Top 50 Ranking

[K92]

50 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

Some of you guys are buzzkills. It'll never happen so don't even talk about it.. Blah blah blah. I think we're all in agreement that we'd rather win the MAC tourney and not worry about it, but what's the harm in speculating?

Resist the urge to be lured in by the beautiful siren song.

You know what she loves to do to Zips fans.

[GJGood]

I would like to see the MAC get two teams in again sometime in the near future. I just don't want it to be this year because that means the Zips didn't win the conference tourney. The MAC needs a year where two, or possibly three, teams clearly distinguish themselves as well above the rest of the conference. I always find it ironic that when a P5 conference has a bunch of teams close together in the standings the "experts" say its because of how strong the teams in the league are and that they are all deserving but when it happens in the MAC it is because no one was good enough to distinguish themselves. It is a double standard.

 

As far as Akron's chances for an at-large this year, for years I heard for a MAC school to get an at-large they had to separate themselves from the rest of the league and then just miss barely miss out in the MAC tourney. Is Akron in position to separate themselves from the rest of the conference? In that respect, I think this could be the year. Still, just win the whole thing in Cleveland and it doesn't matter.

[akzipper]

I feel like these are the best guards Akron has ever had. I'd love to see them finally make a tourney run. 

 

My only worry is they have the same major flaws still of every Zips team. Live and die by the 3, no true "star" and tendency to play down to their competition.

[Captain Kangaroo]

23 minutes ago, K92 said:

Resist the urge to be lured in by the beautiful siren song.

 

You know what she loves to do to Zips fans.

I think this is the time KD needs to sit down with the team and say: "I don't wanna see anyone in the police blotter ever...but especially between now and April. If your girlfriend freaks out on you, walk away. If you have the opportunity to sell 5 pounds of anything...walk away. If you think snowboarding might be fun this weekend...walk away."

[zippy5]

13 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

I think this is the time KD needs to sit down with the team and say: "I don't wanna see anyone in the police blotter ever...but especially between now and April. If your girlfriend freaks out on you, walk away. If you have the opportunity to sell 5 pounds of anything...walk away. If you think snowboarding might be fun this weekend...walk away."

Ain't that the truth

[clarkwgriswold]

Amen.  You're only allowed out of your dorm room for class, practice and games.

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, GJGood said:

I would like to see the MAC get two teams in again sometime in the near future. I just don't want it to be this year because that means the Zips didn't win the conference tourney. The MAC needs a year where two, or possibly three, teams clearly distinguish themselves as well above the rest of the conference. I always find it ironic that when a P5 conference has a bunch of teams close together in the standings the "experts" say its because of how strong the teams in the league are and that they are all deserving but when it happens in the MAC it is because no one was good enough to distinguish themselves. It is a double standard.

 

I don't see the double standard. Those P5 conference schools played and beat really good teams in other conferences. Does the MAC as an entire conference even have a win over an RPI top 50 team in OOC play this year? 

 

Schools like Butler and Gonzaga made a name for themselves despite playing in small conferences by proving that they could hang with and beat other power schools. Every few years the MAC will have a team put together a decent postseason run, but most years they are 1 and done in both March Madness and the NIT. If the MAC starts winning marque OOC games and they perform better in post season play, the selection committee will take notice. 

 

Edit: Looking back I see Ball State has a win over Valparaiso whose RPI is at exactly #50. That is 1 marque win for a conference that has 12 teams. That isn't good.

Edited February 10, 2016 by kreed5120

[tolbob]

 

 

With an RPI in the 20's, we'd definitely be IN.  The question in your scenario would be....how much would a loss in the MAC tourney drop that number?

 

This is the Catch22.  A loss in the tourney drops us out of any top 20 chance.

[GJGood]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I don't see the double standard. Those P5 conference schools played and beat really good teams in other conferences. Does the MAC as an entire conference even have a win over an RPI top 50 team in OOC play this year? 

 

Schools like Butler and Gonzaga made a name for themselves despite playing in small conferences by proving that they could hang with and beat other power schools. Every few years the MAC will have a team put together a decent postseason run, but most years they are 1 and done in both March Madness and the NIT. If the MAC starts winning marque OOC games and they perform better in post season play, the selection committee will take notice. 

 

Edit: Looking back I see Ball State has a win over Valparaiso whose RPI is at exactly #50. That is 1 marque win for a conference that has 12 teams. That isn't good.

 

I agree with what you're saying but my comment was meant to be more about assumption and perception.  My point was that a MAC school that leads the conference by 3 or 4 games is generally considered a pretty good team nationally (a solid sleeper pick at least) but if that same team had the same record with the same schedule but was only tied for the lead they wouldn't be viewed as favorably even though they did the exact same thing in both circumstances.

[skip-zip]

The big attention-grabbing wins are a problem.  That was already determined by the schedule.  And I've harped about this many times.  But, it doesn't prevent us from talking about what we DO have to sell ourselves to the committee.

 

I'm not sure how many people realize that we're 4-1 right now against teams in the Top 100 of the RPI.  And if OU, Kent, and Buffalo can hold on to their Top 100 status, we have a chance to post an impressive 8-1 mark against the Top 100. 

 

To some, this might not seem like a really big deal.  But compare it to our nemesis down in Cowlumbus, a P5 team who might possibly still be somewhere in the distant discussion for an At-Large.   They are currently a horrid 1-8 against the Top 100. 

[ZippyRulz]

8 hours ago, akzipper said:

I feel like these are the best guards Akron has ever had. I'd love to see them finally make a tourney run. 

 

My only worry is they have the same major flaws still of every Zips team. Live and die by the 3, no true "star" and tendency to play down to their competition.

 

The problem is your NCAA tourney games are played in big, unfamiliar arenas; that along with some big stage jitters makes it hard to shoot at a high percentage.

 

[MDZip]

17 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Edit: Looking back I see Ball State has a win over Valparaiso whose RPI is at exactly #50. That is 1 marque win for a conference that has 12 teams. That isn't good.

What are you talking about? Both CMU and Toledo both have a win over a top 50 team. ;-) 

[LoyalZIP]

3 minutes ago, MDZip said:

What are you talking about? Both CMU and Toledo both have a win over a top 50 team. ;-) 

 

Beating ourselves at Green Bay should also count 

[kreed5120]

3 minutes ago, MDZip said:

What are you talking about? Both CMU and Toledo both have a win over a top 50 team. ;-) 

"Does the MAC as an entire conference even have a win over an RPI top 50 team in OOC play this year?"

 

I specified in OOC play. 

[natemathwhiz2]

As of today, Akron is ranked 69 in the BPI. nice. 

[LoyalZIP]

nice 

[tpsjugglerdude]

12 hours ago, skip-zip said:

I'm not sure how many people realize that we're 4-1 right now against teams in the Top 100 of the RPI.  And if OU, Kent, and Buffalo can hold on to their Top 100 status, we have a chance to post an impressive 8-1 mark against the Top 100. 

 

To some, this might not seem like a really big deal.  But compare it to our nemesis down in Cowlumbus, a P5 team who might possibly still be somewhere in the distant discussion for an At-Large.   They are currently a horrid 1-8 against the Top 100. 

This is an interesting point that should be looked at a little deeper. Right now, we have only played Villanova, OU, and Buffalo in the top 100 going 2-1. Maybe Arkansas, depending what day we look at the RPI, which makes us 3-1. We still have OU (1), UB (1), and Kent (2) left to play. Unfortunately, with Kent's injuries, they will probably slip out of the top 100. With Reardon out 3 games, UB has the same potential. Even OU has the potential to fall just shy of the 100 mark. If any of these scenarios happen, we could see our rank against the top 100 go anywhere from 0-1 to 7-1.  This is another year we are missing the Bracket Buster which would be huge right now. 

[kreed5120]

10 minutes ago, tpsjugglerdude said:

This is another year we are missing the Bracket Buster which would be huge right now. 

 

The same weekend that Akron played Iona and UCSB in Vegas, Ken+ played in a Vegas tournament that featured SMU, Colorado, and Penn St. IDK if Akron had an opportunity to compete in this instead of Ken+, I'm guessing no, but getting into more of these type of tournaments is what Akron should aim for in the future. These are opportunities to make statement wins on neutral courts. Your aren't going to see teams like SMU or Colorado come to the JAR so playing some place where the stakes are about even is the next best thing. 

[GJGood]

32 minutes ago, tpsjugglerdude said:

  This is another year we are missing the Bracket Buster which would be huge right now. 

 

Agreed. Is there any way the MAC and a couple other MAC-like conferences can form there own mini-Bracketbusters type event? I know that the Big XII and SEC had a "challenge' in the middle of their conference seasons. Why couldn't the MAC join forces with leagues like the CAA, Summit, and MAAC to create something like the old Bracketbusters? It may not get on the big ESPN networks but there are many basketball viewing outlets now.

[wadszip]

I've been crunching some numbers on the mid-major teams who still have at large aspirations (usuing KenPom). The Zips compare pretty well to almost all of them: Valpo, Stony Brook, Chattanooga, Monmouth, UNC-Wilmington, William & Mary, James Madison, Hawaii, UC Irvine, St. Mary's, etc.

 

The problem is there are not many elite teams this year, so the P5 schools are spreading top 50/100 wins around more than usual. Then the A10 and American are really going to squeeze the true mid majors out of a spot or two. Take Temple, they are 15-8, but have 5 top 50 wins. 7 of their losses are to teams ranked in the top 117 (cutoff for top 1/3). While I think Akron is better than Temple, no way can Akron's resume compare to that. Same with Houston, while Akron is closer in resume, the Cougars have 5 top 100 wins (Akron has 1). Even Tulsa probably has a stronger case. Like Temple, they are 15-8. They have 4 top 100 wins. And they also have 7 top 100 losses. Plus, they have three eye-opening wins: Wichita State (11), UConn (22) and @SMU (23).

 

Looks like the American could go from a 2 bid league (Cincy, UConn) to a 3-5 one.

 

Situation is the same in the A10. A couple weeks ago, it looked like just a two bid league (Dayton and VCU). Now, St. Joseph's is definitely in and George Washington and St. Bonaventure have resumes comparable to Akron's. It won't get five, but three is a lock and four is realistic.

 

I went through who I thought was in and came up with 66 schools (every true MM as a one bid league). That would mean only two open spots ... Probably one for Wichita State and Gonzaga if neither win an auto bid. If both win, then those spots are back open, but probably a dozen teams who have pretty similar resumes.

 

This team has played its way closer to an at large than it ever has. But one more loss (before the MAC title game) ends those hopes. Even with just a MAC title game loss, while I think enough of Akron's comps would also falter where the Zips would claim one of the last couple spots, its not a given. Bottom line, its still about winning in Cleveland (like it always is).

[kreed5120]

Akron's RPI climbed to 40.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/sort/RPI

 

Kenpom has them at 63

http://kenpom.com

 

Lunardi has them as a 13th seed.

https://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

[skip-zip]

Someone had questioned my 4-1 record against the Top 100 the other day.  It came from this RPI ranking above.  It looks like it's 3-1 now since Arkansas has dropped to #111 in the rankings over the last several days. 

[akronzips71]

A lot depends on whether Big Dog is available tomorrow.

[Captain Kangaroo]

If we continued to win-out through the MAC finals, and stumbled, I don't see our situation being any different to Middle Tennessee's in 2013. And they received an at-large. Despite one of their 4 regular season losses at the hands of ... the Zips.

 

We would have a realistic shot at an at-large if we ran the table through the MAC Finals. Worst case, there would be a couple days worth of talk about the Zips Basketball team being "on the bubble" amongst all the national prognosticators, and that is not a bad thing.

 

I think the Zips and CMU at The Q would be an absolute war, and as good a college basketball game as has been seen in NE Ohio for quite some time.

[Captain Kangaroo]

1 hour ago, akronzips71 said:

A lot depends on whether Big Dog is available tomorrow.

Big Dog, Schmig Dog. We should win tomorrow regardless of his ankle.

 

And in 2015-16, I put less stock in the severity of any publicized player injury than ever before. Either our Trainer has really upped his game this year...or that's more of a smoke screen than ever before.