Who wins in St. Louis

[Khan4Cats]

Who woke all of the UNI fans up?

Incredible.

Winning 8 games against RPI 150+ competition (you know the bottom half of DI that is at least 100 teams away from making the Tourney) apparently does it.

It's worked for WSU and ISU fans.

[Cdizzle]

Who woke all of the UNI fans up?

Incredible.

Winning 8 games against RPI 150+ competition (you know the bottom half of DI that is at least 100 teams away from making the Tourney) apparently does it.

It's worked for WSU and ISU fans.

Oh my.

Careful with the smack-talk. You still have that toughie against Bradley coming up this week.

[Stickboy46]

Who woke all of the UNI fans up?

Incredible.

Winning 8 games against RPI 150+ competition (you know the bottom half of DI that is at least 100 teams away from making the Tourney) apparently does it.

It's worked for WSU and ISU fans.

Meh, WSU also own no losses to anyone outside of the Top 50. They also beat the other Top 50 team in the conference by 41. They have outscored their last 5 opponents by nearly as many points as UNI has done ALL YEAR.

ISU owns a win over WSU and has yet to fall to a bottom feeder team.

But you are right, beating 150+ teams by 3 (@home),1,7(@home),8,5(@home),8(@home),3 is super impressive.

[Aargh]

A vote for any team other than IlSU or WSU is delusional. Unintelligent is the polite term for another possibility for the votes for UNI.

Which Saturday opponent provides the easier route to the championship? Both WSU and IlSU rely on their D to win games. Both have very active defenses. If defenders are worn out from a tough Saturday matchup, they are more likely to be tired Sunday, so the Saturday games are significant.

For WSU, Zach Brown is going to get the defensive assignment against the other team's main threat. I'd much sooner have Brown chasing Lee on Sunday after covering Morgan Saturday than after trying to cover Doyle Saturday. Koch and Carlson don't wear a defensive unit down. You can sag WAY off Carlson when he's on the perimeter. Leave him open - maybe he'll take the shot. Against Loyola, you've got to blanket Ingram and Custer the whole game. It's easier on the defensive unit to play UNI than Loyola.

Morris and Nurger going against Koch? McDuffie and Kelly going against Carlson? That's the kind of matchups that fans love to see. At least fans who love to see total domination.

I believe it was the MSU beat writer who said it best, "WSU's second unit would be the #3 seed in St. Louis".

[Dean Wormer]

I don't know who is dumber...whoever created this poll and actually separated UNI from the field, or the clowns who are actually predicting UNI winning the whole thing.

Sure, there is a possibility they could win it, just like there is a possibility Bradley, SIU, MoST, Evansville, etc COULD win it.

It is clear the gap between 2nd and 3rd this year is greater than the gap between 3rd and 10th.

[Redbirds4Life]

I don't know who is dumber...whoever created this poll and actually separated UNI from the field, or the clowns who are actually predicting UNI winning the whole thing.

Sure, there is a possibility they could win it, just like there is a possibility Bradley, SIU, MoST, Evansville, etc COULD win it.

It is clear the gap between 2nd and 3rd this year is greater than the gap between 3rd and 10th.

Northern Iowa should be a choice...they have won 8 of 9 against the same garbage WSU and ISU have beaten. I hate UNI, but Jacobson's track record is what it is, his teams are a tough out in the MVC tourney. Down year or not, they are the clear #3 team. ISU/WSU are the favorites, but I think the gap between 2nd and 3rd is equal to the gap between 3rd and 4th at this point.

[uniftw]

I don't know who is dumber...whoever created this poll and actually separated UNI from the field, or the clowns who are actually predicting UNI winning the whole thing.

Sure, there is a possibility they could win it, just like there is a possibility Bradley, SIU, MoST, Evansville, etc COULD win it.

It is clear the gap between 2nd and 3rd this year is greater than the gap between 3rd and 10th.

Northern Iowa should be a choice...they have won 8 of 9 against the same garbage WSU and ISU have beaten. I hate UNI, but Jacobson's track record is what it is, his teams are a tough out in the MVC tourney. Down year or not, they are the clear #3 team. ISU/WSU are the favorites, but I think the gap between 2nd and 3rd is equal to the gap between 3rd and 4th at this point.

Per @DrMattSmith on Twitter

Last 9 games:
Wichita 8-1
IL St 8-1
UNI 8-1
Loyola 4-5
SIU 4-5
InSU 4-5
MSU 3-6
E'ville 3-6
Drake 2-7
Bradley 1-8

In the month of February, Jake is 49-33 as a HC. 59.8%
Excluding Bracket Buster games, UNI is 48-27...64%.

In just the last 9 yrs, UNI is 43-24 in the month of February...64.2%.
In the last 9 yrs, MVC games Jake is 42-20...67.7%

In just the last 3 years, Jake is 17-3...85% win %
And in the month of March as a career...25-13 (65.8%).
Last 8 years, 68%


No, I don't believe UNI wins the tournament.
Yes, UNI absolutely needs to figure their s*** out between about Dec 13th and Jan13th. Its atrocious the differencet between that one month time frame and the rest of the season. Not a single UNI fan will/should fight you on that.

To act surprised when UNI figures their s*** out in late Jan/early Feb though? You should know better by now.

[Cdizzle]

I got confused when the previous poster was using win percentages in the 60s against this league in what I think was intended as some sort of positive metric.

[TheObserver]

I don't know who is dumber...whoever created this poll and actually separated UNI from the field, or the clowns who are actually predicting UNI winning the whole thing.

Sure, there is a possibility they could win it, just like there is a possibility Bradley, SIU, MoST, Evansville, etc COULD win it.

It is clear the gap between 2nd and 3rd this year is greater than the gap between 3rd and 10th.

Northern Iowa should be a choice...they have won 8 of 9 against the same garbage WSU and ISU have beaten. I hate UNI, but Jacobson's track record is what it is, his teams are a tough out in the MVC tourney. Down year or not, they are the clear #3 team. ISU/WSU are the favorites, but I think the gap between 2nd and 3rd is equal to the gap between 3rd and 4th at this point.

The difference is that UNI also has losses to MSU, Loyola, Evansville (yikes), and Bradley (lol). They haven't beaten anybody north of 132 in the RPI. They have SEVEN 100+ RPI losses and TWO 200+ RPI losses. Those statistics don't just disappear. It has taken them an 8-1 tear over the last month just to get back to .500 at 12-12. They are closer to 10th place (4 games) in the standings than 1st place (5 games).

Credit to them for mucking it up and putting together a string of wins against the rest of the Valley. In reality though, they are the best of the heap.... and thus still part of the heap.

[uniftw]

To further my point that UNI needs to figure it's s*** out in the middle of the season I did math...Yes, us UNI fans can do math.

Over the last 6 seasons for games played between
10/30-12/10 UNI is 38-15 (72%)
12/11-1/20 UNI is 27-32 (45%)
1/21-Arch Madness UNI is 46-19 (71%)

That's a really good start and a really good finish sandwiching a steaming pile of dog poo.

I'd like to apologize for WSU (and the rest I guess) for that level of incompetent play over that month. That likely has hurt the league, and UNI, when it comes to post season play being completely honest