You hate to call this a must win game...

[Bulls Are We]

...but I just don't see Cincy coughing up 2 remaining BE games.  If we lose Thursday our BE title chances will take a huge hit.   

Thu, October 15 @ USF ESPN 7:30 pm ET 0-0

October 24 Louisville TBA TBA 0-0

October 31 @ Syracuse TBA TBA 0-0

November 7 Connecticut TBA TBA 0-0

Fri, November 14 West Virginia ESPN2 8 pm ET 0-0

Fri, November 27 Illinois ABC or ESPN TBA 0-0

December 5 @ Pittsburgh TBA TBA 0-0

[CousinRicky]

Every game the rest of the year is a must win game.

[MaltLiquorBull]

Every game the rest of the year is a must win game.

EVERY GAME MATTERS!!

[The Great 8]

This isn't a must win per se. And, even if we win the BEast this year, we're not going undefeated in conference. When was the last time an undefeated conference record won the conference?

That said, the odds are certainly against us if we lose our first difficult game in conference. I expect us to drop one of the games this month though, the key will be rebounding after the loss whenever/if it occurs.

[BullsOnThaRize8]

hate it or not, its a must win game. As is every week in the big east. A loss to the best team in the conference would most likely end first place hopes. We MUST WIN if we want to solidify the big east title. Then we must beat wvu,pitt,rutgers..you get the point. I dont see anything wrong with calling it a must win game.

[The Great 8]

"must win" implies if we lose we have no hope of accomplishing our goals. unless our goal is to go undefeated (i'm sure that is one goal but that's not necessarily an end to anything like winning the conference).

if we happen to lose this game it just means we need to go on a tear the rest of the season. you guys are out your minds if you expect to go undefeated given how unlikely that is.

this is definitely a key game though.

[nobull.Bulls]

I doubt cincy loses more than 1 Big East game, so we gotta win this game in case we drop one Big East game so we can hold the tiebreaker over them if they run the table. so yes MUST WIN. As is every game after

[The Great 8]

I doubt cincy loses more than 1 Big East game

Why? They had an incredibly soft OOC schedule, with the exception of possibly Oregon State. They may be as good as they've looked, but it's really early to say you doubt they lose more than 1 game.

so yes MUST WIN. As is every game after.

How is EVERY game after a MUST WIN?

You can perceive it as that if you wish, but if there is a multi-way tie with 2 loss teams we can lose 2 games and still win the conference. If we win this game and then lose to Rutgers, for instance, as our only game we'd still win the conference (assuming nobody else goes undefeated obviously).

I know this board absolutely loves to be overly sensational, but we can lose this, or at least one future, game and still win the conference.

[Guest nybullsfan]

the problem with losing is that it's taken the team 3-4 games to bounce back

even great teams lose games sometimes, what makes them great is they bounce right back and win the next one

if we can't learn to bounce back, then we can never afford to lose even once, so yes, they're all must-win games

[The Great 8]

if we can't learn to bounce back, then we can never afford to lose even once, so yes, they're all must-win games

If we cannot learn to bounce back, or play well when ranked, then we have no chance at ever winning a conference championship.

This discussion is very similar to the sentiments people exude saying "gee, I hope we're not ranked this week, we play better unranked."

Our team needs to learn to bounce back and play well under the pressure of a rank if we're to take the next step.