KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Joe Lunardi put out his first bracket for next year: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... acketology

He has us defending our Atlantic 10 championship and playing as an 11 seed in Boise against Seton Hall, playing for the right to take on the winner of Gonzaga vs. UNC Asheville. Keep in mind we might be playing Seton Hall in the Preseason NIT.

St. Bonaventure is the only other A10 school in his bracket, in the last four in taking on Arkansas for the right to play Baylor in the 6 vs. 11 game.

Providence is also last four in, taking on San Diego State for the chance to play Miami in the 6 vs. 11 game.

Possible Preseason NIT opponents Vanderbilt and Virginia are both 8 seeds.

I am hoping the NCAA committee is a little kinder to us next year in location. Joe has us in Boise. Say it ain't so Joe.

Closest first and second round sites are Detroit, Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Charlotte. I can't believe the NCAA caved and will host games in Charlotte next year.

83, we'll likely be sent out west if we're an 11 seed.....need to be a better seed to avoid the travel.

At least that seems to be the way they do these things.

I'm already looking at going down to DC for the A10 tournament, but I will be hard pressed to pass if we end up in Nashville. Time to start saving money and vacation time now.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:Joe Lunardi put out his first bracket for next year: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... acketology

He has us defending our Atlantic 10 championship and playing as an 11 seed in Boise against Seton Hall, playing for the right to take on the winner of Gonzaga vs. UNC Asheville. Keep in mind we might be playing Seton Hall in the Preseason NIT.

St. Bonaventure is the only other A10 school in his bracket, in the last four in taking on Arkansas for the right to play Baylor in the 6 vs. 11 game.

Providence is also last four in, taking on San Diego State for the chance to play Miami in the 6 vs. 11 game.

Possible Preseason NIT opponents Vanderbilt and Virginia are both 8 seeds.

As usual, no respect for the Atlantic 10. Let's prove them wrong (again).

Of note, if we are an 11, I'm surprised we are not the last 4 byes. 3 of the 4 last four byes are 10 seeds. Texas Tech is an 11. Providence doesn't lose much (well, unless Bullock signs with an agent and Fazekas and Council are transferring). I honestly haven't watched Providence much this year, but I think they should do better this year than last, no?

I think we're not last four byes because he's got us as conference champion.

No respect for the A10 is right. My guess is the school that wins the A10 regular season gets in.....if someone else wins the conference tourney than that's another bid.

Maybe Lunardi thinks we'll win both.....if we do, we're better than an 11 seed. The A10 won't be that bad.

Plus if we win the regular season but then lose in the A10T, we're better than an 11 seed. Look at Dayton as an example this past season.

If the A10 DOES suck pond water next season, he might be right...but I doubt it.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:I think we're not last four byes because he's got us as conference champion.

Good point.

I think his definition of Last Four Byes is the last four at large teams that aren't in the play in games.

Anyone who saw our team play in the tourney should have us in the top 25. Our team is essentially what was on the floor vs Oregon minus Iverson. Maybe people are gun shy based on our preseason rank this past year.

At this point, all this is, is a lot of sound and fury....signifying nothing.

I will say what will signify something...how we do in the preseason NIT......beat at least one of the top tier teams like we did against Cincy at Mohegan....and beat fucking PC we are at home......

In other words, have a few good wins OOC...not just one and a bunch of "almost wins" like last season.

Can't afford to be behind the eight ball going into the conference season...especially with the distinct possibility there might not be ANY top 50 wins there to be had....unlike VCU and Dayton this season.

2017-18 season.....OOC.....YUGE

I see the A10 next season as a whole bunch of top 75-125 RPI teams, with the usual assortment of bottom feeders...and ONE top 50 squad....us.

If we're going to get us some top 50 wins...it's going to have to be early. And by the new metrics, top 50 wins are everything going forward.

I actually think the Bonnies are going to be top 50 and potentially Lasalle

Roz, maybe...who they got for bigs coming in? Their backcourt is awesome....but they need more help up front like us.

LaSalle will be better, but not top 50 better. And Dayton and VCU will be down a little, but still pretty darn good.

There will be a lot of land mines in conference next season....we'll be favored to win them, but conference games are never easy for the most part anyway. Playing top 75-100 on the road...tough.

Lunardi was in the bottom quartile of bracket predictors according to the bracket matrix. Just going to leave that note here...

ESPN needs to cut bait with the guy....with layoffs looming maybe they will.

urirx wrote:Lunardi was in the bottom quartile of bracket predictors according to the bracket matrix. Just going to leave that note here...

Lunardi was proud of his bracketology results. He posted how he did in 8 matrix. I did a bracket this year like a bracketologist. I was better than him in 7 out of 8 of his measurements. The other one I tied him. Another words his numbers sound good but compared to others they weren't.

I have lots of confidence in our team.
Will our momentum carry over into next year? Will we have the same defensive intensity, confidence offensively and will to win like we had at the end of this year?
Everything seemed to click.
It's a matter of sustaining that.
I think with a veteran group like ours, that's not going to be that hard for us to do.
We will definitely be better than an 11 seed.
Prove that we can beat PC and not squander most of our OOC games and we will eviserate the A-10 next year.

I don't think anyone's bracket is going to be particularly accurate at this time of year, but there's a long time between now and putting up two new banners in the Ryan Center. Might as well have something to talk about and I gave it its own thread so people could easily ignore it if they wish

Adams from St Bona and BJ Johnson from La Salle both declared for the draft without agents. You would think both will be back, but if not, that's a big blow to the league.

Rhody15 wrote:Adams from St Bona and BJ Johnson from La Salle both declared for the draft without agents. You would think both will be back, but if not, that's a big blow to the league.

Yes please come back.
That would make the A-10 considerably weaker since they are on teams that can compete for an at-large.
They need their best players.
I want Bullock to come back for PC too. I wanna beat them at their best.

Not me I want them all gone to the NBA

Reef Why?

Weaker Atlantic 10 and weaker opponents hurts URI far more than making a couple games easier to win..

If its weaker we need to win everything, SOS goes down but chances of steamrolling and 30 point wins go up. It's a tough call.

Roz wrote:Anyone who saw our team play in the tourney should have us in the top 25. Our team is essentially what was on the floor vs Oregon minus Iverson. Maybe people are gun shy based on our preseason rank this past year.

I think you are minimizing what we are losing. I get that if Hass was able to give just a little (he was obviously laboring with an injury), we win the Oregon game...but that's assuming everything else played out the same. As much as we might have expected more from Hass, we didn't expect Robinson/Langevine to go a combined 14/16 from the field. The hole that Hass and KI leave behind is deep. Let's hope Langevine extends his range beyond layups. Hass is gone so our guards won't have him for a safety net on defense and we will miss his soft touch 5-15 feet from the basket. KI, had his forgettable moments, but we have nothing like him on our bench. He did a lot....blocked shots, rebounded, stretched the floor, and made some passes from the high post...and not just to the other team and officials. We would get crushed if we played 4 guards and Langevine. We are not a top 25 team as currently constituted. I hope there is a KI type out there we can bring in.

I think it's insane to hope quality players leave our competition. I was disappointed to see Miller and Wade leave as head coaches. Those programs will survive, but I want them as strong as possible. This isn't like professional basketball where we hope Lebron goes and plays in Europe so the C's have an easier path to the Championship. If the quality of our opponents is weakened then the quality of our wins is weakened and the negative impact of losses magnified. I don't want Bullock or Adams to be drafted and I think it is a safe bet that they won't be.

If we are going to be as good as everyone here seems to think (I think we have to add a quality big), then we should be hoping for strength in our competition.

why not just leave the a10 and go to a one bid league like the maac if we want our conference to be weak?

Yeah I can see your point with guys from our conf

I do hope Bullock goes though

How the NCAA abuses statistics to stack the deck against small schools.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... _like.html

RIFan wrote:How the NCAA abuses statistics to stack the deck against small schools.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... _like.html

Ken Pomeroy is the author of this, in case anyone bypasses this based on the title of the article.

RIFan wrote:How the NCAA abuses statistics to stack the deck against small schools.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... _like.html

I really liked the last paragraph:

"Complete fairness is going to be difficult to achieve, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. There’s a line of thinking that since the tournament field is large, a team that doesn’t make it has nobody to blame but itself. That’s a cop-out. Illinois State performed as an NCAA tournament at-large team should against the schedule it played and got sent to the NIT. We can do better."

I'll also add that St. Bonaventure performed as an NCAA tournament at-large team should against their 2015/16 schedule it played and got sent to the NIT.

Wow this article is spot on, essentially what I have been saying for years. Hopefully people start to pay attention to this guy. He speaks the truth.

Agree for the most part but disagree on the part on Illinois State. They didn't beat anyone of note. They didn't play anyone of note. I don't care how "stacked" the deck is against those teams to schedule harder games, reality is just about every team that made the NCAA tournament from the top 8 conferences would have a better record with Ill State's schedule and doesn't get blown out twice by the Shockers.

Just because a kid is dumber in school doesn't mean you give him honor roll because he tries hard. You either earn it or you don't.

If we didn't win the A10 tournament, and had the win against Cinci, VCU, and the top 100 wins/losses we had - and a team like Ill State who's best win was against a team they lost to twice out of 3 times by 60 points - with no other quality games or wins - got in over us, you think that'd be justified?

For once the NCAA tournament didn't miss on any teams. The teams that deserved to be in were invited. A team like Ill State or Syracuse was left out. Seeding was certainly a problem, but this years tournament at least had the right participants.

I think the committee got it right this year with all the at larges no Ill State and Cuse

reef wrote:I think the committee got it right this year with all the at larges no Ill State and Cuse

I think they mainly got the actual selections right (maybe could have put Ill State in instead of Marquette). But the seeding was awful.

Yes seeding was very bad and they cater to these teams basically allowing them to play home games

Latest Top 25 from Rothstein
Makes for an interesting early season game with #25 URI at #24 Alabama


https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/rothst ... y-edition/

ramster wrote:Latest Top 25 from Rothstein
Makes for an interesting early season game with #25 URI at #24 Alabama


https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/rothst ... y-edition/

Doesn't account for our addition of Ryan Preston

PeterRamTime wrote:

ramster wrote:Latest Top 25 from Rothstein
Makes for an interesting early season game with #25 URI at #24 Alabama


https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/rothst ... y-edition/

Doesn't account for our addition of Ryan Preston

Yea whats up with that.

ramster wrote:Latest Top 25 from Rothstein
Makes for an interesting early season game with #25 URI at #24 Alabama


https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/rothst ... y-edition/

The best part of this link is seeing URI ranked ahead of PC in a pre-season poll considering we lose 2 crucial pieces of our team and they return everyone. I think PC will be a tough out next year, but its always good to see us listed ahead of them on a national stage.

Of all the teams listed on his top 30 list URI has the best value odds to win it all at 325-1 PC is next at 225-1 then all the rest are 150-1 or lower

Great value on URI

Who else loves pre-season bracketology??!!

Lunardi's latest (I irrationally hate him, I don't like his face) has URI as a 9 seed playing Michigan, PC as an 8, and Bonnies as the only other A10 team in as an 11, one of the last four in.

Always fun to track the various bracketology sites.

Definitely adds excitement to the season, as well as assisting in the act of trash talking.

Over the last five years this has been the most accurate bracket site:

https://bracketville.wordpress.com/bracketology/

They have URI as a 7 seed taking on...Oregon. Get ready for the rematch!

St. Bonaventure is last in for the only other A10 school making the tourney. VCU is fourth out and St. Joe's is eighth out.

Seton Hall and Alabama are 6th seeds, with Alabama taking on 11th seed Nevada. Providence is a 7. Virginia is an 8. Harvard is a 13. Florida Gulf Coast and Iona are 14 seeds. UNC Asheville is a 15.

Vanderbilt is 2nd out.

Found this on Twitter, pretty cool site.

http://barttorvik.com/tourneycast.php?c ... 130&sort=1

Reminder that this is also entertaining:
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-tourn ... tlantic-10

Bracketville did a new bracket for December 1st:

https://bracketville.wordpress.com/2017 ... ember/amp/

Of note:

URI is an 8 seed in Pittsburgh playing Oklahoma for the right to play Villanova

No surprise, but we are the only A10 team in the bracket and he doesn't even have another one on the bubble

Virginia is a 5
Seton Hall is a 6
Alabama is a 7
Nevada is an 8
Providence is a 9
UNC Asheville is a 14
Florida Gulf Coast is a 15

Sure makes sense if this is another "if the season ended today" bracket.

I think he tries to combine if season ends today and projecting what your resume will look like