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Rpi

We could be in the 50's or 60's if not for playing so many Horizon league teams.

Even with Drake, ISU, and UIC, and us winning the Bracket Buster is a wash for us because all teams played were also on our schedule, or in the case of UWM, they are worse than every other Horizon team we played.

Who still thinks 4 HL games was good scheduling?
 
squirrel said:
We could be in the 50's or 60's if not for playing so many Horizon league teams.

Even with Drake, ISU, and UIC, and us winning the Bracket Buster is a wash for us because all teams played were also on our schedule, or in the case of UWM, they are worse than every other Horizon team we played.

Who still thinks 4 HL games was good scheduling?
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Our RPI could be in the 50's if we could have actually won a game against a quality non-conference opponent (Vanderbilt, Mich. St., Butler, VCU). I'm not an RPI master, but this season is completely different if we can finish off Michigan State and Vanderbilt. We'd be at 19-10 and our bad losses (Wichita State, UIC, most notably) wouldn't matter so much. We'd be firmly on the bubble.
 
Bradley would be in the top 50 if they hadn't lost the 3 VERY winnable games while Ruff was injured (UNI at home, Mo St on the road, and Wich St at home).
 
BUBraves2006 said:
Our RPI could be in the 50's if we could have actually won a game against a quality non-conference opponent (Vanderbilt, Mich. St., Butler, VCU). I'm not an RPI master, but this season is completely different if we can finish off Michigan State and Vanderbilt. We'd be at 19-10 and our bad losses (Wichita State, UIC, most notably) wouldn't matter so much. We'd be firmly on the bubble.
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It would be better if it were the other way around. It's easier to keep out a team that has a big win along with bad losses than it is competitive losses in key games, but no bad losses.

This BU team has way too many bad losses. Eliminate those and we are squarely on the bubble. Probably still on the outside looking in. But again, when you play half of one league, they all can't be good teams, so you severely limit your RPI range.

Also, you eliminate those losses at home to UNI, WSU, and Drake we're one game out of first with two to play, with the sweep of Drake.
 
squirrel said:
We could be in the 50's or 60's if not for playing so many Horizon league teams.

Even with Drake, ISU, and UIC, and us winning the Bracket Buster is a wash for us because all teams played were also on our schedule, or in the case of UWM, they are worse than every other Horizon team we played.

Who still thinks 4 HL games was good scheduling?
Click to expand...


Squirrel, just about everyone of your posts are "coulda, woulda and shoulda". There's nothing we can do about our RPI. We lost a couple of winnable games, and we got some wins by playing a couple of mediocre Horizon teams. But you need a few easy games mixed into the schedule to break things up. What good is playing nothing but NCAA contenders when you lose most of those. Just ask SIU or Davidson.

Our objective (if Ruffin is playing, or even without him) is to try to win the Valley tournament and obtain that NCAA tournament bid. And if the NIT or CBI is the best we can do, those are a lot better than what we thought we were headed for about a month ago with an 8-10 record and 140ish RPI!
 
Bravesfan said:
Squirrel, just about everyone of your posts are "coulda, woulda and shoulda". There's nothing we can do about our RPI. We lost a couple of winnable games, and we got some wins by playing a couple of mediocre Horizon teams. But you need a few easy games mixed into the schedule to break things up. What good is playing nothing but NCAA contenders when you lose most of those. Just ask SIU or Davidson.

Our objective (if Ruffin is playing, or even without him) is to try to win the Valley tournament and obtain that NCAA tournament bid. And if the NIT or CBI is the best we can do, those are a lot better than what we thought we were headed for about a month ago with an 8-10 record and 140ish RPI!
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I'm tired of excuses.

I don't disagree. . .however I will never agree that 4 HL games is responsible scheduling.

Davidson and SIU (particularly if the Salukis beat us) are also likely NCAA Tournament teams.

Pomeroy makes an excellent case for Davidson here: http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=185

All I see are missed NCAA opportunities in 2005, 2007, and 2008. Maybe some are OK with that.
 
squirrel said:
I'm tired of excuses.

I don't disagree. . .however I will never agree that 4 HL games is responsible scheduling.

Davidson and SIU (particularly if the Salukis beat us) are also likely NCAA Tournament teams.

Pomeroy makes an excellent case for Davidson here: http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=185

All I see are missed NCAA opportunities in 2005, 2007, and 2008. Maybe some are OK with that.
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Uhhh, Davidson and SIU are NOT likely NCAA Tournament teams, at least not yet. Davidson did what they needed to do, go out and play great teams to beef up their schedule. Two things wrong with the way they did it though. First, playing great teams the caliber of Duke and North Carolina only works if a team is a top ten team themselves. Playing the schedule they did was suicide considering they did not beat any of these teams. Playing good teams does not necessarily mean playing top ten teams all of the time. Scheduling some mid-level and more winnable BCS teams (Oklahoma St, Purdue, Arizona St as examples) would make a bit more sense, as would higher level and like-minded mid-majors like Kent St or Akron. The RPI would be down a bit, but their non-conference record would probably 6-3 or 5-4 instead of the at-large killing 3-6. That's why they won't even get a sniff of the tourney unless they take care of things in their conference tourney first. Winning their conference tourney will then allow them to possibly upset a team or two come mid-March.

As far as SIU goes, same problem. A mediocre non-conference record, though not as bad as Davidson's. Now SIU could get an at-large bid by finishing in second place, and making it to the Valley finals due to a stronger conference affiliation. But for now that 2-12 road record will never get anyone into the tournament with that kind of mediocrity.

Oh, I can't agree with your Horizon League argument either. Two of the teams they played are potential NCAA teams (one a Sweet Sixteen favorite), and the fifth we had no choice to play. I also think it's important to establish local rivalries, and that's what we are doing by playing UIC and Loyola all the time.
 
I'm on record saying elsewhere I want us to play Loyola every year. I think that is a great non-con rivalry. I also don't mind playing a 2nd non-con game against the Horizon League such as Butler. I think regional rivalries are important.

However, look at our 5 Horizon League opponents. . .that alone is 20 extra conference games added to your RPI.

Furthermore because of the Bracket Buster:

Drake's win against Butler
ISU's win against Wright St
UIC's win over UNI

All cancel each other out and further limit the RPI.

But as a season ticket holder, the home tickets the last couple years have been less than appetizing. I want to play the best schedule possible.
 
squirrel said:
But as a season ticket holder, the home tickets the last couple years have been less than appetizing. I want to play the best schedule possible.
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The last 2 have been better than the 3 before them, IMO.

Suppose I need you to point out great non-con season's for JLes to use as a model.
 
my 2 cent to this topic are as follows.

RPI, ratings, prestige aside. Which game did you have more fun at, Michigan State? or Florida Gulf-Coast? I know that was a cupcake game to get us Vandy and Iowa, but can you imagine a home slate with just teams like that? sure our record would (should be) good, but the MSU game was one of the top five sporting events I have ever attended, and I am sure a lot of you feel the same way. You simply cannot get that atmosphere with any old team. I say go for it, get some tough games, I know it is hard for a Mid-Major to pull in some teams, but hell, we got Izzo, why stop there.
 
In my opinion, you can go into the "would have" "should have" "could have" statements, or you could realistically look at where we are now. I believe that no matter what we do, our bubble is already popped, and we should just win the whole darn MVCT, and then all this talk won't even matter.
 
bugregshu said:
In my opinion, you can go into the "would have" "should have" "could have" statements, or you could realistically look at where we are now. I believe that no matter what we do, our bubble is already popped, and we should just win the whole darn MVCT, and then all this talk won't even matter.
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I agree. We've known for weeks that our post-season chances depend upon what we do in St. Louis.
 
squirrel said:
I'm on record saying elsewhere I want us to play Loyola every year. I think that is a great non-con rivalry. I also don't mind playing a 2nd non-con game against the Horizon League such as Butler. I think regional rivalries are important.
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I completely agree about the regional rivalries. I guess maybe I'm in the minority of people who post on here, but there are a ton of Chicago alums that really like being able to see BU at least once a year. I know BU has to look out for its local fans, but there's still a good fanbase up here, too. I'd be really disappointed if we didn't have at least one of these (Loyola, DePaul, UIC) on our schedule every year. Coach Les has shown up at the very well attended pregame parties and said there is a commitment to trying to play in this area and I really hope he follows up on that.

Selfishly, that's the best part of getting UWM this season. I have a chance to see BU at least once somewhat nearby and not having to drive 2 1/2 hours every time. Hopefully that doesn't sound like too much to ask?
 
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