1.a UAB
1.b Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. Charlotte
5. La Tech
6. MTSU
7. North Texas
8. Marshall
9. Tulsa
10. East Carolina
11. Old Dominion
12. FAU
13. Tulane
14. Rice
15. FIU
16. UTSA

I can't dissagree with your rankings 7-16 just because they are all awful. If the top 6 could just play each other and not the rest of the conference our RPI wouldn't be too bad. having to play UTSA though... that's gonna be awful.

I think we made a deal with the devil: play good football - stink it up in basketball.

(12-05-2013 09:50 AM)TTT Wrote:  I'm not ranking by record, but by who I feel has the best team RIGHT NOW (12/5)


1. UAB (best non-conf. win vs UNC)
2. Charlotte
3. Southern Miss
4. UTEP
5. La Tech
6. MTSU
7. North Texas
8. Marshall
9. Tulsa
10. East Carolina
11. Old Dominion
12. FAU
13. Tulane
14. Rice
15. FIU
16. UTSA (correction: 2 losses to non-D1 schools, ouch!)


What is yours?

I agree with your ranking right now except I think Tulsa is too high and ECU should be higher.

(12-05-2013 11:00 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  ECU only has 2 forwards. That's not all that hard to defeat. Just got to get one of them in foul trouble.

This is true, but 1 of them could very well be the best rebounder and defensive big in CUSA. He might even be one of the best rebounders in college basketball. (He had the 3rd best rebound percentage in the nation at the start of the week even before the 14 boards he pulled on the D2 team) The other guy has shown to be a pretty solid low post scorer. What we have is pretty good as long as we can keep them healthy and in the game there are few talented post scorers in this league that concerns me outside of UNCC, MTSU, and UTEP. Those are our poor matchups IMO, most other teams we should be ok if we stay healthy.

Quote:They're in trouble... don't buy the hype. The fans were talking about finding a walkon PF from some other sport or their Rec Center

As an emergency big man. I don't think any of us want them to have to play, just to have someone that is big enough not to get pushed around if we lost our 2 post players to fouls or something. We have found guys like this in the past from the football team and rec center who was a former D2 player. We got 25k students there has to be a former decent high school player that is big on campus.

(12-05-2013 11:52 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ECU is the bestestest team ever and everyone who says otherwise is wrong

(12-05-2013 11:00 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 09:52 AM)fedale Wrote:  (Marshall) We are not better than East Carolina... we are maybe as talented, but as a team... no.

I'd say we're around 12th as of right now.

ECU only has 2 forwards. That's not all that hard to defeat. Just got to get one of them in foul trouble.

They're in trouble... don't buy the hype. The fans were talking about finding a walkon PF from some other sport or their Rec Center

3 actually, and we had only 1 in 2010 and that D. Marrow, plenty tried, bit couldn't.

Posted this in another thread yesterday (with some modifications)

Teams that will be contenders:
UAB
Southern Miss
Charlotte
Louisiana Tech
Middle Tennessee

Teams that should be contenders:
ECU
UTEP

Teams that should be tough:
Old Dominion
North Texas

Teams that aren't sure if they want to be good or not yet:
Tulsa
Marshall
Tulane
FIU

Teams that will probably finish in the cellar:
FAU
Rice
UTSA

**I find it hard to put Tulsa anywhere. That schedule is brutal. There's just not enough to see yet.

(12-05-2013 11:54 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 11:52 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ECU is the bestestest team ever and everyone who says otherwise is wrong

Where did I say that. I said we should be 7th above. I do think if we can keep the players we got healthy that we could get into the top 4 though. Much of that is certainly contingent on Stith keeping up the level he has played so far, and I do think he will have to play 30 minutes or more once conference play starts to be successful. I think this team goes about as far as he can take us because if he's not rebounding and defending in the post, it could get really ugly for us.

IS ATTENDANCE FACTORED IN?!

IF NOT, IT SHOULD BE!!!!!!!!11

(12-05-2013 12:01 PM)ecumbh1999 Wrote:  3 actually,

Technically, but he's right. It's 2 post players. Caleb White is likely the most skilled 6-7 guy we have ever had already, but he's more of a PG than a PF. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it would be great most years, unfortunately this one we seriously need his length in the post. I just really don't see the mentality from him to be able to do it very well where as a skinny guy like Kemp would fight in there.

(12-05-2013 11:09 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  1.a UAB
1.b Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. Charlotte
5. La Tech
6. MTSU
7. North Texas
8. Marshall
9. Tulsa
10. East Carolina
11. Old Dominion
12. FAU
13. Tulane
14. Rice
15. FIU
16. UTSA

I can't dissagree with your rankings 7-16 just because they are all awful. If the top 6 could just play each other and not the rest of the conference our RPI wouldn't be too bad. having to play UTSA though... that's gonna be awful.

Just don't get beat. That would be really awful. This is priming up to be the worst basketball season ever for UTSA. We have never been this awful in the past

(12-05-2013 10:33 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 10:18 AM)TTT Wrote:  I'd say right NOW, Marshall is a better team than ECU.

I'd say Marshall has as or more talented team and probably one of the most talented in CUSA and likely has the most talented player in CUSA too. The problem is Pittman is unpredictable and I Herrion is an average coach at best.

SJ in football you're too harsh on us and in bball you're too damn nice! Herrion is easily the worst coach in this conference

(12-05-2013 01:17 PM)HerdAlum83 Wrote:  SJ in football you're too harsh on us and in bball you're too damn nice! Herrion is easily the worst coach in this conference

If you are going just on last year, yeah probably. You guys probably had top 50 talent last year and finished horrible. That said I'm not going to completely write him off since he has recruited talent there and had a couple top 60 teams in the last 3 years.

Tier One
1. UAB - Homer pick! I'm cautiously optimistic about this team. We still haven't played a true road game yet.
2. Southern Miss - Only loss is to the defending champs. 3-1 road record is impressive. Probably would be #1 in my unbiased rankings.
3. Charlotte - Love the Michigan and K-State wins. Losses probably won't be too bad by the end of the year. Should be good when at full strength.
4. UTEP - Yikes, what a schedule! Lowest RPI team they've played is 143. Might win out the rest of the non-conference schedule.
5. MTSU - No great wins, no bad losses. Here's hoping you pick up at least one win over Mississippi and Cincinnati.
6. La Tech - Same as MTSU. Still to play Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.

Tier Two
7. Tulsa - Still betting on their potential. The schedule has been pretty bad, but you can't go winless against Oral Roberts, Missouri State, TCU, and Green Bay if you want to be in my Tier One. Plus they still have Oklahoma, TCU again, and Maryland yet to play.
8. Marshall - UNC-Wilmington and Western Kentucky might be decent wins. Several tough non-conference games remaining.
9. ECU - Played Duke close. Not much else on the schedule.
10. Old Dominion - Nothing eye-opening yet, but playing better than expected.
11. North Texas - Fun Fact: The only D1 team that Incarnate Word has played so far is North Texas.

Tier Three
12. FAU - The UCF win is better than anything the rest of this tier has done.
13. Tulane - Nothing to say about the bottom quarter of the conference.
14. Rice
15. FIU
16. UTSA

(12-05-2013 01:28 PM)StillJonesing Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 01:17 PM)HerdAlum83 Wrote:  SJ in football you're too harsh on us and in bball you're too damn nice! Herrion is easily the worst coach in this conference

If you are going just on last year, yeah probably. You guys probably had top 50 talent last year and finished horrible. That said I'm not going to completely write him off since he has recruited talent there and had a couple top 60 teams in the last 3 years.

He had a lot of that talent handed to him by Donnie Jones.. His first two seasons here he was living off Donnie's kids.. He has brought in some good JUCO's like Tinnon and Pittman but he hasn't brought in good talent in that we can keep beyond 1-2 years.. He also isn't much of a disciplinarian as the team seems to just do what they want and run the show how they see fit.. Even the year before last when we made the title game and went to the NIT if it wasn't for a mini meltdown mid-season we would of been a tourney team but for about a month Herrion lost the team.. Then he lost them again in the NIT as one of his senior's was in his face trying to fight him on the court at MTU.. And last year he never had the team I don't believe

(12-05-2013 11:00 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 09:52 AM)fedale Wrote:  (Marshall) We are not better than East Carolina... we are maybe as talented, but as a team... no.

I'd say we're around 12th as of right now.

ECU only has 2 forwards. That's not all that hard to defeat. Just got to get one of them in foul trouble.

They're in trouble... don't buy the hype. The fans were talking about finding a walkon PF from some other sport or their Rec Center

Please don't.....oh never mind.

(12-05-2013 03:13 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 11:00 AM)Dracorex Wrote:  

(12-05-2013 09:52 AM)fedale Wrote:  (Marshall) We are not better than East Carolina... we are maybe as talented, but as a team... no.

I'd say we're around 12th as of right now.

ECU only has 2 forwards. That's not all that hard to defeat. Just got to get one of them in foul trouble.

They're in trouble... don't buy the hype. The fans were talking about finding a walkon PF from some other sport or their Rec Center

Please don't.....oh never mind.

see if you just laugh at him when he responds he goes away

1. UAB (best non-conf. win vs UNC)
2. Charlotte
3. Southern Miss
4. UTEP
5. La Tech
6. MTSU
7. North Texas
8. Tulsa
9. East Carolina
10. Old Dominion
11. FAU
12. Tulane
13. Rice
14. FIU
15. Marshall (Herrion is terrible and Pittman shoots EVERYTHING)
17. UTSA (correction: 2 losses to non-D1 schools, ouch!)

I normally wait until after the OOC schedule to rank the teams, but as of today, here's how I'd rank them:
1. UAB - Beating UNC and Nebraska gives them the best resume in the conference. A neutral court loss to Temple doesn't hurt a bit.
2. Charlotte - Inconsistent, but wins via Michigan and Kansas State are nice. The home loss to Davidson is a bit of a head scratcher, but being less than full strength probably played a role in that.
3. USM - 3-1 on the road is nice, but we don't really know yet whether any of the teams we beat is worth a flip. The one team we know is quality beat the crap out of us. Having watched this team every game, we need to get better to match last year's team.
4. MTSU - I think MTSU and La Tech are in the same category. They're supposed to be good because they were good last year and are returning enough players to be good again. So far neither has a high-quality win with Tech's neutral win vs St. Bonnies being the best of the 11 D-I wins these teams combine to have. MTSU gets the nod because I think their home loss to Belmont will turn out to be a better loss than Tech's home loss to OooLaLa.
5. La Tech - See above
6. UTEP - Losing to good teams gets you ranked lower than winning vs mediocre to bad teams in my ranking. I strongly suspect that CSU is not very good. Tenn is probably about as good as DePaul.
7. Tulsa - See UTEP. Over scheduling doesn't help anybody. If we were just ranking the way teams play in the first half of games, Tulsa would be a lot higher. Add a bad TCU loss to a bunch of good losses and here you are.
8. ECU - The team's best win is by 1 point at 2-4 UNC Greensboro. Keeping it close vs Duke almost had me believing, but then they turned around and narrowly escaped Vermont by a point.
9. Marshall - Huntington has always been a tough place to play and the home court advantage will keep you from falling much further. I don't know if you'll win a road game in the OOC looking at your schedule.
10. ODU - No good wins, but no bad losses either. You could be somewhere in the 6-8 range, I just can't tell. Based on last year, I'm ranking you low, but I'm not going to be surprised if you get near .500 in conference.
11. North Texas - Better wins than ODU, but also worse losses. Similarly to ODU, they could end up a lot higher. It's just too early to tell.
12. FIU - 5 D-I wins is near the top of the conference. The loss to Nova is concerning.
13. Tulane - Nice start, but since then, yuck!
14. Rice - Only two wins, but they've been in every game. They may not win many, but they're going to drive folks nuts.
15. FAU - Of the one-win teams, FAU has the best win. Suck it Knights!
16. UTSA - When I search UTSA Athletics on Bing and the basketball link pops up, it takes you to Women's basketball. That pretty much tells the story.

I appreciate the confidence, but you guys have ODU too high. Yes, we are historically good, but times are tough in Norfolk right now. We're the basketball equivalent to So Miss in football. The teams we have beaten are all low 200s to 300+ rpi teams. Our SOS has been very weak so far, and therefore our record isnt as ugly as it will be. We could go winless in December as UNCW is our best chance, and they arent that bad. Once our confidence gets shot CUSA could have its way. Im expecting 3-4 conference wins. However, our guys are playing with fire right now, we just dont have much raw talent, cant shoot and have no, none, zero, nada interior presence. I love the heart of our guys right now, but anyone could get down after 5 or 6 losses in a row, which may happen.

My guess right now is:
UAB
UNCC
USM
LaT
MT
UTep
ECU
Marshall
North Texas
Tulsa
Rice
FAU
Tulane
ODU
FIU
UTSA