Why the sky is falling attitude

[BirdmanBB]

I love it when everyone blames us for our schedule. Why is our schedule your excuse? If you want your team to go to the NCAA tourney, then all you need to do is win...and keep winning the games on your schedule. Yes, in this league and any, it should be about yourself. I will say that ISU made the mistake of not scheduling tougher in the past and we paid the price for it. Our school paid the price, not yours. Our team currently is young and inexperienced. Throwing them up against stiff competition in the non-con doesn't do our players any good come time for valley play. The only thing they will learn to do is lose, which is not good for anyone. In the valley, when you know your team will be good and be competing in the upper half of the MVC you schedule tough to maximize your chances for a bid. When your school is rebuilding/has a young team, you schedule accordingly to get that team experience so that someday they will be in a position to schedule hard and compete for a bid. If your team loses to us and we didn't schedule hard enough so it drops your RPI/SOS who's fault is it really? If you are not good enough to beat us, then chances are you are not good enough to make the NCAA tourney. Simple as that. So for everyone that is or has been critical of our scheduling, maybe you should expect more out of your team and not more out of ours. Win the games that you scheduled and the rest will take care of itself.

[Snaggletooth]

I love it ..... snippage of long rant

I think you got the wrong thread. This is about MVC teams not actually winning their games. Scheduling is two doors down on the left.

[Aargh]

I complain about schedules - and I'm a bit disappointed that my season tickets are really only worth having for league games.

Scheduling good teams isn't as easy as you might think. Marshall has said on several occasions that NOBODY would agree to play WSU this year. That's one of the reasons WSU's schedule wasn't finalized until around October and why there was only one game scheduled prior to Maui. UConn with 4 games and WSU with only 1 was a factor in the outcome of that game.

Some of the deals Marshall was offering for better games were insane. One BCS team turned down 2 neutral site games and one at their place and WSU was willing to throw in some cash. You can't beat who you don't play and you can only play the teams that agree to play you - except for conference teams - and this isn't looking like a good year to get any national brownie points for playing other Valley teams.

[Snaggletooth]

Historically from (2000-2010), Conferences with RPI 7 or less have been multi-bid conference. The drop-off from there follows a linear trend.





data taken from:

http://statsheet.com/mcb/conferences/stats/?season=2009-2010

[cpacmel]

Snaggle, all you are really telling us is that the BCS conferences get a ton of bids. In other news, the sun came up this morning.

By the way, our conference RPI is up to #13.

[Snaggletooth]

Snaggle, all you are really telling us is that the BCS conferences get a ton of bids. In other news, the sun came up this morning.

I guess that would be the conclusion for somebody who can't seperate the wheat from the chaff. I know you don't want admit it but it does show that Conference RPI is an indicator on how likely a conference will get multiple bids and the magic number is you need to be 10 or better.

By the way, our conference RPI is up to #13.

If you were actually looking at http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-conf-rpi.html you would understand that the MVC expected conference RPI for the year is #12, so it moving to 13 is not unexpected and shows actual convergence of the data.

[jayball]

Snaggle,

There is no magic number. Conference RPI doesn't automatically get you anything. inidivual teams resumes get them into the dance. Not their conference RPI.

We have have been in the top ten for many years now. It hasn't helped us get mutliple bids the past two years when the conference and tourney titles were won by the same school.

[cpacmel]

Snaggle,

There is no magic number. Conference RPI doesn't automatically get you anything. inidivual teams resumes get them into the dance. Not their conference RPI.

We have have been in the top ten for many years now. It hasn't helped us get mutliple bids the past two years when the conference and tourney titles were won by the same school.

Thanks Jayball. That has been what I have been trying to say. One doesn't need a t square or slide ruler to figure that out either.

[Unsmooth Moment]

RPI this early in the year is pretty random.

kenpom uses a different type of data, I think it's a little more realistic, at least up to this point. BTW polmeroy has the Valley rated 10 (ahead of Horizon and WCC)

[TylerDurden]

Snaggle,

There is no magic number. Conference RPI doesn't automatically get you anything. inidivual teams resumes get them into the dance. Not their conference RPI.

We have have been in the top ten for many years now. It hasn't helped us get mutliple bids the past two years when the conference and tourney titles were won by the same school.

Thanks Jayball. That has been what I have been trying to say. One doesn't need a t square or slide ruler to figure that out either.

Of course teams get bids. But you understand that the strength of the conference RPI numbers has an impact, right? That is a part of the resume.

The stronger your opponent is, the better win it is. That's the way the BCS leagues have been doing it for years...dominate non-conference opponents and let the RPI build on itself so that your conference games are a boost.

It's what the Valley did in 2006 and what it hasn't really done since.

When you aren't in the BCS leagues, you can't give them a reason to leave you out or they will.

MVC teams need other MVC teams to win and win a lot in the non-conference (and pick up signature wins) so that those wins are more valuable during conference play.

If you put the 2006 RPI values for MVC teams into the MVC bubble teams' results the last three years, you'd see them on the other side of the bubble.

That doesn't take a T square of slide ruler to figure out either.