OT: Conference RPI

[MarquetteDano]

Okay, I know people are worked up after a loss to our rivals but I guess I was expecting it so not as upset as others.  I wanted to go a different direction.  Anyone see where the AAC is ranked right now in RPI:

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2015/conferencenpi

TENTH!  Wow.  Sans Louisville I can we can all agree we did the right thing breaking off from the AAC.  I don't think in it's worst year the Big East will ever be tenth in conference RPI.  That is poor.

[Warrior of Law]

The Big East is really strong.  If MU was a typical MU team this year, it may be the best overall.  Unfortunately, MU's 0-3 vs Big Ten is the difference.  Butler beating N'western, Seton Hall blows out Rutgers.  St. Johns beating Syracuse. If MU can get close to .500 in the conference, I would expect a NIT bid or equivalent based solely on RPI and SOS.

[MarquetteDano]

Conference had a great weekend, sans our contributions.  Key wins:

Creighton beats Nebraska by 10 in Lincoln
Seton Hall worked Rutgers by 25.  That Whitehead kid starting to look good as he poured in 25
Butler beats Northwestern by 10
St. John's knocks off Syracuse by 12 at the Carrier Dome
Xavier put up 97 against an improved Alabama side and wins by 12


The Big East is going to give our RPI a decent boost this year.  RPI has Big East currently second.  Going 10-8 is going to be difficult in this improved Big East.

[Atticus]

Conference had a great weekend, sans our contributions.  Key wins:

Creighton beats Nebraska by 10 in Lincoln
Seton Hall worked Rutgers by 25.  That Whitehead kid starting to look good as he poured in 25
Butler beats Northwestern by 10
St. John's knocks off Syracuse by 12 at the Carrier Dome
Xavier put up 97 against an improved Alabama side and wins by 12


The Big East is going to give our RPI a decent boost this year.  RPI has Big East currently second.  Going 10-8 is going to be difficult in this improved Big East.

Winning beats losing for sure. None of the teams that BE tes beat will make the NCAA tournament. There are "resume builders" and there are "taking care of business wins."

[Texas Western]

I have always felt this conference would be very strong.  It is nice to see our brethren doing well. Our destiny is in our own hands . If we do well in our conference season we will be in the tournament discussion. I continue to think 7-2 at home and 3-6 on the road is our mission. It is going to be tough as every game is going to be a battle.

[DiehardMU]

Winning beats losing for sure. None of the teams that BE tes beat will make the NCAA tournament. There are "resume builders" and there are "taking care of business wins."

Any true road win is a resume builder, especially when it was against Nebraska and Cuse...

[chapman]

BE just keeps racking up wins.  CBS with four BE teams in its top 18: Villanova (7), SJU (15), Butler (17), Georgetown (18). 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/top25


Big games this week: 

Tue Villanova vs. Illinois (in NYC)
Tue Seton Hall @ Wichita State
Wed Georgetown vs. Kansas

And some not so big, but would help to get wins:

Wed Providence vs. Rhode Island
Sat Xavier @ Mizzou
Sat Creighton vs. St. Mary's

[forgetful]

BE just keeps racking up wins.  CBS with four BE teams in its top 18: Villanova (7), SJU (15), Butler (17), Georgetown (18). 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/top25


Big games this week: 

Tue Villanova vs. Illinois (in NYC)
Tue Seton Hall @ Wichita State
Wed Georgetown vs. Kansas

And some not so big, but would help to get wins:

Wed Providence vs. Rhode Island
Sat Xavier @ Mizzou
Sat Creighton vs. St. Mary's

Providence vs. Rhode Island is actually a pretty big game.  RI is good and very likely will walk away with the win.

[Johnny B]

IM very skeptical on butler being ranked. Are they really that good. They dont look very good. GT,SJU, SH, should all have a number by their names next week.

[Shark]

All I see is a lot of opportunities for MU to build a resume.

[WayOfTheWarrior]

IM very skeptical on butler being ranked. Are they really that good. They dont look very good. GT,SJU, SH, should all have a number by their names next week.

From what I saw from their wins against UNC and G-Town, they definitely seem like a 20-25 ranked team. Granted I think UNC was way overrated at the time but Butler has a good mix of athleticism, a great shooter in Dunham, and leadership on D from Barlow. They get after it, but they are only 7-8 men deep.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Winning beats losing for sure. None of the teams that BE tes beat will make the NCAA tournament. There are "resume builders" and there are "taking care of business wins."

I think Syracuse and Nebraska both have a decent shot at making the tournament. Beating them on the road is a great win.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

The problem the BEast will run into is that we will eat each other alive. With only one clearly dominate team (Villanova) and a bunch of very good teams, there will be a lot of conference records close to .500. Even the assumed cellar dwellers of Seton Hall, Depaul, and...sigh...Marquette are good enough to steal several wins from the good teams.

[Spotcheck Billy]

Meanwhile Radford beat VA Tech Sunday

Virginia Tech and Radford are separated by 12 miles, and the Hokies dominate the media interest in the area because of the success of their football program.
 
But following Sunday's basketball game between the two schools, Radford is going to see some love come its way.

R.J. Price scored 25 points to lift the Highlanders to a 68–66 victory over Virginia Tech (4–4).

The win marked just the second ever for Radford over Virginia Tech, and the Highlanders' first victory ever over an ACC school in 25 attempts.

[Coleman]

The problem the BEast will run into is that we will eat each other alive. With only one clearly dominate team (Villanova) and a bunch of very good teams, there will be a lot of conference records close to .500. Even the assumed cellar dwellers of Seton Hall, Depaul, and...sigh...Marquette are good enough to steal several wins from the good teams.

True, but with how good the conference has performed in the non-conference schedule, 10-8 in the Big East might be enough to get you in the NCAA this year, if you have a couple non-conference signature wins (which MU does not). For a team like Butler, who has a W over North Carolina, they probably only need to go 10-8 to get in.

[MUMountin]

True, but with how good the conference has performed in the non-conference schedule, 10-8 in the Big East might be enough to get you in the NCAA this year, if you have a couple non-conference signature wins (which MU does not). For a team like Butler, who has a W over North Carolina, they probably only need to go 10-8 to get in.

If we can win out in non-conference play, I think 11-7 in BE would be the target for us to have a shot at the tourney.  That would put us at 19-11 overall going into BET and hopefully would get our RPI into the low 40s or so, and with wins against a couple of the decent BE teams.  10-8 might do it if we grab a couple of big upsets against Nova and whoever else ends up at the top of the heap. 

But, that's a lot of looking forward.  Gotta play a bunch of 'em out first...

[Coleman]

If we can win out in non-conference play, I think 11-7 in BE would be the target for us to have a shot at the tourney.  That would put us at 19-11 overall going into BET and hopefully would get our RPI into the low 40s or so, and with wins against a couple of the decent BE teams.  10-8 might do it if we grab a couple of big upsets against Nova and whoever else ends up at the top of the heap.  

But, that's a lot of looking forward.  Gotta play a bunch of 'em out first...

I agree 11-7 is probably enough, but we need at least a couple signature wins. That would have to include a win over Nova or another ranked team. Right now we have none.

[NavinRJohnson]

Out of curiosity, why is this considered "OT," because its not about Derrick Wlison's playing time (even though I'm sure it soon will be)?

[brandx]

If we can win out in non-conference play, I think 11-7 in BE would be the target for us to have a shot at the tourney.  That would put us at 19-11 overall going into BET and hopefully would get our RPI into the low 40s or so, and with wins against a couple of the decent BE teams.  10-8 might do it if we grab a couple of big upsets against Nova and whoever else ends up at the top of the heap. 

But, that's a lot of looking forward.  Gotta play a bunch of 'em out first...

I think at 19-11, we would need probably 2 wins in the BE tournament to get in. But a lot depends on what the other bubble teams do at season's end.

[BM1090]

I think at 19-11, we would need probably 2 wins in the BE tournament to get in. But a lot depends on what the other bubble teams do at season's end.

19-11 would give us an RPI around 42. That could very well be good enough, but I'd want at least 1 win in the BET to be safe.

[Lennys Tap]

I really hope we become "team bubble" this year and this all becomes relevant, but right now Pomeroy has us 9th in the Big East and the 8th team is 56 spots higher (#53) than us. Luke better be really good.

[MUMountin]

I really hope we become "team bubble" this year and this all becomes relevant, but right now Pomeroy has us 9th in the Big East and the 8th team is 56 spots higher (#53) than us. Luke better be really good.

That could be one nice additional factor, if we play really well with Luke added--the committee should discount the early season losses for being without him.

[brandx]

I really hope we become "team bubble" this year and this all becomes relevant, but right now Pomeroy has us 9th in the Big East and the 8th team is 56 spots higher (#53) than us. Luke better be really good.

Lenny, when I talk about 19-11, I am giving best-case.

When I talk about being better than 9th place, (I think) I am talking reality. I just don't think the BE is THAT great that the 9th place team is going to be competitive in back-to back games against highly ranked opponents.

[chapman]

Providence beat Florida State, Notre Dame, and Yale in consecutive games.  Now they lost by 9 to BC and 10 to Brown.  Ick.

[WarhawkWarrior]

And we are taking DePaul's place this year.