State of the Conference

[Wufan]

The reason it's weird, meat, is because it has no reality to it. It is in your delusional mind.
I am a life long Shocker fan, saw Dave the Rave play when I was just a kid and haven't cared for any other team or conference ever. Your fixated hatred of the BJ's means that anyone who merely points out the realities of analytical ratings that don't fit your twisted reality must be a fan of who you hate. It's pathetic. However it fits the type of personality that becomes a big fan of a winning team only once they have become a winning team.

See.

Weirdly defensive mechanisms.

You tend to have that effect on people.

[2livewu]

I'm not sure on what planet Loyola is alive for an at large. I suppose run the table, MAYBE 17-1 share the title with WSU gives them enough of a gaudy record to overcome a terrible non-con with losses to St Josephs (a team that's 2 baskets from being 2-6) and NC State who is really not good at all and neither will be considered for an at large.

And let's not even start the UNI at large discussion. They aren't beating UNC and even if they did, do you think they're about to go 16-2 in conference, at least, to be 24-7 (at best) and still get an at large? No.

Best thing for the Valley, unfortunately, is a 31-3 WSU team that gets a protected seed and a good shot to win at least 1 game and continues to fund the rest of the Valley's athletic departments while somebody undeserving gets lucky and hot in St. Louis and gets an additional 1 share before being slaughtered in the round of 64.

[uniftw]

I'm not sure on what planet Loyola is alive for an at large. I suppose run the table, MAYBE 17-1 share the title with WSU gives them enough of a gaudy record to overcome a terrible non-con with losses to St Josephs (a team that's 2 baskets from being 2-6) and NC State who is really not good at all and neither will be considered for an at large.

And let's not even start the UNI at large discussion. They aren't beating UNC and even if they did, do you think they're about to go 16-2 in conference, at least, to be 24-7 (at best) and still get an at large? No.

Best thing for the Valley, unfortunately, is a 31-3 WSU team that gets a protected seed and a good shot to win at least 1 game and continues to fund the rest of the Valley's athletic departments while somebody undeserving gets lucky and hot in St. Louis and gets an additional 1 share before being slaughtered in the round of 64.

Because UNI has never beat UNC before.
Because UNI has always been a sacrificial lamb in the round of 64
Because UNI would fold if it wasn't for WSU.

[Cdizzle]

UNI beat UNC last year.

At home. With UNC missing their best player.

And in March, UNI probably wasn't going to make the NIT, much less receive an at-large to the NCAA.

WSU is the only team in the conference with at-large still on the table, and it's going to take a ridiculous 3 months for even that to happen.

It's really difficult to tell where some of the teams in the league stand because of the "save-my-job" scheduling that keeps happening.

[specialsauce]

I'm not sure on what planet Loyola is alive for an at large. I suppose run the table, MAYBE 17-1 share the title with WSU gives them enough of a gaudy record to overcome a terrible non-con with losses to St Josephs (a team that's 2 baskets from being 2-6) and NC State who is really not good at all and neither will be considered for an at large.

And let's not even start the UNI at large discussion. They aren't beating UNC and even if they did, do you think they're about to go 16-2 in conference, at least, to be 24-7 (at best) and still get an at large? No.

Best thing for the Valley, unfortunately, is a 31-3 WSU team that gets a protected seed and a good shot to win at least 1 game and continues to fund the rest of the Valley's athletic departments while somebody undeserving gets lucky and hot in St. Louis and gets an additional 1 share before being slaughtered in the round of 64.

Because UNI has never beat UNC before.
Because UNI has always been a sacrificial lamb in the round of 64
Because UNI would fold if it wasn't for WSU.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. You're making statements that have nothing to do what 2livewu posted. He was talking about the current and the future in his post. You are talking about the past. It hurts to read, but which of the things in his post are untrue?

[AceMatt]

I'm not sure on what planet Loyola is alive for an at large. I suppose run the table, MAYBE 17-1 share the title with WSU gives them enough of a gaudy record to overcome a terrible non-con with losses to St Josephs (a team that's 2 baskets from being 2-6) and NC State who is really not good at all and neither will be considered for an at large.

I admit it will be difficult for Loyola for an at large but they still can't be ruled out at this point. Their 2 losses are not bad at all at.
The fact is St. Joe's is 4-4 and not 2-6. They're coming off a tournament bid and a 28 win season and could very well finish in the top 4 of the A-10. The 2 point loss @ NC State could end up being a "good loss" if the 7-2 Wolfpack do well in the ACC.
The more concerning fact is they are playing without 2 key players. Matt Chastain is out for the season. Dante Ingram is out 4-6 weeks.
So for now I will back off my stance on how good I think they can be but am still not ruling them out for the tournament

[Stickboy46]

I'm not sure on what planet Loyola is alive for an at large. I suppose run the table, MAYBE 17-1 share the title with WSU gives them enough of a gaudy record to overcome a terrible non-con with losses to St Josephs (a team that's 2 baskets from being 2-6) and NC State who is really not good at all and neither will be considered for an at large.

And let's not even start the UNI at large discussion. They aren't beating UNC and even if they did, do you think they're about to go 16-2 in conference, at least, to be 24-7 (at best) and still get an at large? No.

Best thing for the Valley, unfortunately, is a 31-3 WSU team that gets a protected seed and a good shot to win at least 1 game and continues to fund the rest of the Valley's athletic departments while somebody undeserving gets lucky and hot in St. Louis and gets an additional 1 share before being slaughtered in the round of 64.

Because UNI has never beat UNC before.
Because UNI has always been a sacrificial lamb in the round of 64
Because UNI would fold if it wasn't for WSU.

UNI beat UNC last year at home ...

This year its at UNC
The fact that UNI won last year makes it harder to win this year (revenge factor)
UNC is better this year than last year
UNI is worse this year than last year

UNI is more likely to lose by 40 than to win @UNC.

His point remains overall. Look at it this way when it comes to at-large bids quality wins and not having bad losses matter more than anything.

Teams with Quality wins
Indiana State
Wichita State (Kinda)
UNI (Kinda)
Loyola (maybe if SDSU doesn't fold anymore than they already did)

Teams without any bad losses
Wichita State

No one beside Indiana State really has a marquee win but has some too many (and a couple bad) losses. Wichita State is the only team that hasn't lost to a bad team but even the "marquee" wins could end up being just meh by the end of the year. So his point is true, the best case scenario is for WSU to run the tables (or close), then have someone else sneak in using Arch Madness. There really isn't a another team that will realistically get an at large at this point (barring someone else going 17-1/18-0 in conference which isn't happening)

BTW, is anyone else getting random disconnects from this site? Makes it really hard to post

[Blers]

Despite that Loyola and Wichita should still have a shot for at-large bids.

I doubt Loyola has a shot for an at-large unless they run the table which won't happen. I think fellow Rambler fans will agree that Loyola hasn't played exactly the toughest schedule. Their 2 losses aren't necessarily bad ones but they have only one real meaningful win which was against SD State who is struggling as of late. I'm not very knowledgeable about Wichita State's schedule so I will let their fans comment on their chances of an at-large.

I love the enthusiasm Matt but i'm unfortunately with Alap; the schedules been frustrating because they're so clearly several steps above the competition some of the competition they played. We've also had some awful luck with some schools not performing as they should have (one of our tourney opponents Oral Roberts have been just awful, plus Milwaukee inexplicably fired their head coach a 20 win season including a win at Madison...)


Fact of the matter is the team should have beat NC State. They outplayed the wolfpack up and down the court but they were ultimately beat by an NBA lottery pick and some TERRIBLE refs; with a flagrant no call in the waning seconds plus several other inexplicable hacks that went "unnoticed." The loss against St. Joes sucks but in context they were the last team to land for this tournament and had very little turnaround time before the game (it really shows when you rewatch). I'm hoping our scheduling gets upgraded next year; I think they can certainly handle it.

Regardless of all this I hope these teams all continue to improve and we can move into the top 7 conference range.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

before being slaughtered in the round of 64.

I know, right? That's been Northern Iowa's best case scenario for years.

[Wufan]

Stickboy46,

I have been getting disconnected when I reply from mobile.