The AAC's OOC lightweights are killing us...

[pepband99]

If there is one thing we need to fix NOW in this crappy conference, it's this.

OOC SOS:

ECU 300
UCF 319
Tulane 326
Houston 330

There is no excuse for a conference that fancies itself as "major" to have members that obviously don't bother to schedule. 300 rankings are atrocious.

 

[uchusky32]

And on top of that if they were to lose to such a team it really hurts. You know like if one of them were to lose to a team like, hmm uh, like say Yale.

 

[pepband99]

Losing hurts regardless. The problem is that a good portion of our RPI is constituted with these dregs.

 

[7774]

If there is one thing we need to fix NOW in this crappy conference, it's this.

OOC SOS:

ECU 300
UCF 319
Tulane 326
Houston 330

There is no excuse for a conference that fancies itself as "major" to have members that obviously don't bother to schedule. 300 rankings are atrocious.

I thought I read a while back that the conference basically put teams on notice that they need to schedule better OOC, so hopefully it will improve some. It's tough though, these teams are not good, and when you're not good, it's harder to schedule quality teams.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

And on top of that if they were to lose to such a team it really hurts. You know like if one of them were to lose to a team like, hmm uh, like say Yale.

Give credit where credit is due, Yale is 20-8 on the season with an RPI of 71 and a BPI of 82...not too shabby for an Ivy League team

 

[GlastonTim]

What's killing us is not playing good ball and losing games we should have won. We seem to be playing good ball now so keep it up and we're in. All this complaining about conference and ooc games of opponents is bull. Bottom line- it took this team awhile to figure it out now they have. If we had been in a P5 conference we'd be around .500 or worse and completely out of it. Our boys can still pull this off.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

What's killing us is not playing good ball and losing games we should have won. We seem to be playing good ball now so keep it up and we're in. All this complaining about conference and ooc games of opponents is bull. Bottom line- it took this team awhile to figure it out now they have. If we had been in a P5 conference we'd be around .500 or worse and completely out of it. Our boys can still pull this off.

Exactly, if we pulled out two or three of our close losses (Yale, Texas, Temple, Houston or Memphis) we are on the other side of the bubble in the tournament. All we can control is what we do, so there is little to no use in complaining about the bottom of our league's OOC scheduling.

 

[lange10]

Exactly, if we pulled out two or three of our close losses (Yale, Texas, Temple, Houston or Memphis) we are on the other side of the bubble in the tournament. All we can control is what we do, so there is little to no use in complaining about the bottom of our league's OOC scheduling.

Besides the Houston loss, none of those are really terrible losses. Yale is playing Harvard on March 6th and the winner will win the Ivy for a bid to the tournament. Houston is just...cmon man. I can live with all our losses this year except Houston. Inexcusable.

 

[pepband99]

Exactly, if we pulled out two or three of our close losses (Yale, Texas, Temple, Houston or Memphis) we are on the other side of the bubble in the tournament. All we can control is what we do, so there is little to no use in complaining about the bottom of our league's OOC scheduling.

Totally wrong, given that every win and loss is impacted by our collective league standing. Our RPI is impacted in an amplified way by teams we play 2 or 3 times. It's a big problem.

Ask SMU how they feel about having a low OOC SOS last year.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

Totally wrong, given that every win and loss is impacted by our collective league standing. Our RPI is impacted in an amplified way by teams we play 2 or 3 times. It's a big problem.

Ask SMU how they feel about having a low OOC SOS last year.

SMU's OOC SOS was in the 300's, so I think that is an extreme case. In a year where we played a weak OOC, ours is in the 70's. With our OOC matchups over the next couple of years, we will have one of the top OOC SOS in the country.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Totally wrong, given that every win and loss is impacted by our collective league standing. Our RPI is impacted in an amplified way by teams we play 2 or 3 times. It's a big problem.

Ask SMU how they feel about having a low OOC SOS last year.

But the overall point is that, despite the atrocious schedules that those teams have, we would almost certainly be in the tournament if we had beaten Yale and Houston.

 

[Brochacho]

But the overall point is that, despite the atrocious schedules that those teams have, we would almost certainly be in the tournament if we had beaten Yale and Houston.

I think its more important to view the OOC of other teams as a need to advance the AAC as a conference, rather than protect UConn from a bad loss or two. Your point is valid, though. It's crazy though. If you change just 5 baskets on the season, we have wins over Texas, Yale, Temple, Memphis, and Houston. The team would have an outside shot at winning 30 games, rather than trying to slip into the NCAA's. One of the reasons I have a lot of confidence in next year's team.

 

[pnow15]

The only thing worse than being in a conference with teams with below 300 RPI is losing to those teams.

 

[pepband99]

SMU's OOC SOS was in the 300's, so I think that is an extreme case. In a year where we played a weak OOC, ours is in the 70's. With our OOC matchups over the next couple of years, we will have one of the top OOC SOS in the country.

That's the point - it's not an extreme case in this conference - that needs to change.

 

[pepband99]

But the overall point is that, despite the atrocious schedules that those teams have, we would almost certainly be in the tournament if we had beaten Yale and Houston.

To flip this around - look at some of the horrible resumes on the Big10 bubble teams. If some of these 300+ SOS teams flipped to 200 or even 150, we'd be on the bubble right now, if not in. Why is everyone else ignoring this?

 

[HuskyBballFan]

To flip this around - look at some of the horrible resumes on the Big10 bubble teams. If some of these 300+ SOS teams flipped to 200 or even 150, we'd be on the bubble right now, if not in. Why is everyone else ignoring this?

It's not that we're ignoring it. It's just that in a year in which we've lost to Yale and Houston, it seems pretty petty to place the blame on the scheduling habits of ECU and UCF.

If we miss the tournament, we have ourselves to blame.

 

[IMind]

Jeez... I don't think he was saying that's the reason we are on the outside looking in. All the OP said is that our conference mates OOC SOS was awful.. and they need to fix it. It makes life harder for EVERYONE in the conference.

 

[whaler11]

To flip this around - look at some of the horrible resumes on the Big10 bubble teams. If some of these 300+ SOS teams flipped to 200 or even 150, we'd be on the bubble right now, if not in. Why is everyone else ignoring this?

You do realize that the net impact isn't that great if they lose the games right?

Sure if they played better teams and had the same record. They wouldn't.

 

[Milo65]

If the team beats Yale, Houston, Memphis then we are off the bubble. Regardless of RPI

 

[Scot-e]

I wanted to let you know that I am not one of them. I was to till 2:30 Am last night with a friend of mine who is a famous chef (Kevin Rathbun). He is 6 4" and 370- I went drink for drink. Feel like crap- but def was not a lightweight. Made UCONN alumns everywhere proud.

 

[Ts5034]

What's killing us is not playing good ball and losing games we should have won. We seem to be playing good ball now so keep it up and we're in. All this complaining about conference and ooc games of opponents is bull. Bottom line- it took this team awhile to figure it out now they have. If we had been in a P5 conference we'd be around .500 or worse and completely out of it. Our boys can still pull this off.

Thats why this is probably the best year to have the conference tournament in CT. With all the teams struggles this year, they have played pretty well at home and have already beaten Tulsa and SMU at the XL. Id rather have the AAC tournament in Hartford in a season like this where we could use the home court advantage compared to a season where we dominate and it doesnt matter where we play the tournament.

 

[MattMang23]

The OOC heavyweights are killing us too. We went on the road to Stanford and lost- they're a bubble team. Bad on us for losing, but bad on them too for only being a bubble team. They've underachieved.

We went to Florida and won. Great win. Or should be. Florida is having a bad year too.

Problem is we should have beaten Texas, who is also sucking this year.

The only heavyweights we have played in the out of conference, when we expected to play a number of them, turned out to be Duke and, ironically, West Virginia.

 

[ASweet3781]

Its certainly a problem but this team had 5 incredibly winnable games they lost (Yale, Texas, Temple, Houston, Memphis). To lose all 5 of those will turn out to be absolutely killer if they fail to win the AAC Tournament. If they beat Yale and Houston for example we'd be in pretty good shape The first 4 absolutely should have been wins.

 

[UConNick]

I wanted to let you know that I am not one of them. I was to till 2:30 Am last night with a friend of mine who is a famous chef (Kevin Rathbun). He is 6 4" and 370- I went drink for drink. Feel like crap- but def was not a lightweight. Made UCONN alumns everywhere proud.

Was Andre there too, putting you both in the ground?

 

[Excalibur]

The Houston loss was the worst of the year, by far. Take that bad loss off the table, and add in what on paper would be an RPI-inflating win over Yale, and we're in the discussion.