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Eastern Illinois now #341 out of 341

Da Coach

Da Coach

Moderator
Staff member
How bad is Eastern Illinois? They are 1-3, but for the purposes of the NCAA, they are 0-3 (their only win was over liitle St. Louis NAIA commuter school, Harris-Stowe). And they are losing to some pretty bad teams.

They have played the worst schedule in the NCAA so far, their SOS (Strength of Schedule) is #341 out of 341 D1 colleges. And yet they are 0-3, and after yesterday's loss to Arkansas State, they have moved into the dreaded bottom spot in the RPI rankings.

That's right, EIU is now #341 in SOS and #341 in RPI. And as bad as the Ohio Valley conference teams are (they have 4 teams with 300+ RPI), they play only 1 team the rest of the year who's RPI right now is less than 100. They might be able to pull out of the #341 spot, but they won't be able to rise much.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_324_Men.html

Full RPI list--
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
 
For a state-supported institution, EIU doesn't have a very big budget for athletics. They have poor facilities, and their coaches must have a hell of a time trying to convince kids to come to Charleston. The town is literally in the middle of nowhere.
 
IlliBraves said:
For a state-supported institution, EIU doesn't have a very big budget for athletics. They have poor facilities, and their coaches must have a hell of a time trying to convince kids to come to Charleston. The town is literally in the middle of nowhere.
Click to expand...

So is Carbondale. As I have always said, there is little reason EIU, WIU, or NIU couldn't do some of what SIU has done.
In fact, for a couple years, Jim Molinari started to have success at NIU in 1989-1991. They won games, attendance surged, and they made the NCAA tournament. Eastern made the NCAA in 2001, but none of those state schools has come close since.
I would like to see the new coaches at EIU, WIU, and NIU have success.
 
Da Coach said:
So is Carbondale. As I have always said, there is little reason EIU, WIU, or NIU couldn't do some of what SIU has done.
In fact, for a couple years, Jim Molinari started to have success at NIU in 1989-1991. They won games, attendance surged, and they made the NCAA tournament. Eastern made the NCAA in 2001, but none of those state schools has come close since.
I would like to see the new coaches at EIU, WIU, and NIU have success.
Click to expand...


I think Northern could do some of what SIU does, but not so much EIU or WIU. EIU and WIU are in much lesser conferences, although the MAC isn't that great either. Plus, Southern can boast a beautiful campus and a pretty area in general with access to Rend, Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, and it's not too far from St. Louis. I agree it's in the middle of nowhere, but as far as I know, and I could be wrong, EIU doesn't offer much as far as the campus goes, at least not as much as SIU. NIU and SIU also have much better facilities than EIU and WIU, not sure if that has to do with a bigger budget, but nonetheless it is a fact.
 
Da Coach said:
So is Carbondale. As I have always said, there is little reason EIU, WIU, or NIU couldn't do some of what SIU has done.
In fact, for a couple years, Jim Molinari started to have success at NIU in 1989-1991. They won games, attendance surged, and they made the NCAA tournament. Eastern made the NCAA in 2001, but none of those state schools has come close since.
I would like to see the new coaches at EIU, WIU, and NIU have success.
Click to expand...

I agree w/ DC. It starts with the attitudes of the head coaches. I would be curious as to what each of those schools' coaches believe their program is and can be. If you are resigned to the fate of being small-time, and readily using the built-in excuses of 'being in the middle of nowhere' and 'not having the budget', then you're going to be terrible. There are a LOT of good basketball players out there. With the right coach and right attitude, those schools can be good.
 
I see that Eastern Illinois played a winless Rice team tonight, and lost again. Their RPI is still dead last, #341, and even farther behind the #340 team. They still have the worst SOS, too. It might be the lowest RPI in history!
 
Despite Western's concerted efforts to bust Eastern out of the solidly placed anchor spot of 341 (jezz that's alot of upstarts in there too) I remember when there was less than 320 D1 programs, Eastern won't budge.

I don't know how much more Western can do! they layed down like a door mat at home, letting Texas Pan American, a conglomeration of foreign exchange students and former flight attendents, beat them at home by 13 points.

Western's lone D-1 win is against?........who else, Eastern.
 
At this reflective holiday time of year remember how fortunate we are Bradley fans. Thank goodness for all we have.

Try to keep in your thoughts those less fortunate D-1 bretheren within our own state. Perhaps we could open up a discusion with Southern and see if we could foster an "Adopt a Basketball Program" for Christmas. Bradley can nurture and uplift Western, while Southern could take poor Eastern in off the street, maybe offer an encouraging word, pat on the back? Anything would help.
 
Norhern Illinois won their first game under new coach Ricardo Patton. I don't know who they beat, because this dopey article from the Chicago Tribune about the game never mentions who the other team was.
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...02dec02,1,6775682.story?coll=cs-college-print

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200712010417
attendance was 1,042 in NIU's new arena. They have a long way to go to start drawing the fans back.

Western Illinois lost big time 80-57 at Texas-Arlington. Note the attendance of 513!--
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200712010588

And as noted, Eastern Illinois lost 57-45 to Iowa--
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200712010276
 
Thanks Mike. It would have been nice if the Trib article would have included that information.
 
I defended EIU through last year. With an young, optimistic, upbeat Miller at head coach who apparently was able to recruit pretty well (2 consecutive newcomers of the year), the results simply have not been there on the court.

After being reasonably competitive the first half of the season, I expected them to break through the second half last year with a home-laden sked, and they did not. And they actually look worse this year.

I still think they could be the surprise team in the OVC, but at this rate, things don't look good.
 
This is Mike Miller's 3rd season, and it would be hard to say he's made any progress. With one of the worst schedules in the country (actually it is the worst right now, #341 out of #341), he is winless against D1 competetion. The Ohio Valley Conference is pretty weak (7 of 11 teams have just 1 win or less and none have winning records), the Big South is the only conference ranked lower. So EIU could still do well in conference, but their RPI won't rise much. Their next 2 games are at home against winless OVC opponents. I have also felt Coach Miller should be given more time, but these next few weeks could change my mind.

How much longer would you give Coach Miller? I am sure you recall that when Jim Les didn't produce a winning season by his 3rd year, there were a lot of loud voices calling for Bradley to rectify their "mistake". In fact that was happening by the middle of Jim Les' 2nd season, and continued through season 3 and the first 3 months of season 4.

As for Western Illinois, Derrick Thomas is 28-86 in 4 years, and appears to be going downhill. The talent he recruits to WIU seems as good as the talent level at other schools in the Summit League, but they underachieve, or leave. If things don't turn around there this season, I wouldn't blame their followers for wanting a change. So far it doen't look like that's happening.
 
It looked like Eastern might have had their best chance at a win tonight. They played their first Ohio Valley Conference game at home against Tennessee Tech. Tennessee Tech is 0-6 against D1 opponents, and their RPI was 338, barely ahead of EIU's RPI of 341.

But unfortunately, despite playing in front of a home crowd of 834, Eastern Illinois was humiliated by Tenn. Tech 72-53.
Tech had a 21 point halftime lead and coasted the rest of the way.--
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200712060179

Tennesee Tech's RPI rank zoomed all the way up to 331 after the win over EIU.
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_ovc_Men.html

But EIU's RPI dropped from 0.2474 to 0.2268. They are breaking new ground with their ineptitude.
For the record, the lowest RPI I can find for a season was Liberty University in 1999 when they finished last in RPI (310 out of 310) with an 0-20 record against D1 opponents, and an RPI of 0.3198.
That RPI is still far better than where EIU's is now. Will EIU be able to rally and get their RPI back up to the level of the previous worst in history?
 
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