The simple fact of the matter is UTEP and ECU have scheduled crap teams and those are easy wins. Crap teams don't get you any respect in the NCAA selection committee. We have a historic program at MT, it's been a quality one for a while - and over the last decade, we've had our fair share of crap teams in the schedule.

MT will be hosting Miami next year, and we have hosted UT a few times over the last several years. ND or UConn would not turn down a 2-for-1 deal if we were able to work something like that out. We also hosted #1 Maryland in our season opener a few years ago while they were absolutely dominating everyone. That was a 1-for-1 deal. It's possible, and we've done it at MT.

Middle is one of the best women's programs in the nation. We have experience, and we have a large fanbase. The ladies will be even better next year I hope, so we should be able to beat UT at their place after last year's OT heartbreaker.

(02-23-2014 11:50 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(02-23-2014 10:44 PM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  Yeah. OOC scheduling is tough for a lot of the best ###-major programs. But plenty of other teams overcome the same difficulties to create strong enough schedules to leave them in the discussion come Selection Monday. First thing, UTEP simply has to go on the road to face better competition. With only three true OOC road games, UTEP never had a chance to benefit from the RPI bonus for road wins. Second, find a top ###-major rivalry to build. I understand NMSU and UNM. Those are good ones for proximity. I like SMU as a quality RPI foe. But reach out for a Chattanooga or Gonzaga or even U of Arkansas-Little Rock. Those are perennial tournament teams who always need quality OOC foes too. Third, go on the road.

I wish more teams would try and schedule some double dates like MT did for the first time ever this year with USF & UCF: UK/Louisville, USF/UCF, UCLA/USC, Colorado/CSU, Gonzaga/WSU, UT-K/Chattanooga, Georgia/Georgia Tech, Ohio St/Dayton--These double sets are generally closer than 100 miles and include at least one truly winnable game. I would love to see Stanford or UConn or Notre Dame or Baylor come to the Middle TN area for a quick set of games with Vandy and MT.

You need to stop sippin grannies rumitiz medicine. cuonn, nd or kim m aint comin to mtsu.

I did say I'd "love" for it to happen, not that it necessarily WILL happen. Though UConn is going to be hurting in the coming years with the transformation of the AAC. With no football money coming in, Geno may actually have to pinch a penny or two. But my dream scenario would require cooperation from Candy which is not going to happen.

But MT doesn't hurt for quality OOC competition. UT-K and UK are in a regular rotation as home opponents. Louisville, MD, UGA, LSU and Xavier have all come in as top-10 teams since Insell has been here. Ironically, we have never hosted a team ranked between 17-25.

(02-23-2014 10:44 PM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-23-2014 06:52 PM)stanman505 Wrote:  

(02-21-2014 10:05 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  So you want to parse my language? I use words like "quality wins" and "bad losses" to provide insight into how the selection committee makes their determination for at-large bids. If you REALLY need me to explain it in more depth, just ask and I will be glad to do so.

RPI strength is COMPLETELY predictable in the women's game. To use the excuse that it is hard to know who will be good and bad is an attempt to justify the cupcake selection.

Sure. There are plateaus within the national stage. You have 1-4 dominant programs, 5-8 teams who may challenge them for a national championship, 10-15 more teams who are almost always in the next batch of teams who can step up and make runs at the Elite Eight and about 25-35 more teams who you know are going almost always be in the discussion come March. But the bottom 200 teams are almost always the same. So picking opponents from 50-150 is not that difficult because it is the same teams year in and year out.

UTEP was picked to contend for the league title. There is no excuse for scheduling five of the first seven games at home against teams that everyone knew would be out of the top-200. It isn't extreme to call it piss poor, especially when it "hurts" the rest of the league by costing us all RPI value and a conference mate making the NCAA tournament. Remember, as much as MT fans want to dominate C-USA, we still want all of C-USA to be the best it can be. We want the league to be a multi-bid one. We want to be a top-8 RPI league.

Just and FYI. Six out of our first seven games were at home. Two of them were against teams that had a chance to be top 100 RPI (SMU & Kansas St.) UTEP will always play NMSU twice because of how close the schools are to each other and this year NMSU is really down. It is hard for UTEP to get quality schools to come to El Paso to play and it is also expensive for UTEP to travel a lot OOC. The Arizona schools don't want to play UTEP because UTEP beat each of them the last time they played. There aren't any really good teams close by for UTEP to play. UNM, Texas Tech, Houston, Texas St. are all bad. OOC scheduling is a real problem for UTEP.

Yeah. OOC scheduling is tough for a lot of the best ###-major programs. But plenty of other teams overcome the same difficulties to create strong enough schedules to leave them in the discussion come Selection Monday. First thing, UTEP simply has to go on the road to face better competition. With only three true OOC road games, UTEP never had a chance to benefit from the RPI bonus for road wins. Second, find a top ###-major rivalry to build. I understand NMSU and UNM. Those are good ones for proximity. I like SMU as a quality RPI foe. But reach out for a Chattanooga or Gonzaga or even U of Arkansas-Little Rock. Those are perennial tournament teams who always need quality OOC foes too. Third, go on the road.

I wish more teams would try and schedule some double dates like MT did for the first time ever this year with USF & UCF: UK/Louisville, USF/UCF, UCLA/USC, Colorado/CSU, Gonzaga/WSU, UT-K/Chattanooga, Georgia/Georgia Tech, Ohio St/Dayton--These double sets are generally closer than 100 miles and include at least one truly winnable game. I would love to see Stanford or UConn or Notre Dame or Baylor come to the Middle TN area for a quick set of games with Vandy and MT.

how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

(02-26-2014 12:21 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

MT played three OOC road games at opponents with winning records, two neutral site games against foes with winning records and two more road games against Power-6 opponents who have decent RPIs even with poor win/loss records thanks to the quality in their conferences. MT also hosted three top-50 RPI opponents in OOC play.

(02-26-2014 10:52 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 12:21 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

MT played three OOC road games at opponents with winning records, two neutral site games against foes with winning records and two more road games against Power-6 opponents who have decent RPIs even with poor win/loss records thanks to the quality in their conferences. MT also hosted three top-50 RPI opponents in OOC play.

Very much true. I don't mean to be offensive when I say this but there are no other women's basketball programs in the conference anywhere close to the level of Middle's, in terms of opposition, success, and support.

(02-26-2014 10:52 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 12:21 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

MT played three OOC road games at opponents with winning records, two neutral site games against foes with winning records and two more road games against Power-6 opponents who have decent RPIs even with poor win/loss records thanks to the quality in their conferences. MT also hosted three top-50 RPI opponents in OOC play.

word it, and manipulate it how you want... You guys didn't schedule any better or any worse, you just so happened to schedule an in state school, Knoxville and lexington (not too far away.) mtsu travels quite a bit for games, UTEP can afford to bring teams in, plain and simple.

(02-26-2014 11:38 PM)randaddyminer Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 10:52 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 12:21 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

MT played three OOC road games at opponents with winning records, two neutral site games against foes with winning records and two more road games against Power-6 opponents who have decent RPIs even with poor win/loss records thanks to the quality in their conferences. MT also hosted three top-50 RPI opponents in OOC play.

word it, and manipulate it how you want... You guys didn't schedule any better or any worse, you just so happened to schedule an in state school, Knoxville and lexington (not too far away.) mtsu travels quite a bit for games, UTEP can afford to bring teams in, plain and simple.

Come on... That's just stupid talk. MT has 5 OOC wins against top-100 RPI teams. UTEP didn't PLAY five top-100 RPI teams. Heck, UTEP didn't even play five top-150 teams.

Yes. MT traveled to play quality competition. That's what the best teams, those who know and have what it takes to make it to the NCAA tournament, do. This thread spent a lot of time asking why UTEP and ECU won't make the NCAA tournament. UTEP only had to look at its weak OOC slate to see why they weren't in the tournament even before their bad loss to NT.

"Just happened to schedule an in state school"??? That school is the premier program in the entire nation. UTEP would crawl on hands and knees over broken glass to get a game like that. For MT, it's routine. To be honest, it sounds like the one spinning things is you. You are trying to make yourself feel better about UTEP's weak schedule by trying to attack MT, even when those attacks have no basis in logic.

(02-27-2014 09:31 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 11:38 PM)randaddyminer Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 10:52 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 12:21 AM)randaddyminer Wrote:  how many teams did you play on the road who have a winning record?

MT played three OOC road games at opponents with winning records, two neutral site games against foes with winning records and two more road games against Power-6 opponents who have decent RPIs even with poor win/loss records thanks to the quality in their conferences. MT also hosted three top-50 RPI opponents in OOC play.

word it, and manipulate it how you want... You guys didn't schedule any better or any worse, you just so happened to schedule an in state school, Knoxville and lexington (not too far away.) mtsu travels quite a bit for games, UTEP can afford to bring teams in, plain and simple.

Come on... That's just stupid talk. MT has 5 OOC wins against top-100 RPI teams. UTEP didn't PLAY five top-100 RPI teams. Heck, UTEP didn't even play five top-150 teams.

Yes. MT traveled to play quality competition. That's what the best teams, those who know and have what it takes to make it to the NCAA tournament, do. This thread spent a lot of time asking why UTEP and ECU won't make the NCAA tournament. UTEP only had to look at its weak OOC slate to see why they weren't in the tournament even before their bad loss to NT.

"Just happened to schedule an in state school"??? That school is the premier program in the entire nation. UTEP would crawl on hands and knees over broken glass to get a game like that. For MT, it's routine. To be honest, it sounds like the one spinning things is you. You are trying to make yourself feel better about UTEP's weak schedule by trying to attack MT, even when those attacks have no basis in logic.

This is so true. Programs like UT just don't schedule games like this for anyone. They played a total of 3 away OOC games this year -- @ Middle, @ UNC, and @ Stanford. That's elite company.

UTK isn't just an in-state school like TAMU or Texas -- they are one of the best, if not the best, historic women's basketball program in the nation.

(02-27-2014 09:31 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  That's just stupid talk........

........UTEP would crawl on hands and knees over broken glass to get a game like that....

The irony

(02-28-2014 12:44 AM)RUNVSFD MINER Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 09:31 AM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  That's just stupid talk........

........UTEP would crawl on hands and knees over broken glass to get a game like that....

The irony

Okay. Take two sentences separated by two paragraphs and act like they are the same topic. That's fine.

But let me ask a question of UTEP fans: What are the five highest ranked teams you guys have hosted in the past 10 years?

Meanwhile, MT is hosting programs like #1 Maryland, #4 Tennessee, #7 Kentucky, #8 LSU, and winning several of those games...