Call me crazy, but I'm feeling pretty good about game 1 on Wednesday.
Not sure why other than a gut feeling, but here are some possible reasons:
- It's hard to beat a decent team three times in a row. Washington State would have to do that on a neutral court.
- OSU played solid man defense the past two games. Maybe a light's been turned on? You never know with these guys, but they showed promising intensity.
- At this point, Craig Robinson should have a plan to slow Brock Motum (I'd play man-to-man and put Collier on him).
- Beavs have their best shot at the NCAA tourney in some time. Should provide motivation and excitement in that locker room. A win or two probably gets them in the NIT, so there's that subplot, too.
The Beavs have gotten 9 of the 17 wins versus 200+ RPI teams. That's bad. They're 2-3 versus 100-200 RPI teams, 3-6 versus 51-100, and 2-3 versus 1-50. So, this is an average to bad squad. We know that. They're just playing their best ball right now (granted, against week opponents), so I'm thinking they have a good shot. It all boils down to defense. If they play intense man to man and give effort for the full 40 minutes, then they should win this game. After that, who knows–there's no clear favorite in this tournament. Anyone else feeling strangely confident?