So you consider the Northwestern game a colossal choke job by Syracuse, but not the Loyola one? Got it. I seem to recall you stating as that game was happening that "Loyola couldn't run with Syracuse" or something to that effect. You seemed to very much think that a 5 goal lead at that time was substantial enough.OuttaNowhereWregget wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 2:05 pmIn regards to the Northwestern loss, I don’t consider a three-goal lead late in the fourth with more than three minutes to go substantial, especially against that offense. Plus, I remember watching that game. Syracuse choked that one away. They deserved to lose that game. So Northwestern earned that win. No asterisks involved.laxer12 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:36 pmHaha I'm not lamenting or whining about the Northwestern loss at all. I just wholeheartedly disagree with any notion that Northwestern is the better team in comparison to Syracuse.OuttaNowhereWregget wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:13 pmUltimately, woulda-coulda-shoulda’s fit into the category of “losers lament”. Though the points may be valid, they’re sour grapes once the win or loss goes down in the books.OuttaNowhereWregget wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 12:33 pmParenthetically, you could apply the same principle to Syracuse’s win over Loyola—but once you start down that rabbit hole, you have to do it for every game that’s close or has controversial calls or non-calls.
I also beg to differ on the Loyola game. A 5 goal lead with 13 minutes to go in the 4th quarter is not substantial, at least not in my book, and not against Loyola with all their offensive weapons.
The very fact that Syracuse has lost their composure down the stretch in more than one game this season is one of the reasons I don’t put them in the same tier with Northwestern.
You wrote: “I’m saying it’s incorrect to have Northwestern in a group of their own. I would put Cuse, Northwestern, Loyola, Stony Brook, and Duke all in the same tier.”
And I’m sure you would get an argument from somebody for putting Cuse, Northwestern, Loyola and Stony Brook in the same tier as Duke. And still others would argue that another team belongs there or doesn’t. That’s why I encouraged you to make your own tier. Northwestern being in tier 2 by themselves is my opinion, pure and simple. It isn’t right, wrong or disingenuous. Polls are subjective. Tiers are subjective. And to a certain degree so is the RPI/SOS analytic because some nerd set up the parameters subjectively.
Also, I was careful to make the losers lament a general statement. I am not directing it at you. However, when anybody engages in woulda-coulda-shoulda after a controversial loss, I put it into the general bin of losers lament because that’s exactly what it is. Nobody wants to hear it, except fans of the losing team commiserating with each other.
Duke has taken care of business in almost every game they've been tested so far this season. Obviously no one knows how they will match up with UNC or BC until it happens but at least in my subjective eye, they very much look like the same caliber of teams as the ones I listed.
