Worried about the RPI this coming season

[SLUDrew]

Considering that we no longer have Iowa and Gonzaga on the schedule, is anyone else worried about what our RPI may look like next year? Think about our schedule so far; UNC and SIU will definitely help the RPI. Mo State will be decent as well. After those three teams the schedule really falls off a cliff at least as it appears today. Of course some of our opponents will be better than advertised and some will be worse, so it is hard to say for sure, but I am worried we may have to win at least 22 games to get an invite.

[Billiken Rich]

With the heck aren't you worried about Drew?????

Seriously though, the only thing I'm concerned about is more than a couple of Savannah State type games that might pop up when the full schedule is released.

[billiken_roy]

if ole miss is winning that game will also help.

the big key will be if or how many of the stupid buy games are on the schedule and how the a-10 does in pre-season this year as compared to the last two seasons that they havent fared well as the conference in the past.

[SLUDrew]

Those buy games wouldn't bother me if we didn't have teams just as bad in the A-10. When you already know you have to play teams with RPIs in the 300s, you have to be very careful making up your non-con.

We are going to be forced to win either the UNC game or at SIU. I don't know if we have another possible win we could hang our hat on as far as the committee is concerned.

I am concerned about it because this team has the ability to make the tournament. It would be a shame if we didn't make it because of poor scheduling.

[SLUDrew]

I thought about Ole Miss but they have been fairly terrible recently. They are going to have a new coach and the game is here, so it becomes more of a game we ahve to win to not lose ground in the RPI as opposed to a game where we could gain ground by winning.

[Scoop]

Even a mediocre team in a power conference helps the RPI. Don't we have Texas A&M in that round robbin.

[billiken_roy]

dont forget drew, part of the rpi equation is the rpi of the teams that your opponent plays. thus, ole miss being an sec school will help regardless of how mediocre they will be.

i believe that ole miss will be an improved team. they showed some players in our game last year, plus, kennedy proved he is a legit coach at cincy last year.

[SLUDrew]

I fully realize that an opponent's opponents do factor in to the equation so on the surface Ole Miss may seem like a good game for the RPI. I don't think it will be though. I still think that this is a game w must win to keep from dropping as oppesed to game we can gain from.

On a side note, I like Andy Kennedy a lot as well and think he will get things turned around down there within a few years.

[billiken_roy]

sludrew said, "On a side note, I like Andy Kennedy a lot as well and think he will get things turned around down there within a few years."

i think it is standard abc policy andy only gets 3 years without pressure and then is officially on the hot seat if he hasnt reached the national championship game by then.

[kshoe]

its generally better to play good teams from mediocre conferences then mediocre teams from good conferences. This is because of the 75% of the RPI that comes from your opponents (25% is your W-L) 50% of that is your opponenets W-L record while only 25% is the opponent-opponenets.

For example, if Loyola is a good team next year (i.e. 20+ wins), playing them will be a bigger RPI boost then Miss (maybe 15 wins), especially after you add in that it is a road game.

All that being said, at the end of the day the committee still wants to see wins over teams from the BCS conferences (something Missouri St. had little of last year) so there is some value in playing teams like Mississippi.

Far and away the most important determinant in our RPI (besides our W-L %) will be the performance of the other A-10 teams in non-conference play. It is essential for the conference as a whole to win a lot of games in Novemeber and December. A repeat of last year would be a disaster.

[Pistol]

Brad has said that he is going to be a lot more selective in scheduling non-conference games. He's always wanted to play the toughest schedule possible, but wants to be more careful with the "buy-in" games, and eliminate the teams in the mid-200s and above. It's what the Valley did this past season, and it worked for them.

Personally, I'd like to see the buy-in games be more in the high-100s to low-200s at the highest. This would make for a more challenging schedule (eliminating garbage like that Savannah St. game a couple years back) and obviously help the RPI. I'd also like to see more regionally-based games that could potentially create more interest in otherwise ignored games. I don't know what the RPIs of these schools are, but how about SEMO and UMKC as buy-ins, another Valley school or two to go along with MSU and SIUC, and then a school or two like Butler, UIC, or Valpo. Loyola this year was a good idea. This would make us more vulnerable to upsets, but would create a team ready for a big A-10 run. Plus, there's got to be enough alums of those schools in or around St. Louis to draw extra fans.

The big one, though, is to get Mizzou on the schedule every year. The two biggest programs in the state facing each other is an automatic sellout every year, a lot of money and attention for both schools, and solid competition for both sides. We also played Illinois at the Dome back in the 90s, and drew about 39,000 fans. SLU doesn't carry quite the fanfare, but we need to get more rivalries and regional games to get the interest building again.

[cheeseman]

All this talk of playing regional teams because they have alums who will come and up tick the attendance has never panned out. We have often played these regional teams in the past and the attendance at the games are not much different then if we play other teams. These regional teams do not draw fans from St. Louis nor do they travel well. Personally, I would like to play teams from around the country that we never have a chance to see but whose RPI and conf will help us come selection day.

[billiken_roy]

i agree. regional or mvc teams do not drive the attendance as much as 1. the billikens winning and 2. our opponents being a national program.

all anyone has to do is pick up a media guide and look at the list of highest attended games. they will see that the list is primarily about the years the billikens were winning and/or national programs.

[SLUDrew]

Not to over-simplify the situation but we really need a marquee win and I think only UNC or at SIU provides that on our schedule. If we don't win one of those two I think we could be in for a struggle to get an at-large

[Pistol]

I would rather have national programs, too, but when it comes to the buy-in games, I would rather replace those with regional games. I would never give up games with UNC, Gonzaga, and Iowa for Valley or Horizon League teams. But replacing Kennesaw State and other RPI-killing programs with regional teams makes sense to me, and that's what I was suggesting. I don't think that we'd see an instant boost in attendance with regional games, but I just want to see matchups that fans will have some interest in, one way or another. No one wants to watch Kennesaw State or Jackson State- those are the kinds of games that we should play regional teams instead.

[StLouBlue]

I am trying to figure out how much of the non-conference schedule we actually know so far. I think we are losing Hawaii, UW-Mil, Oakland, Gonzaga and Iowa.

@ Loyola Chi (RPI 138)

home vs UNC (12)

@ SIU (29)

home vs Miss (156)

?? Mo St (21)

I know there is also a tournament in there that I thought was with Texas A&M, but couldn't find any mention of it on their website. Still a lot of games and schedules to be made so still really too early to guess at what the final schedule will look like.

[tseugnekillib]

cheese, that is the second thing we agree on ...... I want to play as much of a national non-conference schedule as possible.

[tseugnekillib]

nm

[bauman]

I can understand the need for secrecy in recruiting, BUT why do we annually have to try to piece our schedule together from "lucky finds" on opponents websites/message boards. Why doesn't our SID feel some obligation to keep fans/season ticket holders somewhat informed of what is happening regarding the team? Why the blanket of silence? It's not like it's big info when the whole schedule is released-it is barely covered in the piece of c*@# we call our local rag. Come on SLU SID give those of us interested in the program some info on a somewhat current basis.

[VTIME]

>Considering that we no longer have Iowa and Gonzaga on the

>schedule, is anyone else worried about what our RPI may look

>like next year? Think about our schedule so far; UNC and SIU

>will definitely help the RPI. Mo State will be

>decent as well. After those three teams the schedule really

>falls off a cliff at least as it appears today. Of course

>some of our opponents will be better than advertised and

>some will be worse, so it is hard to say for sure, but I am

>worried we may have to win at least 22 games to get an

>invite.

If the schedule falls off, make sure we dont. We should win the conference tourney anyway. Our backcourt is the best returning backcourt in the conference and we have an all conference big man and an experience junior at all 3 guard spots.

[Majerus Magic]

Miami (OH) is also on the schedule for next year. I bet there are going to surprise some people. They almost made the tournament last year.