They have one of the highest home court advantage numbers in the Massey ratings (#11), which ranks their SoS #19. Pomeroy, on the other hand, ranks them outside the top 100 for luck (#129). Massey now predicts a 23 win season.
What this tells me is that this young team draws a lot on the energy of the home crowd in the Schott (who would have thought that?). I see that Coach is tampering down expectations. The challenge is going to be to repeat this performance on the road against hostile crowds. The two-day turnaround, after a three game road swing, to play Nebraska at home also will be tough.
This is now a much more psychological challenge for the coach and team. It's going to be fun to watch!
I had thought about that, they were feeding off the crowd big time. Fun to watch, but you hope they can translate those results on the road. But hey, I am used to dropping games or playing a tight game when we shouldn't be at home in the not so distant past, so this is truly a pleasure to watch.
I rewatched the game and I know we should not expect that every game will go down like this (or the MSU game). But if we stay healthy, I do see a team that could win some games in the tourney. I see a team with talented players that can shoot and defend, but never really had any confidence until CH came around. They are playing hard and enjoying the game, and you can see it with every player on the team. The progress they have made is flat out remarkable. I am really glad I toughed it out and watched every game the last 2-3 seasons because it makes the progress so enjoyable. This team realizes how well it can play and I think that is powerful. Even if they are on a down night, I think they can overcome it with the way they are playing defense and rebounding. I still want to temper expectations overall because we are on a hot streak right now that will be tough to duplicate over the course of the season. That being said, you can see we have the tools to make a run in the tourney and that is a hell of a lot more than I was expecting coming into the season. Love this team and our coach right now, keep it up guys.
Upvote
0