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Post by 6thman on Jan 28, 2024 21:27:42 GMT -6
UIC
VALPO+
BRADLEY
MURRAY STATE+
DRAKE
ILLINOIS STATE+
UIC+
SIU
INDIANA STATE
BELMONT+
+denotes away games
3-7 in conference
12-9 Total
Where will these Aces finish?
8-12?
9-11?
7-13?
i drnk the KOOL AID!
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Post by austinace on Jan 28, 2024 21:44:01 GMT -6
A lot of this obviously depends on if Ben comes back anywhere close to 100%. - We have a good shot at winning the next two games against UIC and at Valpo (but on the flip side we could lose both if we play bad);
- The next three are likely losses (Bradley, @murray State and against Drake);
- The next three we have a shot (@ Illinois State, @ UIC and at home against Southern Illinois). We are likely to be the underdog in each of these games but might sneak out a win or two (especially if Ben were back and healthy);
- The last two are likely losses (Indiana State and at Belmont). If Ben were back there would be a chance at Belmont.
So, we are currently 3-7. I think four more wins are possible and possibly a couple more with Ben. That is probably the ceiling though.
So, I will say 7-13 but will hope for 9-11 (but doubt that is possible without Ben).
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Post by acescott on Jan 29, 2024 7:06:42 GMT -6
I personally don't see winning four of the remaining games. I would guess maybe 2. Wednesday is huge to keep a little buffer from last place. Without any inside information I have to assume Ben is either out or will not be at full strength and stamina the rest of the year.
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Post by aceloverlarry on Jan 29, 2024 8:03:15 GMT -6
I personally don't see winning four of the remaining games. I would guess maybe 2. Wednesday is huge to keep a little buffer from last place. Without any inside information I have to assume Ben is either out or will not be at full strength and stamina the rest of the year. I’ll agree with two wins without Ben, but I don’t understand everyone’s pessimism surrounding his injury. I’m no doctor, but if his injury had regressed to the point of being season ending, I would think he would be back in the boot already. Imo, he likely just had a minor setback after the Valpo game. I feel confident we will see him back sooner rather than later. |
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Post by goacesgo on Jan 29, 2024 8:23:23 GMT -6
I personally don't see winning four of the remaining games. I would guess maybe 2. Wednesday is huge to keep a little buffer from last place. Without any inside information I have to assume Ben is either out or will not be at full strength and stamina the rest of the year. I’ll agree with two wins without Ben, but I don’t understand everyone’s pessimism surrounding his injury. I’m no doctor, but if his injury had regressed to the point of being season ending, I would think he would be back in the boot already. Imo, he likely just had a minor setback after the Valpo game. I feel confident we will see him back sooner rather than later. I agree, my thought is the Coaches know we really don’t have a shot at top 4 this year, so there is no advantage to finish 7 above 11. So let’s rest him until the last few games and take our chances in the tournament. |
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Post by aceloverlarry on Jan 29, 2024 9:36:52 GMT -6
I’ll agree with two wins without Ben, but I don’t understand everyone’s pessimism surrounding his injury. I’m no doctor, but if his injury had regressed to the point of being season ending, I would think he would be back in the boot already. Imo, he likely just had a minor setback after the Valpo game. I feel confident we will see him back sooner rather than later. I agree, my thought is the Coaches know we really don’t have a shot at top 4 this year, so there is no advantage to finish 7 above 11. So let’s rest him until the last few games and take our chances in the tournament. I’d prefer not to finish 11th just because of the optics of finishing bottom of the conference again, but there is no doubt that we would be the most dangerous 11 seed St Louis has seen with a healthy Ben and would theoretically have a better path to Saturday than finishing in the 8/9 game in my opinion. Either way, I agree that they are playing it safe to make sure they’re as healthy as possible down the stretch instead of rushing him back to try and get a 3 game winning streak. I’m assuming they learned their lesson if he reaggrevated it after Valpo and all parties have decided it’s best to be 100% before playing again. Hopefully he’s 100% before Murray road game. I still think they’re beatable if we’re healthy and I would hope we would be very motivated for some revenge. |
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Post by acescott on Jan 29, 2024 9:46:47 GMT -6
We are actually fortunate to be 3-7 in conference play. We've won our 3 tightest games. Our avg margin in MVC is not only the worst, it's not even close. -14.1 then UIC -8.9. Only saw UIC on TV once, vs. Indiana State. UIC impressed me. I'll be content with about 14 wins and 11th or above. Regarding the tournament, statistically we'll likely be under 1 percent chance of winning it. I have a hard time taking it too seriously. That's just my personal perspective.
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Post by austinace on Jan 29, 2024 10:02:55 GMT -6
We have 31 regular season games and at least one or two games in Saint Louis; it would be real nice to get back to a .500 record this year. That will take four or five more wins to get to 16 or 17 wins. Fingers crossed. 🤞 That would be a very successful year IMO.
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Post by aceloverlarry on Jan 29, 2024 10:09:59 GMT -6
We are actually fortunate to be 3-7 in conference play. We've won our 3 tightest games. Our avg margin in MVC is not only the worst, it's not even close. -14.1 then UIC -8.9. Only saw UIC on TV once, vs. Indiana State. UIC impressed me. I'll be content with about 14 wins and 11th or above. Regarding the tournament, statistically we'll likely be under 1 percent chance of winning it. I have a hard time taking it too seriously. That's just my personal perspective. I agree we have little to no shot of winning it, but I am going to hold out hope that we could maybe make it to Saturday under the right circumstances. Still probably pretty unlikely but winning one game in St Louis and being competitive on Friday instead of a blowout would be progress for sure. I think that’s definitely achievable if Ben returns and would definitely make us all feel good about the direction of the program moving forward (assuming we can keep our key players). |
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Post by wildbill on Jan 29, 2024 15:37:30 GMT -6
6-14.
Don't see anything to change my mind.
If, miraculously Big Ben comes back this week, we could possibly go 7-13
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Post by 6thman on Jan 29, 2024 17:16:41 GMT -6
Ten games, I'm at an even split 5-5. Prefer to be 6-4. With the win on Saturday, w/o Ben, and UIC coming on Wednesday would solidify the team that without Ben They Can Win. A road steal at Valpo before Ben and Bradley get Ben back in. Lots of basketball left.
just an opinion...
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Post by indyacesfan on Jan 29, 2024 17:30:25 GMT -6
I am targeting 4 more winnable games out of the last 10 (UIC x2, Valpo, and Illinois State). I would be thrilled if we can win 3 of those 4 games and see us as the 9 or 10 seed in St. Louis. Who knows, maybe the Aces can surprise me and snag another game not mentioned. Anything can happen in the Valley!
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Post by lawrencevgibson on Jan 31, 2024 10:18:54 GMT -6
If Ben comes back and is able to stay healthy I'll stick my neck out for 10-10. I'm looking for some surprise W's. I'd really like to upset Drake at home as well as SIU.
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Post by aceloverlarry on Jan 31, 2024 10:48:17 GMT -6
Ten games, I'm at an even split 5-5. Prefer to be 6-4. With the win on Saturday, w/o Ben, and UIC coming on Wednesday would solidify the team that without Ben They Can Win. A road steal at Valpo before Ben and Bradley get Ben back in. Lots of basketball left. just an opinion... I don’t think it happens, but it’s not as outlandish as it might sound. Win the games we should (UIC x 2, @ Valpo, @ Illinois State) and we’re at 7 wins. I think @ Murray, SIU, and @ Belmont are all games we could win if we’re playing the way we did against UNI in early December. Probably won’t get to 10 wins, but I still believe we can compete with most in the league with a healthy Ben. Going 7-3 down the stretch is going to be very hard though. EDIT: I meant to quote tweet the response about getting to 10-10 on the season. Not sure how I accidentally got the wrong one on this |
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Post by aceloverlarry on Jan 31, 2024 21:57:01 GMT -6
I think we can all agree after tonight that a healthy Ben completely changes the trajectory of this season. It’s a shame he had to miss the last month because I think we definitely beat Missouri State, Murray State, and UNI if he’s never injured. That would have us in sole possession of 4th place in the MVC if it had happened.
7-3 down the stretch might still be improbable because of how hard it is to win on the road in the MVC at times, but I don’t think it’s completely out of the question. If Ben’s on like he was tonight, I truly believe we can win any game left on our schedule.
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