re: Positive from tonight's loss.

Good gosh people overreact to a win or loss so much. We are an average basketball team because we are so inconsistent. However, we have talent when we put forth the effort. If someone actually thinks we wouldn't put up effort in a tourney game, you're high. We are frustrating as Hell because they get overconfident...just like a week ago when people were literally saying "bring on a 1 seed, we can beat them." And there were many...many people who said that. I know because I argued hard against that argument.

No one can predict what will or will not happen. However, at this point we are still 99% in the tournament. I'll take the hundreds of writers and projectors around the country that get paid for a living to do this stuff...almost all say we are definitely in. Tennessee has a top 100 rpi, not great but it's not a "bad loss". It'll drop us a bit, but not a lot. We can lose to arkansas, then win our 1st round sec game and get in the tourney.

Everyone is frustrated, but just take a step back and relax, no need to go into full on bash mode

As I stated last night the loss has dropped us out of the 8/9 slot and closer to a 10 or 11 seed, which we would prefer. Here is a graph showing the odds of reaching the Sweet 16 by seeding.

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The big takeaway is that in terms of reaching the Sweet 16, the only thing worse than being in the 8/9 game is being the #16 seed. As you can see with the blue line, being the 8, 9, or 16 seed all give similar chances of winning your first two games as you basically have to beat the #1 seed and either the #8 or #9 seed. However, many teams will value winning one game, so the order of playing those games matter. The red line reflects this as the 8 and 9 seeds don’t have to play the #1 seed until the second round, so their expected wins is higher.

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Once again its easy to be discouraged after last night but you simply can not discount what this team has done over the last two weeks. Defensively they have been one of the best 25 teams in the country.

Defensive Rating (Points Per 100 Possessions Allowed)
@ TENN 84.6
@ TAMU 100.0
UF 82.9
@ AUB 88.4
MISS 87.5
TENN 123.8


Last night was a combination of things, Way above average shooting by Tennessee combined with a lack of effort by our defense. This is obviously the reason most people are really upset about this performance so late in the season, but to totally discredit what this team has done over the past few weeks because of one awful performance is silly. It's basketball, the Sixers, who admittingly are trying to lose games, took the Thunder (a team fighting for their playoff lives) to Overtime last night. Strange things happen.

I agree with loop dog!!!

I am positive that we are disappointing team to follow

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Better chance at a Sweet 16 Run.

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This loss will probably drop us to an 10/11 seed instead of an 8/9, we will avoid a 1 seed in the second round. Better chance at a Sweet 16 Run

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If the ultimate goal is to get to the Sweet 16 then you're right. I'm not saying that LSU is a final four team or anything close to that. I would hope however that if they make the tournament that their goal would be to win the whole damn thing. If you fail you fail (67 other teams will) but at least you fought to get there.

That said, if the big goal is to get to the Final Four and beyond then historically 8 seeds are in a much better position to do so. Yes, they only beat #1 seeds 20% of the time, but if they do, look out. 8 seeds have .500 or winning records against 2,4,5,6, and 7 seeds. The only other seed below them they they don't have at least a .500 record against is 3 seeds in a very limited sample size (two games).

Bump again

Sweet 16