[chimera]

Since I've already gotten (private) grief about worrying about the post-season already I will explain my thinking.  We are 5-4.  After the next three games we may be 7-5 with two home wins against not so great teams and a loss to TN, though of course I hope we beat TN (McPhee back would surely help) and believe we can.  Beating TN would be brobdingnagian this year because it would show we have improved and give us a quality non-conference big name win. If we are 7-5 we need 13 conference wins to hit 20, which is not a guarantee to get an NCAA invite.  Our biggest problem is the best team we have beaten is Belmont.  No bad losses but no really good wins.  20 or 21 wins without some marquee wins is iffy for the NCAAs.  We really need to do well in conference with this non-conference schedule of "good" losses but no great wins (Belmont is a good win, not a great one).  But right now I see plenty of possible losses in conference - UCLA and UO particularly.  Getting 13 or 14 conference wins may not be so easy for this team given the youth and inconsistent play.  And if we don't do that we very well could miss out, even if the team does improve a lot.  Bottom line - to feel good about the post-season we need to beat TN, go 13-5 or 14-4 in conference, and beat the top conference teams like UO and UCLA for a couple of top wins the committee can point to.  Of course if we can't beat UO or UCLA at least once we probably won't get to 14-4.  Too many other tough games.  So that is why I feel like we are in some danger.  Of course we could also improve a ton and make all this look silly.  Just hard to do that playing so many young players. 

[chimera]

Since I've already gotten (private) grief about worrying about the post-season already I will explain my thinking.  We are 5-4.  After the next three games we may be 7-5 with two home wins against not so great teams and a loss to TN, though of course I hope we beat TN (McPhee back would surely help) and believe we can.  Beating TN would be brobdingnagian this year because it would show we have improved and give us a quality non-conference big name win. If we are 7-5 we need 13 conference wins to hit 20, which is not a guarantee to get an NCAA invite.  Our biggest problem is the best team we have beaten is Belmont.  No bad losses but no really good wins.  20 or 21 wins without some marquee wins is iffy for the NCAAs.  We really need to do well in conference with this non-conference schedule of "good" losses but no great wins (Belmont is a good win, not a great one).  But right now I see plenty of possible losses in conference - UCLA and UO particularly.  Getting 13 or 14 conference wins may not be so easy for this team given the youth and inconsistent play.  And if we don't do that we very well could miss out, even if the team does improve a lot.  Bottom line - to feel good about the post-season we need to beat TN, go 13-5 or 14-4 in conference, and beat the top conference teams like UO and UCLA for a couple of top wins the committee can point to.  Of course if we can't beat UO or UCLA at least once we probably won't get to 14-4.  Too many other tough games.  So that is why I feel like we are in some danger.  Of course we could also improve a ton and make all this look silly.  Just hard to do that playing so many young players.