Schedule

[Billiken Rich]

You are out there if you are saying that the A10 is "a historical one bid conference." Unless you are trying to say that it is historic for the A10 to get only one (at large) bid you might want to check the record books. Short memories indeed......

[cheeseman]

72 - you are wrong - the A10 is not "historically" a one team conference in the Big Dance. In fact if you would have looked at the most recent history (last 10 years) you would see that the A10 has has multiple teams in the tourney much more often than only one. Don't you rememember all the stats being thrown around during the A10/MVC debate regarding which conf. we should join.

[Majerus Magic]

WE are playing MIami (Oh) who is supposed to be pretty tough next year.

[Pistol]

Moral victories definitely don't get you in, that's for sure. But victories over nobodies won't help, either. That's why we have to play the ranked non-conference opponents; we can't beat them if we don't play at least a few.

SIU generally won't be a ranked non-conference opponent. Right now, UNC and Texas A&M are our best bets.

And Rich is right: the A-10 isn't historically a one-bid conference. It's generally had at least two, even in years it was down a bit. I know that it's down now, but can and will come back around, maybe not for another year or two though.

[kshoe]

cause the A-10 is not historically a 1 bid conference and GW did not go on a tear in the NCAA tourney. GM won only 23 regular season games while GW won 26. Are you confusing the Georges?

[Pistol]

That's right, we used Grunk's connections to get his alma mater on the schedule. They're a nice team to have on there, and could be a potential quality win if they play how they're predicted to: at or near the top of the MAC.

[Box and Won]

Oh great, Moosman will probably go Blake Ahearn on us.

[slu72]

Yep, I confused the Georges.. I know the A-10's history. I didn't mean it was a 1 bid conference, I meant GM's conference. That all said, I still think we're going to have post 23-24 wins to get in if we don't take the A-10 tourney. The only point I was making about the College of Charleston 4 years ago was they actually had better #'s than GM did this year + the prestige of winning the Alaska shootout, but they didn't get in since the SoCon is historically a 1 bid league. But times might be changing, since GM did make it this year from a 1 bid league. And them making the final 4 might allow some other teams from similar leagues to get in...which makes it tougher for us. Prime example: GM makes it, Missour State, w/higher RPI, doesn't...go figure.

[slufanskip]

I don't advocate playing a ton of top 50 teams either. If we played a couple top 25, 2 more between 25 and 50, 5-6 between 50 and 100, and most of the rest under 200. We will have some conference games over 200, but alot of our conference will be between about 100 and 225, wouldn't you think.

I don't think we need to get beat up at the top end, we need to play a few, but I don't think we need to play alot over 200 or 225 eitther. I think the trick is the middle ground and then win.

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[slufanskip]

the A-10 isn't an historical 1 bid conference.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman and loyal subject of Billsboy and all ex D1 players and coaches everywhere. You da man Billsboy

[kshoe]

>As long as you have an overall non-con schedule strength in

>the top 100, it doesn't really matter how you get there.

You tell me, is it easier to go 2-0 if you play the #1 ranked team in the country and the #320 ranked team or is it easier to beat two teams ranked #160. Essentially, the RPI treats those things as the same thing. So yes, it really does matter how you get there because one route is destined to give you a 1-1 record while another route gives you a strong chance of being 2-0.

Brad's problem isn't that he's scared of playing the big-boys its that hes more scared of losing to the bad teams so he schedules the absolute worst teams he can find and we get killied on the RPI.

[moytoy12]

23-24 wins to get in?? Are you serious? From the initial look of it, our schedule is shaping up to be similar to last year. Last year, if we won 18-19 games, we were considered a bubble team. If we won 20-21 games, I hazard to guess that we are in the tourney regardless. Assuming the schedule is roughly the same, we should only need about 20 wins.

[3star_recruit]

"You tell me, is it easier to go 2-0 if you play the #1 ranked team in the country and the #320 ranked team or is it easier to beat two teams ranked #160. Essentially, the RPI treats those things as the same thing."

My assertion that it doesn't matter how you get to a top 100 schedule was in the context of a moderate schedule -- see my comments in the the rest of the thread. Playing the #1 team in the country (one extreme) or the #320 team (the other extreme) isn't my idea of a moderate schedule.

If Brad actually wanted to give his team a fair chance for coming out of the non-con 10-2 AND having a top 100 schedule he'd eliminate the top AND the bottom extremes. That still gives you 250 teams (in the 25-275 range) to work with. Of course then we'd have board flooded with ***** and moan posts that we don't play any marquee teams. And my response would be "So? Let's get into the Dance first. It worked for the Valley."

[kshoe]

and the improvement in RPI is only one of them. others I can think of:

- fan excitement

- potential "key" win for the selection committee

- national exposure and possibly national t.v.

- potential preperation for NCAA caliber teams

- players love it and ecruiting benefits

I think we are in agreement that the best way to schedule a top 100 SOS is to not barbell it with a bunch of really good and really bad teams as that only leads to a .500 record. However, considering the many benefits of playing teams in the top 25 when you can get home and homes with them what is the problem with creating a top 30 SOS of schedule by playing top 25 teams and teams ranked 150-225. That way, you can finish 8-4 and still be in good shape per the RPI.

A top 30 SOS schedule should be the goal, especially when considering how poorly the A-10 was in the RPI last year.

[3star_recruit]

"what is the problem with creating a top 30 SOS of schedule by playing top 25 teams and teams ranked 150-225."

I'd prefer we wait and play top 25 teams when we actually have a legitimate chance of beating them. We don't even know who our small forward and power forward are going to be!

I've got no problem with the intent to schedule teams ranked 150-225. But the reality is that teams that low on the food chain have a lot more variability in success from year to year than the teams at the top. A team that was 200 in the RPI last year could just as easily be 260 in the RPI this year.