Orange Juice & Donuts: The Breakfast of...

An up and down week for the V.  We went into upstate New York, and played an extremely efficient game with an ORtg (offensive rating) of 126.6, however we gave up an ORtg of 109.8.  We followed that up with a trip to the faux Island and gave up an ORtg of 112.47.  Not good to say the least.

However, one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to stay positive and happy.  Why not, right?  I’m tired of getting frustrated and upset over little things, and Nova baskets and this blog should be a place of tranquility and positivity.  So, let’s find something good to reflect on.  It’s only 1 game and we are still 17-3, with a Big East record of 5-2, and after my breakfast of orange juice and a dozen munchkin Dunkin’ Donuts I am full and content once again.

As always, I began with a question:  traditionally, how have we fared on the road during Big East play?  Do we loose to bad teams on the road?

I went back only until 2005 because that was the year the Jay Wright era, as we know it, really began.  This was the junior year of Foye, Sumpter, Ray, and Fraser.  You know the one we lost to UNC on the bull shit call?  Stay positive.  Here is our Big East ROAD record each year, and the Top 50 is according to the kenpom.com rankings.

2005		2008				Top 50
W	L	W	L			W	L
5	3	3	6		2005	2	3
					2006	3	1
2006		2009			2007	2	4
W	L	W	L		2008	1	3
7	1	6	3		2009	2	3
					2010	3	3
2007		2010			2011	1	1
W	L	W	L
4	4	5	3		Total	14	18
	2011
	W	L
	2	2

The important take away here is that we loose almost all of our road games against quality opponents.  In total we have lost 22 games on the road in the Big East and 18 of those 22 have been ranked in the top 50.  I of course would love to win some of those, but taking care of business is important (beating the mutts of the league).  4 of those losses, however, we outside of the top 50 including Providence (71^st), and the ONLY other year in which we lost to a team outside the top 50 was in 2008  (we lost to 3).

Wait there is some good news, staying positive remember.  When we look at the top 25 on the road we are:  4-13.  One of those victories was this year:  ‘Cuse at 16.  And one of those losses was to UCONN at 13 which we could have just as easily won.  On a negative note for 1 sec. though is that it is unclear if UCONN or ‘Cuse will stay in the top 25 for the remainder of the year.  The rankings from the other years reflect a team’s end of the season rank, which in any event is a better reflection of a team than their rank at the time.

All and all it was an up and down week like we all know, but I think we should remain positive.  Not just because of New Year’s resolutions nor because I am one of those totally loyal stupid fans who will never say anything bad about my team (for the record I am not).  We should stay positive because we are still an unpolished team.  In ’06 when we went 7-1 on the road we had a team that had been slowly improving each year, and we had several players with National recognition.  Everyone knew their role, and we simply took care of business.  In ’05 that was not the case.  We were an up and coming team with players who were still developing and learning game by game.  In ’09 we were again an unpolished team.  We had seniors who had been around, but we did not know what type of production we would have from our role and bench players. 

In ’11 we have a similar situation as in ’09 & ’05.  We are still improving and players who are contributing significantly to our team are still a work in progress. That being said we seem to get up for BIG games (see ‘Cuse & even UCONN) but as a team that isn’t whole yet we are prone to slip up.  Looking ahead we are going to learn a lot about our team because with 11 games left, 5 are on the road.  Time will tell.

And remember:  I don’t always stay positive, but when I do, I prefer to Throw My V’s Up!  Keep your chin up my friends.