The Camp Arifjan pre-game report:

[Special Ed]

We need this one on Saturday to maintain any hope of vying for second-place in the SEC East, especially with Vandy coming up on Tuesday and Baldy chomping at the bit for revenge. But Georgia’s no pushover and this year’s BasketVols are making Sisyphus look like an amateur.

 

[DeepSpringsVol]

worrd

 

[bleedorange0037]

We need this one on Saturday to maintain any hope of vying for second-place in the SEC East, especially with Vandy coming up on Tuesday and Baldy chomping at the bit for revenge. But Georgia’s no pushover and this year’s BasketVols are making Sisyphus look like an amateur.

The way that the bracket breaks down, our best bet might be to finish 3rd in the east. That would give us the 6th seed from the west in the first round (either Auburn or LSU) and the 2nd seed from the west on the second day. Avoiding any teams from the east seems like the best way for us to navigate our way to the weekend, and would give us an opportunity to pad our win total if we are needing a win or two to make our way into the NCAA field.

 

[GAVol]

The way that the bracket breaks down, our best bet might be to finish 3rd in the east. That would give us the 6th seed from the west in the first round (either Auburn or LSU) and the 2nd seed from the west on the second day. Avoiding any teams from the east seems like the best way for us to navigate our way to the weekend, and would give us an opportunity to pad our win total if we are needing a win or two to make our way into the NCAA field.

The way things are looking now, we probably finish the year with 19 wins which I think will be enough given our RPI, but you're right . . . another win or two in the tournament removes any doubt.

 

[ukvols]

The way that the bracket breaks down, our best bet might be to finish 3rd in the east. That would give us the 6th seed from the west in the first round (either Auburn or LSU) and the 2nd seed from the west on the second day. Avoiding any teams from the east seems like the best way for us to navigate our way to the weekend, and would give us an opportunity to pad our win total if we are needing a win or two to make our way into the NCAA field.

But, if we're #2 in the East, we'll need to win just one game against either the #3 team from the West or South Carolina to reach the weekend.

The only situation I want to avoid, assuming that UF takes the East, is finishing 4th with UK 2nd. I don't want to play UK with it being our 3rd game, their 2nd game, and most of the crowd wearing blue, like last year. I'd love to see UK in the Final or in the Semis if we had the bye, but that's it.

 

[bleedorange0037]

But, if we're #2 in the East, we'll need to win just one game against either the #3 team from the West or South Carolina to reach the weekend.

The only situation I want to avoid, assuming that UF takes the East, is finishing 4th with UK 2nd. I don't want to play UK with it being our 3rd game, their 2nd game, and most of the crowd wearing blue, like last year. I'd love to see UK in the Final or in the Semis if we had the bye, but that's it.

Good point, but I was really just thinking in terms of if UT went into the tourney needing to actually up their win total to boost their credentials for the NCAA. It's much easier to pull 2 wins against the 6th and 2nd seeds from the west as opposed to getting a bye, beating USCjr/west #3 and then whoever we might draw in the semis. Finishing 2nd in the east this year isn't going to stand alone as an impressive accomplishment to the selection comittee. Winning two games in Atlanta, regardless of opponent will look better.

 

[tigervol9802]

The way things are looking now, we probably finish the year with 19 wins which I think will be enough given our RPI, but you're right . . . another win or two in the tournament removes any doubt.

4 more regular season wins would make me feel fine. Not sure how I feel about sitting on 19 and needing a game or two in the tournament with this team.