, A&M or Auburn.

Final 8, need to get at least 5 of them, which is manageable, imo: LSU, Vandy 2x, Missouri, @ UGA, Bama 2x.

 

At least we broke even last night in SEC play at 3-3.

I think we will be in suspense right up until
the SEC tourney.

 

If we could just hit our dang free throws consistently we’d be 16-3 right now!

 

Other than Kentucky, which games do you think we lost due to poor FT shooting?

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Realistically UK is the only one

 

It’s hard to say unless I were to rewatch games. Statistically, the losses we had are hard to blame on free throw percentage with the exception of UK, but the answer really needs to be examined in context. If you hit 30-30 free throws but miss the last 4 at the end of the game and lose by 1 point, it matters when you miss as opposed to how often. Also, did your miss change momentum or some other intangible factor?

But on the surface, I’d say you are correct to ask this question and that the statistics alone do not support my previous statement.

 

are you saying that someone on NBN actually admitted they might be incorrect? How refreshing

 

On second thought, I take it back.

 

That makes sense; in the Virginia game (for example), we're looking at a miss by Kugel (3:41, trailing by 2); a miss by Haugh (2:13, tied), and a miss by Clayton (0:51, trailing by 2). But only Kugel's and Haugh's are worth picking on because they were a combined 2 for 5 at the line. Clayton had our other miss, but he was 5 for 6. Here's the thing, though. On 2 of our 2nd half misses, we got the offensive rebound and scored again. Not how you draw it up, but it more than wipes out the miss.

I think we're doing better at FT shooting, and here's why I say that:

Pre-conference FT shooting: 219/335 (.654)
SEC FT shooting: 109/149 (.732)

Individually:

Richard (+12.74%)
Clayton (+12.5%)
Pullin (+3.33%)
(but also, everybody has a better FT% in SEC play except for Kugel)

Also, our top 3 FT shooters in pre-conference were shooting 43.2% of FTs, in SEC play, they have shot 49% of FTs.

As a team, we've gone from worst in the conference (overall FT%) to 9th in the conference (SEC-only FT%), and 3rd in the SEC in total FTs made (again, SEC-only). It's not a strength, but it's far less of a weakness.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Also, last night, MSU got within 6 points late (3+ minutes left). Our boys proceeded to hit 10 of their next 10 FTs including the first set by Condon (4 for 4 down that stretch). If he misses that front end of the first set, who knows if that gives MSU the opportunity they need to derail us down the stretch. Those were big FTs from someone who was shooting below 65% on the year.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

I long for the days where we argue about being a 3, 4 or 5 seed. 6 seed or lower was not part of the discussion

 

Our NET is 42, our RPI 43, our ELO 34 and KenPom 35. We would be about a 10 seed right now, quad one wins or not.

 

That’s more like it

 

I feel like there is a difficult stretch w KY, A&M, Auburn, but that much of the latter portion of the SEC schedule opens up. We get Bama 2x which is another challenge. Getting a win in one of those would be big.