*Deep Breath*

It feels so good to emote after a tough loss, but after a good (well, bad) night's sleep, I can get my legs back under me and see the forest through the trees.


Littlejohn is a tough place to play, especially after fighting so hard against superior physical specimens at UNC three days prior, and seeing your second leading scorer and best perimeter threat hit with an unfortunate broken hand. The team is demoralized right now, I think. A few days rest and a raucous home crowd to help us beat a hated rival should get things back on track... I hope.

Time for the Gipper speech, coach.

Meanwhile, taking a step back and really examining the collection of parts that comprise this team, it's pretty remarkable how Tony Bennett has built up our expectations for this season to the point that many of us are actually angry and feeling quite salty about the possibility of missing the NCAA Tournament.

Bottom line, we have a great coach who runs an effective system but currently has an under-talented roster. It's a collection of role players that for 80% of the other coaches in college basketball would add up to about a .500-type team.

I know star ratings don't mean much, but they are a decent measure of the baseline talent level of a player coming out of high school.

Mike Scott -- 3-star
Sammy Zeglinski -- 3-star
Assane Sene -- 3-star
Jontel Evans -- 3-star
Joe Harris -- 3-star
Akil Mitchell -- 3-star
Darion Atkins -- 3-star
Paul Jesperson -- 3-star
Malcolm Brogdon -- 4-star

I know there is a lot of consternation about Sammy Zeglinski, but I think it's important to remember the big picture: We wouldn't be so worried about his shooting slump if this team hadn't come together under Bennett's incredible coaching and forced us to raise our expectations to extremely high levels.

I think right now we're left in a situation where we need to fight for three wins over our last six games (including ACC Tournament first round) in order to have a shot at making it to the Dance off of the bubble. Given the relative talent level of this team, I think that's a pretty good spot to be in, all things (injuries, attrition, etc.) considered.

Yes, Zeglinski's slump is hurting us, but we don't have any other options, and we won't do any damage in the Tournament without him scoring, anyway. So we need to just support the kid as he works his way through this rough patch in his game while celebrating just how much this team has overachieved in getting to 19 wins at this point.

Also, in case you missed my tweet, we got a lot of help in RPI action last night.

• TCU beat UNLV.  That was big, and will likely elevate the Frogs from "bad loss" status on our resumé.
• LSU beat Mississippi State, which probably buoys their RPI ranking in the top 100, and maintains their "good win" status on our resumé.
• And my favorite -- George Mason's buzzer beater against VCU keeps GMU in "good win" status.  (Suck it, Shaka.  Best team in the state my ass.)

Our profile is solid.  Our resumé is good.  The peripherals are sound.  We can't finish 6-10 or 7-9 in the conference and hope to have a chance, though.  8-8 might do it, but probably not.  We need three more wins.  It starts on Saturday against Maryland.

Cue herculean effort from Mike Scott, continued offensive production from Jontel Evans, Joe Harris getting more comfortable with that King Tut wrap on his hand, and - I'll dare to say it - Sammy Zeglinski battling out of his slump.

We can do it.  I still believe.

GO HOOS!

Mike Scott once won a NASCAR race... without ever turning left.