How Saint Peter's series, RPI and losses cost the Cajuns

[NewsCopy]

Coach Tony Robichaux takes responsibility after UL misses NCAA Tournament for first time in five years.

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[Rougarou]

So for those that criticize Robe for not taking blame, here it is.

I'm still trying to make my way to the acceptance stage of grieving.

[CajunJack55]

"At the time of the scheduling, according to Robichaux, UL thought work on the stadium would be complete by 2017 and it wanted another home series to please fans, including those paying to watch from its newly constructed suites."

I knew we could fine a way to blame Farmer for this

[wcd35]

This is the quote that basically sums up the whole argument over the last week or so about if we were good enough or if that specifically cost us:

“I think that (the St. Peter’s series) is glaring because we didn’t get our job done, and now we want to circle back and hang that on a weekend series. I don’t think you can do that. You’ve got to hang it on your body of work. Our body of work just wasn’t good enough.”

[Turbine]

This is the quote that basically sums up the whole argument over the last week or so about if we were good enough or if that specifically cost us:

“I think that (the St. Peter’s series) is glaring because we didn’t get our job done, and now we want to circle back and hang that on a weekend series. I don’t think you can do that. You’ve got to hang it on your body of work. Our body of work just wasn’t good enough.”

There were those who AT THE TIME were hoping UL didn't get "hanged" by that weekend.

I wasn't smart enough AT THE TIME, to be one of the worriers.

[Hark Mudspeth]

There were those who AT THE TIME were hoping UL didn't get "hanged" by that weekend.

I wasn't smart enough AT THE TIME, to be one of the worriers.

Unless the "at the time" you are talking about is before Bab made the phone call it's irrelevant.

[Turbine]

Unless the "at the time" you are talking about is before Bab made the phone call it's irrelevant.

The only thing it is not, is irrelevant.

He will be making many calls in the future.

This is all about the future, we can't do anything about the past except study it and learn from it.

jmo

[Hark Mudspeth]

The only thing it is not, is irrelevant.

He will be making many calls in the future.

This is all about the future, we can't do anything about the past except study it and learn from it.

jmo

Any worrying about St. Peter's after they signed the contract was irrelevant.being worried never changes anything, especially if the people worried are the ones watching. We will always have teams on our schedule that could contribute to keeping us out of the post season in regards to RPI.always.maybe not as drastic as St. Peter's but will always have them. Postseason is like being pregnant, you either are or you aren't.you either in or you are out.by how much doesn't matter. If that series was with NWST instead and we were the first team left out.well we would he exactly where we are now. Odds are in our favor that we won't ever schedule a winless team again.we got that one out of the way. Coaches, players and fans should be more concerned about what's going to happen between the foul lines in the future than on the other end of that phone.

[Turbine]

Any worrying about St. Peter's after they signed the contract was irrelevant.being worried never changes anything, especially if the people worried are the ones watching. We will always have teams on our schedule that could contribute to keeping us out of the post season in regards to RPI.always.maybe not as drastic as St. Peter's but will always have them. Postseason is like being pregnant, you either are or you aren't.you either in or you are out.by how much doesn't matter. If that series was with NWST instead and we were the first team left out.well we would he exactly where we are now. Odds are in our favor that we won't ever schedule a winless team again.we got that one out of the way. Coaches, players and fans should be more concerned about what's going to happen between the foul lines in the future than on the other end of that phone.

When 'how could they' confusion was expressed over the slip up of scheduling Saint Peters, NO ONE thought they would go winless. I will give you that.

But they knew it was a huge mistake before the season started.

Schedulers need to be overly cautious going forward, especially with the Sun Belt offering few favors.

jmo

[Hark Mudspeth]

When 'how could they' confusion was expressed over the slip up of scheduling Saint Peters, NO ONE thought they would go winless. I will give you that.

But they knew it was a huge mistake before the season started.

Schedulers need to be overly cautious going forward, especially with the Sun Belt offering few favors.

jmo

We played eastern Illinois and ULM twice in one season and managed to host a super and #1 in the country, we hosted playing sacred heart.not got in.hosted. Bab isn't an idiot, he is the same guy that put together schedules that had us in regionals the last 5 years and hosted twice.all of those schedules had Series with bad teams on them.none of them went winless but there were some really bad RPI teams.we even had to play ULM 6 times in a season a few of those years. We didn't get it done.our play kept us out, nothing else.

[Rebel02]

We played eastern Illinois and ULM twice in one season and managed to host a super and #1 in the country, we hosted playing sacred heart.not got in.hosted. Bab isn't an idiot, he is the same guy that put together schedules that had us in regionals the last 5 years and hosted twice.all of those schedules had Series with bad teams on them.none of them went winless but there were some really bad RPI teams.we even had to play ULM 6 times in a season a few of those years. We didn't get it done.our play kept us out, nothing else.

Back in 2014, Eastern Illinois and ULM were both teams that finished the season with over 20 wins. Historically (previous 5 seasons), you could count on Eastern Illinois having over 20 wins in a season, so scheduling them wasn't going to significantly hurt the RPI. When looking at St. Peter's history (previous 5 seasons), you could reasonably assume that they'd win around 10-12 games (2012 was their highest win total in the last 5 years and it was 20 wins). You can't throw ULM into your argument because we have no control of them being on the schedule. You can control a team like St. Peter's though.

For each of the last 4 seasons (regional teams), the worst OOC team on the schedule for RPI purposes was
2013- Central Michigan (finished 23-32). Sacred Heart that season was a great opponent for our RPI. Weak northern team that we swept but they do well in conference; finished their season 34-24.
2014- Texas Southern (17-26); Eastern Illinois (21-33)
2015- Jackson State (23-25)
2016- Sacred Heart (30-28); swept them again

Playing Sacred Heart is exactly what we need to do. We swept them each year and they helped our SOS each season. We knew they'd end up with a record around .500 because that's historically what they do once conference play starts. St. Peter's, on the other hand, is not on the same field as Sacred Heart, Jackson State, Eastern Illinois, etc. Their history shows that they would not have been a good RPI team this year or for any other year.

What got us a national seed in 2014 was 53 wins after winning the conference tournament. The SOS that season was ranked 141 at selection time.

[Turbine]

We played eastern Illinois and ULM twice in one season and managed to host a super and #1 in the country, we hosted playing sacred heart.not got in.hosted. Bab isn't an idiot, he is the same guy that put together schedules that had us in regionals the last 5 years and hosted twice.all of those schedules had Series with bad teams on them.none of them went winless but there were some really bad RPI teams.we even had to play ULM 6 times in a season a few of those years. We didn't get it done.our play kept us out, nothing else.

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

[CajunAmos]

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

Except for that whole "they have to agree to play you as well" thing. I remember many years of never getting top 50 teams to come to Lafayette in softball when baseball would regularly host good teams. Softball got all their SOS from playing on the road. That said I agree in this year that one weekend series costs us a top 40 overall RPI and a top 5 OOC RPI.

[Hark Mudspeth]

UL plays ULM 6 times all the time. That can't be controlled, control what you can.

If Lotief can schedule the #1 OOC RPI schedule in the country, nothing is preventing baseball from doing a little better.

Actually that's exactly my point.control what you can.we didn't. Playing st Peter's was not an automatic post season ban even with them going winless. We were right where we needed to be and we went get swept then lost a home series. If we win a couple more games and got in the tourny then nothing would be different about St. Peter's.changing L's to W's would be the difference.something to consider when trying to EARN an at large bid.

[Hark Mudspeth]

Back in 2014, Eastern Illinois and ULM were both teams that finished the season with over 20 wins. Historically (previous 5 seasons), you could count on Eastern Illinois having over 20 wins in a season, so scheduling them wasn't going to significantly hurt the RPI. When looking at St. Peter's history (previous 5 seasons), you could reasonably assume that they'd win around 10-12 games (2012 was their highest win total in the last 5 years and it was 20 wins). You can't throw ULM into your argument because we have no control of them being on the schedule. You can control a team like St. Peter's though.

For each of the last 4 seasons (regional teams), the worst OOC team on the schedule for RPI purposes was
2013- Central Michigan (finished 23-32). Sacred Heart that season was a great opponent for our RPI. Weak northern team that we swept but they do well in conference; finished their season 34-24.
2014- Texas Southern (17-26); Eastern Illinois (21-33)
2015- Jackson State (23-25)
2016- Sacred Heart (30-28); swept them again

Playing Sacred Heart is exactly what we need to do. We swept them each year and they helped our SOS each season. We knew they'd end up with a record around .500 because that's historically what they do once conference play starts. St. Peter's, on the other hand, is not on the same field as Sacred Heart, Jackson State, Eastern Illinois, etc. Their history shows that they would not have been a good RPI team this year or for any other year.

What got us a national seed in 2014 was 53 wins after winning the conference tournament. The SOS that season was ranked 141 at selection time.

Was sacred heart available? Are people literally just going to ignore that St. Peter's was the only D1 option at the time we scheduled them? It was a bad decision but lets not pretend our coaches picked them over everyone else. I'm sure next time they will choose to give our players a weekend off instead of playing St. Peter's.