The Wiz

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?

Well Butler is not the same type of team that Nova is....but from a numbers point of view they are similar....both A-. Yacoubou is different type player than Barlow but they are both guards from like ranked teams with similar stats which is why I used them for comparision purposes. I listed some stats so posters could see some similarities and some differences. Of course numbers never speak to hidden potential or growth or development

I could have found a more similar player in the Pac-12 but I tried to find an A-10 team that was similar to Nova with a player who was at least in the same ball park. I fugured it would be better if people at least have some recognition rather than choosing another completely obscure player.

The Bills .....A+ Nova...........A- In A-10 speak....Nova is closest to Butler.....both A- Closest player on Butler to Yacoubou is guard Alex Barlow ............................GP........Min.......PPG.........RPG..........APG.......FG%.......FT%......3P% Yacoubou...........31..........12.........2.9............2.6..............0.5.........41.8%......50%......39.6% Barlow.................35..........19.4......2.3............2.7.............1.9..........43.1%......73.3%.....25% This is for comparsion only. I am not advocating for Yacoubou or Barlow. Bottomline ....If you would be happy taking a guard from Butler like Barlow then yoiu should be happy with a player like Yacoubou from Nova.

To the point ....Minn vs SLU..... Minn....A.....SLU....A+......SLU by 2 over Minn Translated into A-10 talk....better than Butler....not as good as VCU Bottomline....Minn was a good team this year.....This is not a bottom feeder program...just a good program that gets lost in the shuffle of one of the better conferences.

Truly a horrific accident. Before it occurred, it was a loud and boisterous crowd....35000 total....30000 Lville fans. An electrifying atmosphere for the first 13 minutes as the game seesawed back and forth. And then....deafening silence....as though someone hit a mute button.....an eerie environment. Most of the crowd did not know what had happened. Adding to the confusion, was the fact that as soon as Ware went down ....4 other players went down too ....from the shock ....so the whole team was laying on the floor. Some in the crowd thought there had been some sort of terrorist attack ....with maybe a crazed shooter in the crowd....but as people started to pass cell phones through the crowd it became apparent what had happened. After Ware was wheeled out on a stretcher to a standing O....the game resumed with a damper on it. Duke came out with extra energy and the Cards were out of sync. Two minutes later ....Lville had missed 4 of 5 from the field plus 2 free throws...Duke had their largest lead of the night ...3pts. After the timeout, Lville righted the ship and reached halftime with a small lead. During halftime, the team had a short prayer service conducted by Father Bradley(mentioned in another thread) and pulled together with a vow to win it for Ware. They only spent a short time in the locker room and came out way early and much before Duke to start their warmups. The 2nd half continued to be a tight affair for the first 7 min and then you could see Duke starting to slow down. The wear of a shorter bench plus the quick tempo and pressing defense by Lville was too much and it was over at that point. It was a great game but the game was not the main story. It was one of the strangest games I have ever attended. One of exhilaration mixed with somber. In these days where basketball and sports are glorified at the college level, everyone had a moment to remember that these are just students playing a game and that no matter what is at stake there are more important things in life. People had a chance for a few minutes to at least think about that as Ware laid there in agony. During the awards ceremony as Lville receved the trophy, the team held up Ware's jersey as the crowd chanted Kev-in, Kev-in. While this was going on, the stadium staff had put up ladders for the net cutting ceremony. When the awards ceremony was over, the team quietly walked past the ladders and straight to the locker room. Sunday was not about cutting down nets but remembering what is important.

Tulsa = C-...better than TCU....similar to RI

TCU = D program.....Big 12 bottom feeder....similar to Duq

brought to you by NC State and presented by Deadspin http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=deadspin%20nc%20state%20recruiting&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fi-love-the-way-you-ball-this-n-c-state-recruiting-l-453767797&ei=Y2lQUZyaIcmOygHrvYHAAQ&usg=AFQjCNGGjOkyLsQFokF1mbpw80AWp-EdLw

And yet another voice of why we need to be in the NBE. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=new%20big%20east%20conference%20teams%20st.%20louis&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.capitalnewyork.com%2Farticle%2Fsports%2F2013%2F03%2F8482599%2Fnew-big-east-strong-it-strong-enough&ei=UN5PUYGOFMXTyAHsoYCABA&usg=AFQjCNEqhAeJgPR3gyM6YU01IhHz6RcPNw

A great article on Enfield from FGCU. About the recruiting war that may develop .....currently makes $157,000...Would be a great get. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=andy%20enfield%20salary&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naplesnews.com%2Fnews%2F2013%2Fmar%2F24%2Fbig-man-on-campus-what-will-it-take-to-keep-andy%2F&ei=tr1PUaeAJJD-rAG0_IHgCg&usg=AFQjCNHmAv1mbPJ1WyH-TJtJywLGQI9CsA

They are a B rated team right now....closest A-10 team = UMass Of course if they keep winning they can move a lot in the rankings.

G Mason = C+.....Closest A-10 match = Charlotte

Well, as you probably know by now, my perspective is 3 pt shooting. This game like all the others we have lost this season exceeded the 45.5% shooting percentage that was the"loss threshold"....i.e.when a team shoots better than the best team in the country (currently Creighton at 42.2%) they beat us. Ore shot 73%. This was the second highest total ever recorded in Bills history. Ironically, the highest was 75% by Evansville in 1998 with 75%....Jim Crews as coach for the Aces. Ducks made an extra 5 shots over their average...15 points. Tough to win when a team does that ...not to mention at the same time we go ice cold. Bottomline....teams had to play above their head, sometimes extraordinarily (including an A+ team like Kansas) to beat us. Perhaps the motto for this year should be...it is not easy beating a Bills team.