#QuestForTen Game Board

As explained in this thread, we are using a modified Ten Chances board from The Price is Right to track men’s basketball this season. It’s just one of our many whimsical coping mechanisms.

The image above is the official board. Anytime USF wins a game, the opponent’s logo is added where the prize would go, and the score is written on the pad. Also, there is a rating for each win, of 1 to 4 stars:

Only wins are rated (not losses). We will also update this post to give our comments on each win, and rationale for the above rating. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments.

• Florida A&M: USF took a little too long to put away a team picked to finish last in the MEAC. But once the Bulls took control of the game, they never really let FAMU back into it. The second-half lead dipped from 15 to 6 a couple times, but USF closed the door each time, so we won’t nitpick. (3 stars)
• Rider: USF had better players, but Rider looked like the better team. The pace was slow, and USF didn't really seem to be on the same page. There was a lot of 'let the shot clock run down to 5 and make a play yourself’ on offense. We debated giving it a 1 rating, but newcomer-heavy teams will have games like this, so we'll again give the benefit of the doubt. (2 stars)
• Kennesaw State: At times, USF seemed worthy of a 1, 2, 3, or 4 rating. They looked dominant in the first half, with the offense running smoothly, racking up lots of assists en route to a 48-27 halftime lead. Kennesaw put together a 14-1 run to start the second half, and USF’s offense regressed to its Rider form. Then it got worse: USF seemed content to kill time, actually taking shot clock violations on two consecutive possessions. Kennesaw had a chance to win it with a 3, but missed by a foot. Not since Butler's Gordon Hayward against Duke in the 2010 national championship game has a missed game-winning three-pointer looked so good. (1 star)

Laurie here is a good analog for tonight’s game. She starts off strong, getting the first prize right away, and the second one on the 4th chance. Then she loses her fundamentals by making two guesses that don’t end in zero, violating the cardinal rule of this game. After squandering her margin of error, she pulls it together just enough to try all the right combinations. Much like Geno Thorpe, who had a key basket and a couple late free throws to stave off disaster. Only because she built a big lead was she able to win.

• Troy: Once again, USF built a huge first-half lead (43-25 at the half, and 15 points well into the second half), and nearly lost it. Troy had a chance to cut it to a one-possession game in the last two minutes, but USF came up with a defensive stop, and Geno Thorpe once again helped salt it away on offense. But USF came up with a road win, against a team they lost to last season, which is plenty good. (3 stars)

By the way, I have cross-referenced the star rating system to contestant performances in Ten Chances. See above for details. If I had this exercise to do over, I would have rated each game on a scale of 3-10, 3 being a master performance (won the car in the minimum number of chances) to 10 being the worst (needed all 10 chances).