Dave in Green

That last score was some shock therapy for Cleveland State, which now leads Toledo by 17.

Point is, fans shouldn't just focus on either the positives or the negatives. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Constructive criticism is good. Negative player bashing is not.All the people who really understand college basketball predicted that VCU would beat the Zips by about 10 points. It would have been a great upset for the Zips to win, and we'd all be celebrating. The Zips didn't overperform and pull off the upset. But they didn't really underperform either. They performed about as expected according to the prediction of knowledgeable analysts.The Zips underperformed in some areas and overperformed in others, and it's fair to point out both. Fans have a right to be disappointed that the Zips didn't pull off the upset. But that's no excuse for not giving the team credit for what they did right.

Shocker partial score:Just starting the second half, Toledo 35, Cleveland State 34. Hard to believe this will stand.

Of course they did. They only scored 53 points. Points scored compared to the other team is the most important statistic. Turnovers, steals, blocks and rebounds lead to scoring opportunities, not necessarily points.In big games, you had better be able to score points and put pressure on the other team. Akron put no pressure on VCU to perform all day.That was just plain bad in every way.Bad that the Zips came within 2 rebounds of a team that was supposed to kill them on the boards?Bad that the Zips had fewer turnovers against a pressing defense that was supposed to cause a Zips meltdown?Bad that the Zips had more steals than the team with the "more athletic" players?Bad that the Zips had more blocked shots than the team with the experienced big with the 7-foot-7 wingspan who's projected to be an NBA lottery pick?Bad that the Zips caused the projected NBA lottery pick to foul out?The Zips played like men against men. They lost because they couldn't get the ball through the hoop. It happens to the biggest, baddest, toughest men who play the sport.One thing I do believe is bad are fans who are so focused on pointing fingers at what went wrong that they refuse to acknowledge any good from the team they claim to support.

Zips beat VCU or played them close to even on rebounds, blocks, steals and turnovers. They lost on shooting percentage.

MAC Record 5-3L Akron 53, VCU 70W Ohio 64, Wright State 59L Eastern Michigan 66, Detroit 68L Western Michigan 72, Southern Illinois 89W Miami 69, Southeast Missouri State 53W Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70W Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 (OT)W Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52

MAC Record 5-2W Ohio 64, Wright State 59L Eastern Michigan 66, Detroit 68L Western Michigan 72, Southern Illinois 89W Miami 69, Southeast Missouri State 53W Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70W Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 (OT)W Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52Zips obviously losing to VCU.

MAC Record 4-2L Eastern Michigan 66, Detroit 68L Western Michigan 72, Southern Illinois 89W Miami 69, Southeast Missouri State 53W Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70W Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 (OT)W Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52Ohio leading Wright State by 2 with less than 5 minutes left.

MAC Record 4-1L Western Michigan 72, Southern Illinois 89W Miami 69, Southeast Missouri State 53W Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70W Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 (OT)W Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52In the second half, Ohio is leading Wright State by 3 and Eastern Michigan is trailing Detroit by 6.

So far, it's going about the way Districtballer tried to prepare us for. VCU is tough at home.

Cumulative final scores with latest scores on top:Miami 69, Southeast Missouri State 53Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 (OT)Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52MAC Record 4-0

Bowling Green 87, Valpo 70.Buffalo 77, St. Peter's 75 in OT.Miami way ahead.Western losing big.Eastern Michigan hanging with Detroit.

First final score:Ball State 68, Tennessee-Martin 52Buffalo and St. Peters in overtime.Bowling Green and Miami still way ahead.Western Michigan way behind.

Bowling Green, Miami and Ball State all kicking butt. Buffalo and Western Michigan both trailing by a few in close ones. So far the MAC is looking pretty good.EDIT: And just as I post, Buffalo moves ahead.

Many of the other Bracket Buster games involving MAC teams start before the Zips vs. VCU game at 4:00 p.m. Maybe we can keep track of them in this thread while waiting for the Zips.Obviously, nothing here will affect the MAC standings. But the more MAC teams that do well, the better it will be for the Zips' RPI. It's one of those rare days when it's not inappropriate for Zips fans to want Can't to do well, at least from the Zips' RPI perspective.2:00 p.m. -- Buffalo vs. St. Peters, Ball State vs. Tennessee-Martin, Bowling Green vs. Valparaiso2:30 p.m. -- Miami vs. Southeast Missouri State3:05 p.m. -- Western Michigan vs. Southern Illinois3:35 p.m. -- Eastern Michigan vs. Detroit4:00 p.m. -- Ohio vs. Wright State6:00 p.m. -- Toledo vs. Cleveland State6:30 p.m. -- Central Michigan vs. Tennessee State7:00 p.m. -- Northern Illinois vs. Eastern Illinois8:00 p.m. -- Can't vs. Western Carolina

Rasor Update

Thanks! I'm going to have to slow down my scanning speed if I continue to research data at the same rate I've been doing over the last few days. My eyes are starting to burn.The NIT is a consolation prize compared to the Big Dance. But it's a better consolation prize than the new pay-to-play tournaments, and definitely beats no post-season play at all. At least there's an opportunity to play against some of the also-rans from some of the power conferences, which can be useful experience for the younger Zips players such as Zeke.But, like everyone else here, I'm hoping the Zips can sweep both the regular season and MAC tournament championships.

Is it written anywhere that the regular season MAC champion is automatically guaranteed a spot in the NIT? I couldn't find anything that said that on the NIT site.NIT Selection Procedures

I appreciate your service to the country, and envy you for flying in a Rhino.

Here's an interesting study in RPI. As of this minute, Real Time RPI has UA in a dead heat with the Charleston Cougars of the the Southern Conference, both teams with RPIs of 0.5376.Charleston has 5 top 100 RPI teams on its schedule this year -- Tennessee (17), Clemson (36), North Carolina (82) and fellow Southern Conference member Wofford (88) twice. They actually beat North Carolina, admittedly in a down UNC season. Charleston's 18-9 record against D1 teams is similar to UA's. But a bunch of games against 200+ RPI teams puts them right on top of UA in RPI. Their SOS rank is 198 compared with UA's SOS of 210.This would be an example where scheduling a few high RPI teams does not overcome the drag of a bunch of 200+ RPI teams.Charleston Real Time RPI

Gonzaga played a conference game last night against Loyola-Marymount. That was the Gonzaga with the 21-4 record, ranked well into the top 25 in the country. And that was the Loyola-Marymount with the 13-13 record and ranked #197 in RPI. Gonzaga went cold in the second half and lost.Stuff happens in college basketball, anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

Since you didn't request that people not bother you with their opinions on this, I'll just say that coaches have a number of motivational tools at their disposal. Not every motivational tool works well all the time under all circumstances. But the best coaches know how to get the best out of their players. When starters are not playing up to their potential, and the coach doesn't believe they're trying hard enough, starting another player ahead of them can often be a good wakeup call. A few minutes of seeing a walk on start ahead of them can be all it takes to motivate a scholarship player to play at a higher level for the rest of the season. Since you did request that people not bother you with their opinions on this, I'll just change the subject and ask you what your opinion is of the Flat Earth Society?

RPI is just a mathematical formula, a measuring device. It's one of many such measuring devices used by the selection committee to try to eliminate decisions based purely on thoughts and feelings. Without the use of such measuring devices, the selection committee would be criticized as a good old boys club that only picked their favorite teams without regard for true team strength.All at-large selection processes are inherently flawed because they ultimately rely to some degree on human interpretation, which is always subject to error. The best that can be done is to try to create a system that maximizes objective measurement and minimizes human interpretation.

And therein lies a problem because if Can't was so superior to us, they would certainly have a much better conference record. After all, we play the exact same teams! So it does not really take into account the success or failure against league opponents later in the season, when some teams play better (especially young teams that don't have prior years together) and some teams fall apart.Did you read and understand the full explanation of RPI? The computer program takes into account the mathematical success or failure of every team against all opponents in every game, including league opponents later in the season. The Zips could win the regular season MAC championship and still have a lower RPI than Can't if the RPI advantage the Zips gained over Can't in conference play was not sufficient to offset the RPI advantage Can't built up in OOC play.RPI does not account for when a team had its success. It doesn't measure who's peaking late in the season. It measures a team's full body of work over the course of the season. RPI is just a tool the NCAA selection committee can use to select at-large entries for the tournament. If the committee is trying to choose between two teams that have similar RPIs, one factor in their consideration might be which team was stronger late in the season (conference play) versus earlier in the season (OOC). But they don't get that info from RPI.

RPI is clearly defined on Wikipedia. Every college coach in America understands the way the RPI game is played. If you elect to play a weak schedule, you pretty much have to run the table to get a decent RPI. KD understands this. That's why you'll never hear him complaining about the Zips RPI. If you understand the way SOS affects RPI, there's no way you can complain about where the Zips stand today in comparison to other teams. All the numbers go into a computer program, and the computer spits out RPI with no human interpretation. If you put a high priority on RPI, you try to put together a schedule with teams that are more likely to cause the computer program to give your team a higher RPI. Wikipedia RPI Link