MBB Final: Louisiana 100, UT Arlington 79

[Grantvb]

Is there any possibility of cracking the Top 25 by season end?

[talktomewillis]

Frustrating for me, and I'm sure most Cajun fans, that after such a fine season we're literally forced to win the conference tournament to get a ticket to the NCAA's.

Now, check out Oklahoma.

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/20...edule/Oklahoma

RPI of 34, 6-8 in conference, lost 5 in a row, lost 8 out of their last 10, yet we have Joe Lunardi talking about what they need to do to get to the NCAA tournament.

http://proxy.espn.com/videohub/video/clip/_/id/22491599

Okay, I know they're playing in the Top-rated conference in college basketball, I see that they've got a decent win or two along the way, but really, how many teams from a single conference really need to be in the tournament, 6 or 7?

Rant over.

A decent win or two? USC, Wichita State, TCU (twice), Texas Tech, Kansas.

The committee is much more likely to look at who you beat as opposed to where you finish in your league.

And, that is why mid-majors need not apply.
And, that is why ANY talk of an at large bid for us is silly. And, was silly before our loss to GA St.

[Cajunfanatico]

A decent win or two? USC, Wichita State, TCU (twice), Texas Tech, Kansas.

The committee is much more likely to look at who you beat as opposed to where you finish in your league.

And, that is why mid-majors need not apply.
And, that is why ANY talk of an at large bid for us is silly. And, was silly before our loss to GA St.

Okay, I get it. I'll just Please and know my place. ___wipe.

[Cajunsmike]

Not suggesting anyone Please. Although, i'm not sure what saying this on this board is going to do about changing the status quo.

And, the status quo has been the same for a long time. In fact, it's getting even worse.

Let's see how many mid majors get into the NCAA tournament.

One to two at most will qualify. At least we are close to securing the NIT bid which will still give us a chance to play prominent programs in post season. This post does not mean I will be satisfied with only the regular season title. I know players desperately want the tournament title as well.

[GeauxCajuns]

i see gonzaga predicted around a 3-5 seed with a similar record to ours but a couple of spots lower in the RPI. i know its not the end all be all (RPI) but are they seeing that just because of their name?

[GeauxCajuns]

they have some good wins, im just surprised their RPI is that low

[VObserver]

I was not going to comment in this thread, but if you want to know why you are not hearing our name from the folks speculating about at large bids here it is:

1. We only played one Group 1 game and we got blown out.
2. We only played two Group 2 games and lost both of them.
3. Eleven of our 18 conference games will be Group 4, the remaining 7 are group 3.
4. Our best win is Nicholls, a Group 3 game.
5. The rest of our OOC schedule is 3 Group 3 and 4 Group 4 games, plus 2 non Division 1 games.

That is a regular season total of 11 Group 3 and 15 Group 4 games; so 26 of our 29 D1 games. Nothing we can do about the Conference games except win them, but we need to schedule at least 2 or 3 more games against non conference teams we anticipate to be Group 1 or 2. A same season home and home with NMSU, had we scheduled one this year instead of McNeese and UNO would have helped greatly. We should be able to do that every year, given the leverage keeping them for football long term gives us.

[VObserver]

they have some good wins, im just surprised their RPI is that low

Their conference sucks almost as bad as ours, except the top three teams.

[VObserver]

A decent win or two? USC, Wichita State, TCU (twice), Texas Tech, Kansas.

The committee is much more likely to look at who you beat as opposed to where you finish in your league.

And, that is why mid-majors need not apply.
And, that is why ANY talk of an at large bid for us is silly. And, was silly before our loss to GA St.

Any talk of an at large bid for us was silly after our first loss, or at best after the Wyoming loss. We scheduled so few teams that were anticipated to be good that we needed to beat all of them to have a shot.

[SlappyCajun]

I was not going to comment in this thread, but if you want to know why you are not hearing our name from the folks speculating about at large bids here it is:

1. We only played one Group 1 game and we got blown out.
2. We only played two Group 2 games and lost both of them.
3. Eleven of our 18 conference games will be Group 4, the remaining 7 are group 3.
4. Our best win is Nicholls, a Group 3 game.
5. The rest of our OOC schedule is 3 Group 3 and 4 Group 4 games, plus 2 non Division 1 games.

That is a regular season total of 11 Group 3 and 15 Group 4 games; so 26 of our 29 D1 games. Nothing we can do about the Conference games except win them, but we need to schedule at least 2 or 3 more games against non conference teams we anticipate to be Group 1 or 2. A same season home and home with NMSU, had we scheduled one this year instead of McNeese and UNO would have helped greatly. We should be able to do that every year, given the leverage keeping them for football long term gives us.

If you consider this seasons opponent's RPI's from last year, I think we tried to do it.

Iowa ended last season with an 83 RPI, so the neutral court game against them would have been Group2.

Tech ended last season with an 116 RPI, so the road game against them would have been a Group 2 game.

Richmond ended last season with a 72 RPI, so the neutral court game against them would have been a Group 2 game.

Ole Miss ended last season with a 68 RPI, so the road game against them would have been a Group 1 Game.

Clemson ended last season with a 75 RPI, so the road game against them would have been a Group 1 Game. (which it was this year as well)

This was less about our scheduling per se and more normally strong programs underperforming (e.g., Iowa, Richmond, Tech, and Ole Miss).