Measures Suggest We Have Played The Toughest Schedule In D1 And MU History!

[Tugg Speedman]

First some statistics (as of Feb 15)

KenPom
Rank #34 (down six after St. Johns ... St. Johns is now #33)
SoS #28 (unch)
non-conf SoS #295 (was #299)
Offense #16
Defense #92

Jeff Sagarin
Rank #33
SoS #10

The rest, forecast RPI, etc. are not updated for yesterday as of this writing.
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Correction below, I meant top 25 not top 50.  It is now fixed.

Comments

Sagarin has us in the top 10 of SoS.  I'm going to guess but is the first time MU has ever played a top 10 schedule?  What year would be tougher?  2003's SoS #52 according to KenPom

Ok, here's another stat ...

MU is 3 and 9 against top 25 teams.  That is 12 games against top 25 teams.  Who has played more top 25 teams in D1 ball in 2011?  Answer no one, St. Johns is tied with us at 12.  Next highest is 9 by Seton Hall and DePaul.

Not only has MU played more top 25 teams than any one other than St. Johns, we have played at least 3 more top 25 teams than third place!


Incidentally, Sargarin projects we will finish with 13 top 25 games (only Uconn remains).  St. Johns projects to 14 and we tie for second with Seton Hall, ND and Georgetown, All BE teams (note this)

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Why do I harp on this?  Because the booing at the BC and vitriol on this board suggests people are disappointed in his team.  In other words, we expected more even though the BE preseason had us 8th with 10 wins and this is still very possible.

Why are we disappointed?  Because the BC crowd, this board, Warriors65, Willie Warrior, 79warriors etc still think we are in C-USA.   They have not gotten their head around how hard our schedule has been.

It is possible that we played the national champ this year.  We might played several #1 and #2 seeds (Duke, Pitt and Georgetown, ND, Wisc).  Better yet, other than tOSU and Texas, what #1 and #2 have we not played?

We are playing an insanely tough schedule.  St. Johns is rolling and 5 and 1 in the last 6, they might be ranked next week if they beat Pitt (and that is not the long-shot you might think).  I'll beat most of you thought St. Johns was marginally better than DePaul and USF.  Is this why their were booing?  The BC crowd thought we were losing at home to DePaul/USF, not a team about to be ranked?

You have to come to grips with how hard our schedule has been.  If you thought we would be 9 and 4 now, then Buzz should be measured for a statute because 9 and 4 in the BE this year is final four material.

[g0lden3agle]

I highly doubt many people thought St. John's was marginally better than USF and Depaul.  This game needed to be just like Louisville last year:  We were playing a fellow bubble team at the time and completely crushed them.  Instead we got one of the worst performances from our team in a while.  I don't care that we were tied at half and even up 7 early in the 2nd half.  The body language of this team indicated we gave up.  If it seemed like our guys were giving it their all the entire 40 minutes last night and we still came up short, I'd be defending them a lot more than I am right now.  Instead we got an absolutely pathetic effort for about the final 10 minutes and a deserving-ly outraged fanbase.

[Tugg Speedman]

St. Johns is not a bubble team, was not a bubble team.  Cincy is.

And you're mistaking frustration with giving up.  Big difference.

[NavinRJohnson]

Its very hard to argue with any of this, as the reality is, MU is simply not as good as most of the teams they're playing. Consequently, despite the fact that we would like them to be better, you're gonna end up with the record you're going to end up with.

We don't have to like the fact that St Johns is probably better, but St Johns is probably better. Its hard to defend the way they played last night, other than to say we have a starting PG who is much better suited to being a SG who comes off the bench, and that situation seems to be causing a lot of problems for the team. But again, that is one of the things that makes MU not as good as most teams in the BE. Its just where we are.

As I have been saying, after an 18 game schedule, the standings are going to paint and extremely accurate picture of how good (or bad) you are.

[Tugg Speedman]

Adding to this ....

13 of 25 games have been top 50 ... more than half.

Of our 11 losses, only Gonzaga is not in the top 50 ... they are 51!

So we have lost to 11 teams, all of which might make the tourney.  To repeat, we might not have lost to a non-ncaa team this year.

[mikem91288]

Could you hear the Boos on TV? I was there til the end, but it was pretty sad to see all the students clearing out. It was an 8 point game with almost 2 to go and people were leaving.....

[g0lden3agle]

Could you hear the Boos on TV? I was there til the end, but it was pretty sad to see all the students clearing out. It was an 8 point game with almost 2 to go and people were leaving.....

Did anyone think that we had any prayer of coming back from a 8 pt deficit with 2 to go?

[Niv Berkowitz]

We were down 5 to Bucky in December and place was clearning out.

[bilsu]

The schedule would not be ranked as tough, if we were good enough to win these games. It is the catch 22 of schedule strength. Win and your opponents' strength decreases or lose and your opponents strength increases.

[Tugg Speedman]

Yes but as we win, playing us betters their SoS to offset the loss.  However, in the end, these differences are probably marginal.

[marquette99]

Anothermu - like the post, and agree on the booing.  I was sitting close to the court last night and the press was amazing - I don't believe from up high or on tv you really get that there was no place to put a ball.  Sju had every lane smothered.

Mu played poorly - trying to rush to catch up and dropping balls because the were looking ahead to the basket.  Booing was completely wrong though. I don't mind booing if a player gives up and doesn't run or something, but not for mistakes.