2013-2014 Valley WBB

[flyingMoose]

We have had various comments and speculations scattered on various game threads about the quality of the Valley this year, so I thought I would start this thread for a common gathering place.

The sites that I tend to put the most trust in are the Warren Nolan sites. There is one for RPI and one for NPI, his Nolan Power Index.

The Valley currently has the 19th best conference RPI, below even the Ivy League. (Yes, I remember Harvard beating Stanford in the NCAAs.) Our current RPIs range from Wichita State at 84 to Southern Illinois at 333 (out of 349!). Drake is second at 122. He predicts the Shockers to win the Valley with a 16-2 mark and finish the year at 24-5 with an RPI of 45, the only Valley school with an RPI less than 100 at the end of the year.

Another site that does similar things with RPI and projected records is realtimerpi.com.

[1972Shocker]

Illinois State is improving. On Sunday they fell behind Fordham 32-6 at the half before losing 57-32.

Doing much better tonight. They are only down to Princeton 32-13 at the half. A 117% improvement in offensive production with no fall off on the defensive side of the ball. Yea!

Update: Final Score Princeton 65 - ILS 39.

Princeton turned the ball over 28 times (to 15 for ILS) and was only 9-15 from the line and they still won by 26. Princeton shot 55.3% (26-47 including 4-12 on treys) from the field. Illinois State shot 20% from the field on 13-65 (including 2-22 on treys). Clang, clang goes the Redbird Trolley.

[1972Shocker]

Indiana State dropped a 67-75 decision to E. Tennessee State this afternoon which moves ETSU up to #260 in the RPI. Ouch. I don't now why but that was considered a double-bad loss by RealTimeRPI.com. So I guess I should have said Ouch, Ouch!

Looks like when today is over the Valley will be 31-56 in non-con play with only two teams with winning records, WSU @ 7-2 and Drake @ 5-4. The rest of the league is 19-50. Ouch, Ouch, Ouch.

[shoxlax]

So how many combined wins will the men and women have?

[1972Shocker]

So how many combined wins will the men and women have?

Let's wait and see but I have High Hoops.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

So how many combined wins will the men and women have?

Bottom line: WSU is the big dog in the Valley!!

[The Mad Hatter]

So how many combined wins will the men and women have?

Looks like 55+ right now. Less than 50 combined wins would be surprising.

[1972Shocker]

Looks like 55+ right now. Less than 50 combined wins would be surprising.

High Hoops indeed. The absolute best we can do (counting only the regular season) at this point is 58 combined wins.
I would probably set the over under at 52.5 for the regular season.

Throw in a strong post season showing by both teams and 60 combined wins is not totally out of the question. Wouldn't that be something. No doubt an all-time Shocker record that would be very difficult to break. Something for the kids to shoot for.

[1972Shocker]

Loyola squeezed out a 56-52 home win over a 1-8 Dartmouth team to go to 3-8 on the year. Loyola was up 28-18 at the half.

Missouri State has jumped on 10-1 Mizzou early in Springfield to lead 19-6 midway through the 1st half. Despite being 10-1 Mizzou has an RPI of 110 due to a weak schedule ranked 310. However, Mizzou does own blowout wins over Evansville and Bradley at home this year.

Halftime Update: Missouri State 40 - Missouri 25. Bears playing very well.

Final Score: Missouri State 67 - Paper Tigers 53.

Nice win for MSU. They have had 2 solid wins in a row now. Perhaps they are starting to pull it together under the new coaching staff.

[1972Shocker]

Bradley squeezed out an 87-85 win over Lipscomb (RPI 277) at the Wright State Invitational.

SIU continues to struggle losing at home 51-55 to a bad Chicago State (RPI 343) team.

[1972Shocker]

St. Joseph's lost a tough one at #23 Syracuse today by a 64-62 score. I'm still having a hard time getting the Shocks implosion and OT loss against St. Jos out of my mind.

The Valley went 4-3 today including the Shocks 22 point blowout of Austin Peay State.

Evansville 49 @ St. Louis 50
Butler 56 @ Indiana State 62
N. Iowa 66 @ N. Illinois 64
SEMO 66 @ Mo State 77
Bradley 71 @ Wright St. 87
Drake 51 @ #22 Iowa 73

[WuDrWu]

It's certainly not out of the question that if WSU would have defeated St. Joe's that an at large wouldn't be out of the question with a gaudy Valley record.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

It's certainly not out of the question that if WSU would have defeated St. Joe's that an at large wouldn't be out of the question with a gaudy Valley record.

Another good win. The bench got good minutes. Great defense. 9-2 is a nice start. Three road games in the Valley. I believe we'll be 3-0 heading to home. This is a nice team. I think this team is better than last year's team. I also believe we should go 18-0 in the Valley. This year's team expects to win!

[1972Shocker]

Illinois State lost 58-73 @ Milwaukee today. Milwaukee came into the game at 2-8 with an RPI of 272 or so.

[flyingMoose]

Another source of WBB RPI is from Collegiate Basketball News. Both they and Warren Nolan have the Shocks with an RPI of 69 after the weekend games. (Of the Valley teams, Drake is next at 145.) CBN, however, does not project standings, future RPI, etc. like Warren Nolan and RealTimeRPI. OTOH, RT has not updated their calculations since Saturday noon. :(

An interesting question: Who will be the first to lose a conference game, the men or the women? Can they both go through the conference undefeated? (Okay, two questions.)