Shocker Non-Con Opponents Results 2018

[flyingMoose]

James Madison lost Wednesday night, hurting the Shockers chances of a Top 50 win. JMU now has an RPI of 63.

[ShockTalk]

Since you didn't say how UNI has faired, I looked them up. Nice record at 19-8 / 13-1 just having lost at Ill St to lose their undefeated in conference run. Sort of an up and down season beating Creighton 3-0 in California, then losing to them 0-3 in Illinois tourney. Kind of up and down in other non-con. In conference, a sweep at Drake then recently won at home 3-2 and their first conference loss in their last match. Noticed that in their roster of 15 players, all are from Iowa except one, from Illinois.

[flyingMoose]

Through Sunday, November 4, the Non-Con Opponents record is 203-73 for 73.6%. A big help, but probably not enough wins by the Shocks to be enough help.

The Shockers have the seventh most difficult schedule, part of the reason for a 12-12 record. Only UNI at sixth has a more difficult schedule among the non-P5 schools.

[1972Shocker]

Non-Con Opponent Records Through Sunday, October 14th:

James Madison 16-3
Howard 12-9
VCU 12-7
West Virginia 9-10
#2 Stanford 16-1
#1 BYU 18-0
RV#26 Iowa State 10-10
#10 Creighton 16-4
Stephen F. Austin 20-2
North Texas 8-15
#14 Cal Poly 17-1

An18-2 week (Monday - Sunday) That's hard to beat. NorthTexas lost to Rice and West Virginia lost to #24 Baylor 15-17 in the 5th set.

Overall Record: 154-62 (71.3%)

A Shocker win over Cincy today would have been huge. Unfortunately, the Shocks fell just a little short. Maybe they can afford 1 more loss this year but probably no more that, if that.

[1972Shocker]

Non-Con Opponent Records Through Monday, October 8th:

James Madison 14-3
Howard 11-9
VCU 10-7
West Virginia 8-9
#2 Stanford 14-1
#1 BYU 16-0
RV#26 Iowa State 8-10
#10 Creighton 14-4
Stephen F. Austin 19-2
North Texas 7-14
#14 Cal Poly 16-1

Overall Record: 137-60 (69.5%)

Lambo did a heckuva job with this schedule. North Texas did work out as well as hoped and the 2 Big XII schools my join the Mean Green as sub-.500 teams on teh schedule but at least there losses are coming against a strong conference schedule.

Now whether or not this schedule gets wasted on the Shocks this year remains to be seen and the Shocks have very little cushion

[1972Shocker]

Through Sunday, September 30th, Shocker non-con opponents are 123-56 for a .687 winning percentage. Just don't know if the Shocks will be able to take advantage of it though.

Highlight6s for the Week:

VCU extended their winning streak and are now above 0.500 at 9-7.

West Virginia picked up a Big 12 win with a home sweep of K-State.

#2 Stanford moved to 12-1 with sweeps over #18 UCLA and #13 USC

#1 BYU stays unbeaten and moves to 15-0.

At this point North Texas at 6-13 is the only sub-.500 team on the Shockers non-con schedule. The lost to Tulsa 2-3 and beat Florida International 3-1. I expect West Virginia will join them at some point.

[JayPak]

The committee relies heavily on RPI which will favor WSU. Shockers have plenty of opportunities for quality wins in the AAC, starting with Tulsa tonight. They control their own fate at this point, as far as getting into the NCAA tournament. The Iowa State and SFA losses won’t help but won’t hurt, if the Shocks perform in conference.

[1972Shocker]

They seem to rely heavily on RPI although I am sure the more quality wins you have the better. The win over JMU might qualify. They are 11-3 with a win over Mizzou. As I said they probably wish they had the Iowa State and SFA matches back. A win over Cincy would be helpful. Maybe a win over UCF who has the AAC's best noncon win over #7 (at the time) USC. USC is now ranked 13th. Assuming both have strong years in the AAC.

[ShockerFever]

So does volleyball committee use different tools to select teams for at-large bids? Do they not look at quality wins and only look at RPI?

Because if WSU doesn't win the AAC, they still are without a quality win, which you've seemed to ignore. Do volleyball schools get at-large bids without quality wins?

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks lost 6 games in the non-con. They were swept twice by the #1 and #2 teams in the country. They weren't competitive against BYU but they were pretty competitive against Stanford losing 20, 20 and 27.

Losses to #10 Creighton, #15 Cal Poly and RV Iowa State were all in 4 sets. The loss to a pretty good and very experienced Stephen F. Austin teams was in 5 sets.

I think the Shocks probably would like to have the Iowa State and SFA matches back. However, none of these losses will be bad losses.

They do not have to win the AAC but they will need to finish in the Top 3 probably to get an at-large although a 3rd place finish might have them on the bubble. A 2nd place finish probably gets them in. Kind of depends on how many conference losses you have and who those losses are to. But a Top 3 finish is certainly not guaranteed either.

Lambo admits that their RPI may make this year's team look better than they really are but he is okay with that because that's why he plays it this way. He also said on Sunday before the Memphis match it may be time to lower expectations for this year.

Actually Lambo seemed to me much more concerned with how his team performed this past weekend against teams picked to finish 10th and 12th in the AAC and with good reason, especially with Emma Wright on the shelf.

Clearly Lambo is not terribly confident that he can pull an NCAA berth out of his hat this year. If he does it will be a terrific coaching job. If he doesn't i will still enjoy the trip wherever it ends.

[ShockerFever]

It's great to have a great schedule, but if you don't beat a single noteworthy team on it, then it's all kind of moot. Most of their losing matches to said foes were sweeps and/or not competitive. That doesn't help either. Sure, WSU's numbers will be inflated some by the extremely difficult schedule, but without a single noteworthy win, they'll have to win the AAC to get into the tourney. And that's certainly not a guarantee.

[1972Shocker]

It was a realy good week (20-5) by our non-con opponents. Not sure it's worht the time to post individual match results.

The results did inlcude a VCU win over JMU and an Iowa State win over West Virginia. West Virginia will not win many Big 12 matches.

#10 Creighton probably had the best win with a 17, 24, 20 sweep of #21 Marquette at home.

Lambo did touch on this a little bit in his pre-Memphis match comments to the Match Club. He said he feels very good about this non-con schedule's worth in contributing to a strong RPI and we will continue to schedule in this manner to the best of his ability. However, the Shocks still need to take care of business in conference play or it won't make much difference other than to make it seem like the team is better than they really are. He said if the Shocks finish 4th but have the 2nd best RPI in the AAC it would be very diffiucult for the committee to passover those other 2 teams to take the Shockers. Lambo also said it might be time to lower expecations for this year implying that at this point he is not confident that this team has the goods to be an NCAA team this year.

[flyingMoose]

The overall record of the non-conference opponents through Sunday, September 23, is now 104-52 (66.7%) led by BYU (12-0), Cal Poly (13-1), Stanford (10-1), SFA (14-2), and James Madison (11-3).

The individual match results this past week a la 1972Shocker as given above will have to wait on him. :)

[1972Shocker]

Non-Con Opponent Records Through Sunday, September 16th (this weeks results):

James Madison 8-2 (beat Loyola-MD 3-1, beat UMBC 3-1, beat Robert Morris 3-0)
Howard 5-8 (lost to #5 Penn State 0-3, lost to American 0-3, lost to Buffalo 1-3)
VCU 4-7 (VCU Invitational including matches with Virginia, Toledo and South Carolina cancelled due to Hurricane Florence)
West Virginia 7-5 (beat Morehead State 3-2, beat Penn 3-0, beat Wake Forest 3-1)
#2 Stanford 8-1 (beat #3 Texas 3-0, beat #3 Texas 3-1)
#1 BYU 10-0 (beat #24 Utah 3-0, beat Weber State 3-0)
RV#26 Iowa State 7-6 (beat RV#33 Wyoming 3-0, lost to Iowa 1-3, lost to Syracuse 2-3)
#10 Creighton 8-4 (beat Lipscomb 3-0, beat RV#27 UNI 3-0, lost to #8 Illinois 1-3)
Stephen F. Austin 13-2 (beat Rice 3-1, beat Wichita State 3-1, beat North Texas 3-2, beat Mississippi State 3-0)
North Texas 4-11 (beat Mississippi State 3-2, lost to Wichita State 0-3, lost to Stehphen F. Austin 2-3, lost to Cal Poly 0-3)
#14 Cal Poly 10-1 (beat Mississippi State 3-0, beat Wichita State 3-1, beat North Texas 3-0)

Overall Record: 84-47 (64.1%)

We need Howard, VCU and North Texas to pick it up in conference play. North Texas played Stephen F. Austin and Cal Poly tough this weekend.

West Virginia not likely to win many matches in Big 12 play as they were picked to finish in last place in the Big 12 but losses will be to high RPI teams.

The non-con schedule is doing its job so far. Did the Shocks do enough in the non-con and will they do enough in AAC play for it to count? Will find out. The matches I would like to have back would be Iowa State and Stephen F. Austin.

[1972Shocker]

Stanford picks up its 2nd consecutive win over #3 Texas this time a 3-1 win in Austin.