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BASKETBALL Battle 4 Atlantis Bracket

RandallThomason

Blue Raider Legend
Jan 1, 2005
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Per Jon Rothstein, we are matched up with Virginia in the opening game. 2nd game appears to be against either Butler or Dayton. Final game will be against one of Florida/Oklahoma/Wisconsin/Stanford.
 
Brutal. I had given some serious thoughts to going to the Bahamas for this, before all the departures. Think I am going to spend that money elsewhere.
 
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MT to compete in Battle 4 Atlantis during Thanksgiving





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I don't think anyone was anticipating the changes to the program when MT was scheduled for that premier tourney. Over the last 6 seasons, MT in that tourney would have been great. With a complete rebuild job just starting, the timing for this tournament for MT could not have been worse. A shame, most other seasons and this tourney would be incredibly exciting to see MT play.
 
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I’m not sure we win a game in that field if CKD had stayed, no transfers/dismissals occurred & we signed everyone that committed earlier.

I guess the positive now is that any win would be a major positive at this point and it’s experience for the team to face top notch talent.
 
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Arizona didn't win a single game down there last year.. didn't seem to be the end of the world


I recall the media and arizona fans making quite a big deal out of their performance there.....
 
I’m not sure we win a game in that field if CKD had stayed, no transfers/dismissals occurred & we signed everyone that committed earlier.

I guess the positive now is that any win would be a major positive at this point and it’s experience for the team to face top notch talent.

We would have at least beaten Dayton in second game. CKD could have also landed another big transfer and it had been business as usual.
 
Maybe.

Then again I would not be surprised if we lost every game in the tournament even if CKD stayed. Those are all good programs.
 
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Maybe.

Then again I would not be surprised if we lost every game in the tournament even if CKD stayed. Those are all good programs.


They would have been crazy competitive at least and with a few bounces our way I could see us taking some games. We pushed Miami and USC to the brink in last year's tournament and probably should have won one of those games.

I see nothing but blow-out's coming for us in this tournament. Keeping the Dayton game within single digits will be a victory.
 
This tourney will be interesting for sure.

I actually expect MT this year to be a lot like Dayton last year. They had won ~71% of their games in the 5 years before a coaching change and a major roster turnover led to 14-17 last year.

We won 71.7% of our games over the past 5 years, & we are going through a coaching change and major roster turnover.

If we win any games in This tourney, I think we can take it as a positive based on our current situation.
 
I recall the media and arizona fans making quite a big deal out of their performance there.....

Some fans lose their minds at most every little thing as I'm sure you can relate so that's not a measure of anything in particular.. Any time the #2 team in the country loses 3 straight and falls outside the polls its going to cause a stir in the fan base and the media.. point still holds that it wasn't the end of the world for them; MTSU won't be the #2 team in the country when this tourney starts so the expectations are significantly different although the goal is to win every game.. CNM has some experience coaching and a P5 win under his belt down there as well..
 
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Some fans lose their minds at most every little thing as I'm sure you can relate so that's not a measure of anything in particular.. Any time the #2 team in the country loses 3 straight and falls outside the polls its going to cause a stir in the fan base and the media.. point still holds that it wasn't the end of the world for them; MTSU won't be the #2 team in the country when this tourney starts so the expectations are significantly different although the goal is to win every game.. CNM has some experience coaching and a P5 win under his belt down there as well..

This is a really good perspective.

Honestly I am just grateful for how far we have come. The other schools in that tourney are elite level. It is OK that we lose to them.
 
To be clear, I'm just bummed about the timing of MT playing in this huge tournament. It's one of the best early season tournaments; it may be 2nd only to the big Hawaii tourney each season. Most any other season in recent history including the upcoming couple of seasons and I would like MT's chances to make a little noise down there.

I agree with Dawg78, even with Kermit here this season would likely be a tough break regarding rebuilding the roster. Even if CNM does have some good success this season, early in the season will likely be bumpy while integrating so many new players. Replacing so many key players and so many players overall is bound to take a little time early in the season for the players to gel as a team.

I think for most MT fans, we've gotten somewhat spoiled with all the success. High expectations each year is still somewhat of a new phenomenon in the grand scheme of things for MT fans. Most of us are likely dreading the possibility of even an over .500 season. Say, 17-14 will likely feel pretty rough to most fans considering we've been getting accustomed to expecting to win each and every game MT played.

While there is some generally low expectations for the coming season, I by no means am expecting a total horrendous disaster that some seem to suggest at times. Above .500 with a team that is developing, coming together, playing smart, and demonstrating good potential would be cause for some positive expectations and hope.
 
Looking at things a little differently, I'm looking forward to some elements of the upcoming season because of all the change.

Regardless of how good MT had been in recent years, MT seemed to struggle vs area opponents that most of us thought MT should have been dominating. For starters, I'm hoping CNM will yield entirely different results than Kermit when playing Belmont. Sure Kermit won a few, but some of Kermit's really good teams still lost to Belmont in frustrating fashion. Wins vs Murray St were not a forgone conclusion. Granted, Murray St and Belmont are the class of the OVC, but they are still OVC. Kermit's teams seemed to perform better as underdogs without much to lose, i.e. SEC opponents. Even when MT did beat teams like TSU, it always seemed to be unnecessarily closer than one might have expected.

So, it will be somewhat exciting for me to see if CNM can't bring a different and fresh approach to some of these non-conf games that MT seemed to struggle with even during overall highly successful seasons.
 
i've already accepted it's going to be a complete and total rebuilding year. probably the year after as well. Just keep the streak alive vs. Western and I'll be happy
 
I think for most MT fans, Most of us are likely dreading the possibility of even an over .500 season. Say, 17-14 will likely feel pretty rough to most fans considering we've been getting accustomed to expecting to win each and every game MT played.

I would take 17-14 in a heartbeat right now for this season and be very happy with it.
 
Randall, you are making the case. What is starting to look like a hopeful outcome likely will still meet with the high expectations from the last 6-7 years. 17-14 might be a decent outcome for the virtual replacement of the roster. Then again, it could get fairly frustrating watching a few losses stack up in succession as is likely to happen even with an over .500 record of 17 or 18 wins.
 
Randall, you are making the case. What is starting to look like a hopeful outcome likely will still meet with the high expectations from the last 6-7 years. 17-14 might be a decent outcome for the virtual replacement of the roster. Then again, it could get fairly frustrating watching a few losses stack up in succession as is likely to happen even with an over .500 record of 17 or 18 wins.


I agree with you. The record will be what it will be, but how we get there will make a huge difference.

If we play with great effort all year & improve as it goes, then you can deal with with a rebuild year better than if we don’t show enthusiasm if we lose a few or we have coaching blunders that cost us games.

To me, in this tourney and the season, I’m more interested in seeing max effort and mental toughness.
 
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Glad we are setting our expectations high. Stock's influence now bleeding over to the hardwood I see
 
doesn't Marshall's roster look similar to this one? This team is going to be able to match up with them and they will play uptempo .
 
doesn't Marshall's roster look similar to this one? This team is going to be able to match up with them and they will play uptempo .

Easy to say when looking at a roster on paper. Huge difference is that Marshall’s three returning starters are all proven performers and two of them are conference player of the year candidates. Our only game with them this season is in Huntington.

We actually handled them very respectfully defensively last year. We probably win both of those games with just an average offensive performance.
 
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There’s a big difference in expectations for one specific year and expectations over the long haul.



Yea I know it just sucks that we can see the mediocre season coming and nothing we can do about it. For almost a decade now we have only lost a few conference games a year, and those losses were typically just flukey nights where we shot very poorly or turned the ball over 20+ times.

I'd say over the last 7 years we have not been truly "beaten" in more than 5 conference games. And what I mean by that is, the other team actually beating us versus self-implosion (ie. 20+ turnovers or 15% from 3 or some other flukey crap)

We'll probably lose more conference games this season than we have over the last 7 seasons COMBINED. Hard not to get disappointed about that, regardless of the circumstances.

McDevitt embraced the high expectations when he took the job. I'm gonna hold him to it.
 
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Heck yeah. You tell McDevitt.

He should have stayed his a$$ put in Asheville. What the heck was he thinking.

Yea I know it just sucks that we can see the mediocre season coming and nothing we can do about it. For almost a decade now we have only lost a few conference games a year, and those losses were typically just flukey nights where we shot very poorly or turned the ball over 20+ times.

I'd say over the last 7 years we have not been truly "beaten" in more than 5 conference games. And what I mean by that is, the other team actually beating us versus self-implosion (ie. 20+ turnovers or 15% from 3 or some other flukey crap)

We'll probably lose more conference games this season than we have over the last 7 seasons COMBINED. Hard not to get disappointed about that, regardless of the circumstances.

McDevitt embraced the high expectations when he took the job. I'm gonna hold him to it.
 
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