The Pressure is Off...

[Blue Man]

Well last night sucked, no two ways about it. It may have been the first time I've ever seen Dan Hurley sit down during a game.

What really sucks is we've played well to good to very good in our losses before last night, which is a wasted effort it feels like. You're obviously not going to make it through a whole season without ever laying an egg. Dayton did it, Duke did it, everyone in college basketball and sports in general does it. Just sucks that it happened in the form of a bad loss at home to a bad team instead of on the road at a top 50.

We are certainly not as bad as that display last night. That was some Jerry D/Tiger Womack shit. We are also obviously not as good as #23. Neither means we're not an NCAA team, but certainly last night was the proverbial nail in the coffin for the at-large hopes. Short of 13-1, or running the table which seems less than likely.

So what's that mean? The pressure's off. We know we're not an at large team, but we're certainly talented enough to be an NCAA team, considering a few ball bounces and some key L's would be key W's. Now just hope the team and staff got a wake up call last night, they work on some things, and they get better for March and the A10 tournament.

Hopefully that will also get some of people on this board to loosen up, because it feels like a segment of posters aren't even fans any more; just miserable people rooting for miserable things to happen so they can be "right" about how miserable the feel about everything.

Go Rhody.

[Rhodyhooopz]

Blue Man

I used the same words on the way out last night to my wife. That was like a Jerry D era game. Anyone remember the Temple game at the dunk where we scored 10 points in first half, that's what this game reminded me of the most.

[Da_Process_Survivor]

Well last night sucked, no two ways about it. It may have been the first time I've ever seen Dan Hurley sit down during a game.

What really sucks is we've played well to good to very good in our losses before last night, which is a wasted effort it feels like. You're obviously not going to make it through a whole season without ever laying an egg. Dayton did it, Duke did it, everyone in college basketball and sports in general does it. Just sucks that it happened in the form of a bad loss at home to a bad team instead of on the road at a top 50.

We are certainly not as bad as that display last night. That was some Jerry D/Tiger Womack shit. We are also obviously not as good as #23. Neither means we're not an NCAA team, but certainly last night was the proverbial nail in the coffin for the at-large hopes. Short of 13-1, or running the table which seems less than likely.

So what's that mean? The pressure's off. We know we're not an at large team, but we're certainly talented enough to be an NCAA team, considering a few ball bounces and some key L's would be key W's. Now just hope the team and staff got a wake up call last night, they work on some things, and they get better for March and the A10 tournament.

Hopefully that will also get some of people on this board to loosen up, because it feels like a segment of posters aren't even fans any more; just miserable people rooting for miserable things to happen so they can be "right" about how miserable the feel about everything.

Go Rhody.

could fertilize a lot of fields with that rant.

so, we're not fans because we can see the forest for the trees? how many times and ways do you have to see hurley fail before you take down the shrine?

newsflash, pressure to win doesnt go away just because they killed their OOC chances. Its still there, and its more intense now because there's no margin for error.

Additionally, a team that cant handle the pressure to win is a bad team, plain and simple. Everyone has pressure to win, the good ones go out and perform. The weak ones fold like a cheap suit.

[josephski]

The pressure's off because an at large looks unlikely so we have to win the a10 tournament to get in? Odd way to spin something positive out of this loss and that still sounds like added pressure to me. Although things don't look great right now the Dayton and VCU home games can still help us in getting an at large. I still believe winning both of those and even going 13-5 will get us in.

[TruePoint]

I think we are two or three losses premature with this sentiment. As horrifying as this game was to watch, in two months it will just be one pretty ugly line item on a pretty long resume with lots of more important wins and losses to focus on. I actually think it does the opposite of taking pressure off, as it further narrows the margin for error. You're now looking at having to finish 12-2 to control your destiny or 11-3 at worst with some other help to get in, and that's just a big ask for a group that has now added an ability to no-show to the inability to finish close games on the list of marks against them.

It's obviously not impossible. The team that played against SLU and Joes could easily go 12-2. The team that lost to Dayton could maybe even scratch out 11-3. On the other hand, the team that I saw last night could legitimately go 1-13, so you'd have to be an insane person to be confident in a good outcome at this point. Doesn't mean the pressure is off, though.

[Billyboy78]

The pressure is definitely not off of Dan. I think it's building. If we have a few more games like last night and go something like 8-6 the rest of the way, I'd say the pressure is on.

[hrstrat57]

As I said at halftime last night that effort was a season wrecker. Wacked by a mid pack at best Iona like opponent. Crushed by a coaching staff using flash cards like youth hoops team would....a absolutely horrific loss.
I am shocked that any of you can spin it otherwise. I could not be more disappointed.

Perhaps going forward the answer is create complete "refuse to lose" Calipari like chaos. 10 men up press 40 minutes, 100% Loyola Marymount like fastbreak offense. Turn the best dribble drive matchup player in the a10 (Terrell) loose.

I am the 15-3 optimist here.....I was tragically wrong it appears.

Such high hopes for this group.....

[TruePoint]

First of all, who has tried to spin the game last night as anything other than a complete disaster and an insult to the game of basketball itself and the fans of the program and the university community as a whole? It was an embarrassment unknown to me as a sports fan for 30+ years.

But second of all, if you have unreasonably "optimistic" expectations don't take it out on anyone else when things fall short. People do this all the time here. They bitch about every loss like they expected to go 30-0. They see a team that is shaky and untrustworthy and think they're going to catch lightning in a bottle and win 13 out of 15, then see them turn in one piss poor performance and suddenly they go to the other extreme and now the team sucks.

I just think if you had reasonably calibrated expectations then you can take last night's crime of a performance and be rightfully pissed and frustrated about it but also not let it have an outsized impact on your overall expectations because a bad performance or two should have been baked into your expectations from the jump.

[hrstrat57]

Dunno that I had unreasonable expectations personally.

All the experts said the team was a beast. Ranked 21st in the country. A team u don't wanna see in your bracket. A matchup nightmare. NBA scouts watching multiple players. The simple eye test telling us the personnel is elite. Our pal Pete Gillen telling us the game wasn't over....Hurley a great basketball coach blah blah....

4 atrocious losses and the complete embarrassing train wreck on national TV we witnessed last night later?

I just hope the VCU game isn't on tv ....

Cause it looks like it was all BS yes including my 15-3.

(Tho it does appear those other Rams should have no problem doing 15-3)

[TruePoint]

Look, honestly I am not trying to belittle anyone's expectations or their reaction to a game that, I think we can all agree, was just an absolute kick in the stomach to fans of this team and program across the expectations spectrum. But I also think we as a group severely lack the ability to contextualize what we see in the moment.

Nobody should not be upset about last night. The coach and players are, the AD, the most die hard fans, probably the cheerleaders and the players families are upset. I mean, it is legitimate to be upset. It's also probably (IMO) right to compartmentalize what you feel about that game versus what it means overall. And I'm not even saying it doesn't have negative implications in the big picture, because it does. But that's where contextualization and nuance come into play. It boxes us in, it narrows our margins, it adds pressure (contrary to the title of the thread), but it isn't definitive of anything other than that this team isn't above a no-show - and that's probably my biggest disappointment, because I did believe that mentally we were tougher and grittier than to put in the kind of performance that we did last night.

[hrstrat57]

.....so you're sayin' there's a chance..,..(15-3)

[Sweep The Leg]

The pressure in the regular season is done unless you're worried about NIT seeding.

The A-10 is a one bid league in my oponion, 2 if someone other than Dayton wins the A-10 and that's even iffy. This league has very few signature wins unlike years' past. So, you need to win the A-10 tournament because the committee thinks very little about the A-10. That's a ton of pressure for team that has repeatedly shown that they don't handle pressure very well.

[hrstrat57]

The true grim reality is if we put on the full court press and gave Terrell permission to go on the full attack with 14m to go instead of 10 we IMO would have still won the game....

So there's that for Captain Optimist to mull over anyway.....

A10 is looking like a one max 2 bid league and I like the Rams chances.

The other Rams

[ramster]

Terrell played the most minutes with 36 (next closest was 29) and he took the most shot of anyone on either team as he went a poor 3 for 14. He hit only 1 of 7 threes. So why would we want him shooting more? Dowtin hit 4-10 and Robinson hit 4-8. Time to let some of the new faces play more and shoot more IMHO. Next closest in shots was 10 attempts by Mathews, Dowtin and Powell of LaSalle.

[Blue Man]

sorry I should've added the caveat that the pressure is off (the fans). We know we're not an at large team, so a win or loss here or there shouldn't send everyone off a damn cliff. For all intents and purposes lets hope it gets figured out for an A10 tourney run.

I agree TP, while we certainly have the talent do it, and mathematically it's possible - the reality of a home loss to a bad team and the fading opportunities to get a good win in the conference because of a down year, makes it just to unlikely to make sweating it out worth it.

[RF1]

The problem with looking at last night's bad loss as just one game is that we are sure to see one or more performances just like it. The fact that this team could not win a single game on the road in the OOC was a harbinger of things to come. I dialed back my conf win total to 12 or 13 after those losses. I no longer feel even those numbers will be met. We are looking at 10-11 league wins placing us mid pack. This team does not have the talent we thought, is too inconsistent, and lacks the fortitude and drive of a winner. They are a mediocre team by all measures.

[rambone 78]

RF1, I could not agree more with that post.

Add in the coach is mediocre at best. It's "his" team......

[RoadyJay]

So what's that mean? The pressure's off. We know we're not an at large team, but we're certainly talented enough to be an NCAA team, considering a few ball bounces and some key L's would be key W's. Now just hope the team and staff got a wake up call last night, they work on some things, and they get better for March and the A10 tournament.

I don't even get this. The pressure is off the fans now? No way. Believe it or not, we are still a team on the bubble even after last night's disaster.

I'm not going to be happy with just getting better by the A10 tournament in hopes of winning the championship. Winning the A10 tournament is very difficult to do. We need to win now! I would guess that our chances at an at-large birth are double our chances of winning the A10 tournament.

I know there are many on this board that do not believe in science, math, RPI, kenpom but these metrics matter! So, until we have no chance of achieving an RPI in the 30s I'm not giving up on an at-large bid. Right now we still have ~60% chance of finishing with a sub-40 RPI. That's good enough for me to keep the pressure on myself as a fan.. if there is even such a thing.

You can sit back in your new home and cuddle with your new dog and cheer for this team "pressure free".... I won't.

We need to turn this thing around immediately and go at least 11-3 the rest of the way.. starting with beating the "Assclowns from Amherst". 13-5 or better is still an achievable goal.

Remember this.... In 2014, when Dayton made its sweet 16 run, they went 1-5 at the start of A10 conference play.

[rambone 78]

RJ, your undying optimism is admirable, I have to say.....

This team and coach, as presently constituted, has zero chance of doing anything close to that.

[theblueram]

So what's that mean? The pressure's off. We know we're not an at large team, but we're certainly talented enough to be an NCAA team, considering a few ball bounces and some key L's would be key W's. Now just hope the team and staff got a wake up call last night, they work on some things, and they get better for March and the A10 tournament.

I don't even get this. The pressure is off the fans now? No way. Believe it or not, we are still a team on the bubble even after last night's disaster.

I'm not going to be happy with just getting better by the A10 tournament in hopes of winning the championship. Winning the A10 tournament is very difficult to do. We need to win now! I would guess that our chances at an at-large birth are double our chances of winning the A10 tournament.

I know there are many on this board that do not believe in science, math, RPI, kenpom but these metrics matter! So, until we have no chance of achieving an RPI in the 30s I'm not giving up on an at-large bid. Right now we still have ~60% chance of finishing with a sub-40 RPI. That's good enough for me to keep the pressure on myself as a fan.. if there is even such a thing.

You can sit back in your new home and cuddle with your new dog and cheer for this team "pressure free".... I won't.

We need to turn this thing around immediately and go at least 11-3 the rest of the way.. starting with beating the "Assclowns from Amherst". 13-5 or better is still an achievable goal.

Remember this.... In 2014, when Dayton made its sweet 16 run, they went 1-5 at the start of A10 conference play.

Jay, we all want this team to dance. But at 10-6, this team is not dancing At Large with that record. Sure, they can turn it around. We've been screaming for it since the pc loss. Hasn't happened. I don't look at expected rpi or whatever bs sites say. I see it in plain site on the court.

[RoadyJay]

Believe me, at this point I wouldn't be surprised to see this team end up closer to .500 in conference play. At the same time I don't think 11-3 the rest of the would be some miracle.

[giovanni]

Another note is the A 10 is flat out weak this year. Very weak. And the power conferences are perhaps stronger than a while, considering depth of conferences. ACC is a beast of a conference. PAC 12 and Big 12 are outstanding. Big 10 is underrated in comparison, but is very good also. BE has 4 excellent teams and could get 5. Wake Forest who will finish in bottom 2 or 3 of the ACC could very easily win the A 10. So to think we can afford a loss here and there is foolish .

[theblueram]

I'm just going to be pissed off, again, if I don't book a flight to see the Rams play in the tournament.

[rambone 78]

ramster, I totally agree with you that it's time to see who really wants to play ball.

Dowtin and SR should start...and finish too. EC and JG need to come off the bench.....Cyril has to play more with Hassan limited....

Guys have to know if they play like shit, they sit......

I doubt that we'll see it though. What do we have to lose? More games? We're already doing that.

It's becoming clearer that JD is a better short and long term option than some of our upperclassmen.

And even start playing Layssard some.....the more he plays, the faster he'll develop.

At least he should give his best effort...unlike some others.....how could his defense be any worse than KI's?

[reef]

It doesn't look good right now but if we can start to right the ship home v Mass then start to build a little win streak then maybe we get our hopes up again

[Running Ram]

A big reason the a10 is down this year is because we are not actually as good as was anticipated, get two of those road wins in OOC play and win until Dayton beats us at Dayton and both us and Dayton are top 25 (ruling out the LaSalle train wreck) with VCU right outside of the top 25 atm we would be talking 3-4 bids at least

[RhowdyRam02]

As I said at halftime last night that effort was a season wrecker. Wacked by a mid pack at best Iona like opponent. Crushed by a coaching staff using flash cards like youth hoops team would....a absolutely horrific loss.
I am shocked that any of you can spin it otherwise. I could not be more disappointed.

Perhaps going forward the answer is create complete "refuse to lose" Calipari like chaos. 10 men up press 40 minutes, 100% Loyola Marymount like fastbreak offense. Turn the best dribble drive matchup player in the a10 (Terrell) loose.

I am the 15-3 optimist here.....I was tragically wrong it appears.

Such high hopes for this group.....

Eh, I didn't think our press was good enough the other night to think that's something we can use as a weapon going forward. Then again, we were so bad at everything it would probably be tough to evaluate anything.