Week #17 - Games of Interest

[ramster]

So because of three minutes, the 11th Ranked NET team stinks.

The Pac 12 (which has one of the two teams
Who has beaten Dayton) is now overrated along with the Big East.

Man, how delusional are we?

Show how the BE and PAC 12 did on OOC Road Games

Ah yes, my scenario from last week is coming true. I’m glad since now I can just copy and paste it...


It's the same cryfest every year...
"___ barely ever plays true road games during OOC. It's not fair."
"Well how many Q1 or Q2 road games did they play during conference?"
"9, but you are missing the point, they didn't play the little guys and it's not fair."
"So they played 1 true Q1 roadgame during the OOC, played 2 other Q1/Q2 games on a neutral court, and played 9 Q1/Q2 games on the road during conference play, plus probably another 2-3 on a neutral court during the conference tournament, but they should be penalized and forced to play more road games against teams like you?"
"Exactly. We deserve our chances too. I don't care that they play 12 Q1/Q2 games away from home and more in the conference tournament, it's just not fair."
"Well how many Q1/Q2 games did you play on the road during conference play?"
"4, but you are missing the point?"
"So they play 9 Q1/Q2 games on the road during conference play, and you play 4, and you are saying they should come play games at your house because you always have to play there, even though they go on the road and play 2x+ the Q1/Q2 opponents during conference play?"
"Exactly!!! Now you get it!"

Fact: P5 and BE teams play very few, if any, Road Games in OOC

It does not appear that NET considers this in rankings. But it’s hard to know since rankings are secret now.

[rhodysurf]

The problem with all the complaining is that if URI has beaten any of WVU, Maryland, LSU, they’d be fine. It comes off as sour grapes to me because URI is still in a place to control their dynasty, and if they don’t that’s on them.

[rjsuperfly66]

Here are the numbers:

During the OOC, the Big East played the following schedule:

Q1 Road Games: 5-6
Q2 Road Games: 5-2
Q1 Neutral Games: 5-8
Q2 Neutral Games: 6-0
Q1 Games Away From Home: 10-14
Q2 Games Away From Home: 11-2
Q1/Q2 Games Away From Home: 21-16

During the OOC, the A10 played the following schedule:

Q1 Road Games: 1-8
Q2 Road Games: 2-7
Q1 Neutral Games: 3-9
Q2 Neutral Games: 4-1
Q1 Games Away From Home: 4-17
Q2 Games Away From Home: 6-8
Q1/Q2 Games Away From Home: 10-25

I guess the win percentage is all the "cartel's" fault?

[ramster]

Here are the numbers:

During the OOC, the Big East played the following schedule:

Q1 Road Games: 5-6
Q2 Road Games: 5-2
Q1 Neutral Games: 5-8
Q2 Neutral Games: 6-0
Q1 Games Away From Home: 10-14
Q2 Games Away From Home: 11-2
Q1/Q2 Games Away From Home: 21-16

During the OOC, the A10 played the following schedule:

Q1 Road Games: 1-8
Q2 Road Games: 2-7
Q1 Neutral Games: 3-9
Q2 Neutral Games: 4-1
Q1 Games Away From Home: 4-17
Q2 Games Away From Home: 6-8
Q1/Q2 Games Away From Home: 10-25

I guess the win percentage is all the "cartel's" fault?

So BE is 10-8 in road games. Average of 1.8 road games per team

A-10 is 3-15 in road games. Fewer Road games than the average BE team? I’m surprised by that

BE is projected 7 teams in tournament. A-10 only 2

[rjsuperfly66]

That is just Q1 and Q2 road games, so it’s certainly possible that A-10 teams are playing Q3 and Q4 road games that boost the road game statistic even if it doesn’t make them quality road games.

My greater point is it gets down to scheduling. If you know your conference is typically going to perform strongly OOC, and you are going to get 8-9 Q1/Q2 road games during conference play, it makes no sense for you to go play 4+ road games + neutral court games during the OOC.

It’s obviously harder to win on the road than it is at home, but the average road conference game in the Big East is much more difficult than it is in the A10 or those type of conferences.

If the Big East had cream puffs like Fordham, GW, LaSalle, St. Joes, etc., they would have to schedule different to accommodate.

[Blue Man]

The problem with all the complaining is that if URI has beaten any of WVU, Maryland, LSU, they’d be fine. It comes off as sour grapes to me because URI is still in a place to control their dynasty, and if they don’t that’s on them.

We didn't even have to do that.

We had to beat BROWN, DAVIDSON, OR ST FUCKING LOUIS.

This is sour grapes times 10. PC deserves to be a tournament team. URI does not.

I don't even care about the big Q1 games that we needed to win. We didn't beat some teams better than us. Fine. That happens. But if you don't do that you HAVE to beat the teams you're better than.

Brown. Fucking Brown.

And OK - you get a mulligan. Richmond is a good team, but we lost to them at home. There's your borderline loss. @ Davidson? Davidson sucks. At some point you have to win a hard game. Christ almighty the hoops some people are jumping through today are insane.

Expectations change during the season. Anyone who wants to take solace in the fact that "well no one thought we would have x number of wins ALL YEAR" you can shove it and kick rocks. Talk about that bullshit when the season is in the rearview. Because as of NOW this team played their way out of the NCAA field that they were squarely in for a month. No one is complaining because we didn't beat Maryland, LSU, West Virginia, or Dayton.

Davidson. St Louis with the NCAA tournament on the line. Yesterday showed me what kind of fight this team has. Which is none. It's embarrassing. It's shameful.

I'm sure a few players will IG highlight their 1 or 2 sick plays from yesterday and act like that's cool. This is not an NCAA team. They do not deserve to be.

I would LOVE to be proven wrong.

But we can't beat shitty teams. And for our "big, must win" games in the past few weeks? Dayton, Davidson, Fordham, St Louis? We show up with the fire of 1000 freezers. Got down 17-0 to Dayton. 11-0 to St Louis.

This is turning into a Baron team with probably more talent, and much more tournament experience - which is even more disturbing. Lost 3 of 5 in February and working on a historic collapse of 4 of 6, potentially 5 of 7.

Someone pass whatever drugs you're using to pretend that this is OK, because I'm going to need them to get through this week.

[RF1]

Out comes the (nearly unattainable) tried and true power conference mantra line of teams outside the P5 and Big East need to have tougher OOC schedules. The number of so called strong OOC games has dramatically shrunk in recent years with the longer conference schedules and challenges between the top leagues. With so many of these games, many top conference teams are looking to downgrade their OOC schedules and play less competitive teams. Most power teams now play few true road games outside the challenges and nearly all their other OOC games away from home are neutral site games. It is becoming increasingly difficult to even play top conference teams in the OOC and almost impossible to get games at home against them. It is all part of the fixed system that favors just the top conferences.

[theblueram]

Actually, we only lost 2 of 6 in Feb. 1 so far in March.

[rjsuperfly66]

Out comes the (nearly unattainable) tried and true power conference mantra line of teams outside the P5 and Big East need to have tougher OOC schedules. The number of so called strong OOC games has dramatically shrunk in recent years with the longer conference schedules and challenges between the top leagues. With so many of these games, many top conference teams are looking to downgrade their OOC schedules and play less competitive teams. Most power teams now play few true road games outside the challenges and nearly all their other OOC games away from home are neutral site games. It is becoming increasingly difficult to even play top conference teams in the OOC and almost impossible to get games at home against them. It is all part of the fixed system that favors just the top conferences.

How many more quality road games do you want P5 teams to play? If 12 isn’t enough, 15? 18? 20?

Look, I get it, we’re both right. You want more top 30 teams for Q1 cracks at home, and they probably aren’t going to play you at the RC, and your conference does you no favors but having bad teams at the bottom.

So at the end of the year, you are judged by your quality wins, and it’s harder because you have less opportunities and more of those on the road.

I get it. I just have always had a hard time with blaming others when the biggest problem is your conference. The “cartel” isn’t the reason that Fordham, St, Joes, GW, LaSalle, and UMASS stink. The “cartel” isn’t the reason that last season, all but 3 teams had NETs 100+.

If your conference replicates 2012-2014, this debate is not happening every year.

[steviep123]

I want more P5 teams to be willing to play mid majors home and home, like Alabama and Nebraska have been willing to do for us recently.

[rjsuperfly66]

I think there are multiple issues with scheduling, things that affect both PC and URI.

1) Recruiting Geographic Ties- I don't think any school in RI offers geographic advantages when it comes to recruiting. There are reasons that St. John's and Seton Hall can pull teams like Duke and Kentucky to the NY area. RI does not offer that. It's the same reason why those schools love neutral court games -- They can travel to all of their recruiting hotbeds and hopefully play good opponents, killing two birds with one stone.

2) Consistency - If a team wants to go on the road for a quality game, they want to be assured of a quality game. Same is also true of a home-and-home. More and more teams are trying to pair off against consistent Top 30 teams to maximize quadrants. A team that bounces back and forth between 50 and 100 isn't necessarily attractive. What advantage does a team have in playing at PC or URI and be honest with yourself? Both are going to be incredibly tough road games (regardless of team strength), and both will probably struggle to be a Q1 home game and is probably just as likely to be a Q3 home game than a Q1 home game.

3) Utilizing Neutral Games - I think this is key. It's going to be easier to land a neutral court game against a big opponent because both teams can forecast what the other should be (approximately), and this can be major if added correctly to a game portfolio. Home-and-homes often rely on forecasting out 2+ seasons, which can lead to volatility, especially for programs that haven't illustrated sustained runs of success.

Teams that know during conference play they are going to have 8-9 Q1/Q2 games are going to be very selective with their road games, especially if they are already allotting one road game to a rival and one road game to a "challenge." That is now 10-11 quality road games + 2-3 neutral court games in a tournament + conference tournament opportunities. If they are going to play 1-2 more quality opponents, they need to make it count and they aren't going to schedule just anyone who wants another quality opponent to come to their house.

And you can say all you want that "it's not fair," but those schools often go to tournaments and win a fair amount of games against quality teams, and they take advantage of those road challenges, and they carry a nice list of Q1 and Q2 wins into conference play that help carry the metrics.

[steviep123]

That's sadly a fair assessment of the situation. I would even be okay with more arrangements like we had with WVU and Oklahoma State recently where we played our "home" game at Mohegan. And if we can get into more tourneys like we have in 3 of the past 4 seasons that will help us.

[NYGFan_Section208]

The problem with all the complaining is that if URI has beaten any of WVU, Maryland, LSU, they’d be fine. It comes off as sour grapes to me because URI is still in a place to control their dynasty, and if they don’t that’s on them.

We didn't even have to do that.

We had to beat BROWN, DAVIDSON, OR ST FUCKING LOUIS.

This is sour grapes times 10. PC deserves to be a tournament team. URI does not.

I don't even care about the big Q1 games that we needed to win. We didn't beat some teams better than us. Fine. That happens. But if you don't do that you HAVE to beat the teams you're better than.

Brown. Fucking Brown.

And OK - you get a mulligan. Richmond is a good team, but we lost to them at home. There's your borderline loss. @ Davidson? Davidson sucks. At some point you have to win a hard game. Christ almighty the hoops some people are jumping through today are insane.

Expectations change during the season. Anyone who wants to take solace in the fact that "well no one thought we would have x number of wins ALL YEAR" you can shove it and kick rocks. Talk about that bullshit when the season is in the rearview. Because as of NOW this team played their way out of the NCAA field that they were squarely in for a month. No one is complaining because we didn't beat Maryland, LSU, West Virginia, or Dayton.

Davidson. St Louis with the NCAA tournament on the line. Yesterday showed me what kind of fight this team has. Which is none. It's embarrassing. It's shameful.

I'm sure a few players will IG highlight their 1 or 2 sick plays from yesterday and act like that's cool. This is not an NCAA team. They do not deserve to be.

I would LOVE to be proven wrong.

But we can't beat shitty teams. And for our "big, must win" games in the past few weeks? Dayton, Davidson, Fordham, St Louis? We show up with the fire of 1000 freezers. Got down 17-0 to Dayton. 11-0 to St Louis.

This is turning into a Baron team with probably more talent, and much more tournament experience - which is even more disturbing. Lost 3 of 5 in February and working on a historic collapse of 4 of 6, potentially 5 of 7.

Someone pass whatever drugs you're using to pretend that this is OK, because I'm going to need them to get through this week.

NEA. Fall River, MA.