socaltownie said:
We obviously are not beating UCLA this weekend so we will see the losing streak extend to 6, I guess I got my hopes up - not getting to double digit wins is a distinct possibility.
Does Fox survive that?
Are you talking about not getting to double digits overall, or conference (i.e., at least .500 in conference)?
If you're taking about not getting to double digit wins in conference, that was never a real strong possibility, and it became very unlikely when we got swept in Washington.
But we're 9-10. One win from double digits overall. It will be really hard not to do that. Is 0-13 (including the conference tourney) a possibility? Sure, just not very likely.
Just to take one statistical model, Sagarin's Predictor model has us going 2-10 the rest of the way, losing to everyone but UW and Utah, two home games, with a 4.2 points predicted margin over UW and only 0.13 points over Utah. However, Stanford at home is only a 0.25 point loss, OSU on the road only 1.88 point loss, Colorado at home a 2.3 point loss, at ASU a 3.54 point loss, WSU at home is a 3.87 point loss, and at Stanford is a 5.61 point loss.
The other four, at UCLA, at USC, at Oregon, and at Arizona, are all projected double digit losses, and I completely rule out any chance against UCLA, USC, and Arizona. Oregon has been inconsistent enough that you never know, so I'm saying there's a chance, even better than one in a million, but less than one in 10. I'll just assume we go 0-4 in those games.
But for the eight where there is a realistic chance, I kind of like 5-3 as my best guess. Maybe slightly optimistic, but not crazy, even if Sagarin puts us at 2-6. Either 0-8 or 8-0 aren't out of the question, but 5-3 is pretty realistic, and I think it unlikely we do worse than 4-4. The 2.68 point margin that Sagarin adds to a home team probably isn't enough for most Pac-12 games this year, and Cal is a team where that margin probably isn't enough to add home or subtract on the road. I think we have a fair shot to win all five of the remaining home games, I think 4-1 is reasonable, I don't see how we do worse than 3-2 -- in spite of the talent deficit, the Bears play hard every night. Of the road games, it is fair to think we'd win one of the three games against Stanford, OSU, and ASU (especially since you never know what ASU team will show up any time, any place, we're talking a team that lost at HOME to WSU 51-29).
Going 5-3 in those 8, i.e., 5-7 the rest of the way, makes us 7-13 for the conference season, 14-17 overall, pending the conference tourney. I assume Fox survives that.
If we don't get to double digits overall, i.e., go 0-13 the rest of the way (not totally out of the question, especially if we lose to UW), I sure hope Fox doesn't survive. I hope Fox would resign.
And best guess, the next win is UW at home on Feb. 3, the most likely win of the of the 8 games we can realistically win, especially since at Stanford on Feb 1 is the least likely win of those 8.