(03-28-2009 11:05 AM)Karl B Wrote:  I agree, Right or wrong aside, losing our top scorer and then having him in the stands watching was not good for the psyche of the team or for the people picking the NIT. We already have the reputation of having a very bland, limited offense team and then we lose Stevie and look pathetic offensively in the tournament. I think outsiders felt we were done.

I forgot about that side of it. I was criticized when I suggested that the loss of our leading scorer could end up hurting us during the NIT selection process. I pointed out at the time that the NCAA definitely takes injuries,etc. into account when making their tournament selections. Being on the NIT "bubble", it is certainly possible that someone on the committee was familiar enough with our team to say "they're not quite as good as their record because they lost their leading scorer". Squeezing by Denver and scoring 44 against USA couldn't have helped with that perception.

It didn't help that our SOS was 210-plus. We won, but we beat really weak teams.

(03-28-2009 11:17 AM)Scotto Wrote:  It didn't help that our SOS was 210-plus. We won, but we beat really weak teams.

Scotto, you've been making that point for awhile and I don't disagree. But that is fully taken into account by the RPI and is why our RPI was 91 with 23 wins instead of in the 40 to 50 range like Westerns. An RPI of 70 and we are in the NIT with no questions asked (actually they may still have had questions about the Stevee situation).

Agreed. But if RPI is in the 70's, that means we played better competition, and we likely don't win 23 games.

(03-28-2009 11:25 AM)Scotto Wrote:  Agreed. But if RPI is in the 70's, that means we played better competition, and we likely don't win 23 games.

You're most likely right. But if we had just switched out Loyola Maramount (RPI of 320) with a Creighton-like team, and pulled another upset at home (certainly possible) we would have had the same number of wins and a considerably better RPI. Even a loss in that type of game and our RPI would likely have been better. Again, like I said before, I don't think playing a bunch of weak teams (with nice names) was simply "bad luck", but I do think some of those teams (Loyola Maramount in particular) were a lot weaker than even we could have dreamed.

Exactly. The RPI rewards teams for playing better competition.

(03-28-2009 12:04 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Exactly. The RPI rewards teams for playing better competition.

I think we are in agreement. What is ironic is that most of us (don't remember if that included you) felt that this was our best schedule (certainly home schedule) ever, before the start of the season. I mean, you look at LaTech, MoState, Wright State, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, Memphis, Rice as well as no DII's or SWAC teams and you think "that's a pretty good schedule". Just didn't quite work out that way.

(03-28-2009 12:11 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-28-2009 12:04 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Exactly. The RPI rewards teams for playing better competition.

I think we are in agreement. What is ironic is that most of us (don't remember if that included you) felt that this was our best schedule (certainly home schedule) ever, before the start of the season. I mean, you look at LaTech, MoState, Wright State, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, Memphis, Rice as well as no DII's or SWAC teams and you think "that's a pretty good schedule". Just didn't quite work out that way.

It was our best schedule ever. No D2's. Known mid majors and Memphis. We did our part. Played all D1's. Won 23 games and still couldn't get into the big dance. Only way we'll ever get into the tournament, it seems, is to play all BCS teams in the non conference schedule, win every game, and win the Sun Belt. Other than that, we'll be watching other teams in March. We have not earned any national respect. We'll only get in in an automatic berth, and as long as Western and USA are in our league, that's getting to seem fairly remote.

(03-28-2009 03:00 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Don't be so dramatic. Just schedule solid teams.

Drama is my life.

Just look at a portion of WKU's OOC schedule: Houston, Murray St, Louisville, Georgia, Miss St, and Fla St. All solid teams.

(03-28-2009 03:05 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Just look at a portion of WKU's OOC schedule: Houston, Murray St, Louisville, Georgia, Miss St, and Fla St. All solid teams.

I tend to agree with Scotto on this one. Play a solid schedule and win and we'll go to the NCAA or NIT. There is not a conspiracy against us. 4 years ago, I felt screwed by the NIT but looking at in retrospect 15 DI wins, playing in a midmajor conference is not going to do it. Seems like we had "solved" the scheduling problem this year- some of the very poor RPI rankings of the teams we played was not totally our fault. Still we beat Wright State and Rice at home we get in the NIT. We beat USA on a "semi-home court" we probably get in. We beat Troy or WKU at home and we're in the NIT automatically. Good teams take care of business at home.

I like our scheduling and can live with any RPI hits. We had enough RPI to be in one of the 4 tournaments but turned it down. The truth is, we had our chance to beat WKU at home to win the regular season title and get the NIT bid and we lost. Then we had chance two at Hot Springs to beat USA and get tot he finals where we would have be in the NIT, IMO, but lost.

This was a great year and we had a great team. When Moore and Smith were on, few teams in the SBC were going to beat us. If Moore just hung in there and played throw the WKU run in the home game we could have turned the corner in the second half to win.

If the goal is the win the SBC tourney to get in the NCAA, or win the regular season to get into the NIT, then it really doesn't matter what our RPI/SOS is. However, if we want to be in a position for an at-large, we HAVE to play better competition.

I want to get to the point where we're pissed that we were left out of the NCAA because we deserved to be there. Not because we beat a bunch of below-average teams.

(03-28-2009 03:05 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Just look at a portion of WKU's OOC schedule: Houston, Murray St, Louisville, Georgia, Miss St, and Fla St. All solid teams.

That's fine. When Chris can get Houston, Murray State, Louisville, Georgia, Mississippi State and Fla State to come to Stephens Arena I'm all for it.