Can't's RPI is 58, ours is 106

[akronzips71]

And for the last 13 games we have been playing all the same (MAC) opponents - and have the same league record.Now I know there are complex formulas involved in this, but still...They should be a point or two above us because so far they have beat us once...Other than that, should be very close to the same, not so far apart. Even looking at the OOC schedule, that was over a while ago and unless they had beat a top 25, should not matter too much at this point in the season. There is a good chance we will be playing them for the league championship very soon, which means we should be a whole lot closer than almost 50 apart.Just my .02

[infofan]

And for the last 13 games we have been playing all the same (MAC) opponents - and have the same league record.Now I know there are complex formulas involved in this, but still...They should be a point or two above us because so far they have beat us once...Other than that, should be very close to the same, not so far apart. Even looking at the OOC schedule, that was over a while ago and unless they had beat a top 25, should not matter too much at this point in the season. There is a good chance we will be playing them for the league championship very soon, which means we should be a whole lot closer than almost 50 apart.Just my .02

RPI Rk Mid-American Conf All RPI SOS Rk SOS PomeroyEast Division 58 Can't St. 10-3 18-8 0.5772 104 0.5323 78 101 Buffalo 8-5 14-9 0.5390 139 0.5136 157 107 Akron 10-3 19-7 0.5365 217 0.4792 109 148 Ohio 5-8 13-13 0.5148 121 0.5227 126 153 Miami (OH) 8-5 11-15 0.5116 82 0.5417 155 177 Bowling Green 6-7 12-12 0.4969 205 0.4830 217West Division 141 West. Michigan 6-7 13-12 0.5170 126 0.5210 176 Ball St. 8-5 13-11 0.4993 172 0.4928 200 Cent. Michigan 7-6 11-13 0.4803 221 0.4771 206 East. Michigan 6-7 12-12 0.4762 249 0.4618 255 Northern Illinois 4-9 8-17 0.4417 198 0.4845 323 Toledo 0-13 2-24 0.3917 151 0.5059

[ZachTheZip]

They didn't lost to Eastern Michigan or Austin Peay at home. They also managed to beat UAB while we blew the game against UMass. That explains a lot of the discrepancy.

[zippyman23]

And for the last 13 games we have been playing all the same (MAC) opponents - and have the same league record.Now I know there are complex formulas involved in this, but still...They should be a point or two above us because so far they have beat us once...Other than that, should be very close to the same, not so far apart. Even looking at the OOC schedule, that was over a while ago and unless they had beat a top 25, should not matter too much at this point in the season. There is a good chance we will be playing them for the league championship very soon, which means we should be a whole lot closer than almost 50 apart.Just my .02

Can't State played a much tougher non-conference schedule according to the computers. Since SOS accounts for 50% of your RPI, it ends up making a huge difference.Non-Conference SOSCan't State- 26Akron- 229

[Dave in Green]

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

[akronzips71]

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

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.

[Zipmeister]

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

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.

Might as well quite ringing the bell Dave....nobody is home.

[RACER]

i know alott of fans want us to play a harder schedule.how is it akron fault though when the entire west divison has lower rpi than akron.i have seen numberous times for the selections show when teams like Can't ,buffalo a few years ago,and akron are left out.the mac is a one bid leauge.if we went out and played a harder schedule the committe would say we don't have enough wins.if we pay a easier schedule they will say we need a harder sos,or rpi.we are not the only team to get dissed by the committe.when you win 26 games ,and don't even make it to the nit.that not a rpi,sos problem.it's a perception problems with akron,and the entire mac.the only way you fix this is by winning,and building a name for your program.i think kd has done a good job of that with the ncaa appearance last year,and going to the nit.the other problem is the mac is viewed as a low mid major.unless the leadership changes in the mac office that will never get fixed.akron had thier chances for a better rpi this year by beating texas a.m.,n.c. state,and not losing the first game at home.miami played hard schedule this year.do you think they have a chance for an at large bid?

[goodthts]

RPI=convienent method of letting numbers override critical thinking by the selection committee.

[skip-zip]

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

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.

Might as well quite ringing the bell Dave....nobody is home.

Well...quite a few people aren't home. Some people get it.People can complain about how this works all they want, or offer their thoughts on a better system. But the choice for Akron remains the same. We can either sit on the sidelines, or get in the game. And for the most part, I think Akron is sitting on the sidelines.

[Quickzips]

i know alott of fans want us to play a harder schedule.how is it akron fault though when the entire west divison has lower rpi than akron.i have seen numberous times for the selections show when teams like Can't ,buffalo a few years ago,and akron are left out.the mac is a one bid leauge.if we went out and played a harder schedule the committe would say we don't have enough wins.if we pay a easier schedule they will say we need a harder sos,or rpi.we are not the only team to get dissed by the committe.when you win 26 games ,and don't even make it to the nit.that not a rpi,sos problem.it's a perception problems with akron,and the entire mac.the only way you fix this is by winning,and building a name for your program.i think kd has done a good job of that with the ncaa appearance last year,and going to the nit.the other problem is the mac is viewed as a low mid major.unless the leadership changes in the mac office that will never get fixed.akron had thier chances for a better rpi this year by beating texas a.m.,n.c. state,and not losing the first game at home.miami played hard schedule this year.do you think they have a chance for an at large bid?

Blaming the West for Akron's perpetually low RPI is a tired old excuse. Every conference has their bottom feeders. The Horizon has UIC(306), Youngstown State(254) and Detroit (198), but yet Butler manages to get themselves up to 16. The West Coast Conference has Pepperdine(305), San Diego(220) and Loyola Marymount(211) yet Gonzaga manages to be 19 at the moment. The A-10 has Fordham(295) and St.Bonaventure(194) but still has 5 teams in the top 32.Why are all of these teams able to overcome the fact that they have to play some real clunkers in their conference schedule? Because <gasp> they manage to play a relatively difficult OOC schedule.Butler(16): beat Northwestern(77), lost to Minnesota(83), beat UCLA(admittedly a down year for them at 134), one point loss to Clemson(34), lost to Georgetown(8), beat Ohio State(30), beat Xavier(20), lost to UAB(38).Gonzaga(19): lost to Michigan St(26), beat Wisconsin(18), beat Cincinnati(49), two point loss to Wake Forest(11), lost to Duke(2), beat Oklahoma(87), beat Illinois(70)Temple(12): one point loss to Georgetown(8), beat Siena(35), beat Virginia Tech(50), beat St.Johns(72), beat Villanova(3), beat Seton Hall(55), lost to Kansas(1), and for bonus measures I should also point out that they played half of a MAC West Schedule (Ball State, WMU and NIU)Xavier(20): lost to Marquette(57), lost to Baylor(17), beat Can't St.(63), lost to Kansas St.(7), beat Cincinnati(49), lost to Butler(16), lost to Wake Forest(11), beat Florida(59)It is time for some Zips fans to stop blaming the MAC West for our problems in the RPI and start looking at the fact that we had a whopping total of two teams (Rhode Island and Texas A&M) on our OOC schedule this year that are currently in the top 100 RPI. Those four teams above, average over 7.

[Quickzips]

And for those wondering why Can't's RPI is so much better than our's despite the similar record and similar conference schedule:beat UAB(38)lost to South Florida(54)lost to Xavier(20)lost to Pitt(14)beat Morehead St.(103)That is at least twice as many top-100 RPI teams as the Zips have on their OOC schedule. And if Morehead St. moves up a couple spots they will have one more.

[akronzips71]

i know alott of fans want us to play a harder schedule.how is it akron fault though when the entire west divison has lower rpi than akron.i have seen numberous times for the selections show when teams like Can't ,buffalo a few years ago,and akron are left out.the mac is a one bid leauge.if we went out and played a harder schedule the committe would say we don't have enough wins.if we pay a easier schedule they will say we need a harder sos,or rpi.we are not the only team to get dissed by the committe.when you win 26 games ,and don't even make it to the nit.that not a rpi,sos problem.it's a perception problems with akron,and the entire mac.the only way you fix this is by winning,and building a name for your program.i think kd has done a good job of that with the ncaa appearance last year,and going to the nit.the other problem is the mac is viewed as a low mid major.unless the leadership changes in the mac office that will never get fixed.akron had thier chances for a better rpi this year by beating texas a.m.,n.c. state,and not losing the first game at home.miami played hard schedule this year.do you think they have a chance for an at large bid?

Blaming the West for Akron's perpetually low RPI is a tired old excuse. Every conference has their bottom feeders. The Horizon has UIC(306), Youngstown State(254) and Detroit (198), but yet Butler manages to get themselves up to 16. The West Coast Conference has Pepperdine(305), San Diego(220) and Loyola Marymount(211) yet Gonzaga manages to be 19 at the moment. The A-10 has Fordham(295) and St.Bonaventure(194) but still has 5 teams in the top 32.Why are all of these teams able to overcome the fact that they have to play some real clunkers in their conference schedule? Because <gasp> they manage to play a relatively difficult OOC schedule.Butler(16): beat Northwestern(77), lost to Minnesota(83), beat UCLA(admittedly a down year for them at 134), one point loss to Clemson(34), lost to Georgetown(8), beat Ohio State(30), beat Xavier(20), lost to UAB(38).Gonzaga(19): lost to Michigan St(26), beat Wisconsin(18), beat Cincinnati(49), two point loss to Wake Forest(11), lost to Duke(2), beat Oklahoma(87), beat Illinois(70)Temple(12): one point loss to Georgetown(8), beat Siena(35), beat Virginia Tech(50), beat St.Johns(72), beat Villanova(3), beat Seton Hall(55), lost to Kansas(1), and for bonus measures I should also point out that they played half of a MAC West Schedule (Ball State, WMU and NIU)Xavier(20): lost to Marquette(57), lost to Baylor(17), beat Can't St.(63), lost to Kansas St.(7), beat Cincinnati(49), lost to Butler(16), lost to Wake Forest(11), beat Florida(59)It is time for some Zips fans to stop blaming the MAC West for our problems in the RPI and start looking at the fact that we had a whopping total of two teams (Rhode Island and Texas A&M) on our OOC schedule this year that are currently in the top 100 RPI. Those four teams above, average over 7.

Just for the record St. Bonnies and Fordham have been top programs at some time in the past.

[Quickzips]

You need more examples of the difference b/w the Butler's, Gonzaga's, Xaviers and even Can't's of the world and the Zips. Lets look at bottom-100 RPI and non-DI games they have played in OOC this year.Akron has played four bottom 100 RPI teams (UIC, Howard, Greensboro, St.Francis) and one non-DI school (Malone) in OOC play.Butler played one bottom 100 RPI team (Evansville) and didn't play a non-DI school.Gonzaga played two bottom 100 RPI teams (Mississippi Valley St. and Eastern Washington) and one non-DI school (Augustana ILL).Can't played three bottom 100 RPI teams (Samford, Youngstown State, Norfolk State) and one non-DI school (Rochester College).Temple played two bottom 100 RPI teams (NIU, Penn) and didn't play a non-DI school.Xavier played two bottom 100 RPI teams (Youngstown State, Sacred Heart) and didn't play a non-DI school.

[Quickzips]

i know alott of fans want us to play a harder schedule.how is it akron fault though when the entire west divison has lower rpi than akron.i have seen numberous times for the selections show when teams like Can't ,buffalo a few years ago,and akron are left out.the mac is a one bid leauge.if we went out and played a harder schedule the committe would say we don't have enough wins.if we pay a easier schedule they will say we need a harder sos,or rpi.we are not the only team to get dissed by the committe.when you win 26 games ,and don't even make it to the nit.that not a rpi,sos problem.it's a perception problems with akron,and the entire mac.the only way you fix this is by winning,and building a name for your program.i think kd has done a good job of that with the ncaa appearance last year,and going to the nit.the other problem is the mac is viewed as a low mid major.unless the leadership changes in the mac office that will never get fixed.akron had thier chances for a better rpi this year by beating texas a.m.,n.c. state,and not losing the first game at home.miami played hard schedule this year.do you think they have a chance for an at large bid?

Blaming the West for Akron's perpetually low RPI is a tired old excuse. Every conference has their bottom feeders. The Horizon has UIC(306), Youngstown State(254) and Detroit (198), but yet Butler manages to get themselves up to 16. The West Coast Conference has Pepperdine(305), San Diego(220) and Loyola Marymount(211) yet Gonzaga manages to be 19 at the moment. The A-10 has Fordham(295) and St.Bonaventure(194) but still has 5 teams in the top 32.Why are all of these teams able to overcome the fact that they have to play some real clunkers in their conference schedule? Because <gasp> they manage to play a relatively difficult OOC schedule.Butler(16): beat Northwestern(77), lost to Minnesota(83), beat UCLA(admittedly a down year for them at 134), one point loss to Clemson(34), lost to Georgetown(8), beat Ohio State(30), beat Xavier(20), lost to UAB(38).Gonzaga(19): lost to Michigan St(26), beat Wisconsin(18), beat Cincinnati(49), two point loss to Wake Forest(11), lost to Duke(2), beat Oklahoma(87), beat Illinois(70)Temple(12): one point loss to Georgetown(8), beat Siena(35), beat Virginia Tech(50), beat St.Johns(72), beat Villanova(3), beat Seton Hall(55), lost to Kansas(1), and for bonus measures I should also point out that they played half of a MAC West Schedule (Ball State, WMU and NIU)Xavier(20): lost to Marquette(57), lost to Baylor(17), beat Can't St.(63), lost to Kansas St.(7), beat Cincinnati(49), lost to Butler(16), lost to Wake Forest(11), beat Florida(59)It is time for some Zips fans to stop blaming the MAC West for our problems in the RPI and start looking at the fact that we had a whopping total of two teams (Rhode Island and Texas A&M) on our OOC schedule this year that are currently in the top 100 RPI. Those four teams above, average over 7.

Just for the record St. Bonnies and Fordham have been top programs at some time in the past.

St.Bonnies has had two winning seasons (barely, last year they went 15-14) in the last 10 years. Fordham has only had one. Many years both of them are struggling to break double digits in the win column. Whatever they did in the past, they are currently MAC West level bad.

[GoZips]

The Zips do not need to change up from their lame schedule (there, I said it). The Zips badly need to stop making gacks. The two loses that killed RPI and any number of other things were the loses to Austin Peay and Eastern Michigan. Think about it. Win those two games and the Zips are 22-5. Plus, 11-2 in conference. In the driver's seat.I am still steamed from early on to witness such crap as STARTING Tim Carroll. Now, I hold Timin high regard. He is a walk on. He is a role player. He is not a starter. Every minute Tim playedrobbed some one of needed time. The is no substitute for experience. Bench time is notexperience.Losing to Austin Peay was bad. Losing to EMU is inexcusable.This team has been up and down like a roller coaster. It has NO legitimate point guard. Well, thepoint guards (Ronnie and Humpty) are sucking hind tit to a combo guard. I heard the post gameradio interview with Steve McNees who now acknowledges that he needs to step up to the leadershiprole. If Steve does, he will solidify himself as the point guard. I hope he does.Folks, please do not bother with the BS arguments about Steve's turnovers or lack of them. That isall BS. Other teams have long ago figured out that letting Steve go dribble crazy is to their advantage.So, stuff it.One can show the converse of over scheduling. Witness Miami. They play an even tougher OOCschedule than CANT does. Look where it got them. Their fans on the their message boardscalculated that they would handily beat Akron. Akron's OOC schedule is so lame. We'll tear them up.The schedule is what it is. It is a calculated risk. Key word being "calculated". Losing to Austin Peayand especially lowly Eastern Michigan did the damage.If Akron and CANT's RPIs were both in the 50s and perhaps the 40s the MAC would still be a one bidleague. Take a good look at the A-10. Five, six teams with great RPIs. That makes you a multiplebid league. Watch what happens to the PAC-10 this year. A one bid league just like the MAC.To KD and the team ... just go out, focus and win, everything will take care of itself.

[Dave in Green]

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

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.

[Dave in Green]

RPI=convienent method of letting numbers override critical thinking by the selection committee.

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.

[Quickzips]

The Zips do not need to change up from their lame schedule (there, I said it). The Zips badly need to stop making gacks. The two loses that killed RPI and any number of other things were the loses to Austin Peay and Eastern Michigan. Think about it. Win those two games and the Zips are 22-5. Plus, 11-2 in conference. In the driver's seat.I am still steamed from early on to witness such crap as STARTING Tim Carroll. Now, I hold Timin high regard. He is a walk on. He is a role player. He is not a starter. Every minute Tim playedrobbed some one of needed time. The is no substitute for experience. Bench time is notexperience.Losing to Austin Peay was bad. Losing to EMU is inexcusable.This team has been up and down like a roller coaster. It has NO legitimate point guard. Well, thepoint guards (Ronnie and Humpty) are sucking hind tit to a combo guard. I heard the post gameradio interview with Steve McNees who now acknowledges that he needs to step up to the leadershiprole. If Steve does, he will solidify himself as the point guard. I hope he does.Folks, please do not bother with the BS arguments about Steve's turnovers or lack of them. That isall BS. Other teams have long ago figured out that letting Steve go dribble crazy is to their advantage.So, stuff it.One can show the converse of over scheduling. Witness Miami. They play an even tougher OOCschedule than CANT does. Look where it got them. Their fans on the their message boardscalculated that they would handily beat Akron. Akron's OOC schedule is so lame. We'll tear them up.The schedule is what it is. It is a calculated risk. Key word being "calculated". Losing to Austin Peayand especially lowly Eastern Michigan did the damage.If Akron and CANT's RPIs were both in the 50s and perhaps the 40s the MAC would still be a one bidleague. Take a good look at the A-10. Five, six teams with great RPIs. That makes you a multiplebid league. Watch what happens to the PAC-10 this year. A one bid league just like the MAC.To KD and the team ... just go out, focus and win, everything will take care of itself.

I'm sorry man, but beating Austin Peay and EMU wouldn't have done crap for us this year. Not a damn thing. Did losing to them suck? Yeah, from a fans point of view it did. But from an overall perspective looking at RPI's, at-large bids, tournament seeding, etc. It didn't mean much at all. Maybe we are in the top-100 RPI at this point but that is about it. We are still in the same place we are now. The only thing we are "in the driver's seat" for is the 1 seed in the MAC tourney based on having one more conference win than Can't. This RPI stuff isn't about the MAC. This is about the NCAA's. The Selection Committee isn't going to care one bit about wins over Austin Peay and EMU when it comes to at-large bids. At worst maybe those losses move us down one seed if we can win the conference tourney.I actually agree with you on a lot of these other points. I still have no idea why we have started the season the last couple years with walkons getting so many major minutes. It does nothing for us. I also believe that going Miami style with the scheduling is probably not in the Zips best interest. I am still not quite sure what to make of McNees. I am of the impression that he is neither as bad as some on here make him out to be nor as good as others make him out to be. I am however concerned about our over all guard play.

[Dave in Green]

..... I am still steamed from early on to witness such crap as STARTING Tim Carroll. Now, I hold Timin high regard. He is a walk on. He is a role player. He is not a starter. Every minute Tim playedrobbed some one of needed time. The is no substitute for experience. Bench time is notexperience. .....

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.

..... Folks, please do not bother with the BS arguments about Steve's turnovers or lack of them. That isall BS. Other teams have long ago figured out that letting Steve go dribble crazy is to their advantage.So, stuff it. .....

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?

[GoZips]

Gaaaaaaak ... !!!!It is NOT about the RPI. It has never been about our RPI.The Zips are in the MAC. A conference where you can win TWENTY-SIX games and not even getan NIT bid. The Zips could had an RPI of 12 and stayed home. So long as selection committeesare composed of biased old men .. the cheating will continue. And, it does.Forget the stupid RPI. Only one team goes to the NCAA tournament from the MAC. The team thatwins the conference tournament.It is far more important to capture the NIT bid by winning the regular season. Thus, the loss toEMU is far, far, far more important to Akron then the silly RPI. I'll take an 11-2 conferencerecord over a 49 RPI any day. (btw .. a 49 RPI is fracking worthless; you still wont get selected).A win on Saturday at VCU could be worth a ton to the NIT selection committee.Flat Earth Society? They still around (pun intended)? Since I am probably the only ZN person to haveflown above seventy thousand feet ( done in the Concorde and Navy F-4 Phantoms), I have personallyobserved that the Earth is round, or at least the curvature is apparent at that altitude.

[Quickzips]

Alright, at this point we have spiraled into conspiracy theories and non-sensical ramblings about old delusional men sitting in back rooms controlling the fate of the world (or at least the NCAA). Experience tells me trying to argue with such nonsense is an aggravating and ultimately futile task. I'm out on this one.

[ZachTheZip]

Playing Malone didn't hurt our RPI one iota. Not one bit. That's because non-Division I games don't count in the RPI formula. We could play ten of them and it wouldn't change the RPI at all.If you want to complain about the schedule affecting the RPI, go ahead, but at least know how the RPI works first.

[Quickzips]

Playing Malone didn't hurt our RPI one iota. Not one bit. That's because non-Division I games don't count in the RPI formula. We could play ten of them and it wouldn't change the RPI at all.If you want to complain about the schedule affecting the RPI, go ahead, but at least know how the RPI works first.

Really? Playing another team in the top-100 in RPI instead of Malone (who admittedly does not play into the RPI calculations) wouldn't have helped our RPI?

[Zipmeister]

The Zips do not need to change up from their lame schedule (there, I said it). The Zips badly need to stop making gacks. The two loses that killed RPI and any number of other things were the loses to Austin Peay and Eastern Michigan. Think about it. Win those two games and the Zips are 22-5. Plus, 11-2 in conference. In the driver's seat.I am still steamed from early on to witness such crap as STARTING Tim Carroll. Now, I hold Timin high regard. He is a walk on. He is a role player. He is not a starter. Every minute Tim playedrobbed some one of needed time. The is no substitute for experience. Bench time is notexperience.Losing to Austin Peay was bad. Losing to EMU is inexcusable.This team has been up and down like a roller coaster. It has NO legitimate point guard. Well, thepoint guards (Ronnie and Humpty) are sucking hind tit to a combo guard. I heard the post gameradio interview with Steve McNees who now acknowledges that he needs to step up to the leadershiprole. If Steve does, he will solidify himself as the point guard. I hope he does.Folks, please do not bother with the BS arguments about Steve's turnovers or lack of them. That isall BS. Other teams have long ago figured out that letting Steve go dribble crazy is to their advantage.So, stuff it.One can show the converse of over scheduling. Witness Miami. They play an even tougher OOCschedule than CANT does. Look where it got them. Their fans on the their message boardscalculated that they would handily beat Akron. Akron's OOC schedule is so lame. We'll tear them up.The schedule is what it is. It is a calculated risk. Key word being "calculated". Losing to Austin Peayand especially lowly Eastern Michigan did the damage.If Akron and CANT's RPIs were both in the 50s and perhaps the 40s the MAC would still be a one bidleague. Take a good look at the A-10. Five, six teams with great RPIs. That makes you a multiplebid league. Watch what happens to the PAC-10 this year. A one bid league just like the MAC.To KD and the team ... just go out, focus and win, everything will take care of itself.

I'm sorry man, but beating Austin Peay and EMU wouldn't have done crap for us this year. Not a damn thing. Did losing to them suck? Yeah, from a fans point of view it did. But from an overall perspective looking at RPI's, at-large bids, tournament seeding, etc. It didn't mean much at all. Maybe we are in the top-100 RPI at this point but that is about it. We are still in the same place we are now. The only thing we are "in the driver's seat" for is the 1 seed in the MAC tourney based on having one more conference win than Can't. This RPI stuff isn't about the MAC. This is about the NCAA's. The Selection Committee isn't going to care one bit about wins over Austin Peay and EMU when it comes to at-large bids. At worst maybe those losses move us down one seed if we can win the conference tourney.I actually agree with you on a lot of these other points. I still have no idea why we have started the season the last couple years with walkons getting so many major minutes. It does nothing for us. I also believe that going Miami style with the scheduling is probably not in the Zips best interest. I am still not quite sure what to make of McNees. I am of the impression that he is neither as bad as some on here make him out to be nor as good as others make him out to be. I am however concerned about our over all guard play.

Quick and Dave are like the Welcome Wagon folks working a deaf neighborhood. You can knock on the door all day long, but the folks who can't hear ain't coming to the door.