Jan. 24th and 27th

[Kingsbury]

Well, Well Well it's late and I am kicking myself for agreeing to pick up my brother on a redeye from Santa Barbara, only 2 more hours to go until I have to drive to General Mitchell!! What better way to pass some time than talk about how huge these 2 games are. WE can get nothing less than a split ( I know this is a 3 game trip, but I am looking past Cleveland State. I just hope the team is not). I am not convinced on how good of a team Wright State is. Seth and Nard are players, but Seth has not played that well against us in the past. I am not so worried about that game as I am with the Detroit game on Saturday. I am sure Pnthr30 will agree, that it is probably the hardest place to win on the road in the Horizon League. I am not the biggest fan of Detroit having 4 days to plan for us, while we only have a day to plan for Detroit. Ideally I would love to see us score 45 - 55 points in the first half of the Cleveland State game so that we can rest our starters for at least the last 5 minutes of the game. Anyway, on to my original point, if we win these 3 games on the road trip, I think we have a legit shot at going 16 - 0 in conference. Tell me what you guys think, but first things first, lets take care of business tomorrow.

[UWMKrazie]

Greetings from Milan, Italy!

The only thing I fear is how we sometimes get too confident after a big win, then completely drop the ball in a later game. We also seem to get worn down on long stretches of games, especially road trips.


UWMKrazie

[pnthr97]

First, there's no way we go 16-0 in conference play. Forget about it. Will not happen.

Second, playing 3 games 6 days is a real difficult task. Assuming we get past CSU, Detroit will be geared up for us, especially after what happened at the Cell. Then to have to play Wright State, no small order. If BP gets the troops home at 2-1 over this trip, he deserves HL coach of the year right there.

[pnthr30]

I agree that we have to/need to get 2 out of the next 3 before we have to deal with GB at home. CSU is definitely a winable game. The Convocation Center is not a real hostile environment. They don't draw well, and their fans are fairly quite - probably due directly to the fact that the team doesn't give them much to cheer about. Anyways, I think that this one is in the bag. Moving along, I agree, Calihan is probably the hardest place to play (Brown County used to be difficult as well, but we don't have to worry about that anymore), with UIC's Pavilion right behind. I don't know why, but UD is just somewhere that I didn't like to go, and their home record speeks for itsels, so I am not alone. I know that we have had a little luck their in the past, so lets hope that continues. The Nutter Center is a nice place to play. I know that WSU draws fairly well, and has some decent fans (at least they used to, and since they are winning I am assuming the fans are still there making noise), but overall, the Nutter center is a good shooting environment and not considered to be real "hostile".....IMO anyways - and I think Clay would agree. I think that all three games are winnable, but will be challenging. Let's go fellas!

[admin]

So what makes Calihan so hard to play in? It doesnt seem like they have that much larger of a fan base for home games than any other HL school.

Thanks,
UWMfreak

[pnthr30]

I don't know if I can put my finger on exactly what makes Calihan a tough place to play, but for whatever reason that was not one of my favorite places to go to. It is an older facility, the locker rooms are not that great, can't stay real close to the school so you are usually driving around a bunch, and Detroit is usually pretty hard to beat at home - that all adds up to a non desirable road trip in my book. haha

[uwmfootball]

We are 5th in Sportsline's MM top 25.....

cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/6990118

I personally think that its a little high, but with the average from collegeinsider (18), 11th or 12th in the country is about where we are. Any thoughts?

Good luck tonight boys!

[admin]

I agree UWMfootball...a little too high! I like your projectted average...11 or 12 seems accurate.

If we can go 2/3 over this upcoming stretch we're looking good. Although I dont want to give Detroit or Wright State a W...but if I had to choose a loss in Detroit would be more ideal.

GO MILWAUKEE!

Later,
UWMfreak

[pnthr97]

OK, so I had WAY too much free time today. Here's my Mid Major Rankings based on weighted average of RPI, College Insider, Sagarin, ESPN, and CBS Sportsline polls. I know, I went way overboard, but hey, too much time to kill today.

School RPI CI Sagarin ESPN CBS Avg
1 Gonzaga 1 1 1 1 1 1.000
2 Utah State 2 3 4 3 2 2.625
3 Southern Illinois 3 4 2 4 4 3.375
4 Creighton 6 2 5 2 12 5.125
5 Western Michigan 5 6 3 5 10 5.625
6 Manhattan 4 8 8 8 6 6.250
7 Murray State 8 9 6 6 11 8.125
8 College of Charleston 10 5 11 7 8 8.250
9 Kent State 7 11 7 10 7 8.375
10 Toledo 11 12 10 23 14 13.000
11 Central Florida 18 10 15 9 9 13.375
12 East Tennessee State 21 7 21 11 3 14.000
13 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 14 18 12 21 5 14.500
14 Wichita State 9 14 16 23 25 14.875
15 George Mason 15 13 13 14 22 15.000
16 Old Dominion 13 21 19 23 20 17.875
17 Georgia State 12 22 18 23 26 18.375
18 Troy State 20 24 9 18 26 20.125
19 Santa Clara 17 20 26 23 26 20.750
20 Northern Iowa 26 19 23 23 17 22.375

[pnthr30]

WOW, nice work pnthr97! That looks pretty good..... ;D