With the OOC season winding down, only two squads, Marshall and Toledo, out of the 13 MAC teams have a losing record against D1 competitition. And the Rockets are turning things around, winning 3 of the last 4.
I've never seen this much league-wide depth. The MAC is going to be murder this season... hopefully the strong conference showing will be enough to "guarantee" two MAC teams in the NCAA tourney.
Can't put too much stock in BG's OOC schedule. This is the weakest OOC schedule I have seen them play. But Oh baby, we beat the mighty Beavers of Bluffton College. Sure, Toledo played Lake Superior State tonight and beat them but hey, they deserve an easy game after playing Duke, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Nevada.
Falcon Frenzy Wrote:Can't put too much stock in BG's OOC schedule. This is the weakest OOC schedule I have seen them play.
BG always plays a local Div III school, Bluffton, Defiance, Ohio Northern...
It
is a weak OOC schedule, but many of those teams are ones BG plays regularly: Oakland, Detroit, IPFW...They aren't always weak, and hey, better BG wins those games than lose!
I do think BG could bump up their schedule, just in the number of games played, especially during the holiday break. It always seems like BG has few games in that time frame...when travelling actually shouldn't be a problem for student-athletes.
Not that it will come anytime soon, but I'd like to see a regular game w/ Dayton too. A nice I-75 rivalry.
I can't think of the last time WMU has scheduled a Div II non-exhibition game. We did play Alaska-Fairbanks, but that was part of the tournament deal. That isn't to say our schedules are constantly loaded with the Dukes and Cincinnatis of the world, but opponents scheduled outside of Div I tend to be rare.
Yes, the overall OOC wasn't that strong this year. Nevertheless, managing a 18-24 record on the road is somewhat of a feat, no matter who you play. (59-38 overall record)
I also noticed MAC teams overall didn't "load up" on away games against top flight competition. I actually believe that's a smart move. Why play 60-70 games in hostile environments with homer refs only to come away with a couple of wins? It's far better to play only 20-30, with another 20-30 on neutral court in-season tourneys.
Lastly, I can't remember playing so few games against the Big Ten. Only four this year. Is this an anomaly? Or is it due to a combination of reasons: unwillingness of MAC teams to schedule too many away-only games, Big Ten teams unwilling to do 2/1's, and huge FOOTBALL paydays making basketball paydays of little significance?
The MAC has done well this year as the OOC season comes to a close. We are sitting 10th in conference RPI. That's excellent. Overall, the teams have scheduled well, though its a crapshoot each year with some of the games.
Here's the current Strength of Schedule RPI rating (actual RPI in parentheses):
Kent State--11 (15)
NIU--55 (70)
Toledo--61 (122)
BG--90 (71)
Miami--96 (79)
WMU--101 (87)
Buffalo--116 (109)
Ohio--126 (116)
Ball St.--159 (169)
CMU--175 (198)
Marshall--193 (222)
EMU--201 (234)
Akron--218 (192)
So--playing a tough schedule can be beneficial (KSU) if you win or not (UT) if you lose, but playing a weak OOC schedule (EMU) can kill your RPI no matter how well you play.
DrTorch Wrote:Falcon Frenzy Wrote:Can't put too much stock in BG's OOC schedule. This is the weakest OOC schedule I have seen them play.
BG always plays a local Div III school, Bluffton, Defiance, Ohio Northern...
It is a weak OOC schedule, but many of those teams are ones BG plays regularly: Oakland, Detroit, IPFW...They aren't always weak, and hey, better BG wins those games than lose!
Yea but there has been at least a Big10 team and/or SEC team to go along with the "regulars". Like in 2002-2003 we played Michigan, Northwestern and #4 Alabama. Again Northwestern and Michigan last year.
At first glance the OOC schedules looked weak; however, After a month of hoops the Mac RPI rankings are solid. OU played some decent mid-majors this December. Navy and Duquesne were the only rpi dead weight. Binghamton, St. Francis(pa), American, FIU, Butler, and San Francisco are all in the 100-200 rpi range. Considering there are 326 teams to schedule in D-1. Its not a bad idea of playing games against teams that you can find out how your team handles close games. The MAC regular season is a grind. The teams that close out tight games will finish with a higher seed. Playing in blowouts don't help a team. Finding out who can hit the pressure shot is key in the preseason. The Mac is loaded with go to players (haynes, triplett, horace, reed, and battle). The contenders know who they got; however, the pretenders are still looking for that key player. The MAC hasn't played too many Savannah State's or Longwood's this year. There are cupcakes and then there is Savannah State.