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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 21, 2014 16:24:21 GMT -5
I know it has been a rough few weeks for La Salle fans but I still have faith in the team as I did last year around this time when we were 11-5 a few weeks later and then the wheels fell off. There has been some bad basketball being played too often at times while in other instances we have seen flashes of good basketball with players shooting well, sharing the ball and strong post play. We all knew going into this season that we weren't going to come out of the gate running. We were going to have a few losses with new players in the mix and G figuring out the rotations which has been getting better slowly. Players have been improving especially Price and unlike last year with Garland I know Wright and Zack are going to get into the swing of things.
So now were 6-5 without a bad loss currently....meaning a sub 150 rpi team. However, we lost two games we could have won against Temple and American.
Despite these struggles while we aren't 8-3 like we probably should be we still have a couple decent mid major wins.
I would bet one of St Peters or Quinn being near the top of the MAAC. They have wins over P5 schools Oregon State, Yale and Rutgers collectively. Towson looked as though going into this year they be terrible. While they aren't at the top I don't expect to see them at the bottom of the CAA. They look like a much better team then Drexel. I still think St Francis (NY) wins the NEC.
Going forward...
We have two games left and they are must wins in order to keep our post season hopes alive.
IF we were to win both games @ Hofstra and Penn we would finish the OOC schedule 8-5 with an RPI of 78 and an SOS of 79 according to RPI wizard. Hofstra will either win the CAA or is right behind Northeastern, top 75 win up for grabs. Obviously RPI wizard is not an exact science but we will be in the top 90 or so with an 8-5 record. Then comes A10 play where will need to show we learned from the Nova, UVA, Vandy and etc. games and come out strong in the A10.
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 21, 2014 16:31:03 GMT -5
Also, it be really nice to have played Miami this year at the Palestra. Nova and UVA are just ungodly good right now.
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Post by lasallescreamer on Dec 21, 2014 18:50:28 GMT -5
I do not think the focus is or should be on the record but rather on how they are playing. As long as they play to potential, I am happy. We cant help it if we play teams that are better. Play hard, run the right plays and good things will happen.
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Post by lasalle89 on Dec 21, 2014 18:55:25 GMT -5
Screamer I agree. Let's play to our potential. Let's get the most out of this team and these players. Let's also develop these players so they are better next year. G said we are going to get good and stay good. Player development is essential for this to happen.
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 21, 2014 19:21:33 GMT -5
I def agree. Team has to improve on the court but I do think it always good to look at the overall picture. It actually was nice to see them play better yesterday even though I only watched the second half after the Eagles started collapsing.
Def improvements going on and I am curious to see how this team responds from here on out.
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Post by calsufan on Dec 21, 2014 21:06:09 GMT -5
I think Hosfstra will beat them by at least 8 @ Hofstra. They can really score and they shoot a high percentage as well. I'd be more than happy to be wrong; but I don't think I will be in this case.
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Post by virginia61 on Dec 21, 2014 21:42:29 GMT -5
We have to match wits with Joe Mahalich, a former La Salle guy . I don't like our chances
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Post by calidelphia on Dec 23, 2014 14:18:21 GMT -5
With Temples win yesterday, they are up to an RPI of #34. American is at #82. Vandy at #131 but I expect them to rise quickly with a win against Yale and to put a run together against the SEC. We are currently their best win but they played both GT and Baylor to the wire.
The average RPI for all of our losses is #50.6 with Vandy . unfortunately our best win is at #181 drexel. We don't have a chance for a legitimately good win until conference play so here's to hoping for our best win to date tonight and no bad losses into A10 play.
We will know just about everything we need to know about 2014 team by Jan 14th.
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 23, 2014 18:43:11 GMT -5
La Salle is now 88 in RPI.
Those two games against Temple and American would have made a big difference. Still alive though.
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Post by vasalos on Dec 25, 2014 20:29:40 GMT -5
Very much so alive. GW, Dayton and URI are three huge games in January.Win out until the GW game and then win two out of three of the games listed above and we're talking bubble.
Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas.
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Post by thelasallelunatic on Dec 25, 2014 22:54:28 GMT -5
GW just beat our old buddies Wichita State to win the Diamond Head Classic...the Shockers couldn't handle the 1-3-1 and fell apart with 5 minutes left...after watching them struggle against Hawaii, and watching GW beat them up tonight, I think Wichita State is overrated this season. Its a much needed non league win for the A10 though, as our conference has really shit the bed this season.
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Post by lasalle89 on Dec 26, 2014 15:54:29 GMT -5
Now that G has seen what Price and Roberts can do lets hope he keeps playing them together.DJP is in his final year. He can be the locker room leader guy and 6th man. G has got to keep playing his best talent and let them develop. Play Stukes and Shuler more and start thinking about the future as well. Would love to see us go on a little run and have these young guys experience some success. Also think we need to start winning the close games. Mental toughness and confidence plays a huge factor in that.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2014 18:44:31 GMT -5
The other advantage of going on a good run over the next 5-6 weeks, it will make us look better to recruits with signing day coming soon.
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 29, 2014 12:45:54 GMT -5
Without doing anything La Salle has moved to 82 in RPI. Why this happened is because some teams La Salle have beaten are winning for the most part.
St Peters won 4 of its last 5 games most recently Cornell. Hofstra moved to 8-4 with a win over LIU. Hofstra resume was boasted with Stony Brook beating Washington.
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Post by blueandgold on Dec 29, 2014 16:38:21 GMT -5
Do we think we can go .500 in A10 play? That could put us at least in the conversation for NIT.
Not trying to be pessimistic - but going 13-5 or 14-4 in A10 to put us on NCAA bubble seems a stretch. I'll root for it to happen, though. Looking forward to the next 11 days to see how we stack up against conference foes.
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Post by a10champion15 on Jan 15, 2015 22:20:02 GMT -5
1-3 is not a good place to be. I was expecting 2-2 in the first 4. We really shouldn't have lost to GMU however we beat GW. Fought Dayton for most of the game but just couldn't execute down the stretch even though I was really unhappy with some of the calls. So now our competition lightens up for a little bit. This team is what it is not a bad team but not a good one either.
We stand at 1-3 good for 9th in the A10 and 9-8 overall with an RPI of 93 and SOS 53. KenPom also has us as 93.
Date - Team - RPI
1/15 - Fordham - 234 1/22 - @ URI - 59 1/27 - SJU -158 1/31 - @ St. Bona - 171 2/5 - Richmond - 111
My hopeful expectation is to go 4-1 more realistic is 3-2. SJU and Fordham are terrible this season. Richmond is a good matchup for us and can't win on the road. Playing URI and St Bona on the road isn't going to be easy but hopefully we can win one of those games. Really is hard to be optimistic but I am trying over here.
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Post by a10champion15 on Jan 15, 2015 22:20:49 GMT -5
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MisterD
The Baptist Himself
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Post by MisterD on Jan 15, 2015 23:13:08 GMT -5
Regular season doesn't matter anymore at this point; if we're going anywhere its by running the A-10 tourney. Basically I'll be rooting for development and no injuries until March and then I'll cross my fingers.
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Post by lasalle89 on Jan 16, 2015 7:30:53 GMT -5
With our A10 tourny track record G should start playing Washington and Shuler. We need to tank so we get a high pick in the draft.
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Post by SICguy84 on Jan 16, 2015 14:21:32 GMT -5
A10 tourney and G don't match. I don't know if its the familiarity of our squad to our opponents (not so in NCAA run), lack of prep time/short turn around, or likely both but the lack of success in AC or Brooklyn is very disappointing. And I don't see that changing anytime soon...
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Post by calidelphia on Jan 16, 2015 15:41:04 GMT -5
A10 tourney and G don't match. I don't know if its the familiarity of our squad to our opponents (not so in NCAA run), lack of prep time/short turn around, or likely both but the lack of success in AC or Brooklyn is very disappointing. And I don't see that changing anytime soon... totally different team. I think they will be more comfortable and bring some good memories from the VA game back to the Barclays center this year. They may not win the whole thing but I am not going to base future success on past failures when almost everything else has changed. I think they can win a few games but they haven't shown the consistency to win 4 straight or however many it would take this year.
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Post by coachd on Jan 17, 2015 10:31:20 GMT -5
Coach G will a find a way to get this team to the post-season and it starts today. Experimental line-ups are done. He knows the guys he has now and what they can do.
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MisterD
The Baptist Himself
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Post by MisterD on Jan 17, 2015 10:36:04 GMT -5
Wouldn't G making the postseason validate his current salary and then some?
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Post by lasalle89 on Jan 17, 2015 12:02:17 GMT -5
There is very little chance we can even get to the NIT. We don't have a set offense and you need that to win night in and night out. Would love to see us go on a run starting now.
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Post by fvp47 on Jan 17, 2015 12:35:21 GMT -5
Coach G will a find a way to get this team to the post-season and it starts today. Experimental line-ups are done. He knows the guys he has now and what they can do. I agree that the starting line up is in place. We now need Wright to return to his prior year shooting percentage of 57%. Also need Price to be more consistent and make better decision. How about a five game winning streak.
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