Cracked Sidewalks 2009-2010 Predictions

As we have done for the previous few years, here are the Cracked Sidewalks predictions for the season. Want some fun? Check out the picks from previous years.

2006-2007 (Actual record was 24-10 (11-7), and can be found here)

2007-2008 (Actual record was 25-10 (11-7), and can be found here)

2008-2009 (Actual record was 25-10 (13-7), and can be found here)

Onto the 2009-2010 season predictions!

Date	Opponent	Rob	Tim	Kevin	MU92	John	bma
11/13/2009	Centenary	W	W	W	W	W	W
11/17/2009	UM-Eastern Shore	W	W	W	W	W	W
11/21/2009	Grambling	W	W	W	W	W	W
11/24/2009	South Dakota	W	W	W	W	W	W
11/26/2009	Xavier (Old Spice Classic)	L	L	L	L	L	L
11/27/2009	Creighton / Michigan	L	W	W	L	L	L
11/29/2009	Bama, Baylor, FSU, or Iona	W	W	L	W	W	W
12/5/2009	NC State	W	L	L	W	L	W
12/8/2009	UWM	W	W	W	W	W	W
12/12/2009	at UW-Madison	L	L	L	L	L	L
12/19/2009	North Florida	W	W	W	W	W	W
12/27/2009	Presbyterian	W	W	W	W	W	W
12/29/2009	at WVU	L	L	L	L	L	L
1/2/2010	Villanova	L	L	L	L	L	L
1/6/2010	Georgetown	L	W	L	L	L	L
1/9/2010	at Villanova	L	L	L	L	L	L
1/17/2010	Providence	W	W	W	W	W	W
1/20/2010	at DePaul	W	W	L	W	W	W
1/23/2010	at Syracuse	L	L	L	L	L	W
1/26/2010	Rutgers	W	L	W	W	L	W
1/30/2010	at Connecticut	L	L	L	L	L	L
2/3/2010	DePaul	W	W	W	W	W	W
2/6/2010	at Providence	L	W	L	L	W	W
2/13/2010	South Florida	W	W	W	W	W	W
2/18/2010	Pittsburgh	W	L	L	W	W	L
2/21/2010	at Cincinnati	L	W	L	L	L	L
2/24/2010	at St. Johns	W	L	W	L	L	W
2/28/2010	at Seton Hall	L	W	L	L	W	L
3/2/2010	Louisville	L	L	L	L	W	L
3/6/2010	Notre Dame	W	W	L	W	W	W
								Average
	Full Season Wins	17	18	13	16	17	18	16.5
	Full Season Losses	13	12	17	14	13	12	13.5
	Conference Wins	8	9	5	7	9	9	7.8
	Conference Losses	10	9	13	11	9	9	10.2

Some commentary on the selections:

John
My theory is always that if you have experience (last year), you start hot and teams catch up to you late in the year, and if you have inexperienced talent (like this year), you improve throughout the year. We don’t even have four guards to go two-on-two in practice now, and I don’ t think we will be ready for even NC State, much less the trip to Madison, the Old Spice Tournament or the first four games of the Big East season. If we have a winning record January 10, we are ahead of schedule and could make a late run at the tournament. However, even if we are 8-8 at that point, if the freshmen aren’t getting booed and/or discouraged, I believe we really finish strong with two wins in the Big East tourney to take a 19-13 resume into selection Sunday.

Kevin
I have no idea how this team will perform. On paper, we’ve got one star (Acker!) and a bunch of guys who might be great, and might be busts. (Ok, Lazar and Butler are pretty good too.) -- Add to that some injuries, and my outlook is grim. Road wins are few and far between in the Big East, and it was tough to mark down even one road-W. Couple that with a ~50/50 win rate at home, and that gets you to a 5-13 Big East whitewash. Hope I’m wrong. I hope they win @DePaul. I hope they can outlast Pitt at the BC. Maybe eek out a win @ Seton Hall, and for the love of god, beat ND on Senior Night. That’d get us to 9-9. Hope against hope.

Rob
Like most of the fellow bloggers, I just see the first four games as being too brutal of a hole to overcome. I see MU splitting with Providence and beating DePaul twice, and then taking care of the reasonably close games at home like Pitt and ND. However, this team could easily surprise better or worse than these predictions by a wide range.

bma725
The only caveat for me is the final game of the OSC is based on the idea we're playing Iona. If it's anyone else, that should be changed to a loss for me. I may be a bit optimistic, but I think those predicting complete doom (meaning Kevin), are forgetting one that while we may have lost a lot of talent from last year, so did everyone else...and we reloaded a heck of a lot better than some of these other teams. We're not in as bad a shape as people think, especially if we can avoid further injuries. This isn't the deep Big East of last year, and I think our record will reflect that.

Tim
This is one tough team to predict. Somehow I have MU finishing with 18 wins and 9-9 in the BIG EAST. While the conference will take a step back from last year's extraordinarily top-heavy group, I think this year the league will be much more balanced until you get to the very bottom (hello DePaul!). With that balance comes greater unpredictability -- still, I can't come up with a scenario where MU finishes better than 9-9 and I see a much greater risk of a downside slide rather than an upside surprise.

muwarrior92
Youth is the reason I went with the predictions I did. I also believe we are very thin at guard and have always believed good guards carry you in college basketball. Road victories will be at a premium this year. Like bma, I kept thinking about the BE being down as well. However, I think teams like St. Johns and Seton Hall, with their experience, will be better simply because of the experience and not the talent. My biggest concern for the season is the injury bug since we’re so thin and injuries have followed Crean and Buzz like the plague it seems.