Musketeer Madness

What must we do? Of course we would love to win all six. But what's the minimum and what's realistic?

@ SLU
St Joe's
@ Charlotte
@ URI
Duquesne
@ ud

Toughest one is @ URI. But outside Duquesne there's no uncontested layups. I would be thrilled with 5 & 1, but probably am still smiling with 4 & 2. Of course after these 6 we would still have to visit St Joe's. Tough sledding ahead. First, get a W @ SLU!

This team is good enough to win all six. With so many on the road though, it wil be tough. First, take care of business at SLU, and I hope this is what the team is worried about. They are a good team at home, but we should beat them. I hope everyone is geared up for these games, because these are crucial if we want to win the A-10. We have to win the two at home, and it would be great to win 3 of 4 on the road and get us some good road wins. That is the one thing that we don't have enough of this year. All I know is I'll be down in Charlotte cheering us on and can't wait to be with some X fans again!

@ SLU
St Joe's
@ Charlotte
@ URI
Duquesne
@ ud
GW
@St Joes
Rich

This is going to be a bitch of a schedule....and i really understand why Miller put this team through the ooc gauntlet that he did. X needs to play consistently....get on a run like they did during that three games in one week(UVA, KSU, @AUB) run. I think 12-4 will win the conference....if STJ keeps it up, it may take 13-3(They have a relatively easy schedule the rest of the way). If this team could get to the UD game with only one extra loss, then I think we're in great shape. We could still lose those last two road games and still win the league. The upcoming SLU game is critical, as is holding court against St Joes. I think we can take 2 out of 3 @Char,@ URI and Duq. Also remember that @ ud Wright may not be back, and if he is he won't be at full strentgh. That is a very possible W...difficult..but possible. 4-1 in these next five games will give this team a little breathing room. These next 5-7 games will basically determine the season....not making the tourney(complete meltdown) to having a high/protected seed. Beating SLU would be a GREAT start.

another thing I was thinking about. People on this board tend to think Ahmad Nivins is the second coming, that he will dominate us. As I recall we already played a guy who is probably the most talented PF/C in the country and held him to 5 pts (M Beasley)

If we can somehow get through both of these games this week with wins I think it would we would gain even more confidence then we already have. We have had all sorts of problems with St Louis and beating them on national tv on their home court would be a great boost and statement going into the game game on Sunday with the best team in the conference other than us. If St. Joes wins tonight I think that will be 12 out of 13 for them and if we can get them on Sunday it could go a long way to getting a 1 seed in the conference tourney and a long way to getting a very good seed in the NCAA tournament. We have to play our game. Don't get lulled to sleep by St Louis and the slow pace they play. Jump out early and don't look back.

If we're going to live up to our ranking, X HAS to go 4-2, if not better. Worse than that, and while we'll be saying how tough the conference is, others will be saying X wasn't that good and was overrated.

jaxalum wrote:another thing I was thinking about. People on this board tend to think Ahmad Nivins is the second coming, that he will dominate us. As I recall we already played a guy who is probably the most talented PF/C in the country and held him to 5 pts (M Beasley)

Nivens is not the player Beasley is, but he is on a much better coached TEAM. A team with good perimeter shooters means the lane is open, and Nivens does better when that happens.

Nivens was out for Duquesne tonight and doubtful for Sunday as of yesteday, ankle sprain from the Nova game.

I dont like playing our home-and-home opponents (Dayton and SJU) with injury depletions at Cintas, then facing them full strength in the rematch. Essentially they see us full strength, and get a rematch; while we see two entirely dif teams.