More thoughts on a national seed...

Posted on: December 14, 2018 at 22:39:06 CT

Have to go 12-2 in non conference, then go somewhere between 12-4 and 10-6 in SEC play, to finish in the 22-8 to 24-6 range overall. And win at least one game in the SEC tournament, two preferred. That would put us right in the conversation. But 8 regular season losses is the limit, any more and it's likely not happening.

That would give us solid non conference wins on our resume over West Virginia, South Dakota, and Duke, and the two losses to Michigan and Green Bay are not bad losses. What hurts is that a Michigan might be a team we are fighting for a seed and the head to head would favor them.

Then we have 5 shots at signature wins in SEC play, against Miss State, Kentucky, SC, and Tennessee (twice). Problem is 4 of those 5 are road games, just brutal. We need to go at least 2-3 in those five games to have a resume worth consideration from the selection committee. Then we have 2 more chances for pretty good wins against Georgia and TAMU, who both could get NCAA bids. Both of those are at home. Have to go 2-0 there. We are going to get nicked up in SEC play, no chance of avoiding that with a tough schedule. But if we keep our losses to no more than 5-6 in conference then by definition we can be right there for a seed in the 14-16 range I think.

I know that looks difficult to achieve based on what we have seen so far. But I'm convinced this team is going to continue to improve, and Sophie and Amber are going to have all SEC type years. But as many have said, we need 2-3 other players to develop into consistant scorers, and need the 3 highly touted freshmen, Berg, Troup and Levy to grow up in a hurry.

Edited by bluetiger_ at 22:41:29 on 12/14/18