Mountain West - the #1 RPI conf in America

[VAHawkFan]

The more things like this happen, and the selection committee ends up with egg on their faces, the better.

On the other hand, Oregon wins the Pac 12 regular season Tournament, the conference tournament, and gets rewarded with a 12 seed. Then they beat the 5 seed. Who knew.

In my opinion, that was the biggest "F' you!" by the selection committee. Iowa was a bubble team. I'm not upset they didn't get in. There were valid arguments both ways. I'm not sure there were any undeniably deserving teams that didn't make it this year. But a 26-win team from a power conference being seeded 12 is baffling. Oregon administration and fanbase have a right to be (and should be) p**sed.

Most years selections are (more or less) relatively controversy free. But every now and again a group of supposedly basketball savvy individuals somehow collectively find their way to a decision like this and all you can do is scratch your head and ask "WTF?"

 

[ThunderHawk]

Definitive confirmation of my assertion that the RPI oughta RIP.

 

[storminspank]

 

[atomicblue224]

Didn't Tommy Amaker coach at Michigan? When The hair was here?

 

[ssckelley]

Interesting match up. An individual team with an overinflated vs a team from a conference with an overinflated RPI

Yeah it is, most of the stunts the MWC used is exactly how Oklahoma got into the NCAA tournament. San Diego State has a chance to win this one.

 

[Billso]

Scott Dochterman ‏@ScottDochterman 11h
Apparently the Mountain West misspelled RPI in this year's tournament. #RIP

There goes Dochterman, ripping off Thunder again...

 

[Blackout]

Barkley is a moron plain and simple.

 

[MisterLucky]

I remember listening to Coach McCaffery's call-in show when Dolph brought up the "fact" that the MWC had jumped the Big Ten as the number one RPI conference and Fran muttered, " Yeah? How many teams do they have in the Top 25?" The answer at that point was, of course, one.

 

[jacknicholson]

Didn't Tommy Amaker coach at Michigan? When The hair was here?

I do believe he did, Atomic......

 

[jacknicholson]

Something is seriously out of whack when Michigan is a 4 seed and New Mexico is a 3 seed.....

On the Lobo site someone said Alford blamed the players for the loss same as he did at Iowa....

He singled Sean Sonderliter out for a loss at Iowa State when it was pathetic coaching that caused the problem. Sean recieved his second foul with one or two minutes left in the second halfe, Alford substituted someone else. Sean immediately received his third foul in the last minute. The second half he received a fourth foul quickly and Alford blamed the loss on him getting his fourth foul so quickly......

Rule of thumb is take a player out in the first half with two fouls especially in the last two minutes of the first half......

Until Neal came on board, his timeouts were baffling. At Illinois we had a 14 point lead and they started to rally and the Hair did not call a TO until the Illini were ahead.....

 

[ihawkeye]

Something is seriously out of whack when Michigan is a 4 seed and New Mexico is a 3 seed.....

On the Lobo site someone said Alford blamed the players for the loss same as he did at Iowa....

He singled Sean Sonderliter out for a loss at Iowa State when it was pathetic coaching that caused the problem. Sean recieved his second foul with one or two minutes left in the second halfe, Alford substituted someone else. Sean immediately received his third foul in the last minute. The second half he received a fourth foul quickly and Alford blamed the loss on him getting his fourth foul so quickly......

Rule of thumb is take a player out in the first half with two fouls especially in the last two minutes of the first half......

Until Neal came on board, his timeouts were baffling. At Illinois we had a 14 point lead and they started to rally and the Hair did not call a TO until the Illini were ahead.....

He would just shake his magic 8 ball for all his decisions.

 

[thejumper5]

MWC teams played 14 (14!) non-D1 schools. They played 14 games against teams that, though terrible, don't count towards team or conference RPI or SOS. Boise State played two non-D1 teams that went a combined 15-41 this year, and they made the NCAA Tournament because of it. Big Ten teams played just 3 non-D1 schools. Flip those numbers around, and the MWC is a long ways behind the Big Ten in RPI rankings.

I think the RPI needs two major reforms. First, it needs to include, in some way, non-D1 games. Teams shouldn't be rewarded for scheduling terrible teams. Second, it should weight late season games more heavily than early season games. When rankings teams to determine their seeding for a tournament played in late-March, it seems logical that games played in mid-March would matter more than games in early-November.

 

[okeefe4prez]

MWC teams played 14 (14!) non-D1 schools. They played 14 games against teams that, though terrible, don't count towards team or conference RPI or SOS. Boise State played two non-D1 teams that went a combined 15-41 this year, and they made the NCAA Tournament because of it. Big Ten teams played just 3 non-D1 schools. Flip those numbers around, and the MWC is a long ways behind the Big Ten in RPI rankings.

I think the RPI needs two major reforms. First, it needs to include, in some way, non-D1 games. Teams shouldn't be rewarded for scheduling terrible teams. Second, it should weight late season games more heavily than early season games. When rankings teams to determine their seeding for a tournament played in late-March, it seems logical that games played in mid-March would matter more than games in early-November.

Third, it should have weight given to point differentials in games but in a manner that doesn't give incentives to run scores. Iowa's close Big Ten road losses are way better than losing at Duke by 51, but not in the eyes of the RPI.

 

[kirby]

MWC teams played 14 (14!) non-D1 schools. They played 14 games against teams that, though terrible, don't count towards team or conference RPI or SOS. Boise State played two non-D1 teams that went a combined 15-41 this year, and they made the NCAA Tournament because of it. Big Ten teams played just 3 non-D1 schools. Flip those numbers around, and the MWC is a long ways behind the Big Ten in RPI rankings.

I think the RPI needs two major reforms. First, it needs to include, in some way, non-D1 games. Teams shouldn't be rewarded for scheduling terrible teams. Second, it should weight late season games more heavily than early season games. When rankings teams to determine their seeding for a tournament played in late-March, it seems logical that games played in mid-March would matter more than games in early-November.

SOMEONE from the selection committee needs to address this. Everyone now knows. Why are they so clueless when they are expected to be the experts? I thought I read that they will use multiple sources--well, that does not appear to be the case-replace the MWC imposters with Iowa/Maryland/Virginia/Baylor, etc. and the NCAA tourney is much more interesting.

 

[thejumper5]

Third, it should have weight given to point differentials in games but in a manner that doesn't give incentives to run scores. Iowa's close Big Ten road losses are way better than losing at Duke by 51, but not in the eyes of the RPI.

I completely agree. Point differential is one of the best indicators of future success at nearly every level of basketball. Unfortunately, the NCAA is so intent on dis-incentivizing running up the score that they won't go for point differential as a factor in any official computer rankings. Even the BCS, which utilizes multiple computer rankings, has required those who design the rankings to take point differential out of their equations. I get their point, but I really think it's misguided.

 

[atomicblue224]

Something is seriously out of whack when Michigan is a 4 seed and New Mexico is a 3 seed.....

On the Lobo site someone said Alford blamed the players for the loss same as he did at Iowa....

He singled Sean Sonderliter out for a loss at Iowa State when it was pathetic coaching that caused the problem. Sean recieved his second foul with one or two minutes left in the second halfe, Alford substituted someone else. Sean immediately received his third foul in the last minute. The second half he received a fourth foul quickly and Alford blamed the loss on him getting his fourth foul so quickly......

Rule of thumb is take a player out in the first half with two fouls especially in the last two minutes of the first half......

Until Neal came on board, his timeouts were baffling. At Illinois we had a 14 point lead and they started to rally and the Hair did not call a TO until the Illini were ahead.....

I remember the hair throwing young kids under the bus in interviews

 

[tm3308]

I completely agree. Point differential is one of the best indicators of future success at nearly every level of basketball. Unfortunately, the NCAA is so intent on dis-incentivizing running up the score that they won't go for point differential as a factor in any official computer rankings. Even the BCS, which utilizes multiple computer rankings, has required those who design the rankings to take point differential out of their equations. I get their point, but I really think it's misguided.

I'd say give limits on point differentials. You get credit for beating a team by 15 or more, but there is no further incentive to run it up. Something along those lines.

 

[HawkeyesWin]

The problem with including point differentials is that it changes the end of games. Even at a 15 point cutoff you will still see teams up 10 running up the score to make it count more. It ultimately hurts sportsmanship.

 

[DDThompson]

MWC was 3-8 vs. PAC12