Signature Wins

[blueandgray]

I personally cannot remember the Hoyas ever playing such a tough regular season schedule top to bottom. I'm sure other veterans to this board can attest to this. Its likely we will play 7 or more games against top 10 teams....wow!!!

This being the case, are there any games against the top teams in the country that you actually think we match up well against and think we'll win? What's going to be our best "signature win" of the season?

[youngjeezy]

might not be our "best" win of the season but god i hope we wipe the floor with memphis.

[SFHoya99]

We're going to have a ridiculously large amount of opportunities for signature wins.

At least Tennessee and maybe more at the OSC.
Memphis at home (and without Dorsey, I like us much better in that game than last year)
Duke at Cameron

Then you've got a ton of BE games that are going to be considered signature opportunities -- UConn, Louisville, Pitt, ND and probably Marquette. Maybe Cuse and Nova.

[richfame]

Yea, Im from connecticut and UCONN is so overatted especially early o n in the year when they wont have their whole team intact. I never seen a more overrated player than thabbet, when he was a frosh he was tripping over the lines on the court, very awkward. Also, uconn cant shoot like past uconn teams and most important they have no heart dont play defense. There were so many time i was at there games and calhoon would be exhasperated and wondering why there was a lack of effort at times.. Look for a hoya win out of the gate in the big east opener!!

[alleninxis]

I don't even think we get the chance to see Tennessee..

...but back to the topic there isn't a game on the schedule that isn't winnable. At Duke certainly will be a test for a young team, but that would definitely be a great one to pick up.

[jgalt]

@duke. although Duke doesnt deserve the ranking they have now, and the cameron crazies are more like the kirk cameron crazies (you know, from growing pains) the media is still drinking the kool-aid and that is who really determines signature wins.

[jkhoya12]

Nov 7, 2008 20:12:50 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

I don't even think we get the chance to see Tennessee..

...but back to the topic there isn't a game on the schedule that isn't winnable. At Duke certainly will be a test for a young team, but that would definitely be a great one to pick up.

I mean Wichita State is no walk in the park but I think there's a good chance that we do see Tennessee.....Unless Siena beats them....SIKE

[alleninxis]

Siena is my point.

Siena WILL beat Tennessee...Tenn is young while Siena returns 5 starters and can out run them as well.

Remember how Siena dismantled another SEC team last year?

I'd prefer to see Tennessee in the 2nd round.

[lichoya68]

ok this i s a BRUTAL schedule ok up to seven or nine teams preseason top 25 or thirty BEST tourney by most accounts in the country all year except maybe the big east tourney and as coach said brutal big east not just number of teams he said top seven or eight ANY ONE OF WHICH wouldnt be a shock to win the title the ncaa title that is .. two weeks where we play three games in like six day yup no school around those weeks and then the planners kinda wanted to make sure we didnot thrre peat as regulare season big east champs again so we start uconn at uconn pitt at home gee thanks and nd at nd hmmm some people have those three in the top five in the country or at least top seven or eight soooooooo WILL BE TOUGH EARLY but good practice for the youngins yup be february with better schedule wowwoowowo could be very very good but we will see.... ps throw in duke away and memphis at home ANYBODY THINK THIS ONE IS EAsy AND BY THE WAY old jacksonville even WITHOUT ARTIS GILMORE wowowo is picked first in there league go hoyas go youngins this is a very very very tough league toughest in the country and very very very tough no brual schedule not just for the teams but also when games occur like our first three big east and three games in six days TWICE boy do they fear us now go hoyas

[lichoya68]

ps best tourney all year ie that old spice disney world thingy yup ;D ;D ;D

[SirSaxa]

I disagree with the earlier assessment about Thabeet.
When Roy was a freshman, he didn't look too good either.
Thabeet has made tremendous progress during his years at UCONN and, he is 7'3"!!

UCONN can be very tough by late December, especially in CT.
That will be a REALLY tough game, assuming AJ Price gets his game back.

But our guys will do very well
As we keep saying, this team will be a LOT better toward the end of the Season.

[richfame]

Just remember UCONN showed zero heart last year. Calhoon said on mike francesas show last week that at some points last year even he could not motivate his team to play hard on the defensive end. To my knowledge this is a very similar core to last years team. They dont deserve to be in the top 5 in my opinion. Just my opinion though.

[lichoya68]

i hate uconn all my relatives and my wifes relatives are from conn and most uconn fans my brother is a uconn alum and fan BUT i do think this will be a different team this year.. they will find that heart and work better together and boy do they have talent so they will be tough.. id love to beat em in our first big east game but early game first big east game national tv at uconn and our youngins WOULD BE A GREAT BIG EAST START DOABLE BUT very very tough we will see but come see us in february folks come see us in feb and their big guy who i didnot like got better and better on d so come on hoyas hang the huskies.

[DudeSlade]

Can't really consider a conference win in a league that we have won back-to-back to be a signature win in the sense that it will be talked about years from now or be a program turner (ala the Duke win in '06). Conference wins can be signature wins in the sense of establishing an identity for the team and proving they are legitimate for the year.

Therefore, I think that the greatest opportunity for a signature win is the Duke game, again. Playing the media darlings and the team of the '90s and early '00s, beating them for the second time in 3 years will prove that we are officially a top tier program, not one turning the corner and moving to the top with an up-and-coming coach as in '06, but one that is officially year-in and year-out going to be a top team with one of the best coaches in the game. I think in many ways it's a chance for JTIII to go into Cameron Indoor and forcefully take away from Coach K the mantle of the "It" coach and the "It" program. UNC, Florida, and others have done that to an extent this decade, but no one has really overtaken Duke. I legitimately think this is a chance for that as we have beaten them in recruiting battles (Greg Monroe was huge at the time), and beat them in '06 to announce us coming back, and if we beat Duke this year with a vaunted team and us supposedly good yet inexperienced, it would be a huge announcement to future recruits about the quality of our coach and a major statement on a national level.

I think Tennessee is too early in the season to be a signature win, but it could be a maturation win for our youngsters to show they are ready for the big time. UConn, Louisville, and Pitt will be critical conference wins to show who is the class of the Big East. I especially think Pitt is important because they are the Big East team that has consistently played the best against us since JTIII arrived.

[vcjack]

Nov 7, 2008 21:38:28 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

Remember how Siena dismantled another SEC team last year?

And remember how a mediocre Villanova team handled them pretty easily in the next round?

They may have a good team, but its still MAAC level talent. Nevertheless it should be a fun game to watch

[alleninxis]

Being in Albany, I see them in person and believe me It's not MAAC level talent...their guards are Big East, potentially NBA material.

I mean could we say Davidson had Socon level talent? We found that out first hand.

[jgalt]

Nov 9, 2008 19:38:31 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

Being in Albany, I see them in person and believe me It's not MAAC level talent...their guards are Big East, potentially NBA material.

I mean could we say Davidson had Socon level talent? We found that out first hand.

We CAN say that Fairfield has MAAC level talent and they beat sienna last year. so did rider, cornell, st. joe's, loyola (MD) (twice, once by almost 30), and manhattan. (i am purposely leaving out memphis and cuse). their biggest wins were stanford (in the first week of the season) and then vandy. Im not saying that you are wrong, but your logic is flawed. If sienna was better than the MAAC because they beat vandy, then so must loyola or so must cornell be better than the ivy because they beat sienna. I dont know enough about sienna to comment on their personnel, but ill need more evidence than "they beat vandy in the tournament last year" before i believe they are better than tenn. not saying that they cant beat tenn. in one game in november, just that they shouldn't beat tenn.

[lichoya68]

in any case almost ALL agree that that little tourney in orlando is the BEST OF ALL TOURNEYS ok so wed better be ready and get ready starting next monday go hoyas get ready to rumble they are all big win one by one by at least one go hoyyassssssss

[alleninxis]

Ehhh,

I guess we'll see later this month. I'm just saying they have 2 kids that would see minutes on THIS roster and about 3 other Big East quality kids.

[SFHoya99]

Dudeslade, I think we're arguing semantics over what a "signature win" means. Personally, I'm defining it simply as a win that counts as a big plus with the NCAA Selection Committee. (As an aside, none of these are program changers -- wins are more effect than cause).

Either way, getting back to blue and gray's question, which was, which of these are we actually likely to win?

None of these are cupcakes, of course, and just because they are a good matchup doesn't mean they aren't better than us...

Matchup well, Location neutral or home

Tennesse (Old Spice) - Potential Matchup - This team doesn't like to play slow and it's early and they are starting a new backcourt.

Gonzaga (Old Spice) - Potential Matchup - Just don't see them as all that good.

Memphis - No more Dorsey means they are thinner down low; no more Rose and CDR means they are less dynamic on the wing

Marquette - Lack of size makes it hard for them to exploit us inside. Little bit of concern about their pressure on our guards. Our turnovers could be out of control.

Matchup well, Location away

at Duke - again, like Louisville, I'm not saying we're more talented. But where we've struggled -- against elite PGs and strong interior players -- well, Duke's not it. It's in Cameron, though.

at Marquette

At Notre Dame - So we don't have Roy to stop Harangody. And they win at home a lot. But I just don't see ND being all that good.

Bad matchup, Home

Pittsburgh, Louisville and Cuse, if they turn out to be good. We could win all of these, of course, but the matchups aren't strong for us.