[Cracked Sidewalks] Very few teams have better road resume than MU this year - record for all 73 BCS schools

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Very few teams have better road resume than MU this year - record for all 73 BCS schools

Written by: jpudner@concentricgrasstops.com (bamamarquettefan1)

I was thrilled to see Marquette get credit for grabbing the signature road over #19 UConn that was apparently necessary to make the NCAA, but I do hope other teams are held to the same standard since the top RPI team beaten by Duke is #89 Miami, by Arizona is #89 Washington State, by Texas A&M is #77 Oklahoma State and by UCLA is #121 Oregon.

Despite the charge that MU’s resume weakness was that they could not win on the road, the win over UConn makes MU one of the better road teams in the country based on any criteria.

1. MU now has a better road record than tournament bound teams like Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, West Virginia and WISCONSIN.

2. Looking at the 73 “BCS” teams, MU would be the 14th best road team in the country if they had pulled off the 1-point losses at Vanderbilt and Louisville. Even with those two losses and the most difficult road schedule in the country, MU is above average – tied with the 30th best road record - among 73 BCS teams.

3. Of these 29 teams with a better road record than MU, only nine have won on the road against a team higher in the RPI than #19 UConn. More than half (16 of 29) have yet to beat a Top 40 RPI team on the road, with 12 of 29 failing to beat a team ranked higher than #60.  I believe its safe to say MU would have one of the top road records in the country except for the ridiculous road schedule.

4. After the UConn game, MU is even better on the road than at home based on Sagarin, which overall now ranks MU as one of the top 30 teams in the country.  I can’t go through the math on all the teams for their road games, but MU is probably close to one of the Top 20 road teams in the country based on Sagarin.

5. As mentioned earlier, MU is now one of only a couple of dozen teams with a road win against an RPI Top 25 team and have not lost any road Top 25 games by double digits. The rest of the DI wins 9% of those games and loses by double digits 67% of the time.  With the UConn win, MU has now won 14% of them and loses 0% by double digits.

Bottom line, there is an under appreciation for how tough road wins are.  Here are the road records for all 73 BCS schools, with the top RPI road win for the 29 teams with a better road record than MU:

1 Florida 7-1 0.875 #21 Xav
1 Kansas 7-1 0.875 #60 Neb
3 Pittsburgh 6-1 0.857 #11 Gtown
4 Ohio State 8-2 0.800 #8 Flo
5 Duke 6-2 0.750 #80 Miami
5 Texas 6-2 0.750 #1 Kans
7 Texas A&M 5-2 0.714 #77 Okl St
8 Arizona 7-3 0.700 #89 Wash St
8 Georgia 7-3 0.700 #41 Tenn
8 Villanova 7-3 0.700 #13 Syr
11 North Carolina 6-3 0.667 #64 BC
12 Georgetown 7-4 0.636 #13 Syr
13 Syracuse 5-3 0.625 #25 Nova
14 Cincinnati 6-4 0.600 #11 Gtown
14 Purdue 6-4 0.600 at #56 Ill
16 Florida State 7-5 0.583 #80 Mia
17 Alabama 4-4 0.500 #41 Tenn
17 Connecticut 4-4 0.500 #7 Tex
17 Maryland 4-4 0.500 #76 Penn St
17 Tennessee 4-4 0.500 #20 Vandy
17 UCLA 4-4 0.500 #121 Oregon
17 Vanderbilt 4-4 0.500 #42 Georgia
23 Washington 5-6 0.455 #39 UCLA
24 California 4-5 0.444 #97 USC
24 Kansas State 4-5 0.444 #60 Neb
24 Louisville 4-5 0.444 #13 Syr
24 Michigan 4-5 0.444 #63 Mich St
24 Virginia Tech 4-5 0.444 #72 Mary
29 Notre Dame 3-4 0.429 #6 Pitt
30 Marquette 4-6 0.400 #19 UConn
30 Miami (FL) 4-6 0.400
30 Mississippi 4-6 0.400
30 Northwestern 4-6 0.400
30 Seton Hall 4-6 0.400
30 St. John's 4-6 0.400
30 Washington State 4-6 0.400
37 Oregon 3-5 0.375
37 Wisconsin 3-5 0.375
39 USC 4-7 0.364
40 Clemson 3-6 0.333
40 Illinois 3-6 0.333
40 Minnesota 3-6 0.333
40 Virginia 3-6 0.333
40 West Virginia 3-6 0.333
45 LSU 3-7 0.300
45 Michigan State 3-7 0.300
45 South Carolina 3-7 0.300
48 Baylor 2-5 0.286
48 Mississippi State 2-5 0.286
48 Missouri 2-5 0.286
51 Colorado 3-8 0.273
52 Boston College 2-6 0.250
53 Iowa 2-7 0.222
53 Kentucky 2-7 0.222
53 Stanford 2-7 0.222
53 Texas Tech 2-7 0.222
57 Iowa State 2-8 0.200
57 Penn State 2-8 0.200
57 Rutgers 2-8 0.200
60 Arizona State 2-9 0.182
61 Nebraska 1-5 0.167
62 Arkansas 1-6 0.143
63 Auburn 1-7 0.125
64 DePaul 1-7 0.125
65 NC State 1-8 0.111
65 Oklahoma State 1-8 0.111
67 Oklahoma 1-9 0.100
68 Oregon State 1-10 0.091
69 Georgia Tech 0-9 0.000
69 Indiana 0-9 0.000
69 Providence 0-8 0.000
69 South Florida 0-11 0.000
69 Wake Forest 0-8 0.000

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2011/02/very-few-teams-have-better-road-resume.html

[willie warrior]

 Man, you are a numbers guru.

Any way you can forward that stuff to the selection committee?

[bamamarquettefan]

Thanks Willie!  God gives us all one or two talents, and mine seems to be converting data on some of the great sports websites into a spreadsheet for a quick sort and calculation.

I do email these items occasionally to many of the sports journalists and folks in Athletic Departments and do occasionally get a response or something like being quoted on NBC Sports - so hopefully I occasionally stumble onto something relevant that someone on the Selection Committee finds relevant durign their research or reading up on every team.  Who knows once they close the doors on Selection Sunday though.

Hopefully the win at UConn is the start to a great finish that "takes the choice out of the hands of the selection committee" as they say and we are just worried about seeds and not being part of the bubble discussion as they say.

Thanks for reading.

[jficke13]

there aren't BCS conferences in college bball.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

Jay bilas just bumped kenpom and sagarin over rpi on gameday.
Love it!

[Jay Bee]

1. MU now has a better road record than tournament bound teams like Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, West Virginia and WISCONSIN.

Got a few bubble teams in that list of eight.

[🏀]

Got a few bubble teams in that list of eight.

Yeah, about 6 bubble teams.

[6Under20]

Do any of the rating systems do a Road/Neutral strength of schedule?  kenpom looks like it does a conf/non-conf one.  Marquette's has to be pretty high.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Jay bilas just bumped kenpom and sagarin over rpi on gameday.
Love it!

Jay Bilas isn't on the committee

Furthermore, the NCAA developed the RPI so you can imagine they kind of like it because they created it

[Sharpie]

I dint think anyone said bilas was on the committee.

I understand the NCAA created the rpi but if a committee member strictly used just the rpi then I would have to say they shouldn't be on the committee as everyone knows the rpi is a bit flawed. Not to say the others aren't flawed either but you would have to be a moron to only use the rpi just because it was created by the NCAA.

Just my take for what it's worth.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

Jay Bilas isn't on the committee

Furthermore, the NCAA developed the RPI so you can imagine they kind of like it because they created it

I realize he is not on the committee. He's only on tv frequently and is heard by millions of people. As more and more people hear about other ranking systems they'll become more popular and there will be more pressure for the committee to use them in the future.
That's the way I look at it anyways.
Maybe I'm just biased bc I usually enjoy what bilas has to say.

[NCAARules]

When the RPI was developed in the early 80s, I think it was a way for each committee member to have the same set of objective criteria. And at the time, one of the committee members pointed out that the committee was committed to not picking the best at-large teams solely by the computer formula, but that it was just one of the methods of evaluation.

It's also interesting to note that at least part of the rationale in the developing the RPI was to have a better way to evaluate which conferences would get automatic qualifiers.

[babytownfrolics]

I'm trying to figure out why some people are going to such lengths to defend RPI.  If the Committee can't figure out that Marquette (#51) is better than teams like Harvard (43) Cleveland St (42) So. Miss (40) or UAB (34) we've got bigger problems.

[Lennys Tap]

KenPom and Sagarin are VASTLY superior to RPI in truly evaluating teams. The lines in Vegas pretty much mimic Sagarin and totally ignore RPI. That should tell you all you need to know.

[tower912]

I'm trying to figure out why some people are going to such lengths to defend RPI.  If the Committee can't figure out that Marquette (#51) is better than teams like Harvard (43) Cleveland St (42) So. Miss (40) or UAB (34) we've got bigger problems.

It gives 84 another chance to slam Buzz. 

[marquette99]

Rpi is just politically correct.  Its like when I point out that mu looks goodto the committee when they lose to 1 at vandyand one guy always responds "a loss is a loss.". No, if we had lost by 15 at vandy and vs duke and the zags then everyome I'm the south and west wouldn't consider mu for þhe tourney and we'd be out now.  Instead, those regional decision-makers alls think e look like a tourney team and as lomng as we win some big games and have a decent record and sos we get in.

Rpi left out margins to avoid encouraging teams from running up scores in blowouts, but instead its become less andlessrelevant because it can't give credit for. Close losses on the road against teams and therefore has much less relevance as to who belongs.

[marquette99]

The piece is predicting the 8 teams listed are tournament bound.  Which of the 8 do you predict will not make the tournament?  Plenty of teams are listed on bubbles and tournament-bound, so. The question is which ones of these 8 you are predicting are NOT tournament bound?