College Hoops: December

[Guest Leelee]

UConn will be starting 5 probable 1st-round picks when Williams is able to play in January. They're gonna be nasty.

[SilverPhoenix 0]

And now in its early form. Lets take a look at some RPI Rankings for Conference. These are from this Site.

 

1 Big Ten 0.6034 61 20 0.7531 Ohio State

2 Big East 0.5783 83 30 0.7345 Connecticut

3 ACC 0.5750 68 17 0.8000 Duke

4 Missouri Valley 0.5726 41 17 0.7069 Missouri State

5 SEC 0.5656 62 20 0.7561 Florida

6 Colonial Athletic 0.5351 38 24 0.6129 UNC Wilmington

7 Atlantic 10 0.5232 60 37 0.6186 George Washington

8 Western Athletic 0.5154 30 29 0.5085 Nevada

9 Pac 10 0.5131 45 21 0.6818 Washington

10 Big XII 0.5104 59 22 0.7284 Texas A&M

11 Sun Belt 0.5080 29 32 0.4754 South Alabama

12 West Coast 0.5078 26 30 0.4643 Gonzaga

13 MAAC 0.5075 22 27 0.4490 Iona

14 Mid-American 0.5038 32 26 0.5517 Northern Illinois

15 Mountain West 0.4981 34 27 0.5574 Colorado State

16 Patriot League 0.4861 25 36 0.4098 Bucknell

17 Horizon League 0.4801 22 32 0.4074 Wright St

18 Ivy League 0.4760 25 28 0.4717 Columbia

19 Conference USA 0.4744 35 36 0.4930 Memphis

20 Southern 0.4684 22 44 0.3333 Davidson

21 Big West 0.4634 18 29 0.3830 UC Irvine

22 Southland 0.4615 19 36 0.3455 Southeastern Louisiana

23 Big Sky 0.4586 25 29 0.4630 Montana

24 Northeast 0.4562 23 40 0.3651 Fairleigh Dickinson

25 Big South 0.4551 18 26 0.4091 Winthrop

26 Ohio Valley 0.4526 11 26 0.2973 Tennessee Tech

27 Mid Continent 0.4355 17 38 0.3091 Valparaiso

28 America East 0.4343 14 40 0.2593 Boston University

29 MEAC 0.4262 12 55 0.1791 Bethune Cookman

30 Independent 0.4126 12 56 0.1765 Utah Valley State

31 SWAC 0.3979 5 47 0.0962 Arkansas-Pine Bluff

32 Atlantic Sun 0.3888 10 26 0.2778 Kennesaw State

 

The usual suspects are up top here. The Big East, ACC, and Big Ten are the big 3 here, above eveyone else.

 

I think the biggest surprises here are these.

- The Missouri Valley in 4th Place in the Moment

- The Colonial in 6th Place So Far.

- The WAC is still up in the Top 10, even with all of the Texas Schools gone.

- The Big XII is 10th Place so far

- The Pac 10th is 9th.

- Conference USA is 19th?!?!?

 

And I'm sure there are some other things out there, that should take someone by surprise.

Edited December 13, 2005 by DragonLordKaiba

[Damaramu 0]

Every team in the Big XII outside of OU and Texas appears to be in rebuilding mode so it's not to much of a shock that the conference wouldn't be good.

[Guest]

Only thing that really sticks out to me is a usually awful Sun Belt at 11th.

[Guest Leelee]

Independent isn't last! Holla! Corpus Christi is so the best team there instead of UVS, though.

 

I don't understand why Conference USA is that low. It's not like they have any 0-10 teams ruining their standing.

[SilverPhoenix 0]

A few explanations.

 

First, I forgot to put the link up, post edited ASAP.

 

The Teams, you see there, are the best teams in their conference at this point.

 

And as for CUSA's raking. Sure, they have Memphis, Houston, and UAB that are good, but the other 2/3rds, of the conference is stinking it up, and BADLY according to this.

 

For those who are lazy, here are the RPI numbers.

 

Tier 1 (1-50)

Memphis: 3

Houston: 12

 

Tier 2 (51 - 100)

UAB: 87

 

Tier 3 (101 - 150)

Central Florida: 108

 

Tier 4 (151 - 200): No one is here

 

Tier 5 (201 - 250)

Tulsa: 225

 

Tier 6/Bottom Tier/Shit Tier (251 - 333)

Rice: 256

Tulane: 271

Marshall: 273

SMU: 290

East Carolina: 292

Southern Miss: 294

UTEP: 298

 

And there is your story. UTEP's number is escpecially alarming, but it would've improved if their two best players didn't get invovled in fight, which got one of them booted off the team, and the other injured.

 

So yeah....The new CUSA is going to reach new levels of suck, according to the RPI Rankings.

Edited December 13, 2005 by DragonLordKaiba

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm surprised UTEP is that bad since they have made the tourney the past 2 years. I think UAB could be a bit better than that 87 ranking.

 

I'm hopeful of going to the U of L/UK game on Saturday. Dracula's in the coffin, Prof. Van Pitino has the stake out, now we just need to drive the stake into the heart.

[SilverPhoenix 0]

Wake Forest goes down.

 

Wake Forest loses to DePaul, in Winston-Salem 84-81. Welcome to the New Big East, Indeed.

 

In other news, Flordia Atlantic defeated Central Florida, sending Central Florida's RPI down 63 points to 171. Ironically though C-USA is 18th Place now.

[RepoMan 0]

It's really stupid to look at or give credence to any sort of computer rankings before January.

[Guest Leelee]

The conference RPI is somewhat important now, however... as a good percentage of non-conference games have been played.

 

Also, Monmouth beat Princeton 41-21 in the lowest scoring game since the 3-point shot was allowed.

[jwpeer 0]

If anything the conference RPI is -only- significant around now. Basically after December in-conference games mess with the rankings and it becomes less significant as to which conferences are better than others.

[Guest Leelee]

Conference RPI is a poor stat, anyway... and I really hope the Selection Committee doesn't use it for their seedings.

[SilverPhoenix 0]

Conference RPI is a poor stat, anyway... and I really hope the Selection Committee doesn't use it for their seedings.

 

Then you might want to speak to Louisville, and that 4 seed they got last year. Not to mention the 2 #1 seeds the ACC got last year...And so on and so on. Conference RPI is used in seeding to some respect. (It's also used for At-Large Bids as well) And Memphis is going to be a victim of this in March, just watch.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah but Memphis is playing in a very watered down C-USA. But last year? C-USA had 3 teams that at least made the 2nd round of the tourney in addition to U of L going to the FF (UAB and Cincy won convincingly over LSU and Iowa).

 

Truth be told, there is really no rhyme or reason as to how the committee views conference RPI. One year Gonzaga is a 6 seed and people bitch about it, since they play in a crap conference. Then they get a 2 seed playing the same conf. schedule. There's really little rhyme or reason to it.

[Guest Leelee]

I'm hoping it was more due to looking at Louisville's SOS. But, I think it was more likely that "Well, we have to make Washington a #1, but we don't think they're close to being that good, since, like, we're not staying up that late to watch their games... so, we'll drop Louisville in there, and add GT in that section, and one of them will get through."

 

Finally some good games tonight...

 

ASU looks to rebound after their loss to Indepedent Power Utah Valley State... in a likely sound beating in Iowa.

 

And Louisville-Kentucky. Which will lead to many fights on various message boards.

[ANKLELOCK 0]

The Vols kicking the crap out of Texas with three of the longest 3-pointers I've ever seen. 29-10 right now in Austin. 6-0 and headed to the NCAA tourny. I love Bruce Pearl.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Kentucky is up 15 on Louisville at halftime.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, I figured we'd get our asses kicked and exposed at Rupp at the beginning of the season, and that happened today. Ah well, at least U of L tried some in the 2nd half. Frankly, when Padgett got that bogus 2nd foul about 3 mins. into the game it took us out of everything.

 

The sad thing is that now UK fans will act like they really did something, beating the #4 team in the nation and all. U of L isn't even a top 25 team in truth. This will get the fans off Tubby's back, which is totally the wrong thing right now since UK is still not any good really.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Well, I figured we'd get our asses kicked and exposed at Rupp at the beginning of the season, and that happened today. Ah well, at least U of L tried some in the 2nd half. Frankly, when Padgett got that bogus 2nd foul about 3 mins. into the game it took us out of everything.

 

The sad thing is that now UK fans will act like they really did something, beating the #4 team in the nation and all. U of L isn't even a top 25 team in truth. This will get the fans off Tubby's back, which is totally the wrong thing right now since UK is still not any good really.

[iggymcfly 0]

Tennessee's looking like a fluke against Oklahoma State right now. They're down 42-26 at the half. Of course it makes sense for OSU to be pumped up in the first half taking on a ranked team at home, but it's still going to be tough for the Vols to come back from this kind of a deficit.

[Guest]

USC's looking pretty good with Tim Floyd as their head coach. 8 wins in a row and a big win against North Carolina last night.

[Guest Leelee]

Vols just played very stupid against OSU. Lots of long crazy three attempts. I know Tennessee wants to play at a crazy pace, but that was ridiculous.

 

Meanwhile, WVU is beating the crap out of Oklahoma. Not watching... but WVU is shooting nearly 70% from the field and we're very late in the 2nd half. Wow.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Nova squashed La Salle by 41 points tonight, 98-57. Suprising because La Salle was undefeated before this game. One more Big 5 game against Temple which could be tough before they face Louisville.

[cabbageboy 0]

OU is a lot like UK. They can be a physical team, a tough team, but not a particularly skilled team in terms of shooting. I figured WVU would beat them, though not by THAT much.

 

The question this brings up is how bad is the Big 12 this year? Going in Texas and Oklahoma were supposed to carry the conf. but those teams have gotten beaten bloody in the non conf. schedule. Kansas is too young, TX Tech is doing shitty too. Right now OK St. might win the conf. by default for being the least inept.

 

I'm actually going to the UK/Iona game at Freedom Hall tomorrow night. It'll be fun, first UK game I've ever been to actually (this being UK's annual 1 shot at Freedom Hall vs. some jobber). Iona is actually undefeated right now, so this could be tougher than expected.

[Damaramu 0]

The Big XII is not good in basketball but it's never exactly been a strong b-ball conference. I mean it's usually Kansas and every now and then Texas and OU and recently OSU.

Every team in the conference is young and OU's problem is that they can't figure out how to score and they really don't get the ball to Bookout and Gray enough.

[Guest Leelee]

Memphis-Gonzaga tonight. This could be a very important matchup for seedings in March, considering both teams start their "weaker" conference schedules after this (Memphis does have Texas after this, but meh).

[SilverPhoenix 0]

Tonight's game should be a great matchup, as we're seeing the two dominant "Mid-Major" Powers squaring off aganist each other in the most meaningful game this month, as it will implicate how these two teams are seen in the eyes of the Nation.

 

For Gonzaga, this is pretty much it for them as they have a Rebuilding St. Joes and an already dissapointing Stanford in where the wins may not mean much in the grand scheme of things if these teams don't finish in the top Tier of their Conferences. And the West Cosat Conference will limit their seeding potenial should they lose a couple of games, as the WCC is nowhere near as strong as last year, even though it's number 12 in the Conference RPI.

 

Memphis with their new 14 Game C-USA schedule has Texas left as another potential Signature Win, but that's pretty much it. However, in Memphis' case there final OOC Games are going to mean that much more as C-USA is struggling to remain in the Mid Major/Second Tier of RPI rankings at 19. They need to basically win all of their games to garner any consideration for a Top 16 Placing in the Dance.

 

The Key to this game is going to be who can control the game better. Morrison or Memphis' Overall Depth? Whoever does, will win the game.

[Guest Leelee]

*Stuff to make me sound smart too*

 

The Key to this game is who will score more.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Nova has one more Big 5 game against Temple before the game against Louisville. Of course the last time Temple played in a significant Big 5 game we had the whole "goon" incident, hopefully it doesn't happen again because Nova doesn't need any more injuries.

[cabbageboy 0]

From the way U of L has played lately, Nova by all rights should kill us by at least 20 at home, and 30 in Philly.

 

What's up with Zaga's red jerseys here? They look like Arizona. I can see why they are still viewed as a mid major, but Memphis? They've been to a few Final 4s before. I know they are playing in a crap conf. but I wonder if the Big East regrets not taking Memphis now? Wouldn't they be better than taking nonentities like DePaul and Marquette? Or USF, who sucks in basically everything and has zero fanbase?