CSNbbs

Strangely enough, UT WBB has gotten an invitation to the WNIT.

https://www.womensnit.com/news/committee...-2018-wnit

Wow...it has to be because of our past WNIT success, including the 2011 championship.

And get this, the MAC sends TWO women's teams to the Big Dance. That's huge. As we all know, Toledo should be right there with CMU & Buffalo making it three teams, yet somehow we're still in the WNIT.

Well I think this illustrates that the UT WBB team has built up a reputation in recent years, while the men's team's has none.

But then again, WBB had an RPI of 84. Theoretically, teams in the top 128 should get NIT bids. MBB RPI was 74, and yet still didn't get a bid. Just goes to prove that the RPI system which the committee created specifically to use for tournament selection is completely ignored on the men's side, but maybe not on the women's.

I think it has a lot to do with the strength of schedule and three wins against teams in the big dance. Hosting and the expected attendance probably also helped.

There are also 64 teams in wnit vs 32 in men’s.

(03-12-2018 08:05 PM)adunifon Wrote: [ -> ]There are also 64 teams in wnit vs 32 in men’s.

Yep. And I was still surprised we got an invite.

Congrats, Lady Rockets! Now, go out there & play some ball like when you beat Dayton.

(03-12-2018 08:01 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote: [ -> ]And get this, the MAC sends TWO women's teams to the Big Dance. That's huge. As we all know, Toledo should be right there with CMU & Buffalo making it three teams, yet somehow we're still in the WNIT.

CMU and Buffalo are both very deserving and the omission of a 2nd bid would have been criminal----still I am amazed that the selection committee stepped up and did the right thing. I have to disagree about Toledo being right there----Ball State had the best argument for a three spot while the Lady Rockets were way down the stack---6th seed does not make a convincing argument. I am happy for them getting a WNIT but frankly I find that amazing although the MAC as league make have had its best year ever in WBB.

(03-12-2018 08:25 PM)T-Town Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-12-2018 08:01 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote: [ -> ]And get this, the MAC sends TWO women's teams to the Big Dance. That's huge. As we all know, Toledo should be right there with CMU & Buffalo making it three teams, yet somehow we're still in the WNIT.

CMU and Buffalo are both very deserving and the omission of a 2nd bid would have been criminal----still I am amazed that the selection committee stepped up and did the right thing. I have to disagree about Toledo being right there----Ball State had the best argument for a three spot while the Lady Rockets were way down the stack---6th seed does not make a convincing argument. I am happy for them getting a WNIT but frankly I find that amazing although the MAC as league make have had its best year ever in WBB.

Actually Toledo was the 7th seed and did not win that game against the 10th seed.

I don't know if there is a lot of logic to the post season selection process. Last year the MAC had the 10th highest ranked RPI. Five women's teams were selected to play in the wNIT. Central Michigan, Ohio, Northern Illinois, Ball State and Kent State all lost in the first round. This year the MAC has an RPI rank of 7th and they get three teams in the wNIT. I guess that partly reflects having two teams in the NCAA but the league rank was significantly higher this year. I expected that either Western or Ohio would also get in, especially if UT got in after losing the last four games.

Last season, the MAC had 8 teams with 19+ wins. This season only 4, and 5 total with winning records. The higher conference RPI is primarily driven because of CMU, UB & BSU all having really high RPIs.

Neither OU nor WMU had a winning overall record. Every MAC team with a winning record is playing in post-season this year.

This is the problem with RPI. It is 75% who you play, and 25% how well you play. So, even 1 or 2 teams with really high RPIs pulls the whole conference up.

The ladies will host Wright State on March 16th

(03-12-2018 08:46 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote: [ -> ]Last season, the MAC had 8 teams with 19+ wins. This season only 4, and 5 total with winning records. The higher conference RPI is primarily driven because of CMU, UB & BSU all having really high RPIs.

Neither OU nor WMU had a winning overall record. Every MAC team with a winning record is playing in post-season this year.

This is the problem with RPI. It is 75% who you play, and 25% how well you play. So, even 1 or 2 teams with really high RPIs pulls the whole conference up.

actually, a bunch of the middling MAC teams had solid non-conf years. Ohio beat Purdue, Toledo beat 3 NCAA teams, Ball St was undefeated and beat 1 or 2 NCAA teams non-conf... League was great at the top but pretty good in the middle too

Lady Rockets are in the WNIT because the tourney knows that they will sell tickets. Period

Dollars make all these decisions, including not going to CBI or CIT which are just a money drag

(03-12-2018 08:46 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote: [ -> ]Last season, the MAC had 8 teams with 19+ wins. This season only 4, and 5 total with winning records. The higher conference RPI is primarily driven because of CMU, UB & BSU all having really high RPIs.

Neither OU nor WMU had a winning overall record. Every MAC team with a winning record is playing in post-season this year.

This is the problem with RPI. It is 75% who you play, and 25% how well you play. So, even 1 or 2 teams with really high RPIs pulls the whole conference up.

Actually Western Michigan had a winning record similar to that of Toledo, at 18-15, finished higher than Toledo in league standings and won two games in the MAC tourney, including against Ball State. That was their only win against the big three in the conference, also same as Toledo. So seems to me they would have been a likely entry.

(03-13-2018 09:19 AM)temoxley Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-12-2018 08:46 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote: [ -> ]Last season, the MAC had 8 teams with 19+ wins. This season only 4, and 5 total with winning records. The higher conference RPI is primarily driven because of CMU, UB & BSU all having really high RPIs.

Neither OU nor WMU had a winning overall record. Every MAC team with a winning record is playing in post-season this year.

This is the problem with RPI. It is 75% who you play, and 25% how well you play. So, even 1 or 2 teams with really high RPIs pulls the whole conference up.

Actually Western Michigan had a winning record similar to that of Toledo, at 18-15, finished higher than Toledo in league standings and won two games in the MAC tourney, including against Ball State. That was their only win against the big three in the conference, also same as Toledo. So seems to me they would have been a likely entry.

Nope. Three of WMU's wins came against non-D1 opponents. For RPI rating and selection committee purposes those games don't exist, so WMU was 15-15. Similarly, OU had 1 win against a non-D1 opponent, so they were also 15-15 as far as the committees are concerned. Not gonna get selected without a winning record.

The selection committees are reported to weigh highly top 50 wins. Interesting fact, the MAC had 12 wins against top 50 opponents this year. That was a huge improvement from 1 last season. Here's the problem, 10 of those 12 were against other MAC teams. The two teams that had top 50 OOC wins? UT against Dayton, and BSU against #50 WKU. BSU was 0-3 against the other MAC top 50 RPI teams tho. UT was 1-5.

So, that just further illustrates that it is CMU & UB records (and to a lessor extent BSU) that pulled up the whole conference, because everyone else got credit just for playing them.

(03-12-2018 08:46 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote: [ -> ]Last season, the MAC had 8 teams with 19+ wins. This season only 4, and 5 total with winning records. The higher conference RPI is primarily driven because of CMU, UB & BSU all having really high RPIs.

Neither OU nor WMU had a winning overall record. Every MAC team with a winning record is playing in post-season this year.

This is the problem with RPI. It is 75% who you play, and 25% how well you play. So, even 1 or 2 teams with really high RPIs pulls the whole conference up.

Ok point taken if Western had three wins not D-1 which certainly devalues their record. But I would note that Georgetown got in with a 15-15 record. Not sure how that happened. Interestingly Georgetown and Western Michigan have almost the same RPI.

(03-13-2018 08:25 AM)indianasniff Wrote: [ -> ]Lady Rockets are in the WNIT because the tourney knows that they will sell tickets. Period

Dollars make all these decisions, including not going to CBI or CIT which are just a money drag

TRUE, so let's make NIT some money and kick Wright St's azz.