[Paint Touches] Just how tough is MU's Non-Con Schedule?

[PaintTouches]

The conference schedule is set to drop Thursday, so had to post this before the bell. This will be the toughest non-con in the Ken Pom era.

https://painttouches.com/2018/09/12/just-how-tough-is-marquettes-non-con-schedule/

[MUBigDance]

Couple of comments:
Do you think Goodman's 25 more to watch is in order? Which would make UW=31 and Buffalo=40? Its not alphabetical so I guess that's a good assumption...just didn't see it stated...I could have missed that.

Wow NBC sees us at #8 in the BE.

Thanks for the analysis. It will be a great noncon ride...just wish they were all home games to attend...KSU, UW, Buffalo  good enough I guess.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Wow NBC sees us at #8 in the BE.

Keep in mind, the author of that article is a UW-Madison graduate

[brewcity77]

Couple of comments:
Do you think Goodman's 25 more to watch is in order? Which would make UW=31 and Buffalo=40? Its not alphabetical so I guess that's a good assumption...just didn't see it stated...I could have missed that.

Wow NBC sees us at #8 in the BE.

Thanks for the analysis. It will be a great noncon ride...just wish they were all home games to attend...KSU, UW, Buffalo  good enough I guess.

The NBC article was written by a very blatantly partisan Bucky grad. I wouldn't read too much into it.

As far as the schedule, while it's definitely tough at the top, I think a better measure of the schedule is how it looks through the middle. SOS is going to be highest when you combine a few really tough opponents with strong buy games. Now if you go strictly by Torvik, our 7 buy-level opponents are all sub-240 with two being sub-300. Personally, I think UMBC, Bethune-Cookman, and Presbyterian are a bit underrated while UTEP is a bit overrated, but for our schedule to stack up rankings-wise where we hope it does, we probably need a couple of those to challenge for conference titles & crack the top-200.

[Silkk the Shaka]

I like it! Even if we go 3-3 against the top 6, that gives us 3 quality wins. And this is the team to do it with, a ton a returning talent as mentioned.

Thinking we'll go 4-2 most likely (beat Louisville, UW, Buffalo, and one of Indiana/KState) or 3-3 if we have to play Tennessee. Either way, the OOC tests will prep us well for the conference season, where I'm thinking 13-5 or 14-4. That gets us a 5 seed at least.

[mu03eng]

The NBC article was written by a very blatantly partisan Bucky grad. I wouldn't read too much into it.

As far as the schedule, while it's definitely tough at the top, I think a better measure of the schedule is how it looks through the middle. SOS is going to be highest when you combine a few really tough opponents with strong buy games. Now if you go strictly by Torvik, our 7 buy-level opponents are all sub-240 with two being sub-300. Personally, I think UMBC, Bethune-Cookman, and Presbyterian are a bit underrated while UTEP is a bit overrated, but for our schedule to stack up rankings-wise where we hope it does, we probably need a couple of those to challenge for conference titles & crack the top-200.

I've been with you there in the past, but with the "analytic" driven NET, I just don't know whether those RPI concepts will hold.

[brewcity77]

I've been with you there in the past, but with the "analytic" driven NET, I just don't know whether those RPI concepts will hold.

Yeah, but Torvik is analytic-driven. From an RPI perspective, this is a better schedule. I think that despite poor advanced projections, teams like Bethune-Cookman and Charleston Southern could be solid RPI teams based on winning percentage. The analytic nature of NET is exactly why I'm concerned about our SOS. If NET figures out that a team like last year's Bethune-Cookman (18-14 record was RPI positive but #288 overall kenpom ranking would be an analytic negative) isn't that good, we may be in more trouble precisely because of NET.

I'm really hoping I'm right about teams like Presbyterian and UMBC.