UNLV= LSU/Texas Tech?

[fansince80s]

Remember when @LSU was ranked #6 in 2006 and Texas Tech ranked #20 2009, we thought were big wins, then they both tanked the rest of the season.

Hope UNLV does not go down that road.

[SubGod22]

I don't remember what happened to LSU. We all knew that Tech wasn't a good team. UNLV should be just fine. Very good team that caught WSU at a bad time and paid the price.

[rjl]

Neither LSU or TTech had done much of anything to earn their rankings before playing us, other than not-lose while higher ranked teams did.

UNLV had earned its ranking, and then some. They will be fine.

[RoyalShock]

LSU's ranking was solely based on reaching the Final Four the previous season and Big Baby returning.

As @rjl: stated, Tech's was just a result of attrition (others losing while they kept winning) boosted by an early December win over Washington.

That said, UNLV's ranking isn't much different than Tech's, except their big win was over #1, not a fringe top-25 team. Otherwise their results aren't impressive at all. It was clear Tech was a flimsy top-25 team whereas UNLV looks more talented. They have two chances left (@ Wisc and @ Illinois) to prove their worth before conference play. We'll know by the end of the day on Dec. 17th.

[bleed yellow]

Pat Knight's Texas Tech teams were always something of mystery. I remember them beating a KU team in Lubbock by 20 that had Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush on it. For some reason I went to that game back in 2009 with that KU thrashing on my mind and it worried me and sure enough, Texas Tech was there some how scoring 62 points in the 2nd half against a Gregg Marshall team. So Texas Tech may of tanked that season, but I'm sure Marshall and players like Clevin Hannah will never forget that game.

[KC Shox]

If they win 2 of 3 against Wiscy, Illinois and Cal then it will be all good for us. Go Rebels. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they will take care of business and finish in the top 2 spots in their conference too. I believe they will be a top 40 rpi win for us at the end of the season which is good but we really needed one more in the non-con.

It may be premature, but what will ultimately be the saving grace for the Shox (assuming they are taking care of business) is that the Valley looks stronger which will help in the RPI.

[shockerfan34]

I sometimes get the impression some of us wish we lost to UNLV so they would still be undefeated and "legit". Other than us they are still undefeated with a big win against UNC. I think we all knew Texas Tech wasnt actually good when they came to town, but UNLV is most certainly a quality win that will look great on the resume come selection sunday, though i think we will find out just how good they are after the Wisconsin, Illinois and Cal stretch. That Wisconsin game really intrigues me with UNLV's speed it up pace vs a grinding Wisconsin team.

[proshox]

I think UNLV is very talented veteran lead team. They will be fine and a good if not great win for WSU by year end. WSU needs to just go out play well this week and everything will be fine!

[GoShockers89]

UNLV will be fine- probably in and out of the top 25 all season.

What the win did was keep alive our at-large hopes- it by no means cemented a solid non-conference resume. We obviously still need to take of business against Tulsa and USU this week, then cream Chicago State and Newman. That puts us at 9-2 (8-2 against D1) with just one win against the RPI top 50, and possibly 0 against 50-100 (Tulsa and USU really need to get it in gear to climb that high, and Colorado has maybe a 50/50 shot at slinking into the top 100 in a weak Pac-12).

That kind of resume screams of the type that ESPN likes to set up for an "elimination match" in the Bracketbuster. If we're on track to go anywhere from 12-6 to 15-3 in league play at the time matchups are announced, we will undoubtedly draw a top 50 team on the road (Ohio, Murray State, etc.). We've never won a Bracketbuster game that mattered- this will obviously need to be the year we reverse that trend.

Obviously lots can and will happen that we don't currently anticipate over the coming months. We could stay hot and become the best team in the MVC (this is one of the rare years recently where the regular season champion looks all but guaranteed an at-large bid due to the overall strength of the league). We could also perform as many expect and be a 2nd or 3rd place team who contends up until the end (this almost certainly puts us squarely on the bubble, which has historically been unkind to us).

The UNLV win threw us a lifejacket. Still lots of work to do and pretty much no room for error for the rest of this month. Here's to more performances like we saw on Sunday.

[shocktheheart]

UNLV will be fine- probably in and out of the top 25 all season.

What the win did was keep alive our at-large hopes- it by no means cemented a solid non-conference resume. We obviously still need to take of business against Tulsa and USU this week, then cream Chicago State and Newman. That puts us at 9-2 (8-2 against D1) with just one win against the RPI top 50, and possibly 0 against 50-100 (Tulsa and USU really need to get it in gear to climb that high, and Colorado has maybe a 50/50 shot at slinking into the top 100 in a weak Pac-12).

That kind of resume screams of the type that ESPN likes to set up for an "elimination match" in the Bracketbuster. If we're on track to go anywhere from 12-6 to 15-3 in league play at the time matchups are announced, we will undoubtedly draw a top 50 team on the road (Ohio, Murray State, etc.). We've never won a Bracketbuster game that mattered- this will obviously need to be the year we reverse that trend.

Obviously lots can and will happen that we don't currently anticipate over the coming months. We could stay hot and become the best team in the MVC (this is one of the rare years recently where the regular season champion looks all but guaranteed an at-large bid due to the overall strength of the league). We could also perform as many expect and be a 2nd or 3rd place team who contends up until the end (this almost certainly puts us squarely on the bubble, which has historically been unkind to us).

The UNLV win threw us a lifejacket. Still lots of work to do and pretty much no room for error for the rest of this month. Here's to more performances like we saw on Sunday.

This

[Shocktoberfest]

I agree with the sentiment in this thread. Unfortunately we don't have much wiggle room for an impressive resume. Shocker basketball is much like college football. Every game is huge if you have high aspirations. High tier basketball teams can screw up multiple times and still breathe easily. Stinks, but it is what it is. The Valley certainly appears to be better at the top this year. That is HUGE. If beating UNI, the Trees and the Dirty Birds gets us some top 50 rpi wins we should be pleased. The Valley just needs to keep winning.

[ShockTalk]

Going 12-6 in the Valley will probably not help us get to the Dance. At most, there is only 4 other teams at the top of the Valley. Losing 6 games means one of two things, or both,....we get swept by 2 teams and split with the other two or we have a loss or two to the second division. Both of these situations hurt.

[ABC]

We are not fooking going 12-6 in the MVC. I don't offer a lot of predictions, but this is one.

[Kung Wu]

I sometimes get the impression some of us wish we lost to UNLV so they would still be undefeated and "legit".

Silly talk. We have Debbie Downers here but they are loyal as hell -- nobody but the UNLV fans were rootin for UNLV on this board. Maybe you were just bein' sarcastic though.

[GOSHOX1]

We are not fooking going 12-6 in the MVC. I don't offer a lot of predictions, but this is one.

+1