Ratings watch

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

you're right though. The scheduling leaves much to be desired.

[KC Shox]

And our only loss is to Pitt and that was without our starting point guard.

And they beat us without theirs who was injured at the time. I know, I know, everyone says that CH is more valuable to us than their sarting PG is to them. Really? Ask a Pitt fan if he would be comfortable the rest of their season without him.

[ShockTalk]

Three of our current 200+ RPI games were not of our choosing. Those really hurt us. Although I do hope we can do better than Alcorn State in the future.

Three? Cleveland St (thanks Busters), FDU KC tourney, non DI AR-Montecello not included above.

Iowa

Excuse my brain fart. Funny how easily I overlooked a BCS school with an RPI below 200. Nevertheless, that school's RPI will probably go up before the end of the season. Can't say the same for the other 4 (plus UMKC).

[RoyalShock]

The trick is to get the lower-conference teams that will finish in the top 2 or 3 of their league, like Texas Southern. Their RPIs will improve as the season progresses and they rack up wins. Next year we should be at point to schedule them without worrying about a loss.

Please, no more than one Alcorn St. in any year where we expect to finish in the top-half of the MVC.

[The Mad Hatter]

The trick is to get the lower-conference teams that will finish in the top 2 or 3 of their league, like Texas Southern. Their RPIs will improve as the season progresses and they rack up wins. Next year we should be at point to schedule them without worrying about a loss.

Please, no more than one Alcorn St. in any year where we expect to finish in the top-half of the MVC.

In fairness to Alcorn St., being on the road for as long as they were waiting for their gym to be finished is brutal. Hopefully they can perform better once they face some weaker competition and can play a home game.

[RoyalShock]

I'm not expecting much from Alcorn. Each of the last two seasons they won six D1 games. Nine the year before. Five of their top eight players are freshmen.

Maybe if we play them in a couple of years.

[SubGod22]

We can buy better teams

[ShockTalk]

We can buy better teams

:yes:

[RoyalShock]

Our RPI went from 175 to 192. Very likely due to Pitt losing at home to Indiana (200+).

I believe Iowa's RPI actually went up after losing at UNI, so the Pitt loss cost us more than 17 RPI ranking spots.

I know RPI isn't a good measure yet, but as data keeps getting added it gets tougher to bring the ranking down. We have to hope these next three games can get us back to around 100, since we'll lose more ground when NDSU comes to town.

[pogo]

Well, our RPI won't be helped alot playing e'ville and drake twice this year either. :cry:

[wushock]

That goes to show you we need to do a better job in scheduleing from now on

[RoyalShock]

I may get hammered for this, but we did appear in CollegeHoopsNet.com's non-BCS top 25 this week.

http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/non-bcs-top-25-december-7th-167796

At least it's better than the CollegeInsider "mid-major" poll (which HCGM votes in, by the way).

[Steeleshocker]

In regards to our scheduling and the discussion of expanding the NCAA tournament, I think it is noteworthy to mention what Paul had in his shockwaves blog.

Maybe if the bottom 10 conferences weren't allowed into division I, scheduling would be much better. BCS schools couldn't load up on cupcakes while counting on their conference schedule to boost them, forcing them to play better opponents (and giving the "mid" conferences a shot at them), and by preventing us from scheduling them, it eliminates the need to "buy" games and allows us to set up "1 for 1" scheduling with comparable schools in other conferences.

This does throw away some of the Cinderella stories for the dance, but of the "upsets" in the first round of the NCAA, I'd be interested to see how many of those come from schools that are in bottom-third or bottom-half conferences as far as RPI.

[RoyalShock]

Time for an update.

RPI - WSU at 141, MVC in 10th. Projected to finish 13-5 in MVC, tied for 1st

Pomeroy - WSU at 50, MVC in 11th. Projected to finish 14-4 in MVC, tied for 1st.

Sagarin - WSU at 75, MVC in 10th

In CollegeHoopsNet.com's Non-BCS Top 25, we moved up to 17. UNI is 13 and MSU is 18.

[RoyalShock]

In everyone's most hated top-25 poll, which I shall not name, we are at #20.