Wake Forest preview

[Tiger93 299]

2 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I’m sure the usuals will respond to this but most other fan bases are a whole lot more negative than we are…I know I am one of Critics on here but we are probably one of the nicest fans and schools in the country. Coaches stay because they get lengthy extensions for mediocre production. There are minimal expectations and close to zero pressure. 
 

two weeks ago hens fans were thinking inglebsys seat should be scorching. Drexel the same with spider. Jmu fans don’t think byington is the answer. Uncw fans were questioning if siddle was right earlier this year (ok that’s a bad example because they are major tools)  

 

I guess that makes sense. There are also many more fans of Wake Forest than Towson so for every opinion we have on there multiple it by 50-100 times and it will probably be amplified. The more opinions the more arguments and so on. 

I will put my partially negative hat on here for a second. There are four major things I want to see a head coach do with this program. Beat notable teams in non-conference play to get people excited and boost up our NET (and other pertinent) rankings, have good quality rankings (NET and otherwise), be successful in regular-season conference play and win the conference tournament. 

We accomplished two out of the four this season. Two things our program has been terrible at since my sophomore year (when we best West Virginia and Lousville, and St. John's my freshman year) has been getting notable wins against power conference teams and obviously the one we all bitch about here, not winning the conference tournament (which we have documented ad nauseum has been even longer).

We still have time to get a fairly significant program win with this matchup against Wake Forest. I at least want to see a game where I feel we have a chance to beat them or I will be disappointed. We can argue whether that is unrealistic or not, but this is a second chance to do something noteworthy after missing out on winning the conference tournament (obviously it can't completely make up for it).

Hopefully we are up for it and play a good game. There were a lot of frustrating aspects of the Delaware loss, but the worst part was after winning 25 games and having a great season we had one of our three worst performances of the year in our biggest game of the season. Hopefully we can bounce back and get back to the quality level of pay we have shown for most of the season. These players deserve another chance and hopefully they will take it and run with it. Go Tigers!

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

34 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

I guess that makes sense. There are also many more fans of Wake Forest than Towson so for every opinion we have on there multiple it by 50-100 times and it will probably be amplified. The more opinions the more arguments and so on. 

I will put my partially negative hat on here for a second. There are four major things I want to see a head coach do with this program. Beat notable teams in non-conference play to get people excited and boost up our NET (and other pertinent) rankings, have good quality rankings (NET and otherwise), be successful in regular-season conference play and win the conference tournament. 

We accomplished two out of the four this season. Two things our program has been terrible at since my sophomore year (when we best West Virginia and Lousville, and St. John's my freshman year) has been getting notable wins against power conference teams and obviously the one we all bitch about here, not winning the conference tournament (which we have documented ad nauseum has been even longer).

We still have time to get a fairly significant program win with this matchup against Wake Forest. I at least want to see a game where I feel we have a chance to beat them or I will be disappointed. We can argue whether that is unrealistic or not, but this is a second chance to do something noteworthy after missing out on winning the conference tournament (obviously it can't completely make up for it).

Hopefully we are up for it and play a good game. There were a lot of frustrating aspects of the Delaware loss, but the worst part was after winning 25 games and having a great season we had one of our three worst performances of the year in our biggest game of the season. Hopefully we can bounce back and get back to the quality level of pay we have shown for most of the season. These players deserve another chance and hopefully they will take it and run with it. Go Tigers!

That’s life as a 1 bid league. It comes down to 3/4 (maybe 5/6 next year) games.  Under skerry we have been the worst program when it truly counts. 
 

Wake is very solid and if they didn’t lose to Boston college in Brooklyn they likely would be playing in the other tournament. They lost twice all year at home. To Duke and miami. They have lots of transfers too

[sr16 165]

Only a couple mutual matchups which I can think of, one is Pitt. We lose to Pitt by 4. WF beat Pitt by 16.

WF beat W&M by 18. We beat W&M by 15 and 22. 

[Blounge 522]

 

[Tiger93 299]

16 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

That’s life as a 1 bid league. It comes down to 3/4 (maybe 5/6 next year) games.  Under skerry we have been the worst program when it truly counts. 
 

Wake is very solid and if they didn’t lose to Boston college in Brooklyn they likely would be playing in the other tournament. They lost twice all year at home. To Duke and miami. They have lots of transfers too

Obviously I agree with the assessment on Skerry's conference tournament resume, but I completely disagree with the narrative that the whole season comes down to the conference tournament or it is a failure. In fact, this season was a perfect template toward what we should be trying to build long-term. I will repeat that 25 d-1 wins, a top 75 NET ranking (top 80ish KenPom ranking) and a 15-3 conference record are much better building blocks to a successful program than winning three games in three days. Of course finding a way to sustain the type of year we had is easier said then done.

I know I am putting the cart before the horse here, but we built up a resume this year that could have gotten us to a 13 or 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which actually gives you an outside shot to win a game (which is really something to build on). Obviously getting to the tournament is the first step, but building a sustainably good program that can be consistent is more important (we still have a ways to go on that journey as well). Long-term success doesn't just come by magically getting to the NCAA Tournament. I am hoping this year showed us some ways we can build for long-term success, and someday God-winning we can actually figure out a way to get to the tournament. In the meantime, Wednesday is another opportunity to beat a very solid team and add another small step to this journey.

I agree that Wake is a very solid team built on high-end transfers (as you said their top three scorers are all transfers from some point). However, they were only 5-7 in quad 1 and quad 2 games so it is not like they beat a lot of high quality teams. Obviously by looking at their roster and the eight-point spread they are pretty clearly better than we are, but there were definitely worse matchups out there in the NIT field. 

[sr16 165]

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2022/3/14/22976370/nit-predictions-bracket-wake-forest-virginia-xavier-smu

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

2 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

Obviously I agree with the assessment on Skerry's conference tournament resume, but I completely disagree with the narrative that the whole season comes down to the conference tournament or it is a failure. In fact, this season was a perfect template toward what we should be trying to build long-term. I will repeat that 25 d-1 wins, a top 75 NET ranking (top 80ish KenPom ranking) and a 15-3 conference record are much better building blocks to a successful program than winning three games in three days. Of course finding a way to sustain the type of year we had is easier said then done.

I know I am putting the cart before the horse here, but we built up a resume this year that could have gotten us to a 13 or 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which actually gives you an outside shot to win a game (which is really something to build on). Obviously getting to the tournament is the first step, but building a sustainably good program that can be consistent is more important (we still have a ways to go on that journey as well). Long-term success doesn't just come by magically getting to the NCAA Tournament. I am hoping this year showed us some ways we can build for long-term success, and someday God-winning we can actually figure out a way to get to the tournament. In the meantime, Wednesday is another opportunity to beat a very solid team and add another small step to this journey.

I agree that Wake is a very solid team built on high-end transfers (as you said their top three scorers are all transfers from some point). However, they were only 5-7 in quad 1 and quad 2 games so it is not like they beat a lot of high quality teams. Obviously by looking at their roster and the eight-point spread they are pretty clearly better than we are, but there were definitely worse matchups out there in the NIT field. 

Making the tournament is the goal. It always is and always should be.  A nice regular season is nice. Having a net ranking is nice too but that means nothing to most people. It won’t help us get an at large. Yeah it gets us a better seed but need to make it for that to matter. 
Winning the regular season is awesome and playing in the NIT is also cool. I’m more excited for tomorrow than most on here.  
 

This season was successful but we fell short of the ultimate goal. I think anyone on the bench and in uniforms would agree 

[Tgr4life 170]

21 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

I guess that makes sense. There are also many more fans of Wake Forest than Towson so for every opinion we have on there multiple it by 50-100 times and it will probably be amplified. The more opinions the more arguments and so on. 

I will put my partially negative hat on here for a second. There are four major things I want to see a head coach do with this program. Beat notable teams in non-conference play to get people excited and boost up our NET (and other pertinent) rankings, have good quality rankings (NET and otherwise), be successful in regular-season conference play and win the conference tournament. 

We accomplished two out of the four this season. Two things our program has been terrible at since my sophomore year (when we best West Virginia and Lousville, and St. John's my freshman year) has been getting notable wins against power conference teams and obviously the one we all bitch about here, not winning the conference tournament (which we have documented ad nauseum has been even longer).

We still have time to get a fairly significant program win with this matchup against Wake Forest. I at least want to see a game where I feel we have a chance to beat them or I will be disappointed. We can argue whether that is unrealistic or not, but this is a second chance to do something noteworthy after missing out on winning the conference tournament (obviously it can't completely make up for it).

Hopefully we are up for it and play a good game. There were a lot of frustrating aspects of the Delaware loss, but the worst part was after winning 25 games and having a great season we had one of our three worst performances of the year in our biggest game of the season. Hopefully we can bounce back and get back to the quality level of pay we have shown for most of the season. These players deserve another chance and hopefully they will take it and run with it. Go Tigers!

I would agree with your outlook as this being a base for future success if this were Skerry's first or second or even third year. Being here for a decade or more and JUST NOW figuring out what needs to be done to set a base is unacceptable. They played well during the regular season and many keep pointing to that. It is true, but my point has always been....that gets you nothing....it did not even get Towson fans coming to games. 

Winning one tournament game and "figuring out how to set up something to build on" taking a decade....does not work for me. 

Hope they win tomorrow...but one game does not change the past decade. 

[mat1992 2,259]

 

[Tiger93 299]

35 minutes ago, Tgr4life said:

I would agree with your outlook as this being a base for future success if this were Skerry's first or second or even third year. Being here for a decade or more and JUST NOW figuring out what needs to be done to set a base is unacceptable. They played well during the regular season and many keep pointing to that. It is true, but my point has always been....that gets you nothing....it did not even get Towson fans coming to games. 

Winning one tournament game and "figuring out how to set up something to build on" taking a decade....does not work for me. 

Hope they win tomorrow...but one game does not change the past decade. 

So should we fire him after wining 25 games and having a great season? My point is we can continue to build off of this and we damn well better. Is Skerry's conference tournament record terrible? Yes. Is he much better than any coach we have had here since Truax? Yes, by a longshot. Could we do better with someone else. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the decision-making mechanisms in place. I do think with a new AD here, Skerry is going to get the benefit of the doubt if he puts up season 20-win seasons and does well in conference play, and he won't if he struggles. 

I have the same frustrations as you guys do regarding the tournament, my only point is I would love to use this season as a starting point for longer-term success. What year Skerry is in is completely irrelevant if he can do this going forward and eventually win a conference tournament. People can actually, learn, grow and get better at their jobs. He does have some stuff to fix with the tournament, but I do think it is easier to figure out when you are playing at very high level for most of the year. It is the years where we suck that I worry about where this program is going. 

I am as hungry as anyone for a tournament appearance, but I would rather have this season than go 11-19 and have a lucky run to get there. The point is to have a good program, not just one flash in the pan season. I think we have some building blocks off of this season and that is all. Those are my main points. That is why NET rankings, conference play, doing well in the non-conference matter more than three games in March in a big-picture program sense. I get that it doesn't in a short-term tangible sense, but to get where we all want to go this program needs to get used to a high standard on a day-to-day basis.  

Pat Skerry took us from pathetic to solid (and really good this year). Solid is not good enough on a consistent basis. I would like to live in a world where regular-season titles, high NET rankings, good non-conference wins and of course first and foremost NCAA Tournament berths become the norm (this does exist in other mid-major programs). However, it takes a lot of different ingredients to have this. We got halfway there this year and I want to build off that. Please don't mistake that for me not caring about getting to the tournament when I am flying halfway across the country to root for this team in-person in hopes that I might witness a conference tournament performance.