This year was close. UTEP and WKU built nice RPIs that at least put them in the discussion for at-large bids. But some weak OOC scheduling doomed any real chances those two teams had.

The selection committee has consistently drawn the line at multiple top-100 wins in OOC play for mid-majors. UTEP only faced one top-100 squad in OOC play. Western at least faced three and got a great win over Louisville, but going 1-1 against Ball State and Belmont wasn't enough else, especially with the bad loss to Ole Miss on the resume. MT, Charlotte and ODU all built quality OOC schedules with numerous top-100 foes. They just didn't win enough of them.

Next year, I hope C-USA can get two, three or even four teams into the NCAA tournament. If teams will schedule better to begin with and then win the winnable games with some occasional upsets in OOC play, I think the conference is a lock for multiple bids.

MT, WKU, ODU and Charlotte all return large chunks of their team. (Western would start the season ranked if I had a vote.) UTEP loses quite a bit with the graduation, but they seem to have built a program that reloads rather than rebuilds. Those five teams are certainly poised to make it a special year for the conference.

Is there like bracket plough for Women's NIT. The girls on the Marshall team seem to think we are going. I don't see how honestly.

I'm not quite ready to discount CUSA at large this year but you're right in that it doesn't look promising

The WNIT has to wait for the NCAA tournament selections are announced. So sometime around 10:00 PM EDT, Marshall will know for sure.

Marshall is right on the bubble for WNIT. I'd feel a lot more confident with a top-100 RPI instead of 128. There are several P5 schools with losing records above you who won't get invites. But you have to hope that the other P5 schools with barely winning records like Vandy, TCU and UVA will pass on an invite.

Well it's not official but rumors swirling around saying UTEP will host NIT game Thursday night. So yeah no at large bid for us. Looks like Stephen was right when he said it was guaranteed we would be a one bid league earlier in the year.

(03-14-2016 10:08 AM)MarshallHerdFanz Wrote:  Is there like bracket plough for Women's NIT. The girls on the Marshall team seem to think we are going. I don't see how honestly.

im sure your going. If you have a winning record in conf play your pretty much guaranteed a wnit spot.

Utep is 3 rpi spots below where we were 2 seasons ago. We were at 33 and were the highest rpi left out. I really believe had utep and wku made it to the finals we would have gotten 2 in.

Our ad made a push for scheduling upgrades. We have long term home and homes with ole miss and miss state.
Southern miss should be closer to normal next year. We had no seniors and had a promising player sit out this year after some surgery. Megan Brown she is the best outside shooter we have.
We were killed losing clemmons to grade issues at Christmas. That was 12 ppg right out of the lineup plus she was the best defender.

(03-14-2016 12:25 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  Well it's not official but rumors swirling around saying UTEP will host NIT game Thursday night. So yeah no at large bid for us. Looks like Stephen was right when he said it was guaranteed we would be a one bid league earlier in the year.

I imagine UTEP is a lock to host as long as they are alive. You will have one of the top RPIs in the field as well as a decent base of fan attendance promising bigger gates. You guys showed a couple of years ago that you will support a run in the tournament.

How cool would it be to see a UTEP-WKU final in the WNIT?

(03-14-2016 01:00 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  Our ad made a push for scheduling upgrades. We have long term home and homes with ole miss and miss state.
Southern miss should be closer to normal next year. We had no seniors and had a promising player sit out this year after some surgery. Megan Brown she is the best outside shooter we have.
We were killed losing clemmons to grade issues at Christmas. That was 12 ppg right out of the lineup plus she was the best defender.

I liked your OOC schedule. The preseason WNIT helped. But getting series with Ole Miss and Miss St is great. I just wish you all could have pulled out the win over UNC this season.

USM will certainly be a veteran team next year. And Jenkins will be a beast for you guys for three more years. I'd love to see you guys bounce back to the form of the past two years.

One question, do you have any idea why the team was so Jekyll/Hyde in regards to venue? USM went 12-3 at home but just 2-13 on the road. Part of that is NOT getting to play FIU or UTSA on the road but having to play the top 5 seeds all away. But you lost to UAB, LaTech and UNT on the road as well.

(03-14-2016 01:46 PM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(03-14-2016 12:25 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  Well it's not official but rumors swirling around saying UTEP will host NIT game Thursday night. So yeah no at large bid for us. Looks like Stephen was right when he said it was guaranteed we would be a one bid league earlier in the year.

I imagine UTEP is a lock to host as long as they are alive. You will have one of the top RPIs in the field as well as a decent base of fan attendance promising bigger gates. You guys showed a couple of years ago that you will support a run in the tournament.

How cool would it be to see a UTEP-WKU final in the WNIT?

The powers that be will do everything possible to prevent that. U will see as it goes unless you open the checkbook they will favor the p5s

(03-14-2016 02:06 PM)Stephen Shirley Wrote:  

(03-14-2016 01:00 PM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  Our ad made a push for scheduling upgrades. We have long term home and homes with ole miss and miss state.
Southern miss should be closer to normal next year. We had no seniors and had a promising player sit out this year after some surgery. Megan Brown she is the best outside shooter we have.
We were killed losing clemmons to grade issues at Christmas. That was 12 ppg right out of the lineup plus she was the best defender.

I liked your OOC schedule. The preseason WNIT helped. But getting series with Ole Miss and Miss St is great. I just wish you all could have pulled out the win over UNC this season.

USM will certainly be a veteran team next year. And Jenkins will be a beast for you guys for three more years. I'd love to see you guys bounce back to the form of the past two years.

One question, do you have any idea why the team was so Jekyll/Hyde in regards to venue? USM went 12-3 at home but just 2-13 on the road. Part of that is NOT getting to play FIU or UTSA on the road but having to play the top 5 seeds all away. But you lost to UAB, LaTech and UNT on the road as well.

Tech was the first game without Clemons and they were lost. Uab was close in ref season. Unt looked like a win late. They hit some 3's late and we had 2 players get tangled on the inbounds and they hit a buzzer beater. I think losing Clemons unexpectantly to grades and a freshman of three the who team for a loop. Megan coming back will be a huge lift just from maturity and leadership.

Women's NCAA bracket set. Only one bid from CUSA.

Wow. UTEP listed as the 68th team by the committee. That UTSA loss was the killer. Win that one and CUSA likely would have been a two bid league even with the Miner loss in the tournament semis.

Yea exactly what we are saying in El Paso. Or if the women's bracket had 68 teams we would be in. So close.

Rice will be much improved next year too. They return everyone and have some solid recruits and a good transfer ready to play. Maybe we'll be back to the level we were a few years ago when we were competing for the conference title every year.

(03-14-2016 07:41 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Rice will be much improved next year too. They return everyone and have some solid recruits and a good transfer ready to play. Maybe we'll be back to the level we were a few years ago when we were competing for the conference title every year.

Your offense is hard to defend at times.

(03-14-2016 10:08 AM)MarshallHerdFanz Wrote:  Is there like bracket plough for Women's NIT. The girls on the Marshall team seem to think we are going. I don't see how honestly.

Matt Daniel has been informed that The Herd is in the WNIT. At 21 wins I figured they would be. They just missed the field last year with 17 wins.

Under Daniel Marshall has improved each year. Five years ago the women's program was in shambles. They had just went 5-22 with a 94-28 loss in Charleston to WVU.

If you host buy tickets. If your dept asks u to buy a round ahead do it. it works.

Four teams in the NIT
UTEP
Charlotte
Western Kentucky
Marshall

(03-14-2016 09:12 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  Four teams in the NIT
UTEP
Charlotte
Western Kentucky
Marshall

everyone but marshall hosting.

western you have a great chance to host 2 games. memphis wont sell that many tickets. Buy those things all of you.
What we did last year was donate tickets for our students. You can keep your girls on their own floor very easy in this thing.

How do they decide who host. No seeds or anything?