74 Akron
119 Toledo
121 Buffalo
128 Central Michigan
146 Eastern Michigan
155 Ball State
157 Ohio
168 Northern Illinois
169 Kent State
183 Western Michigan
189 Bowling Green
261 Miami
How does this compare to last season?
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Coach TK puts a competitive team on the floor.
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(02-07-2016 08:08 AM)JBurton Wrote: [ -> ]How does this compare to last season?
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The top is not as good. The middle and bottom are improved. Overall, the conference is up. The problem is that outside of the conference, the only thing that matters is how good the best teams are, and the MAC has been irrelevant in non-conference play this season.
RPI through 2-6-16
50 Akron
87 Buffalo
101 Ohio
108 Kent State
132 Northern Illinois
137 Central Michigan
149 Toledo
154 Eastern Michigan
159 Ball State
204 Western Michigan
216 Bowling Green
234 Miami
For a while it looked like the West may be finally catching up to the east but as the season goes on the east seems to be separating itself.
(02-07-2016 08:08 AM)JBurton Wrote: [ -> ]How does this compare to last season?
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This is last year:
60. Buffalo
93. Central Michigan
94. Toledo
96. Akron
105. Kent State
131. Bowling Green
144. Eastern Michigan
171. Western Michigan
181. Northern Illinois
208. Miami
235. Ohio
277. Ball State
As axeme said, the top isn't as good, but the depth is getting better, which correlates a bit to the lower rankings (at the top). KenPom places an emphasis on road wins, and they aren't as easy to come by this year.
And there is still a couple weeks to improve on these. Akron should stay in the top 70 range barring a total collapse and Buffalo, with a favorable home schedule, has a good shot at the top 100. Without looking at the schedules, I'd guess both Toledo and CMU also have a decent shot at moving to around the top 100.
(02-07-2016 12:45 PM)axeme Wrote: [ -> ] (02-07-2016 08:08 AM)JBurton Wrote: [ -> ]How does this compare to last season?
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The top is not as good. The middle and bottom are improved. Overall, the conference is up. The problem is that outside of the conference, the only thing that matters is how good the best teams are, and the MAC has been irrelevant in non-conference play this season.
Did the league have any big OOC wins last year? I know Akron beat USC and South Carolina, but they both were bad last year.
This year, Ball State has a win over No. 23 Valpo and Akron at No. 49 Arkansas (which has a very favorable schedule the rest of the way after a brutal one to start). I don't recall any wins as good as those last year.
Akron also has neutral court wins over 113 UC Santa Barbara and No. 115 Iona. Neither are great wins, but both are ranked within the top 1/3 of D1 teams per KenPom.
Unfortunately, those are the only four OOC wins against teams in the top 1/3 of the rankings. If you stretch it to top 150, a couple more wins: Akron and Ohio against Marshall; EMU over Nebraska Omaha; Toledo over Green Bay: and Miami and Western Michigan over Northeastern.
That's 10 top 150 wins, with four belonging to Akron, which is why the Zips are the only MAC team that can even have at-large thoughts.
According to this site, Akron has a 36 percent chance, and that is with two more losses. Buffalo, at quick glance, is the only other team with a remote chance, and they would need to win out (outside the title game) and hope all the other bubble mid majors win their leagues.
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-tourna...gy/detail/
Toledo looked aweful against BSU, NIU x2, UB and OU. But BSU was the only team to blow us out. Those close losses although were ugly games for the Rockets are keeping their computer rankings high ish. Especially with some big road wins at Kent by 15. BG by 8. And a butt whooping of Akron in Savage early in MAC play.