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I don?t believe there is much debating the fact that one of many teams could win this thing and I think we should be included on that list.
We have the talent and depth to be able to win four games in four days. It is often pointed out that such a road takes its? toll on a team and that they won?t have much left in the tank on the fourth night. Well, if we can win three, I will take my chances in the fourth.
Is it realistic that we can go on such a run? Sure it is.
If you look back over the course of the season you will see that we played Xavier right down to the wire on two occasions. We battled with St. Joseph?s and defeated Dayton. If there is one thing that does concern me a little it is our confidence level against Temple.
The Owls beat us up. Their style of play can frustrate a young team like us. But a date with Temple is so far away. First we have to go out and take care of business against Duquesne.
We played twice during the regular season and won both contests. We won on a last-second shot at their place and defeated them by 26 at our place. It is no easy task to beat someone for a third time so we will have to come ready to play.
While playing the Dukes for a third time is somewhat of a concern, a bigger concern is the health of Bernard Barrow.
Bernard, who has done a nice job of running the offense this season, may see some limited action on Wednesday evening. I would love to be able to rest him for the quarterfinals, but we have to make sure we get to that stage.
As a group, these kids know that they have been close to breaking through against some very quality opponents. I don?t believe that is a stretch to say that we could easily be 17-12 or 20-9.
Recently I read my good friend Bob Huggins? column, where he stated that there is a fine line between the Final Four and being at or below .500. There is so much truth to that. If you knock off a formidable opponent, early in the year, it raises the confidence level of the players and suddenly you are off to the races.
Look at what Bruiser Flint did at UMass. That team played a brutal non-league schedule and entered conference play with a 2-9 mark.
We faced them in the league opener and led by a dozen at the half. In the second half they came out on a mission and went on to beat us. That win was the start of good fortunes for the Minutemen.
We followed that loss up with a very tightly contested game with St. Joseph?s. It was tight for the entire 40 minutes, but they prevailed. Had we won that game, who knows, maybe it would have propelled us on a nice run.
That is why I say at this is the time of year when you can throw away the win-loss records.
We are a young team, with a lot of talent and with an influx of players coming in next season we certainly have a bright future.
But in the very near future we have an Atlantic 10 Tournament game with Duquesne. If we can come away with a win, perhaps that future will arrive a little earlier.
