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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 7, 2010 23:21:35 GMT -5
The H League and MAC have 27 games scheduled against each other for the current season (The Horizon currently leads the series 10-6). With at least three BracketBuster pairings probable, the two leagues will almost certainly meet each other 30 times.
There's no point in continuing to prove that we're a superior league to the MAC when it has already been proven (14 NCAA tournament victories over the last eight years to two).
The Missouri Valley, meanwhile, appears to be reluctant to schedule us in home-and-homes. And why wouldn't it? After all, it has only scored nine NCAA tournament victories over the same time frame. Thus, the challenge. Let's prove who's better on the court.
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Post by agibson on Dec 10, 2010 5:36:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the nice summaries! I'm getting used to the format. Newest games always at the bottom?
Some stray reactions while looking at the recent results (now maybe a bit out of date, was looking Thursday morning?):
Detroit losing to Western Michigan stings - looks like another underpeforming season for Detroit? At least based on results so far.
Green Bay losing at home to Duquesne isn't ideal either - a decent A10 team coming to visit seems like a good opportunity for a quality win. But, not to be.
We might have expected Wright State to have a good chance at home against a not-exactly stellar Air Force squad. Air Force lost to a non-D1 at home, but also has a couple of decent wins against mid-majors. Anyway, Red Line Upset! And with a fairly commanding bottom line, Wright State 76, Air Force 61.
Based on Tuesday's games, Valpo still hangs around at RPI 43 (falling behind Butler). The Horizon League has dropped a notch, edged out by the A10. In eighth place, still ahead of CUSA and the PAC10. But 7th-11th are all quite tight. We need to finish the non-conference schedule strong!
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And, updating the RPI's including Wednesday's games: I'm surprise by what realtimerpi.com reports. They have Valpo back up to 34, with Butler down at 36. Anyhow,we're very close. (That doesn't yet include their Xavier loss).
And the Horizon falling to #10, just above the PAC-10. But 7-11 are still very close.
I need to think through the effects of conference play on RPI again sometime. People sometimes talk like conference RPI is all settled when you finish the non-conference schedule, because in league play the wins and losses are balanced across the conference.
But, I guess that's not right. Your opponents wins and losses matter more, for the RPI, than the result of your game against them. So, presumably the BCS conferences with padded non-conference W-L records all get a boost from playing each other. And, the low majors who traded losses for $$ have bad non-conference records, and all take a hit from playing each other.
So, I guess e.g. in the Summit everybody's RPI will take a hit when they play Centenary. But, maybe I should think through it more carefully.
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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 10, 2010 9:06:22 GMT -5
Thank, agibson. Yes, newest results at the bottom. Too much else to say, but what you heard is mostly right. Conference RPIs are largely set when non-conference play is over with Butler's trip to Hawai'i Dec. 22-25. At that stage, conference RPI won't alter more than a spot or two either way. In other words, save for a stellar or abysmal performance in the BracketBusters series, if we're in, say, ninth after Christmas Day, we won't finish any lower than 10th or 11th.
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Post by valporun on Dec 10, 2010 9:33:19 GMT -5
The Summit League will take a huge hit from Centenary this season because the Gents started to recruit for when they become a D-III team next season. They are playing a good schedule, but its all a money-grab for them right now, then it'll be a long conference season for them.
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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 10, 2010 10:54:29 GMT -5
Wright State's victory over Air Force isn't big because of who are Falcons are right now (RPI 155), but because of whom they could beat (San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico, BYU).
And as has been stated elsewhere, it's always better to win than to lose -- whether you are playing Duke or Toledo.
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Post by bbtds on Dec 12, 2010 3:23:53 GMT -5
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Post by drewsaders11 on Dec 19, 2010 1:13:11 GMT -5
A good Saturday for the HL...4 wins against teams from comparable conferences (three by double figures), a must needed win for a Butler team looking to be taken seriously against a Pac-10 school, a surprise W for UIC against a ranked Illinois team, CSU's first loss to WVU, and a Loyola loss to the worst team in the Big East in Depaul.
A 6-2 day against D-1 teams is a success, especially going 2-2 against Big 6 teams.
No games Sunday.
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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 19, 2010 1:48:48 GMT -5
Please don't call the MAC (one NCAA tournament victory since 2003) and especially the Summit (no non-play-in game wins ever for existing members) "comparable" conferences. I know what you're trying to say, but not really. A terrific day for the H League, given that it scored its first two victories over BCS schools and now must win one game against the MAC to clinch the season series for the confirmed fifth straight year.
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Post by bbtds on Dec 19, 2010 5:24:17 GMT -5
Please don't call the MAC (one NCAA tournament victory since 2003) and especially the Summit (no non-play-in game wins ever for existing members) "comparable" conferences. I know what you're trying to say, but not really. Don't knock too hard on the Mid-Con/Summit. There are still many posters here who want to see the Summit do well and really enjoyed the time Valpo spent in that conference/league. Those were the good old days when Valpo dominated for many years but only won 2 games one year in the NCAA tourney. Remember that conference was pretty much started by Valpo's former AD, Bill Steinbrecher, and his son, Jon, was the conference commissioner. As I remember it there are posters here who went to school with Jon from grade school to his time at Valpo U, VU, Valpo, Northern Indiana Normal School, Valparaiso College, Valparaiso Male and Female College, Lutheran University Association, The KKK's Purdue, Harvard of the Midwest, Poor Man's Harvard, Lutheran Layman's University, Henry Baker Brown's college, O.P. Kretzman's WWII GI Bill University....etc.
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Post by drewsaders11 on Dec 19, 2010 11:39:09 GMT -5
Please don't call the MAC (one NCAA tournament victory since 2003) and especially the Summit (no non-play-in game wins ever for existing members) "comparable" conferences. I know what you're trying to say, but not really. A terrific day for the H League, given that it scored its first two victories over BCS schools and now must win one game against the MAC to clinch the season series for at least the third straight year. I wouldn't say exactly comparable, no. But for all intents and purposes, when you get outside of the big 6, MWC,and a-10 and some of the C-USA, team a is largely indistinguishable from team x. Yes, the Horizon's RPI is 12, the MAC 18, and Summit 23. That pretty much means the champions from these leagues would be 12, 13, and 14 seeds, so not too much of a meaningful difference. But, yes, two teams that we beat yesterday were in the lower rungs of the MAC, which is a lot worse off than the bottom parts of the Horizon. Also, IPFW was 7-2, playing competition similar to Valpo. I was just trying to generalize "non big conferences", pretty much, which may or may not have been an oversimplification.
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Post by stlvufan on Dec 19, 2010 14:32:35 GMT -5
Please don't call the MAC (one NCAA tournament victory since 2003) and especially the Summit (no non-play-in game wins ever for existing members) "comparable" conferences. I know what you're trying to say, but not really. Don't knock too hard on the Mid-Con/Summit. There are still many posters here who want to see the Summit do well and really enjoyed the time Valpo spent in that conference/league As one of those posters who still has a soft spot for the Mid-Con, I harbor no illusions that the Summit League is comparable to the HL. Please don't confuse fondness for respect. Now, once they shed SUU and Centenary, they could be in range. The Dakotas are serious about basketball. IUPUI, Oakland, and ORU have taken turns being powerhouses and all are still viable candidates for RLUs. IPFW is getting there. WIU and UMKC appear to be the new bottom feeders, but every conference has at least a little dead weight. But no, they're not there yet. On the other hand, if Valpo beats OU on Tuesday it will be a major upset.
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Post by valporun on Dec 19, 2010 17:05:02 GMT -5
Don't knock too hard on the Mid-Con/Summit. There are still many posters here who want to see the Summit do well and really enjoyed the time Valpo spent in that conference/league As one of those posters who still has a soft spot for the Mid-Con, I harbor no illusions that the Summit League is comparable to the HL. Please don't confuse fondness for respect. Now, once they shed SUU and Centenary, they could be in range. The Dakotas are serious about basketball. IUPUI, Oakland, and ORU have taken turns being powerhouses and all are still viable candidates for RLUs. IPFW is getting there. WIU and UMKC appear to be the new bottom feeders, but every conference has at least a little dead weight. But no, they're not there yet. On the other hand, if Valpo beats OU on Tuesday it will be a major upset. If I recall, Oakland was a winner of the play-in game a few years back, in the year they beat ORU at Tulsa? It may have still been the Mid-Con then, but one of those teams that someone said needs to win a play-in/NCAA game, has done so recently.
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Post by dylanrocks on Dec 20, 2010 1:08:33 GMT -5
With a sparkling showing Saturday, including its first two wins over BCS opponents, the league leaped to 10th in the RPI, leapfrogging the Ivy League and C-USA. Last year, the 10th-ranked conference, the WAC, landed two teams in the Big Dance -- Utah State and New Mexico State. So, for that matter, did the 11th-ranked C-USA -- UTEP and Houston.
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Post by stlvufan on Dec 20, 2010 23:21:01 GMT -5
As one of those posters who still has a soft spot for the Mid-Con, I harbor no illusions that the Summit League is comparable to the HL. Please don't confuse fondness for respect. Now, once they shed SUU and Centenary, they could be in range. The Dakotas are serious about basketball. IUPUI, Oakland, and ORU have taken turns being powerhouses and all are still viable candidates for RLUs. IPFW is getting there. WIU and UMKC appear to be the new bottom feeders, but every conference has at least a little dead weight. But no, they're not there yet. On the other hand, if Valpo beats OU on Tuesday it will be a major upset. If I recall, Oakland was a winner of the play-in game a few years back, in the year they beat ORU at Tulsa? It may have still been the Mid-Con then, but one of those teams that someone said needs to win a play-in/NCAA game, has done so recently. Yes, they won the play-in game in the 2005 NCAA tourney after upsetting ORU in Tulsa (they have a huge picture of Pierre Dukes taking that shot, and in the background, plain as day, is me and TD sitting there watching the shot go up. You can also see hundreds of ORU fans with their mouths open in fear and their hands over their heads in horror. TD, you really have to get up here sometime to see it.
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Post by rlh on Dec 23, 2010 1:31:37 GMT -5
BTW, Toledo has now won three in a row....I guess we got them going....
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