mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-19 09:12 AM - Post#273448
In response to bradley
It was a natural assumption to make that those two wouldn't be back when you see them missing all of those games. Or to think that if players can play, that they will play. It's just not how Tommy runs his program.
Once you understand how little Tommy cares about the non-conference, you see that they really have only missed one game thus far and still had almost all of what Tommy considers the "real" season ahead of them. No one was getting rushed back or pushed to play at 90%, even in a game against a high-profile opponent like UNC. They're all exhibitions to Tommy.
That being said, can we reflect on that non-conference run for a moment? They went 6-6 against the 44th toughest schedule in the nation with narrow losses to USF, URI and Vermont. That's roughly equivalent to going .500 in the American Conference (with its unbalanced schedules tilting slightly to the light side).
But all of that is meaningless now. Harvard has its three easiest games in its next five (though with no teams in the bottom 100, we can finally say that no game is a gimme in this league and actually mean it). If it can't go 4-1 in those five, it's probably looking at a less than 50/50 chance to make the tournament. Those are the breaks in a tough league with only a 14-game sample - something Princeton found out the hard way last year.
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