Games of Interest 5/11/23

[VObserver]

Beside the obvious SBC Tournament games there are 10 games today that will have a direct impact on our RPI, and on our seeding in the NCAA tournament. Teams I believe we want to win are in bold type.

FSU/Syracuse, ISU/Baylor, Ole Miss/Auburn, Memphis/UCF, Texas Tech/Texas, OSU/Kansas, Penn State/Indiana, Kentucky/Florida, Arkansas/Alabama, S. F. Austin/GCU

There are also a number of other games that bear on our seeding; mostly games that will affect whether Ole Miss or Indiana get into the top 25 RPI or whether our RPI can sneak up to 6-8.

NC/Clemson, Ohio SU/Minn, Northwestern/Iowa, Charlotte/FAU, UCA/N. Alabama, Liberty/Jacksonville St., Oregon St/Washington, Oregon/Stanford, U of L/VaT, Utah/Cal, S. Carolina/UGA, Ga Tech/Duke,

Lots of softball of interest today. These 22 games all affect either our RPI or our record vs top 25. I could be wrong on some of these as to which game outcome is better for Louisiana; I didn't do all the math.

[Turbine]

What a great break down,

Thanks Charlie.

[Grantvb]

Thanks VO

[SlickRick]

I was looking thru the softball scores last night....now, thanks to VO, it will mean much more! Thanks!

[RaginDave]

I know it is not much help, but ULM defeating Georgia State can't be all bad. GSU RPI was 194, ULM's RPI is 121, that is a difference of 83 spots. If you are going to play one or the other, truly playing ULM is the better case scenario.

Now UL (when they win tonight) will face the winner of Troy (58) and Texas Stae (39). Both are good for UL, but obviously beating another top 50 team would be better.

[VObserver]

No problem, Rick.

Keep an eye on the Big 10 Tournament; anything that happens there that hurts Northwestern or helps Indiana is good for us.

In the Southland we want McNeese to beat Southeastern in the finals. That is best possible outcome for us.

In the SEC, I can't really figure out what is best for us, outside of Ole Miss winning it. I think we want Florida to win more and Tennessee to lose sooner, but have no clue about the rest.

In the ACC, we want Duke and Clemson to lose as soon as possible, and FSU to keep winning.

The Big 12 is totally confusing. The more Texas, Baylor and OSU win, the more it helps our RPI, but Texas and Baylor are both behind us in RPI, and we don't want them to pass us.

In general we want everyone with RPI of 10-31 to lose until Indiana [32] and Ole Miss [34] sneak into the top 25.

[VObserver]

I know it is not much help, but ULM defeating Georgia State can't be all bad. GSU RPI was 194, ULM's RPI is 121, that is a difference of 83 spots. If you are going to play one or the other, truly playing ULM is the better case scenario.

Now UL (when they win tonight) will face the winner of Troy (58) and Texas Stae (39). Both are good for UL, but obviously beating another top 50 team would be better.

ULM is MUCH better for us than playing Georgia State.

ULM is 25-31, GaSt is 18-36; In SOS ULM is 77, GaSt is 101; in Opponents SOS ULM is 80, GaSt is 152.

Our RPI is probably helped more by beating Troy, but the optics for the committee are better by beating Texas State, and the RPI bump is very close, so I think TxSt is better for us.

[VObserver]

Louisiana remains at RPI 9 through games of 5/10/23

Ole Miss Watch: Through games of 5/10/23 Ole Miss RPI is 30 up from 34 yesterday

Indiana Watch: Through games of 5/10/23 Indiana RPI is 34 down from 32 yesterday

[moorecajun]

Beside the obvious SBC Tournament games there are 10 games today that will have a direct impact on our RPI, and on our seeding in the NCAA tournament. Teams I believe we want to win are in bold type.

FSU/Syracuse, ISU/Baylor, Ole Miss/Auburn, Memphis/UCF, Texas Tech/Texas, OSU/Kansas, Penn State/Indiana, Kentucky/Florida, Arkansas/Alabama, S. F. Austin/GCU

There are also a number of other games that bear on our seeding; mostly games that will affect whether Ole Miss or Indiana get into the top 25 RPI or whether our RPI can sneak up to 6-8.

NC/Clemson, Ohio SU/Minn, Northwestern/Iowa, Charlotte/FAU, UCA/N. Alabama, Liberty/Jacksonville St., Oregon St/Washington, Oregon/Stanford, U of L/VaT, Utah/Cal, S. Carolina/UGA, Ga Tech/Duke,

Lots of softball of interest today. These 22 games all affect either our RPI or our record vs top 25. I could be wrong on some of these as to which game outcome is better for Louisiana; I didn't do all the math.

Thanks. I have a question regarding Baylor. Is it better to be rooting for them to win and help our rpi/sos, or to lose and drop their rpi/sos so we can host?

[JoshuaC]

Great insight here. Hoping it all works out for us in the end and we get to host.

[RaginDave]

ULM is MUCH better for us than playing Georgia State.

ULM is 25-31, GaSt is 18-36; In SOS ULM is 77, GaSt is 101; in Opponents SOS ULM is 80, GaSt is 152.

Our RPI is probably helped more by beating Troy, but the optics for the committee are better by beating Texas State, and the RPI bump is very close, so I think TxSt is better for us.

I completely agree with you, what I meant by that is that beating ULM and beating GSU is not going to matter at the end of the day whether we get to host a regional or not, but for optics and everything else, ULM is much better than GSU.

[GoneGolfin]

No problem, Rick.

Keep an eye on the Big 10 Tournament; anything that happens there that hurts Northwestern or helps Indiana is good for us.

In the Southland we want McNeese to beat Southeastern in the finals. That is best possible outcome for us.

In the SEC, I can't really figure out what is best for us, outside of Ole Miss winning it. I think we want Florida to win more and Tennessee to lose sooner, but have no clue about the rest.

In the ACC, we want Duke and Clemson to lose as soon as possible, and FSU to keep winning.

The Big 12 is totally confusing. The more Texas, Baylor and OSU win, the more it helps our RPI, but Texas and Baylor are both behind us in RPI, and we don't want them to pass us.

In general we want everyone with RPI of 10-31 to lose until Indiana [32] and Ole Miss [34] sneak into the top 25.

So, a few things …

Obviously this changes as we get closer to the completion of conference tournament play, but the #6 RPI ranking is easily in play for the Cajuns (improved significantly since I mentioned it last). But so is #13 … especially with a loss today. The Cajuns also have a minuscule lead over #10 Texas and #11 Tennessee. #14 Arkansas is distant.

Baylor is a tough one. But I suspect the Cajuns are better off if Baylor moves into the RPI Top 16 and displaces someone else (Ex. Clemson), since I think the Cajuns have a much better chance of evaluating ahead of some of the other teams (Clemson) than Baylor.

We definitely want Florida to finish well. We cannot have them falling out of the RPI Top 25 (most important thing) … and we want the RPI boost. Florida is not safe in this regard.

Brian

[VObserver]

The mathematics of softball evaluation gets pretty exciting at this time of year. lol

[VObserver]

I completely agree with you, what I meant by that is that beating ULM and beating GSU is not going to matter at the end of the day whether we get to host a regional or not, but for optics and everything else, ULM is much better than GSU.

There is quite a bit of difference in RPI effect between playing ULM and playing GaSt. ULM has a significantly better record and played a significantly tougher schedule. If you see Brian's post, our RPI margins are razor thin to get up to 6 or down as far as to 13 from 9, the llittle bit of difference between playing ULM and playing GaSt could make a difference.

[GeauxCajuns]

if we are able to crawl up to 6, i know RPI isnt everything, but no way we dont host, correct?