Meanwhile, Cajuns have the best basketball team in LA

[SlickRick]

We are better this year than any other in the Marlin era. We are deeper, and more talented. We play hard defensively, make the extra pass and are better at the line. Are we great? No, but IMO, we are a better team than any other since Coach Marlin has been here.

[VObserver]

The schedule favors us this year in that we only play the Georgia schools once, albeit in Georgia. That means only 3 games against top 100 teams (UTA twice, GaSo once). We should be no worse than 15-3 in conference; but I am betting the under on 13 conference wins. Marlin will find a way to blow at least 2 or 3 games that we should win.

Fwiw, Warren Nolan is now predicting us to win the regular season (tied with GaSo) at 16-2. I would take that right now, as history has shown that Marlin's teams falter in conference play.

[VObserver]

We are better this year than any other in the Marlin era. We are deeper, and more talented. We play hard defensively, make the extra pass and are better at the line. Are we great? No, but IMO, we are a better team than any other since Coach Marlin has been here.

I don't necessarily disagree, Rick, but we play such a crappy schedule that it is impossible to tell if our guys are really good, or if they are only good by comparison to the folks we have played.

[RaginScotsman]

Geez, you’d think we’d be happy winning basketball games. I guess not. Would you prefer we lose to Tech and Iowa? We lost to Mobile a few years ago. That was fun wasn’t it?

Also, stop looking at RPI. It doesn’t matter at this point nor will it really matter in a few months. The Belt would need a near miracle to get an at large bid.

[VObserver]

Geez, you'd think we'd be happy winning basketball games. I guess not. Would you prefer we lose to Tech and Iowa? We lost to Mobile a few years ago. That was fun wasn't it?

Also, stop looking at RPI. It doesn't matter at this point nor will it really matter in a few months. The Belt would need a near miracle to get an at large bid.

When will you people learn that RPI is even more important in a one bid league? If we win the SBC tourney with an RPI of 175, we will either be in a playin game or playing Duke, Kansas or UNC in a first round game. If we win it with an RPI of 50, we will be playing a middle of the road power conference team in the first round with a chance to win.

[RaginScotsman]

When will you people learn that RPI is even more important in a one bid league? If we win the SBC tourney with an RPI of 175, we will either be in a playin game or playing Duke, Kansas or UNC in a first round game. If we win it with an RPI of 50, we will be playing a middle of the road power conference team in the first round with a chance to win.

I understand, but looking at RPI in December is misleading. It’s like looking at it in the 3rd week in February for diamond sports.

I get that the schedule is not great, but we’re winning the games and we’re doing it convincingly. Iowa and Tech are going to turn out being nice wins. Ole Miss may start looking like not such a great loss.

We’ll always have to fill in the schedule with Loyals and LA Colleges of the world because that’s just the reality of being a “mid major.” Personally, I like the early season tournaments as they give you a chance to play some pretty good competition that maybe, probably would not come to our house.

Just keep winning and all that other stuff will work itself out.

[VObserver]

I understand, but looking at RPI in December is misleading. It's like looking at it in the 3rd week in February for diamond sports.

I get that the schedule is not great, but we're winning the games and we're doing it convincingly. Iowa and Tech are going to turn out being nice wins. Ole Miss may start looking like not such a great loss.

We'll always have to fill in the schedule with Loyals and LA Colleges of the world because that's just the reality of being a "mid major." Personally, I like the early season tournaments as they give you a chance to play some pretty good competition that maybe, probably would not come to our house.

Just keep winning and all that other stuff will work itself out.

Don't buy the garbage Marlin is selling about scheduling. Tech's SOS non conference this year is ranked 51st. Ours is 324th. You can't possibly believe that it is THAT much harder for us to schedule decent teams than it is for Tech.

Warren Nolan is projecting Iowa to be 3-15 in the Big 10, with a final RPI of 258. Not a good win. Ole Miss is projected as 1-17 in the SEC, with an RPI of 271. A bad loss.

Tech is projected 14-4 in CUSA, with an RPI of 92. A good win.

[CajunJeaux]

Hey VO...have you ever reached out to the heads that be and tell them how you scheduled good talented teams in the past?...as much as we all apparently love this program...we'd all be indebted to you if you could share your proven processes.

[RaginScotsman]

Don't buy the garbage Marlin is selling about scheduling. Tech's SOS non conference this year is ranked 51st. Ours is 324th. You can't possibly believe that it is THAT much harder for us to schedule decent teams than it is for Tech.

I looked at it. They had some nice games like Alabama, Texas, good Evansville and SFA teams. However, 3-8 Jackson State is on there too. George Mason, Semo and Montana State are all hovering around .500. They’ve also played D2 Miles College and play at an 0-10 Alabama State team on Thursday. I get that your looking at numbers generated from some sort of SOS calculation, but just looking at it I don’t see where they are blowing our schedule away.

Maybe Maggard will schedule better than Farmer did, but on paper our schedule isn’t terrible. UNO was in the tournament last year. Richmond and Iowa are historically in the post season in either the NCAA or the NIT. Wyoming was in the tournament in 2015.
We’re always going to play Nicholls and McNeese, but last year this schedule looked a lot tougher than it has actually been.

[VObserver]

Hey VO...have you ever reached out to the heads that be and tell them how you scheduled good talented teams in the past?...as much as we all apparently love this program...we'd all be indebted to you if you could share your proven processes.

Nobody is paying me a half a million dollars a year to put a quality program together. I don't know about you, but I don't consider playing an SLC non conference schedule and consistantly finishing in the middle of a below average conference to be a quality program.

In point of fact, it is my intention to make an appointment with Dr. Maggard to discuss this issue.