(03-12-2013 09:00 AM)slappycajun Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 08:55 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  have to watch CUSA tournament as well, if anyone not named Memphis wins tournament, that will knock out a bubble team....

Good point. Actually, for MT, I think the prognosis is really bad. One, it will be a long time since they have been on TV when the committee makes their selection. Two, over the next week, undoubtedly someone is going to steal a bid. Three, they are starting off not even in the bracket projections. I'd feel much better if they were fighting to hang on as opposed to trying to sneak back in.

Also, FWIW, CBS has the Toppers playing Michigan State as a 15. I prefer 15 to 16, but I don't prefer playing Izzo in the tourney. He's fairly decent come tournament time. Of course, so is coach Harper.

I am hoping for a 15th seed in Lexington against Miami...I think that is a matchup we could win and would be great for us to be close and have a lot of fans..Of course probally not going to happen, but we shall see..

(03-11-2013 09:22 PM)CrushMI Wrote:  Play-in games:

WKU will be either a play-in or 16 seed
MT could be in play-in for the 11 seed (last 2 at-large teams in)

Is it possible SBC has 2 teams in Dayton? I think WKU will be a 16 seed though. I'm sure MT fans will take anything in the Tournament.

Will be an interesting week for sure...

Its abosolutey disgusting to me that the SBC champion has sunk to play-in or 16 seed.

Why do we accept this from the conference?

The conference should set scheduling policies that assist our programs to reach seeds 7-12 as it should be.

How do we accept this from the conference? Um, we don't have much choice. The "conference" is US, collectively. We did this to ourselves. Our conference is not that strong, that is a fact. We have to win OOC games. Schedule smart. It is a misnomer that you have to schedule tough teams. Scheduling tough teams and losing every game does NOTHING. Schedule competitive games that you have a chance to win.... and win!

(03-12-2013 09:26 AM)AstroCajun Wrote:  

(03-11-2013 09:22 PM)CrushMI Wrote:  Play-in games:

WKU will be either a play-in or 16 seed
MT could be in play-in for the 11 seed (last 2 at-large teams in)

Is it possible SBC has 2 teams in Dayton? I think WKU will be a 16 seed though. I'm sure MT fans will take anything in the Tournament.

Will be an interesting week for sure...

Its abosolutey disgusting to me that the SBC champion has sunk to play-in or 16 seed.

Why do we accept this from the conference?

The conference should set scheduling policies that assist our programs to reach seeds 7-12 as it should be.

Exactly, we change it by the Cajus winning some OOC games.

So now its the conference faults with a fan of a team not named MTSU?...Tell MTSU to take care of business in tournament if you are tired of it..Also be glad all of those years WKU was not a low seed and did damage in the NCAA tournament...Maybe the Cajuns should worry about the Cajuns in basketball and get better and challenge us or another team step up....WKU will be waiting.....I am sure most WKU fans do not expect many more seasons being this low of a seed but it is what it is...Last year mid season coaching changes, this season injuries..The core of our team is sophmores, I hope we will have a much stronger regular season in the upcoming years....

(03-12-2013 10:45 AM)galojah Wrote:  How do we accept this from the conference? Um, we don't have much choice. The "conference" is US, collectively. We did this to ourselves. Our conference is not that strong, that is a fact. We have to win OOC games. Schedule smart. It is a misnomer that you have to schedule tough teams.



Scheduling tough teams and losing every game does NOTHING. Schedule competitive games that you have a chance to win.... and win!

One way is to never play another 20 game conference schedule...NEVER!!!!!

I totally agree with the last part and I had a long email conversation with WW and a few AD's that went on for a couple years.

I showed them my RPI model and how just 1 extra OOC win by each school will raise the RPI's of every school in the conference. Doesn't matter if that one win was against the little sisters of the blind as long as it was a D1 win.

Only a couple had the sense to understand that any OOC win is better than a OOC loss to a decent BCS school. I tried to make them understand that it was a lot like compound interest.

You don't gain much on the front end (the win against a team with a poor record ) but when you compound that 1 extra win over the other 10 teams in the conference it grows and grows and grows....

especially when 50% of the RPI is the average winning % of the schools you played. You lose a little up front but the conference as a whole gains with the better winning %

As far as the 16 seed play-in games go:

Liberty (289, Big South)
LIU Brooklyn (176, NEC)
James Madison (183, CAA)
SWAC champ (Texas Southern has RPI of 187 entering tournament; 7 teams are ranked in the 300s)

The Big Sky champ will likely bump one of these directly to the second round if anyone other than Montana or Weber State wins that tournament.

As far as at-large berths go, 3 teams in the Top 37 of RPI have won tournaments (Gonzaga, Belmont, Creighton), so that should push the cut line down to 40. The Atlantic 10, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12, and Mountain West should produce champions from within the RPI Top 40 as well (although the Pac 12 is on the weakest ground of that group), which should make the cut at 46. If Memphis wins C-USA then that pushes the cut from to 47. If Florida or Missouri win the SEC, that makes 48. Missouri's game against Ole Miss (56) is a must-win for the Rebels.

Another tournament to watch is the WAC-Louisiana Tech (49) winning keeps Denver (58) or NMSU (59) from stealing a bid.

At a threshold of 48, Middle Tennessee would be in with room to spare with an RPI of 29. Kentucky's RPI is 50 right now so they would be out.

The NCAA really hates dropping the SWAC & MEAC schools in the First Four.