...with 10 to go

[hoyaparanoia1984]

10 games remain

01/28 Cincy 12:00 PM
01/31 at DePaul 8:30 PM
02/05 #10 Pittsburgh *12:00 PM
02/09 St John's 9:00 PM
02/12 #13 W Virginia *7:00 PM
02/16 at Marquette 9:00 PM
02/19 at #6 Villanova *12:00 PM
02/22 Rutgers 7:30 PM
02/25 #24 Syracuse *12:00 PM
03/04 at S Florida 7:00 PM

I think 8-2 is in reach. @ nova will be the toughest. If we go 8-2 and finish 21-6 going into the BE tourney we are a top 12 team in the country and depending on how we do in the tourney its puts us as a 4 seed. I know this is getting ahead and I was always taught the "one game at a time" but from where the program was you can't help but to get excited.

I just don't think we'll fall like we did last year and this is about where it happened.

[bawlmerhoya]

Dude, do you smoke rocks? We are playing great, but it will be hard to go 8-2 the rest of the way. USF is not a gimme, and they have the worst record of the teams remaining on the schedule.

[nychoya3]

Dude, if we lose our next 10, I'm coming to your house to beat you up. Posts like this destroy lives. Be more careful in the future.

(but now that you mention it...)

[hoyaparanoia1984]

if we lose our next 10 I will give you the address

[RBHoya]

We are right where I was hoping we'd be. I thought we'd lose 4 conference games for sure, and we'd have 2 games of 'slack' to go 10-6 and still be in solid shape going into the BET. I thought for certain we'd lose @uconn, @wvu, @nova and.... @ Notre Dame (this is before the season, when I thought ND would have a better record). So on that front, we're doing alright. However, teams like Pitt, Cincinatti, and even South Florida have been better than I'd have thought. I still think we have a nice chance to go 10-6, but we're going to have a lot of close games like Cincinatti, Pitt, @marquette, and vs. Syracuse, and we need to do well in those. We also need to beat teams like St. Johns, SFU, RU, Depaul, none of which will be easy.

We're in a good spot right now, but I'd really like to see us win at least 3 out of our next 4, preferably all 4. It'll be tough though. Bearcats first.

[IlladelpHoya]

I think we'll go 11-0 in our last 10 games. In fact, I don't see us losing again until a trap game against Bethune-Cookman in December of 2010. I think we might actually be granted retroactive victories for games we've played and lost. There is no one who can beat Georgetown right now, not even the teams that have beaten us.

Anything less than a #1 seed in the DC region is an insult and if we are granted a #2, we should boycott the tournament and start our own invitational.

Should I stop now?

[ephoya04]

Thank you Illadelph for putting things in to perspective...we have't exactly been Mariano Rivera-esque at the end of games (see Duke and ND). There's a reason everyone says take it one game at a time...b/c it works! We start looking ahead, I have NO doubt we will get picked off by a team everyone expects us to beat. Slow and steady wins the race.

[SoCalHoya]

Slow and steady is right. Beating the evil blue devils does not equal a national championship, or even a bid to the dance! So let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[Locker]

Why is the initial post controversial? 8-2 is not a lock, or even probable, but it certainly is "in reach", as he says.

If Vegas had to set odds for each game right now, we'd be favored in all of them except for Marquette and Villanova. No doubt about it.

Note: I realize that doesn't mean we're a better than even money bet to actually win all of those 8 games in which we're the favorite.

[pkhoya03]

Prediciting how we close out our last 10 games only brings unnecessary expectations, crushing realities (as we have experienced over the past few seasons), and a whole lot of anxiety. All I can say is that every game is going to be tough. Let's take it one game at a time.

[KHoyaNYC]

Kenpom still puts us as 10-6, despite our recent success.

[Cambridge]

Kenpom also has us as a favorite in every game except for Nova.

[MCIGuy]

The cool thing is the team has already played half its away Big East road games, with 2 victories on the road already. And of course that means Gtown has 6 more home games left. If the Hoyas can win just five of those home games that alone may be enough to get them in the Big dance.

[RDF]

Have to be cliche and go with the "one game at a time" approach and why do I think that is what GU Staff is saying as well?

Program's focus is on getting better each game and playing good basketball on both ends--if that happens, we can win any game and if not, at least we're playing good ball. That's all I expect and want to see and whatever happens with it, fine by me.

[lichoya68]

OK ...I PREDICTED WED BE TWELVE AND FOUR IN THE BIG EASY .. I DID PREDICT WITH THAT .....THAT WED BEAT WEST VA. TWICE.. SOOOOOO ......MY CORRECTED PREDICTION FOR OUR FINAL RECORD IS NOW 11 AND FIVE. ....THAT WOULD JIVE.. THATS MEANS IF WE ARE FOUR AND TWO ......THAT WED BE SEVEN AND THREE THE REST OF THE WAY ...... THATS WHAT ITLL BE ..... GO HOYAS BE HUNGRY AGAIN.. BEAT THE BEARCATS....PS DID I REALLY PREDICT WED BEAT ND BY THREE IN ONE OR TWO OVERTIMES WOWOOWWO GO HOYAS GO LICHOYA .....THAT WAS SOMETHING...... AND I FORGOT I DID PREDICT THAT

[DanMcQ]

The only problem with the remaining games is that none of them are guaranteed cakewalks. It is a plus that the Hoyas do not have to visit the RAC, where bad things almost always happen.

[Big Dog]

danmcq said:

The only problem with the remaining games is that none of them are guaranteed cakewalks. It is a plus that the Hoyas do not have to visit the RAC, where bad things almost always happen.

Such is life in the New Big East.

The toughest games for my money are the road games: @ Nova and @ Marquette. I think Pittsburgh is better than MU (we'll get a good clue of that Saturday when they face off), but I think we're going to find that the Bradley Center may be the toughest or second-toughest venue in the conference. Going into the Notre Dame-Marquette game there, the ND media said it "makes the RAC seem like a trip to the park." They set an all-time decibel level record for the building after Novak hit the game-winner last Friday.

Anyway, 11 days or so ago I set out what I thought we'd need to due after the Duke game. Having counted that a loss and been (happily) wrong, I want to revisit the list:

Gotta have 'em:
Rutgers
@usf

(making us 6-2 in the conference)

Need 2:
@ DePaul
St. John's
Syracuse

(making us 8-3)

May only need 1 now (plus one BET victory, otherwise 2 or all 3 of the games in the last group):
WVU
Pitt
@ Marquette
@ Nova

(9-7, 18-9 overall, pre BET)

Yes/No?

[Deleted]

Well, according to lic, 18 and 9 would be mighty fine...

[hoyaparanoia1984]

With this thread by no means did I say it would be a lay down that we would go 8-2 in the final 10...quite frankly we could win all 10...just saying that the way we are playing now...8-2 is NOT out of reach. I would be extremely happy @ 7-3 and when the BET starts and "The Dance" starts we could be a very tough team to prepare for(as far as matchups go).

[doublehoya]

Big Dog -- You forgot Cincy.

I'd put them in your "Need 2" category.