Since when does 1 game on the road warrant trashing a team and saying the season is over? That is called an overreaction. We may not be as good or we may he great, but no one can determine that based on one game in college basketball. Beating any D1 basketball team by nearly 40 is a good win. They are a good team that needs to iron out some things. Just saying we should acknowledge when they play good just as much as when they play bad. Maybe make better bets next time than to bet on a team with question marks on the road their first game vs a D1 team?
I will admit I was more harsh than I would normally be because of the bet. It was a very large bet for me and one of my biggest of the year. Turned out to be a crippling loss and cleaned me completely out on one of my accounts. Been a long time since I bet on an MT team because I felt like I couldn't be objective. But objectively, MT should have won this game. They were a favorite for a reason. Winthrop had more question marks than MT, plus a new coach to boot. That's a game we should be winning. That's a game that McDevitt should be finding a way to win. He's in year 5 making nearly 4x what that 1st year Winthrop coach is making.
Winthrop had to replace 6 players on their roster this year, including two double digit scorers. Brand new coach as well. We had no business losing that game.
My decision to bet on the game was purely objective and was a combination of MT being the better team and reverse line movement in Vegas. MT opened -1 but went to -2.5 by tip off (and even -3 at some places) yet over 70% of the handle was on Winthrop. The line should have moved in Winthrop's favor and possibly even turned them into a small favorite. Instead, the books were begging and baiting people into taking Winthrop, and for good reason. MT was the better team.
Ya'll know the rest though. They went out and played one of the most undisciplined games I've ever seen and couldn't hit a shot if the world depended on it.
What we saw in the Rice game is more in-line with the expectations for this team and what was expected @ Winthrop. FT shooting is still unbelievably bad, and the 3 point shooting certainly won't continue at that clip, but from a discipline stand point they were better and took care of business. I didn't get to watch the whole game but from what I did see, the offense was flowing much better and defensively they were locked in.
Long term, the limitations for this team will be self-imposed, specifically 3 point shooting and FT shooting. The defense is going to be there. The depth to play aggressive defense all game will be there. Rebounding looks like it will be there. More assists than turnovers seems likely (assuming they don't have another night of Jr. High shooting, but now that I'm done betting on them I'm sure they won't). I probably sound like captain obvious here, but it's going to come down to flat out shooting %'s for this team in the important games. And I am still highly skeptical of the offensive prowess of this group in key games after the Winthrop performance.
We'll know more soon enough. @ Mo St. is going to be a legit, key game for this program. If we are to have any hope of a possible at-large or NIT bid, @ Mo St. is a must-win game. We have no power 5's on the schedule, our OOC is all respectable mid-majors. We will have to win nearly all of those games to even be considered. Starting 0-2 in OOC play would be a disaster.
Nick is one of the top paid coaches in the G5 and in Year 5 to boot. It's time to produce results that are reflective of that.
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