(12-16-2010 02:46 AM)JHG722 Wrote:  Temple SOS: 20
UCF SOS: 142

Teams with better SOS than UCF:

Holy Cross 90
AR Pine Bluff 82
Bryant 72
Prairie View A&M 26
Alcorn State 21

UCF is doing what Cleveland State is doing: racking up as many wins as possible and pumping their RPI up by beating D-I dregs.

But on the other hand, UCF's strength of schedule is still better than a few undefeated teams from "Major" conferences like Baylor (193), Northwestern (273), and Cincinnati (334).

We went into this season with a new coach who runs a style of play directly opposite from what our old coach ran (old coach ran a slow paced, half court, pass it around until 5 on the shot clock offense, and the new coach runs a fast paced, transition based offense). Our schedule was built with that in mind to allow the team to get some experience and comfort in the new style prior to conference play. We still have some tests on the schedule, though. We've beat USF and Florida, and have games at Miami and @ UMass to go. We also will most likely face a pretty good Princeton team in the finals of our 4 team holiday tournament.

(12-15-2010 11:58 PM)st932253 Wrote:  Just to chime in -

We all know that a decision such as conference expansion isn't going to come down to a player, a game or a team, right?

This is a "program-level" decision.

I personally feel good about where UCF's programs are at - but their value, to me, aren't increasing because of sneaking in at #25 in football for 1-2 weeks or a nice 9 game run in basketball.

For a season to be a "program changer" it has to do just that. And that would require a major shift in recruiting (not just some good pickups) or a deep deep run in the tournament or a BCS bowl - but even then, it isn't a given. Boise has maintained the success it started in football but George Mason was just a nice story in basketball.

Good post...this board is somewhat conflicting, it requires updated information but then when people give it, it's downplayed because of the program aspect of what conferences are looking for.

It's all about keeping this information in perspective. I made the comment in June that many CUSA programs are making investments in basketball.

At Southern Miss, they are finally seeing what Larry Eustachy's recruits can do with experience.

UCF has been recruiting to its new facility and upgraded its coach.

ECU blew up its program 5 years ago, made some bad coaching moves and now seems to be coming out of that.

Tulane even upgraded their coach and is making some progress.

With the elite talent leaving early in college basketball and more and more Juco's and transfers coming into CUSA because its more established after the 2003 raid on its best programs, CUSA is beginnning to solidify itself as a Top 10 conference. I expect it to start achieving at least 2 bids (like last year), maybe more, but probably never approach the 4 bid average it had in the early part of the decade. Its a league where if you are serious about being competitive, you can build a good program. The bottom half of the league needed great improvement and are making solid progress...but I dont think anyone in CUSA besides Memphis can even imply that they have arrived on the national scene.

A little off-topic, but Temple is clearly the best basketball school in the northeast (PA, DC, VA, MD, NJ, NY, New England) that is not currently in the Big East. This is over the past year, past 5 yrs, past 10, 15, and 20 years. Some schools have had great individual years (GMason, St Joes, URI, UMass), but Temple has been the best.

(12-15-2010 10:00 PM)CatsClaw Wrote:  

(12-15-2010 09:50 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  If UCF were in The BEast, they'd have a conference win. Nobody else can say that at the moment...

Ummm, Temple would be 2-0 in the Big East. . . . .

Temple will NEVER return to The BEast. So who cares?

Cuse, the fact that nobody else has played a conference game was part and parcel of my comment. But that part went unspoken, because it was obvious...

Beat Miami and UMass then I'll join the UCF should be a Top 25 bandwagon. Our schedule has been weak so far with the exception of (then) #16 Florida.

Sure USF is in the Big East but does anyone in the Big East consider them an elite team? No, far from it.

tbh, UMass really isn't that good. It's better than most of UCF's wins, but it's not exactly something that'll likely be noted during Selection Sunday.

(12-16-2010 05:02 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  Beat Miami and UMass then I'll join the UCF should be a Top 25 bandwagon. Our schedule has been weak so far with the exception of (then) #16 Florida.

Sure USF is in the Big East but does anyone in the Big East consider them an elite team? No, far from it.

For the record they still have Florida in the top 25. Their only other loss was to Ohio State. We beat a good team.

If we beat Miami we should be awarded the state of Florida trophy! UF, South Florida, Stetson, BCC, UWF, Flagler, and hopefully Miami will be in our wake! We also get the win over FSU since they got beat by UF.

I've always been a Florida fan, so I follow them pretty closely too. They're not that good. They were arguably the most overrated team in the country going into the season. They're a good win for sure, but it's not like beating Nova, GTown, Cuse, MSU, Duke, etc.

(12-16-2010 01:25 AM)whitey Wrote:  

(12-15-2010 11:07 PM)saxamoophone Wrote:  If UCF beats Miami Saturday, it would spring us into the Top 25 polls (already in most RPI 25s I think).

but it doesn't matter much.

Lets see how we do against CUSA. The conference overall looks to be decent (sorry ECU, at least you have baseball soon!), so I think we will have our hands full!

Why did you have to throw that DIG in there?

Boohoo, he put you in as a footnote...you start entire threads that we all have to skip over.

I can't escape this feeling that you are 13 years old.

add ucf....now

(12-16-2010 06:23 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  I've always been a Florida fan, so I follow them pretty closely too. They're not that good. They were arguably the most overrated team in the country going into the season. They're a good win for sure, but it's not like beating Nova, GTown, Cuse, MSU, Duke, etc.

an unbaised computer has them at #8 in the RPI.

(12-16-2010 09:27 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  

(12-16-2010 06:23 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  I've always been a Florida fan, so I follow them pretty closely too. They're not that good. They were arguably the most overrated team in the country going into the season. They're a good win for sure, but it's not like beating Nova, GTown, Cuse, MSU, Duke, etc.

an unbaised computer has them at #8 in the RPI.

RPI also has Cleveland State ranked ahead of us, and Drexel ranked one below us. RPI isn't a great gauge at this point. Give it another month. UF is not better than Cuse, tOSU, Pitt, SDSU, etc. I dont think they're better than us either.

(12-16-2010 09:35 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  RPI also has Cleveland State ranked ahead of us, and Drexel ranked one below us. RPI isn't a great gauge at this point. Give it another month. UF is not better than Cuse, tOSU, Pitt, SDSU, etc. I dont think they're better than us either.

I'm not saying the RPI is perfect this early, but it is a good indication that they are not that bad.

(12-16-2010 09:41 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  

(12-16-2010 09:35 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  RPI also has Cleveland State ranked ahead of us, and Drexel ranked one below us. RPI isn't a great gauge at this point. Give it another month. UF is not better than Cuse, tOSU, Pitt, SDSU, etc. I dont think they're better than us either.

I'm not saying the RPI is perfect this early, but it is a good indication that they are not that bad.

Who, UF or UCF?

(12-16-2010 09:48 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  Who, UF or UCF?

UF. I see them in the NCAA tourney. Just my opinion.

(12-16-2010 09:41 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  

(12-16-2010 09:35 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  RPI also has Cleveland State ranked ahead of us, and Drexel ranked one below us. RPI isn't a great gauge at this point. Give it another month. UF is not better than Cuse, tOSU, Pitt, SDSU, etc. I dont think they're better than us either.

I'm not saying the RPI is perfect this early, but it is a good indication that they are not that bad.

You cant take the RPI serious at this point in the season as they have 7-2 Florida ahead of Undefeated Syracuse who has actually beaten somebody. The RPI also has Florida ahead of Ohio ST, who actually blew Florida out and is undefeated.

(12-15-2010 08:35 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  and a 10-3 football team. :)

See you guys soon.

Who cares? So you beat some D-2 school.....

Good thing I'm not one of the mods, if I was it would be moved over to the CUSA board where you can beat your chest over there.

(12-16-2010 10:32 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  

(12-16-2010 09:48 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  Who, UF or UCF?

UF. I see them in the NCAA tourney. Just my opinion.

I didn't say I see them out of the Tourney, I just dont think they're a marquee win like the other schools I mentioned. I dont see a win over UF and a bunch of directional and irrelevant FL schools getting UCF into the Tourney as an at-large over a power six school with a .500+ conference record. Outside of beating Memphis, you're almost definitely going to have to beat Miami, because your OOC schedule is incredibly weak.

UCF now 10-0 with a win over Miami (the good one, not the Ohio one).

I figured since the OTHER thread got moved to the smack forum...for some reason...I'd just mention it in a previously existing thread.

And this IS relevant, random-poster-who'll-undoubtedly-question-why-its-on-a-big-east-board, because we are an expansion candidate. And to JHG, don't talk any smack. We already know what you think.

If smack means you're not a top 25 team for beating two decent teams and a bunch of scrubs, then okay.