kreed5120

Doug Gottlieb said a MAC team reached out to him to gage his interest in an opening. He said he wasn't interested. Given the vacancies currently available I can't really blame him.

I feel it's impossible to project that. The only loss you can really guarantee for them from our schedule is Purdue. Murray State, Yale, and Troy were all winnable games for us. In fact, we were favored in all 3 contests. It's very conceivable they could have beaten those teams listed. Also, this is the first season in I don't know how long that we didn't have a head stretching loss. Normally we lose to a NIU, Milwaukee, or Princeton who we had no business losing to. It's extremely challenging to win 28 games against D1 opponents in the regular season. All metrics have flaws. That's probably why they keep continuing to build new ones. There is no perfect way when you have ~350 teams competing for 68 spots, but each team only plays 31 regular season games.

One can argue it's best for them to play in Dayton. That would be a much easier win opportunity for them than against a 6 seed. If they win in Dayton that would count as a tournament credit, which nets the MAC an extra $2M.

It seems every year the committee has a new metric, but what I've been reading is the committee uses WAB to select at-large teams then uses the predictive metrics like NET to seed them. Miami is currently #37 in WAB. That to me points they would make the field, but likely play in Dayton. Of note, Akron is currently at #58 in WAB with a score of -0.99. By that metric the committee is estimating that a bubble team would have 1 fewer less than us if they played our exact same schedule. Meaning had Akron had 1 fewer loss right now we would be on the bubble, but in reality would probably need 2 fewer losses right now to be a serious final 4 candidate.

That was my first thought too about NIU. Then I remembered they are kind of out on an island. Some chunk of that has to be in travel.

I feel it will be important to help set the tone physically. We went into their house last time and were the much more physical team, outrebounding them by 11. If we're able to replicate that we should see a Connor Groce siting in the final 2-3 minutes. If Gillespie and Whaley are able to get offensive rebounds to create extra possessions and are able to pound us inside they could make this game more interesting. Evan and Lyles are going to be important. As long as they both can stay out of foul trouble I feel we will hold our own in the post.

I would think Syracuse fans would be lining up with pitchforks if that ever happened.

Let's make the whole arena Zips sections.

If anyone wants something else to cheer for BracketMatrix has us slotted as the #12 seed. That means if we see a bid thief from the AAC or A10 win it we could conceivable slide into an 11 seed. Of course that would require us taking care of our own business first.

Generally it's depth perception. Particularly for jump shooting teams it takes time to adjust in a much larger arena.

Oops wrong thread.

Anyone else watching this Kent-Ohio game cheering for a 5OT Ohio win?

I broke the news to my fiancé, who is a Miami grad. I might be sleeping on the couch tonight.

That's how the setup was before but they complained it gave Akron too much of an advantage so we adopted the current model. Now that Miami losses the narrative changes.

Guest commentator Bruce Pearl.

Honestly, if I was their fan base I would view that as a positive. It would pretty much be a home game against a high quality opponent. I would love an opportunity to ser Akron play an Indiana, Texas, Missouri, etc. within an hour drive.

Great for Akron, sad for Cleveland hotels/bars. A lot of Miami fans about to cancel 2 nights of hotel stays and make that sad, silent 4 hour drive to Cincinnati. Perhaps calling their boss and letting them know they can cancel their PTO request for tomorrow.

MAC tournament tickets about to get much cheaper on the secondary market.

Water found its level.

I'm surprised by that. A lot of the negative I've seen online has been about Dabo is his reluctance to embrace it.

If that was the case it probably would have went to the Miami bench warmer who talked s*** to Ohio fans and flipped them the bird lol

You forgot it's about a lot more than just being good. If success was all that mattered Rutgers and Maryland wouldn't be in the B1G. North Carolina is an attractive team not just because of basketball. They're in a rapidly growing market and has lots of businesses. Clemson IMO is a washed has been football program. They don't have the money to compete in this NIL era, which is why they've regressed. They are probably the 5th or 6th best option for someone to pluck off. A program like UNC has money to compete, especially when you consider they would get a nice bump in TV revenue joining the B1G. Edit: What do you mean UNC doesn't care about football? They made a huge financial commitment to football just last year by bringing in Bellichick. They wouldn't be doing that if they didn't care.

TBF Miami (FL), North Carolina, and Florida St. are all bigger brands than anything left in the Big 12. The ACC just has a lot more dead weight. The Big 12 is more solid top to bottom. Their strength is in their depth. If you're an B1G school and you want to add 2 schools it would make sense they would take 2 of the bigger brands from the ACC over any of the teams from the Big 12 IMO.

If that was the case they simply would have given it to Gillespie. Unlike Suder, there was actually an argument to be made for him winning it depending on which stats a voter would prioritize. IMO voting has just turned into giving it to the best player on the 1st place team. It's a similar model that the NBA has been running for what I'm guessing to be 2 decades now.

It will be what the PAC-12 will be this coming season. Pretty much on par with what the AAC was 5 years ago.