The Book: Lady Cajuns 2006-07 basketball

[CajunAmos]

As a followup, we're guaranteed getting into the WNIT if we don't make the NCAA field. I've copied the criteria from the Delphi board regarding the WNIT selections.

POSTSEASON WNIT
PREPARES FOR EXPANSION

As women’s college basketball teams move into conference play across the nation, thoughts also look ahead to the postseason. The Women’s National Invitation Tournament will expand its field to 48 teams this spring for the first time in event history.

The eight-team expansion will allow for an automatic bid from every conference. The WNIT is guaranteeing that each of the nation’s 31 conferences will automatically have at least one spot guaranteed for one of their teams in the Postseason WNIT.

The selection of the 48 teams for the Postseason WNIT will be according to the following:
1. Thirty-one (31) spots will be filled with one team per conference. That team will be the highest-finishing team in the conference’s regular-season standings, that does not advance to the NCAA Tournament. As in the past, the teams’ record must be at or above .500.

For example, if the second-place team during the regular season does not win its conference tournament, and the top-seeded team does (and earns the NCAA berth), then the second-place team automatically will be invited to the WNIT.

If the top-seeded team after the regular season does not win its conference tournament and is not invited to the NCAA Tournament, then it will have a guaranteed spot in the WNIT.

No matter which team from a conference wins its conference tournament, the WNIT will take the next best team available. That team is determined by conference tournament seeding based on regular-season standings.

2. The remaining seventeen (17) berths will be filled by the top teams available based on the selection criteria used in the past.

The 2007 Postseason WNIT will feature 16 first-round games, followed by 16 second-round games, eight third-round games, four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games and the championship. All games in the single-elimination format are played at the home facilities of participating schools.
Here are the possible dates for each round:
Round 1 March 14-16
Round 2 March 16-18
Round 3 March 19-21
Quarterfinals March 23-25
Semifinals March 26-28
Championship March 31

The WNIT field will be announced Monday, March 12, following the NCAA Tournament selections.
For more information, contact Renee Carlson in the WNIT office at 970-223-6644 ext. 157

[Turbine]

Post Season RPI

RPI Rank: 51
SOS Rank: 119

[lcitsh]

Post Season RPI

RPI Rank: 51
SOS Rank: 119

The season is not over until all the other conference tournaments are done so the rpi will change daily. Besides, the preferred rpi of the selection committee is more closely reflected by the Palm rpi www.collegerpi.com.

[headragincajun]

The season is not over until all the other conference tournaments are done so the rpi will change daily. Besides, the preferred rpi of the selection committee is more closely reflected by the Palm rpi www.collegerpi.com.

Icitsh:
You are right about which one they closely look at (keeping in mind ofcourse that the one they use is a secret). Also, they really don't look at just RPI (unless they need to), It's also based on how you are playing your last 10 games (Ladies were 15-3 last 18) with 2 of those losses coming to the #16 ranked team in the country who also has won like 27 in a row (once on the road and once on a neutral court according to the NCAA rules for homecourt). Also, they don't count how you did in your conference tourney (unless you won it) As you know we made the Championship Game.

They only use strength of schedule (if they need to). They look at top 50 wins (which we have one over Western). They look at road wins which we have 13 (8th most in the country) which are also supposed to count more. We played @ Texas; @ L.S.U.; @ UTEP; @ South Carolina in a string to open up 11 straight on the road (which by the way nobody else in the country did and still won 25 games). Lady Cajuns won 25 games playing this schedule of 11 HOME Games and 19 ROAD games plus Sun Belt Tourney. Hopefully we can get some consideration for the total package and not just a one sentence fly by that seems to be going around ''OH STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE''. Everything is not equal and never will be. You have BCS schools spending over 2 million dollars a year on just women's basketball. No wonder they are ''LETTING THESE PEOPLE RESIGN'' when they don't make the NCAA Tourney. Ever wonder what would happen if they let Robert and I together split up 2 million for our programs? Let me answer that for you. Would make the Tourney (EVERY YEAR). Hopes this helps, it was not meant to be sarcastic in any way
Headragincajun1

[lcitsh]

Lcitsh:
You are right about which one they closely look at (keeping in mind ofcourse that the one they use is a secret). Also, they really don't look at just RPI (unless they need to), It's also based on how you are playing your last 10 games (Ladies were 15-3 last 18) with 2 of those losses coming to the #16 ranked team in the country who also has won like 27 in a row (once on the road and once on a neutral court according to the NCAA rules for homecourt). Also, they don't count how you did in your conference tourney (unless you won it) As you know we made the Championship Game.

They only use strength of schedule (if they need to). They look at top 50 wins (which we have one over Western). They look at road wins which we have 13 (8th most in the country) which are also supposed to count more. We played @ Texas; @ L.S.U.; @ UTEP; @ South Carolina in a string to open up 11 straight on the road (which by the way nobody else in the country did and still won 25 games). Lady Cajuns won 25 games playing this schedule of 11 HOME Games and 19 ROAD games plus Sun Belt Tourney. Hopefully we can get some consideration for the total package and not just a one sentence fly by that seems to be going around ''OH STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE''. Everything is not equal and never will be. You have BCS schools spending over 2 million dollars a year on just women's basketball. No wonder they are ''LETTING THESE PEOPLE RESIGN'' when they don't make the NCAA Tourney. Ever wonder what would happen if they let Robert and I together split up 2 million for our programs? Let me answer that for you. Would make the Tourney (EVERY YEAR). Hopes this helps, it was not meant to be sarcastic in any way
Headragincajun1

Thanks for the input, Coach. I agree with most of what you say, let me just make a few qualifications, based on conversations I have had with Jerry Palm. NCAA does actually publish their rpi, while they don't go out of their way to explain the formula, it is explained by Palm on his website. The true road record is 10-6, they counted 3 games as neutral court. All the things you mentioned do work in your favor, plus there are two people on the committee that you played during the year that can give first hand testimony as to your qualifications, so I'm hoping they will speak up for you.
Palm has a spreadsheet that he calls Gory Details that lists those things that you mentioned. If you are not a College RPI member, you won't be able to access it, and I can't make it public, but I'll be glad to e-mail or fax you a copy of it if you want. It's updated daily so it changes, but I'll be glad to get it to you if you want.

[Turbine]

Are their thoughts conspicuous by our absence?

Perhaps the W-NIT thinks UL has a shot at the field of 64 LINK

[NewsCopy]

It's uncomfortable sitting on that bubble, trying to keep from slipping off and hoping that it doesn't burst. At least UL's women's basketball team has a safety net. The Ragin' Cajuns, 25-8 and the runner-up in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament after winning the league's Western Division, will be very interested observers Monday night when ESPN airs the NCAA women's basketball selection show. "We really haven't heard a lot," said Cajun coach J. Kelley Hall. "We're hearing that DePaul, TCU, Western Kentucky and us are the last four sitting on the fence, but we really don't know." The Cajuns fell 77-67 to 16th-ranked Middle Tennessee in Tuesday's Sun Belt title game, the Blue Raiders earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. UL is hoping for an at-large berth, one of the 31 available in the NCAA bracket. Earning an at-large slot may be a dicey proposition, even though UL finished second in the nation's ninth-highest RPI conference. Last season, only three at-large bids went to leagues other than the six BCS football conferences. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[NCAA or BUST]

I haven't followed the Ladies much. OK? But if your conference was so good that your seventh or eighth place team is better than the second place team in the ninth rated conference? Your conference should rank higher than fifth.

[fleaux]

OK, I have a question. In that story Dan McDonald says that the Lady Cajuns played 23 of their 31 games away from the familiar EK Long Gym. I see on their schedule that they played 11 home games aside from the tournament. Is he implying that they are at a disadvantage when they play at the Cajundome??? (I am assuming that his math is right and the others were played there), or is he just wrong about this?????

[Just1More]

I haven't followed the Ladies much. OK? But if your conference was so good that your seventh or eighth place team is better than the second place team in the ninth rated conference? Your conference should rank higher than fifth.

Agree. Rather bizarre. In answer to the thread question... the 2nd in the 9th deserves it IMHO.

[geauxcajunsgeaux]

they are at a disadvantage when they play at the cajun dome, its not where they practice everyday so its not like having home court.

[headragincajun]

I haven't followed the Ladies much. OK? But if your conference was so good that your seventh or eighth place team is better than the second place team in the ninth rated conference? Your conference should rank higher than fifth.

NCAA or BUST:

AMEN


Headragincajun1