Dave in Green

Interesting story on a player (Trey Zeigler) being recruited by Duke, UCLA, Michigan State and Michigan who might end up being a superstar in the MAC at CMU: ESPN Link

I do want to make it clear that I'm only using RPI as a convenient, widely accepted measuring tool of relative performance. RPI alone will certainly not help a mid-major break through with the NCAA tournament selection committee, as the following item from CBS Sports graphically documents: When the RPI doesn't matter: I lead with this category every Selection Sunday, and it never disappoints. What you need to know is that no BCS-affiliated school with a top 50 RPI was omitted this season, but four non-BCS-affiliated schools with top 50 RPIs were -- specifically Rhode Island (40), Wichita State (43), UAB (45) and Can't State (46). So the three best RPIs omitted from the field belonged to non-BCS affiliated schools for the sixth consecutive season, which means a good RPI can save you if you're from a power league, but it won't help much if you're not. CBS Sports Link

Sucks for Shaka that he's in a tough conference. If VCU were in the MAC, they'd have waltzed through the MAC tourney and been an NCAA 12-seed. I predict Sanders will be the CBI MVP. If VCU were in the MAC, I wonder if Sanders and some of his more talented teammates would have signed up with VCU? In any case, I think it's safe to say that VCU underperformed to the expectations of its fan base at least as much as the Zips did. VCU just started at a higher level because they had more highly rated players in a more highly rated conference.

I think anyone can average 21 points a game when they also average 40 shots, know what I mean Derrick? Derrick Tarver career field goal percentage = 48%. He'd be welcome to average 40 shots per game if he was going to make 19.

I'm just the official RPI copier and paster. Your point is well taken about the change in formula affecting the year-to-year RPI comparisons between the majors and mid-majors. But I'm mainly thinking in terms of comparing the MAC to similar mid-major conferences, not the top tier. So the MAC should be relatively as affected as the other mid-major conferences competing to be the "best of the rest." The 10th overall best conference may or may not be what it used to be. But it's still a worthy and reasonable goal for the MAC to aspire to. The WAC went from: #20 in 2007-2008 to #11 in 2008-2009 to #10 in 1009-2010.. If the WAC can turn around that quickly, so can the MAC.

I'll be there to see if my initial impressions from the Jackson-Green HS game were correct. It will be great in terms of perspective to see Egner perform in the familiar setting of the JAR. It would also be great if enough Rowdies showed up to lead a special cheer when Egner is introduced.

VCU does stand out. Obviously, being in the CBI instead of the NCAA or NIT should put Shaka Smart's job in as much jeopardy as KD's.

The frustrating thing for an "old-timer" is the fact that, only 8-or-so years ago, the MAC was a lot better. We were getting NBA lottery picks, winning NCAA tourney games and getting at-large NCAA tourney bids. If I'd only followed the MAC for the past 5 years, I wouldn't really care much about the level of play. But I've watched MAC hoops erode for a while, and I want to see it return to a level where you can realistically argue our upper-tier teams could compete with the best of the MVC, or the Butler's of the world. 2010 was a step back towards respectability for the MAC. But there's a long way to go. Amen. I went to a lot of MAC tournaments where the Zips weren't even playing just to see good teams and good players. The MAC is down right now compared with its historic average. RPI doesn't tell the whole story. But it's a generally accepted measurement that at least gives a partial snapshot. Looking at how the MAC has ranked in RPI compared with other D1 conferences over the past 11 seasons, last year was the low point and this year is an improvement, though not back to the historic highs: 12 (1999-2000) 15 (2000-2001) 12 (2001-2002) 11 (2002-2003) 14 (2003-2004) 10 (2004-2005) 16 (2005-2006) 14 (2006-2007) 12 (2007-2008) 21 (2008-2009) 16 (2009-2010) MAC High point: 10 (2004-2005) MAC Low Point: 21 (2008-2009) MAC 11-Season Average: 13.9 MAC 9-Season Average Prior to the Last 2 Seasons: 12.9 Looking below at this season's final regular season conference RPI, the MAC was .024 behind 10th place (WAC). That .024 represents the same level the MAC rated above the 20th ranked Ohio Valley Conference. Consistently contending for the 10th place in conference RPI is a realistic short term goal for the MAC because it was there not that many years ago. To return to that historic high level (10th) would require either a few MAC teams getting a lot stronger or all of the teams getting at least a little stronger. 0.586 Big 12 0.581 Big East 0.575 ACC 0.561 SEC 0.551 Big Ten 0.543 A-10 0.542 Mountain West 0.539 Pac 10 0.538 Missouri Valley 0.524 WAC 0.518 C-USA 0.510 CAA 0.508 West Coast 0.507 Horizon 0.503 MAAC 0.500 MAC 0.484 SoCon 0.480 Big Sky 0.478 Big West 0.476 Ohio Valley 0.473 Sun Belt 0.472 Ivy League 0.469 Summit League 0.466 America East 0.464 Atlantic Sun 0.462 Southland 0.455 Big South 0.451 Patriot 0.441 NEC 0.434 MEAC 0.416 SWAC 0.416 Independents 0.383 Great West

Exaggeration is a common way to make a point in internet debates. But for the sake of accuracy, the MAC is far from the worst conference in the country. The MAC's final regular season conference RPI average was exactly .5, which placed the conference 16th of 33 D1 conferences (actually, 32 conferences plus independents). There are 15 conferences with higher ratings and 17 ranked behind the MAC. I don't know about the rest of the folks reading this, but I don't have to be told that the MAC is the worst conference in the country to make the otherwise valid point that there are about 100 D1 teams in the country, mostly from the big power conferences, that would be likely to beat the Zips in any given game, and that the top teams could be expected to beat the Zips pretty badly. That's just reality. I could really care less what the RPI rankings say. I think the Great GP1 Laugh-O-Meter is a much more accurate indicator of conference quality. I know what I see and I know I laugh a lot when watching MAC games. The MAC is horrible. Others just laugh at the hyperbole. By all serious measures, the MAC is neither great nor awful when objectively compared with all other D1 conferences. It's worse than the best and better than the worst. In other words, it's just average.

Exaggeration is a common way to make a point in internet debates. But for the sake of accuracy, the MAC is far from the worst conference in the country. The MAC's final regular season conference RPI average was exactly .5, which placed the conference 16th of 33 D1 conferences (actually, 32 conferences plus independents). There are 15 conferences with higher ratings and 17 ranked behind the MAC. I don't know about the rest of the folks reading this, but I don't have to be told that the MAC is the worst conference in the country to make the otherwise valid point that there are about 100 D1 teams in the country, mostly from the big power conferences, that would be likely to beat the Zips in any given game, and that the top teams could be expected to beat the Zips pretty badly. That's just reality.

Here's another good site with the following: IUPUI at Akron: These were two schools specifically mentioned by Zvosec as schools that got screwed (my wording, not his) by the NIT after hugely successful seasons that ended with a heartbreaking loss in the conference tournament. IUPUI and Akron each advanced to their conference final this year and each won 24 games. The CIT is made for schools like these. DefiantlyDutch Link

The site I linked to earlier is updating regularly. Only 2 slots left in the CBI and 10 in the CIT as I post this. Link to Northwestern Fan Site

A Northwestern fan did a great job of confirming 13 of 16 CIT and 4 of 16 CBI bids before Northwestern made the NIT. But no UA yet. Link to Northwestern Fan Site

Word's starting to leak out. Someone on a Morehead State forum just said he had confirmed that their team was in the CBI, but no details yet.

The CBI website will not come up right now. Either they're updating it with this year's teams, or it's just being overwhelmed by fans of teams that didn't make the NIT and want to know if they made the CBI. EDIT: It just came up for me, but no changes, so there's probably just a lot of traffic right now.

It's now official. No NIT bid for the Zips.

Great work on the ref analysis, Zach. Most of the bad calls against the Zips were made by Bo Boroski. I just don't like the way the guy calls games. From the way he carries himself on court, I doubt I'd care very much for the guy in a social situation, either. But, unless someone believes the conspiracy theory that some refs just hate the Zips so much that they deliberately try to make the Zips lose, bad officiating goes both ways. The results balance out over time and shouldn't affect one team more than another. It's up to the coaches and players to adapt to the type of bad calls that the refs tend to make and try their best to compensate.

Unless my eyes really deceive me, I don't see K-ENT in their NIT bracket? That was an earlier NIT bracketology, when they thought Can't was going to the NCAA tournament. The latest NIT bracketology, on another site, shows Can't as a 3 seed. NIT Bracketology In any case, we'll know for sure who's going where later this evening.

One thing KD does not like to do is play freshmen long minutes over veterans. But some of the veterans have shown inconsistent performances that make them vulnerable to the strengths the incoming freshmen have shown at the HS level. Of course it's no easy thing for true freshmen to show more consistent performance than returning veterans. But I'm going to guess here that Euton, Green and Egner will be given more opportunity than usual from KD to earn steady PT in their first seasons.

Or maybe the CIT, where one site currently has UA playing at Duquesne: NIT/CBI/CIT Bracketology

"We'll play somewhere. People don't understand. Playing in the NIT or even the CBI, that's not chopped liver. There's not many teams that play in the postseason." (KD) I'm pretty sure the NIT is out of reach with Can't already there. But the CBI is the tournament that used UA as its poster child after the Zips were dissed by the NIT. So I think the chances of a CBI bid are as close to 100% as you can get. It's hard to get excited about the 3rd best post-season tournament. On the other hand, part of my sadness last night was that I had just seen Jimmy Conyers and Chris McKnight play for the last time. I realize now that I'll get to see them play some more in the CBI. I'm kind of looking at it as an extension of the regular season, an opportunity at some bonus games. Since I find some excitement in every game the Zips play, why would I not feel at least a little excited to be able to see them play some more this season? By the way, all CBI games are being broadcast on the HDNet, which means great HD video instead of the muddy non-HD video typically seen in MAC games.

Any time a KD recruit outplays a Huggins recruit, it has to raise the level of optimism among Zips fans just a little.

Huge game on the line, and Egner blocks 2 shots in the last 20 seconds. Based on what he told his Jackson team before the game, you think coach Mike Fuline has anything in common with KD? “Play defense with passion like there’s no tomorrow,” Fuline said. “Guess what? If you don’t, there is no tomorrow.” I think Egner is going to arrive at UA preprogrammed to fill the hole in the Zips lineup that will be left by Jimmy Conyers after Conyers plugged the hole left by Nate Linhart.

Internet forums are private clubs. Someone invests the time and money to make them happen, and dues-paying members are free to express their opinions.Part of the dues you pay for belonging to these private clubs is that you have to abide by the rules set by the owners. Since no two people can ever agree all the time about everything, let alone hundreds or thousands of people, there is inevitable disagreement over interpretation of exactly what is or should be within or outside the boundaries of the rules.Everyone is free to state their opinions, but the owners always get the final word because they own the joint and the rest of us are just guests.

I vividly recall Kool trying to lose Zeke and not being able to, stopping his dribble out around the free throw line, finding a way to worm himself around Zeke's long body and hitting a shot. I had to shake my head on that one because Zeke did everything you could ask of a 7-footer to stay with a nimble guard, and Kool still nailed the shot.