After tearing through the first half of the Big East Season, starting 9-0 with visions of a Big East Championship, MU closed out the 2nd half 3-6, ending the season with a loss on Senior Night to #25 Syracuse, in OT, 86-79.
I don't know what to say here. The Bradley Center has been a sad place, losing James, losing to UConn, losing to Syracuse on Senior Night. Just a terrible way to close out the season, and a terrible way to send four seniors out to post-season. Brutal.
The overtime Senior Night loss reminded me of the Senior Night triple OT loss in 2001 to Louisville that ended Brian Wardle's tenure. It was truly a punch in the nuts, and you just felt so bad for those guys.
You want to read about the game, read the AP recap. What am I going to tell you, you don't already know?
While losing to #1-2 type NCAA seeds UConn, Pitt, and UL is no surprise, I think the NCAA seeding committee is going to look upon today's loss most seriously. It shows that a Dominic Jamesless MU team, can't beat a 6-7 seed like Syracuse on their home court in front of 19,000. I think we need 2 wins in the BET to look credible as a 5-6-7 seed.
AP Recap
Official Box
Buzz Post-game MP3
Wes Matthews Post-Game MP3
Photo Gallery
I'm sure the team will fight on as they have the last two weeks after James' injury, but the handwriting is on the wall. Today's loss condemns the team to no better than a 7 seed in the NCAA tournament unless they can win two in the Big East Tournament, and it's hard to see that happening. Beating Georgetown for a third time is going to be tough enough, but even if they preval there they could get blown out by the deeper, more rested Villanova Wildcats.
ReplyDeleteWith a 7 or 8 seed, the best they can hope for is a good matchup and a win in the first round before running up against a team that will likely be too big and too deep for them.
A sad ending to a promising season.
This team is a reminder of the team that lost Jim Chones to the pros in mid-season in the early 1970s. The Chones team was undefeated until the pros came along and, suddenly, whomp, they got killed at Detroit 70-49.
ReplyDeleteThe Chones team was never the same and lost in the second round of the NCAA.
The current Warriors are much the same. They lack that cohesiveness that we saw earlier this year. No doubt if Dominic was healthy, they'd beaten Syracuse.They don't have the intangible it takes to be a cohesive team.
Well, I hope I'm wrong but like the promise of the Chones teams, this one went up in smokes when Dominic went down with injury
I wouldn't write them off. We were dark horse picks even with DJ at the beginning of the season. Now I guess we are a pure Black horse. But anyways, we can be proud of them with anything else they can accomplish this year. Remember it's done on the basketball floor. At least we don't suck as bad as Wisconsin.
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