Games of Interest (2015-16 Edition)

[kochHead]

Seton Hall defeats Georgetown 72-64. Their last 21 points came from the free throw line. Papa Thompson will not be happy.

St. Louis defeated George Mason in OT. How far has George Mason fallen since we met in 2006?

They did make one more S16 after 2006. I have mixed emotions about their fall. One one hand I would liked to see them succeed, but on the other hand I heard their fans were real pricks in DC. Meh, whatever.

[ShockerEngr]

Seton Hall defeats Georgetown 72-64. Their last 21 points came from the free throw line. Papa Thompson will not be happy.

St. Louis defeated George Mason in OT. How far has George Mason fallen since we met in 2006?

They regressed to the mean. They had the chance to upgrade their program while on the high crest, but failed to do so. $$$ matters.

[WuDrWu]

Swept by LOLoyla?

Does this pop UNI's bubble?

No. Look at the quality wins.

This is why I despise UNI. The buy all in against us. It makes their season. They are thrilled to go .500 and beat WSU or Iowa or Iowa State. It's a program built on Evansvilling the biggest programs they can.

No sustainability, no money, no helping anyone else. Just a pain in the ass. They had about a 1 in a hundred chance of beating us Saturday. They had to play near perfect and hope we screwed up, massively. Way to go.

[Shockers5150]

With Marcus Paige having been abducted by aliens, unc isn't even close to a 1 seed. They have 1 player right now that is even worth worrying about.

[The Mad Hatter]

The problem with conferences like the Big 12 and ACC is teams just keeping beating other teams at home and getting "big" wins and top 50 wins and so all of them will get high seeds and/or make the tournament.

So Texas Tech is now going to likely get a bid unless they tank the rest of the way. 6 top 50 wins now because almost anyone they beat in the Big 12 is a top 50 win.

Then you take teams like Chattanooga and you have to go 28-3 to get a bid because you are not allowed to lose on the road like ever.

Oh and the mighty Arkansas beat Texas Tech not long ago because TT was on the road.

Conferences like the Big 12 keep the reputation on the fact that pundits/media/selection committee willfully ignore the facts that:

A) Winning on the road is hard and the big boys rack up non-con wins by never leaving home unless to play another power 5 school that will be called a good loss.
B) Running the table in conference play is hard. Between the raw statistics of the probability of winning all the games you are supposed to and all your opponents having a high level of familiarity with what you run, wins by the middle to bottom of the conference over the top are likely without those middle to bottom teams being anything special.

The end result, as you mention, is a bunch of teams with "good wins," yet not a single team being penalized for any of their losses.

[Blackmag]

Conferences like the Big 12 keep the reputation on the fact that pundits/media/selection committee willfully ignore the facts that:

A) Winning on the road is hard and the big boys rack up non-con wins by never leaving home unless to play another power 5 school that will be called a good loss.
B) Running the table in conference play is hard. Between the raw statistics of the probability of winning all the games you are supposed to and all your opponents having a high level of familiarity with what you run, wins by the middle to bottom of the conference over the top are likely without those middle to bottom teams being anything special.

The end result, as you mention, is a bunch of teams with "good wins," yet not a single team being penalized for any of their losses.

. Agree with this totally, Top Big 12 teams rarely go on the road in OOC games unless it's another marquee team usually on a neutral court type setting. Then it's a quality loss, so they don't take a hit. KU's first true road game was 11 games into the season at SanDiego State. The pundits always start out ranking about 6 big 12 teams in the top 25, so yes all of them have numerous top 50 games, bit mis-leading. Better to look at how many of them have many top 50 games OOC.

[ShockerPhi]

No. Look at the quality wins.

This is why I despise UNI. The buy all in against us. It makes their season. They are thrilled to go .500 and beat WSU or Iowa or Iowa State. It's a program built on Evansvilling the biggest programs they can.

No sustainability, no money, no helping anyone else. Just a pain in the ass. They had about a 1 in a hundred chance of beating us Saturday. They had to play near perfect and hope we screwed up, massively. Way to go.

Maybe we should just change "Evansvilled" to "Valley'd".

At least Drake and Missouri State know their place. Wish Bradley could get back up top though.

[molly jabali]

How does anyone make sense of this league? I watched Indiana State three weeks ago and was convinced that they had a legitimate team...and since then, dumpster fire...and Northern Iowa??? Really???Loyola???

[DUShock]

No. Look at the quality wins.

This is why I despise UNI. The buy all in against us. It makes their season. They are thrilled to go .500 and beat WSU or Iowa or Iowa State. It's a program built on Evansvilling the biggest programs they can.

No sustainability, no money, no helping anyone else. Just a pain in the ass. They had about a 1 in a hundred chance of beating us Saturday. They had to play near perfect and hope we screwed up, massively. Way to go.

I agree but UNI didn't defeat WSU, we beat ourselves. <sigh>

[Bluzrover]

They regressed to the mean. They had the chance to upgrade their program while on the high crest, but failed to do so. $$$ matters.

Most importantly to us Shockers fans, Mason failed to pay Larranaga when Miami came calling. He built a pretty strong program in his 14 years as the head coach and is doing the same in Miami. We're fortunate to have benefactors with deep pockets who were instrumental in keeping Coach Marshall in Wichita.

[shockmonster]

Let's be real. Basketball teams are a combo of mental toughness, confidence, experience, the right coaching, the time of year, and talent. Talent may be the most important team attribute because the most talented teams seem to be there most of the season. However, teams have peaks and valleys throughout the season. When hot, teams can beat almost anyone and when down, most teams can lose to anyone. We also know that home/road has a lot to do with teams winning or losing. Really good teams know how to get out of funks better than losing teams. ISUB at their place carries some risk but we should win. UNI had three anomalies this year. N. Carolina, Iowa St., and us. LUC won a couple of games that were surprising, etc. by now we know who the better teams are but things happen. This is what makes college basketball interesting.

[pogo]

It was tough to wish both NC and Dook lose playing each other. Its really tough to pull for Huckelberry or the Rat. In the end I was glad to see Dook win and break so many NC faithful hearts in their own arena. Does that make me a bad person?

[Play Angry]

Keep an eye on Nevada the next few weeks. They are playing well and, if they win @ UNLV this weekend, they have a chance at finishing 12-6 in the MWC and ending up comfortably in the Top 100. Per RPI Forecast, that result would yield an RPI of 90.5 - they presently rate this at only a 7% probability, largely because the Wolfpack only has a 25% chance of victory on Saturday per their formula. However, Zimmerman is out and UNLV is teetering on the cliff, so I think their odds are understated.

NMSU is also projected to finish at 104.3 if they win out in the WAC (39.29% odds). Coupled with a conference tournament win, they would also likely move into the Top 100.

The more opponents (especially those we defeated) that sneak up a tier, the better.

[WSUwatcher]

Turns out Oklahoma is just a typical Big 12-2 team that loses too many games it shouldn't.

Whatever else is said about The Flagship -- and I love saying disparaging things as much as the next guy, and have done my share -- they do less of that foolishness than the other contenders do, and that's why they win the league every year. They aren't totally immune to it either, but they're like a golfer who's really good at hitting it into the trees, or the gorse, or wherever, and still getting up and down to save par. The rest of the league brings back cards with bogeys and double bogeys, and the Chickenhawks just turn in their 71 or 72 and go on to next season. I'm thinking Shaka may shaka things up soon, because Texas already has some good young players, has shown the ability to weather injury, and their guys play harder than some of The Rug's NBA passthroughs do. But for now, it looks like 71 is going to be good enough again.

[1972Shocker]

Seton Hall defeats Georgetown 72-64. Their last 21 points came from the free throw line. Papa Thompson will not be happy.

Déjà wu!