Looking at the remaining schedule, starting with the upcoming four game home stretch, there are thirteen conference games, plus the Bracketbuster remaining. Of those games, what should we realistically expect to see out of them? I can’t imagine the current shooting struggles are going to continue forever. I’ve said that I feel like one good offensive performance can spring board the confidence of this team toward a winning streak. As I look at the schedule, assuming you expect to win your home games, and beat NIU every time you play up there, there’s no reason they can’t win the next 6 in a row, or at least five of 6. That gets us to the road trip up to Toledo, then EMU at 7-2 or 6-3 in Conference. Really, there is no reason to lose to either one of those teams, though something tells me it’s probable that we won’t win both. But let’s say they win them both. That gets us to home vs BG, which they should win, followed by the Bracketbuster, which in the reality of MAC tourney seeding, doesn’t matter, so I’m skipping over that for now. That’s good for 10-2, or 9-3 in conference (21-4 or 20-5 overall) with the tough stretch to close out the year.
After Bracketbuster Saturday the “tough stretch” begins. There are 4 games left: at Buffalo, Akron at home, at Kent, at Miami. Best-case scenario here is 3-1 out of that, but I think we should probably hope for splitting these. That brings us to either 12-4 or 11-5 based on my assumptions. I think it’s a given that it will take 12-4 to get one of the top 4 seeds, it’s time for that winning streak to start beginning with tonight! Question is, can they do it?