St. Mary's

[Jeh]

St. Mary's is unranked by the AP and Coaches, but they probably shouldn't be. They're 8-0 and #17 in the computer composite (College Basketball Ranking Composite), and no lower than #32 by any computer. I'm guessing #17 might be a little generous, since early in the season being undefeated is a bit over-rewarded by many algorithms, but they've been defeating their opponents like they ought to for the most part, with their worst game appearing to be 4 points over Drake.

And they're going to be at the Diamond Head Classic. If we play them, it will either be a nice win on our resume or an unjustified drop for us, since they're underrated. We need to focus on George Mason for now, of course, but it doesn't hurt to analyze the likely competition when the games are too close together to prepare properly one-at-a-time.

 

[MNCyGuy]

St. Mary's is unranked by the AP and Coaches, but they probably shouldn't be. They're 8-0 and #17 in the computer composite (College Basketball Ranking Composite), and no lower than #32 by any computer. I'm guessing #17 might be a little generous, since early in the season being undefeated is a bit over-rewarded by many algorithms, but they've been defeating their opponents like they ought to for the most part, with their worst game appearing to be 4 points over Drake.

And they're going to be at the Diamond Head Classic. If we play them, it will either be a nice win on our resume or an unjustified drop for us, since they're underrated. We need to focus on George Mason for now, of course, but it doesn't hurt to analyze the likely competition when the games are too close together to prepare properly one-at-a-time.

Hard to tell how good they really are though. Who is the best team they've actually played, Boise?

 

[Jeh]

Hard to tell how good they really are though. Who is the best team they've actually played, Boise?

Yes, by 8 on the road.

 

[Clonefan32]

Beaing Boise by 8 on the road is a pretty solid accomplishment. Of the teams in the field, the definitely scare me the most.

 

[CloneZone13]

I watched that game against Boise, and they are no joke. They're a fast team that can shoot. ISU will need to play well to beat them.

 

[bawbie]

Hard to tell how good they really are though. Who is the best team they've actually played, Boise?

They beat Boise on the road in their only road game, so that's clearly their best win.

NDSU, Akron, La Tech and Drake are all borderline top 100 teams, but beating them at home isn't anything special.

 

[klamath632]

Looks like St. Mary's might be pretty tough.

 

[kentkel]

Yes, by 8 on the road.

I watched the first half of that game. They really had control of the game for most of the first half. My initial impressions were that St. Mary's was the far superior team (up 16 at one point, I believe). However, it seems that Boise was able to gain back some momentum & made the game a close affair. I think that if we can take care of business in the first two rounds, the championship game will be another excellent test for this team. Here's hoping for an undefeated Hawaii trip!

 

[bawbie]

St Mary's is a very good offensive team. They shoot the ball very well (44% from 3pt, 75% for FTs). They play at a very slow pace, almost 20 seconds per possession (average is 17.5s, we are around 14s), which we can struggle with at times. They are also a very good offensive rebounding team at 41% offensive rebound %, similar to what Iowa had coming into our game.

Defensively they are quite average. They are holding teams to below 28% on 3pters (as is George Mason), but that can have a lot more to do with your opponents than your defense.

Brad Waldow is a very good player that would test our interior defense more than anyone else we've played so far this year (since McGary wasn't full speed).

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Not scared of St. Mary's. They might be the best team not named Iowa State at this tournament, but that tells you all you need to know about the tournament.

 

[BryceC]

St Mary's would probably be a better team to play but selfishly I want Boise since both teams could score 100.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Any 32 year old Australians with 10 years of "no pay" professional experience on their squad this season?

 

[acgclone]

This is a perfect tournament for us to put the finishing touches on our OOC season. Pretty tough competition. We should be able to work out some of our kinks, yet still go at least 2-1. I wouldn't be too upset if we dropped one out there, but it would be nice to win a tournament too.

 

[isuno1fan]

Not scared of St. Mary's. They might be the best team not named Iowa State at this tournament, but that tells you all you need to know about the tournament.

There are multiple teams in this tournament capable of beating us. The sooner you realize it, the better off you will be if someone happens to sneak up on us.

 

[CoKane]

Not too concerned about George Mason, but anyone else we could play could beat us if our slow starts continue. Akron has been in the tourney and could win their conference. I don't know much about Oregon St, but they still are a major conference team. Boise and St. Mary's are underrated as well. We should win it all, but don't be surprised if we don't. The way I see it, if we lose in the finals to Boise or St. Mary's then it's not a bad loss, and if we beat them to win it we have 5 good wins going into January.

 

[CYUL8R]

Only one thing to do....


Win the whole f***ing thing!

But seriously - if we want to compete for a Big XII championship, we need to be able to win things like this. Sure, we don't want a cake walk (and I don't believe the players think it is based on their comments) but we need to believe that we can win a tourney like this as a fanbase.

 

[flynnhicks03]

There are multiple teams in this tournament capable of beating us. The sooner you realize it, the better off you will be if someone happens to sneak up on us.

Not if we play our best, or even pretty close to our best.

 

[InAWord]

Not if we play our best, or even pretty close to our best.

Disagree. It's entirely possible to lose all the games out there. I don't for a minute believe Hoiberg will let that happen, but each team has enough strengths to beat us if we don't come to play. See: UNI.

That said, I hope we take the title and ride into the Big 12 undefeated.

 

[bawbie]

Disagree. It's entirely possible to lose all the games out there. .

If we don't play well, sure. But as flynnhicks said, if we play our best, or close to it, we'll go 3-0.

 

[Judoka]

If we don't play well, sure. But as flynnhicks said, if we play our best, or close to it, we'll go 3-0.

We're overdue to drop a game we shouldn't. I'm not saying I expect us to do so here. But its going to happen eventually. And a trip like this where there won't be any energy from the crowd (for or against us) is a prime setting for that to happen.