Do You Expect Us to be Ranked in the Top 25 This Year?

[XUOHTX]

Some like the "sneak up" theory, some like the recognition and respect, others don't care. Regardless of all that, do you expect X to be ranked in the Top 25 at any point this year?

[vee4xu]

You know, I'm kind of beyond the sneak up scenario. I think X's program is at a point where they are not going to sneak up on teams. Frankly, that may actually part of the issue, that X's program has enough notoriety that everyone is ready to play them. As for if they make it into the Top 25 my thinking is that the same notoriety that has others prepared to play X is the same reason why voters will give them some consideration sooner than other programs. Butler is a perfect example of that early in this season. Whether they crack the Top 25 this season depends on them losing no more OOC games and starting strong in conference play. My concern is the overall defensive effort. Unless that gets better, winning on the road will be very difficult. So, the jury is out with me and I'll refrain from voting until January 1, 2015.

[Mel Cooley XU'81]

Yes.

[PMI]

We will be ranked in April, perhaps sooner.

[Smooth]

By mid-February.

[xu82]

Sure, why not? Better at the end of the season than the beginning.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I want to say yes but if my life depended on it I would say no.

I dont think our OOC wins will get us there before conference play starts and I dont think we will rip off enough wins in a row to start conference play to get there then throughout we will have too many parts where we win several but with a loss or two mixed in and so we wont get there.

I wont be surprised if we get there and would have said we would earlier in the year but I'm not super optimistic about it now. I think we will be close and I think we will be a good team just wont quite make it.

[Kahns Krazy]

I want to sneak up on a national championship.

[THRILLHOUSE]

I'm gonna say no because I don't see X going on a long enough winning streak to do so. However, if X can go unbeaten from now thru Jan 10th, then I think they would be ranked for the Vilanova game on the 14th.

[XUGRAD80]

I'm afraid that I look for X to be around .500 in the BE this year. Before the season started I would have guessed they would be 2nd or 3rd in the BE, but the conference seems to be much better than many had thought in the ore-season. So I voted no. BUT...I do think that even at .500 in the BE they are still a top 40 team, and could end up with some votes, just not enough to reach top 25 status.

[bleedXblue]

I don't see it. But, we have lots of potential and I don't think we've played our best basketball yet. To me three things have to happen. Better defense, an additional solid go to guy in addition to Stain and the emergence of Reynolds as a solid 12-14 PPG / 8-10 RPG guy consistently.

[PMI]

To me three things have to happen. Better defense, an additional solid go to guy in addition to Stain and the emergence of Reynolds as a solid 12-14 PPG / 8-10 RPG guy consistently.

I agree. I think Reynolds needs to emerge as a consistent threat. He is too talented not to be one of our best players and I honestly expected him to look a little further along in his development even this early in the year. I think most of it with him is mental, but not the kind of mental issues that can't be fixed (ala Justin Martin.) I just think he needs to take a deep breath and play a little more relaxed and naturally. By no means do I want to see him tone down his intensity, or hatred for rims, but sometimes it seems as if he's... well, for lack of a better term, tweaked out. I still think we'll see him turn it on and be great this year. The other guy who I think is starting to emerge and will be one of our best players on both ends is Remy. By league play, I think he'll have shaken any year-off rust and be a really good player. He has a great ability to drive and finish, he's athletic as hell, and he's physically suited to be a great defender within our system. I think we need to (and will) see him be one of our centerpieces.

[Lamont Sanford]

Gotta go with my gut and it says 'no'. Don't feel like this is a Top 25 team this year.

[xukeith]

I hope so but with our OOC showing and the strength of the BE, the only chance is to not lose a game until after Georgetown and only be ranked by an inflated record.
Hopefully X will have a good record in BE but not top 25(not enough talent and consistency). I hope to be wrong.

[nasdadjr]

No because this team is too young and won't win enough games on road in order to get it done. I don't see this team with more than 9-10 conference wins with a majority of losses coming in conference play. 10 wins in conference will be enough for NCAA tournament though

[drudy23]

No because this team is too young and won't win enough games on road in order to get it done. I don't see this team with more than 9-10 conference wins with a majority of losses coming in conference play. 10 wins in conference will be enough for NCAA tournament though

10-8 in conference with very few quality OOC wins will not get us in the tourney.

[XUGRAD80]

10-8 in conference with very few quality OOC wins will not get us in the tourney.


21-10, 10-8 in THIS conference, this year (currently 3/4 overall ranked conference).....9 seed

[Kahns Krazy]

Gotta go with my gut and it says 'no'. Don't feel like this is a Top 25 team this year.

I kind of feel the same way, but I also feel like this team could easily snap off 7 wins straight and crack the top 25 at any time. There is plenty of talent on this team. If the focus comes, the wins will come.

[drudy23]

21-10, 10-8 in THIS conference, this year (currently 3/4 overall ranked conference).....9 seed

I think if we do this, we're looking squarely at the bubble, and likely more towards the play-in games (if in at all). The only way I could see this working for us is if 2-3 of the conference wins are against teams like Butler, Villanova, and Georgetown and avoiding the losses to DePaul. We need quality wins.

[bleedXblue]

We have 13 games remaining (as of today) with Top 100 RPI teams. 8 of those games against Top 50 teams. Lots of opportunity to make some ground up. Of course minimizing the "bad losses" is key as well. I'd feel a heck of a lot better if we can get Mizzou and Auburn in the W column. They're the worst ranked RPI teams left on the schedule.

[vee4xu]

Agree Bleed, but the team's CA performance has me more than a little concerned about X's ability to play well away from home than the quality of opponent that they're playing. If X loses either one, or God forbid both of those games, the admins can go ahead and delete this entire thread.

[XUGRAD80]

I think if we do this, we're looking squarely at the bubble, and likely more towards the play-in games (if in at all). The only way I could see this working for us is if 2-3 of the conference wins are against teams like Butler, Villanova, and Georgetown and avoiding the losses to DePaul. We need quality wins.

If X can't get 2-3 wins out of those 6 games, then they have little shot at getting 10 conference wins anyway. Let's remember that virtually all preseason polls had X ranked 2nd or 3rd in the BE. While I think that the BE has done better than expected as a conference, I also think that X has much room for improvement and will be competitive enough to match the preseason expectations.

[PMI]

10-8 in conference with very few quality OOC wins will not get us in the tourney.

Yea it will, as long as we don't lay any other eggs in OOC or lose to DePaul. The Big East has far more quality win opportunities this year than last. All that said, I would hope we can do better than 10-8.

[MADXSTER]

So far this season, Xavier has shown that they can probably beat anyone in the NCAA and lose to almost anyone. If I was an opposing coach, I would not want to play Xavier because if they catch fire, they are hard to stop.

[bleedXblue]

Yea it will, as long as we don't lay any other eggs in OOC or lose to DePaul. The Big East has far more quality win opportunities this year than last. All that said, I would hope we can do better than 10-8.

11 wins is going to be really tough. The league is deeper and more balanced this year. Games @ Marquette and DePaul will not be easy by any stretch.

[Olsingledigit]

As for the title of this thread, ask me after the next four games.

[toledodan]

to be honest we lost our best chance to be ranked losing those two games out west. i think we will have a very good big east season. proble is we will have a hard time getting a big winning streak going to get ranked. only chance would be beating a couple of ranked teams in a row. could happen if one is nova.

[vee4xu]

When you load your schedule with OOC cupcakes, which by the way I don't blame X for doing this season, there is little to no margin for error. Losing to both LBSU and UTEP was bad. Especially since X slaughtered LBSU in Cincy the week before and led both games into the second half. Now, it's one game at a time. It starts tomorrow in Columbia. Every game from now until Georgetown is an RPI must win game. Then, beating Georgetown is a must win to start off the BE season on the right foot. To me, everything is a must win from now until January 1, 2015. At that point, I'll reassess.

[OH.X.MI]

ESPN currently has us ranked 15 on their BPI rankings, one spot ahead of Nova. Admittedly I don't fully understand how ESPN calculates BPI and don't think it really matters. But still interesting.


http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bpi

[PMI]

11 wins is going to be really tough. The league is deeper and more balanced this year. Games @ Marquette and DePaul will not be easy by any stretch.

It's definitely going to be tough, but we definitely shouldn't be set on anything less by any means. I figure we should be favored in 8 of our home games, with Villanova being the other. We should hold serve at home for the most part. That leaves just a few road wins and tough as it is, the bottom line is that we should be able to get a few of them. We should be able to win at Marquette. Nobody is saying it will be easy, but we are capable of being better than a 10-8 team in the Big East. And if we don't win at DePaul, that's a big, big problem. DePaul is putrid.

[bleedXblue]

It's definitely going to be tough, but we definitely shouldn't be set on anything less by any means. I figure we should be favored in 8 of our home games, with Villanova being the other. We should hold serve at home for the most part. That leaves just a few road wins and tough as it is, the bottom line is that we should be able to get a few of them. We should be able to win at Marquette. Nobody is saying it will be easy, but we are capable of being better than a 10-8 team in the Big East. And if we don't win at DePaul, that's a big, big problem. DePaul is putrid.

Yeah normally I would agree.....but ANY road game is not easy. I don't care who you're playing.

If we don't press DePaul for a large majority of the game, we would be extremely foolish.

[PMI]

Yeah normally I would agree.....but ANY road game is not easy. I don't care who you're playing.

If we don't press DePaul for a large majority of the game, we would be extremely foolish.

No doubt. Winning on the road was hard in the A10. I don't really remember that far back, but I'm sure it was tough in the MCC too. But good teams can win some of them. 3-6 on the road would not be particularly impressive and could still put us in a potential position for 11 wins. Difficult as it is, there is just no excuse for losing to DePaul this year, and we really, really shouldn't lose to Marquette either.

[Masterofreality]

No doubt. Winning on the road was hard in the A10. I don't really remember that far back, but I'm sure it was tough in the MCC too. But good teams can win some of them. 3-6 on the road would not be particularly impressive and could still put us in a potential position for 11 wins. Difficult as it is, there is just no excuse for losing to DePaul this year, and we really, really shouldn't lose to Marquette either.

We lost in that cold clammy barn that houses Butler in 1989 when they were abjectly terrible and we were coached by Pete, won 21 games and went to the NCAA's. U never know.