The Wiz

Stony Brook is another school like Davidson (both B+) that fits in nicely with the A-10. ...and like Davidson, Stony Brook is most similar to Dayton. Stony beat UMass in the 1st round of the NIT. Playing either Davidson or Stony Brook would not hurt our RPI or other numbers.

You are correct.... past performance is no guarantee of future success....yet financial companies still use it in their advertising because it says we have a successful program. It is a point of reference/comparison to how others are doing at that same point. We have been to the Dance the last 2 years...no guarantee we will go back but again a reference point/ comparision point. Students use past data when choosing a school. If SLU has had great academics in the past, it doesn't mean they will have great academics in the future but a prospective student figures that into his calculation. Does posting a school graduation rate mean that you will graduate that amount in the future. Of course not but schools still use them in their advertising as a reference/comparison. I use the letter grading as way for people to compare teams. People look at a Neb or a USC and try to guess how good a program is by looking at their record or where they finished in their respective conference. Being a bottomfeeder in the Big 10 is not the same as being a bottomfeeder in the Southwestern conference. And unlike the financial markets which never stop, you can freeze a moment in college basketball time for about 7 months (April to Nov) Once next year's season starts then the numbers truly become history. Whether you agree with my numbers or not I think most will agree that the Bills have been a better team the last 2 years then Mia OH. My system tries to objectify it a bit by answering the question of " How much better are the Bills?" in a simple way. Bottomline ....grading system is for comparison in the here and now not for future success. During the season, the comparisions are good day to day after the season they are good for about 7 months.

So to further recap...... Onwuasor....SLU ..A+......Mia OH....D......Pitt........A+ Abell.............SLU...A+......X.............B.......St. M....A Jesperson.....SLU..A+......USC........B-......UNI.......B+......Neb....C+ Yacoubou.....SLU..A+.......Pitt..........A+.....GT........B-

Davidson is not a bad choice.....B+....would be a good fit for A-10 from a basletball perspective.....similar to Dayton.

I mentioned this earlier.... SLU.............A+ Mia of OH....D Mia OH is on par with Fordham....basketball wise. Can you imagine a recruit trying to decide between Fordham and SLU. I know there are many factors that go into the decision ....campus, academics, sorority girls, etc (not sure of the order ) but if basketball is driving the decision bus there should be no contest.

I think he was an RM fan. A year ago he had the Bills at #35 saying because RM passed on the SMU job the Bills would benefit. In Oct after it was announced that RM wasn't coming back he dropped us from the Top 40. As for other picks.... He had Ky as #2....I guess he should have picked Robert Morris #1 In regards to Harvard....I had them finishing as a B- team A nice win over NMex but thats about it. If Harvard was in the A-10 they would be similar to GW. I didn't even have Harvard as a top 100 team. They make the tourney because they are in a weak conference. Dickie V thinks they will be great next year because of the return of Kyle Casey (11pts 5reb). Seems unlikely a player with average stats in a weak conference who hasn't played in 2 years will make Harvard an A team.

Many teams do stay stuck in their own letter grade for years until there is some major change. That change is usually the coach. My feeling is the coach is the single most important factor in recruiting and the success of a program. If Coach K went to Fordham their program would move up quickly even with the current D-. All the variables are contributing factors to a recruit's decision but the trump card is the coach. If the coachs are similar in a recruit's mind then the other factors come into play.

If we played Mia-OH today we would be favored by 22 points....a game we should win. A game if we lost, we would be disappointed. Could we lose to them even if heavily favored? Sure....Cold shooting by us, hot shooting by them, bad calls, injuries, foul trouble etc. Bottomline we should beat them but a win is not guaranteed. I look at recruiting the same way. We should beat them and if we don't it would be disappointing. (A+ vs D-)....But like a bball game there can be other factors....campus, academics, coeds, program centerpiece, connecting with someone on campus, the whims of a 17 yr old, etc. We are the better team....not just vs Mia-OH but of all the teams that are interested. We should know the "score" after this weekend.

Mia-OH has said they will make Randy O the centerpiece of their program. Unlike Clemson, which has a pretty good program (B....Similar to UMass), Mia -OH is a bad program. (D- ...similar to Fordham)

In a story just released by Red Hawk Insider (Mia-OH site) they are pushing hard for Randy O. With his visit coming this weekend, they see their competition as The Bills, Set Hall, Utah and Pitt at this time.

Clemson a 500 team with a B rating.....vs The Bills back to back NCAA appearances with an A+ ratng. Many project Dj starting off as a role player on Clemson. He probably would have been a more intregal part of the SLU team to begin with. Time to move on.....Next player.

Clemson board reporting they have signed Djambo

+73..... My prognostication hat is off to you, sir. You not only predicted what MB would say but you did it an hour and 47 minutes before he posted. Now there is true predictive power....

Hmmm.....I thought I understood what I did until I read this post. So I copy Vegas lines yet I post before they do. And I do this by using LV power rating formulas. Wouldn't Vegas be able to use their own formulas and beat me to the punch? Cmon, MB....it is time for "the truth".....Vegas waits for me to post then copies...."reality" I am not quite sure I have a handle on this next part. So if I pick the Bills by 6 and they win by 6, I have screwed up?????? I should actually pick them to win by 14 or to lose by 4????? Hmmm... perhaps you need to review my signature quote by Descartes. It is at the bottom of every post I make. Maybe that will clear things up for you a bit. Aren't you the guy MB who last year (January 2012) when I first declared the Bills were an elite team (ranked in the teens) ...declared that was a ca-ca post ...and said the Bills were no better than a team ranked in the 60's using some sort of LV power rankings....and continued to rag on me saying we weren't a tournment worthy team right into the 2012 NCAA tourney. How is that system working out for you? Keep on it. So, until I can fit foo-foo into a probability formula or ca-ca into a computer model, you, MB will have to stay in the category of irrelevant.

Duq is a program on the way down....D+....Fordham is on the way up...D....shows you how bad Ford is/was....Next year Duq may be the new bottomfeeder.

I can't wait to see those Georgetown linebackers blitz the ND quarterback in the NBE.

Loyola is a C team....similar to Bradley...so they will start out near the bottom of the MVC.

I don't think any of the ACC teams would be a fit in the NBE as they are all football schools. I thought that was the whole point of forming a NBE...to get away from football.

Siena would be a bad move at this time for the A-10 from a ranking/quality standpoint.. They are an F team. They are worse than perennial bottomfeeder Fordham. Siena is the equivalent of Edwardsville. Not a good move if you are trying to keep the quality of the league high.

Davidson....B+....most similar A-10 team this year....X G Mason.....C+....Most similar A-10 team this year....GW Had the A-10 added Belmont (A-) instead of GM (C+) it would have then been a pretty close swap....ie...Davidson (B+) / X (B+) and Belmont (A-)/ Butler (A)....as it is....Butler (A)/GM (C+) and Davidson =X Bottomline a little weaker A-10 next year.

Bills finish at 16th and an A+ for the year in my rankings. . A great season and a good stepping stone for next year.

During halftime of the Lville/WSU game Crews was honored along with Bobby Knight and 6 other players from the 1976 Indiana team....voted the best college basketball team in history, He received a beautiful crystal trophy to a standing ovation. It was pretty cool.

Thx I personally don't have enough data to make a judgement on Yacoubou . When I did an A-10 scan it came up with Butler and Barlow. Barlow is another player with not enough data to make a judgement on. I try to use the best data available....sometimes there is not much to go on. Kind of like trying to predict game spreads after just 1 or 2 games into the season.

Not arguing....just asked a few questions to get your opinion.

So is it your opinion that Yacoubou is a star player that got lost in the Nova system? Where do you think he would have fit in on this year's Bills team? Would he have been a starter?