Today's BB games SMU down at HT | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Today's BB games SMU down at HT

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Bad, bad loss for the AAC. We need as many ranked and highly-seeded teams as possible to give the league credibility in its first year.

As far as the strict computer numbers go, this game is a wash for our RPI (we play both Temple and SMU twice, so this game can't have a net effect on our RPI).

However, subjectively, it matters a lot more whether SMU is ranked 30 or 50 vs. whether Temple is ranked 200 or 180, as far as the perception of our league, our schedule, and our number of quality wins or understandable losses.
 

kobe

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SMU is no lock because of the very poor out of conference schedule and the lack of a quality road win. Maybe they are the AAC's version of Notre Dame.
 
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[qudon't "mcs333, post: 851203, member: 796"]One reason you wanted SMU to win is because every game an AAC team plays in the NCAA tour. this year is worth 1.5M to the conference.[/quote]

We don't match well at all against Ville. There like us but have better bigs.
 
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As people have said in this thread, it's not such a bad thing that SMU is losing, especially since they were ahead of us in the rankings. If we keep winning and some other cards fall in our favor, it's possible that our last game with Louisville could determine the regular season champ in the AAC.
 

CAHUSKY

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That is a bad loss but don't get so wrapped up in the top 25. The committee relies heavily on the RPI so just hope that SMU stays in the top 50 and it will be considered a good win. I remember one year UNLV was left out even though they were ranked something like 23rd in the AP poll. Sure it looks nice looking at our schedule with a win over #23 SMU but it also looks nice to havea win over #5 Oklahoma St and that win is trending towards meaning absolutely nothing.

A #23 UNLV has never been left out. You might be thinking of the 25-3 Utah State team that got left out a few years ago (2004?) They were ranked during the year but I think they dropped out right at the end. I think their RPI was high 30's or low 40's.
 
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A few thoughts:
1. The selection committee, as we all know, is looking at (besides the obvious record and the like) good wins, bad losses and, despite their claims to the contrary, they value recency in results as well (a "what have you done for me lately" attitude. That's why conference tournaments are huge - not only do you rack up good wins on neutral courts, winning a conference adds extra luster to a resume. In 2011, for example, we're probably a 4 or 5 seed instead of a 3 seed if we lose to Louisville, and it'd have nothing to do with the extra loss but more to do with the fact that we didn't win the entire tournament. Basic stuff so far, stick with me please.

2. SMU losing doesn't matter. Outside of a total implosion for their program where they lose the rest of their games or a miraculous run where they go unbeaten and untouchabel from here on out, they won't be ranked high or low enough for it to count as a good or bad loss. We lost to them at home, where they beat everyone, and if we beat them it's on the road, where they're terrible. Obviously better for us to win, but if we do it matters less whether they're ranked or not. Additionally, having one extra ranked team, especially towards the bottom of the conference, won't matter much in terms of perception of the AAC as a whole. Cinci and Lville probably aren't going unranked baring the above mentioned type of meltdown, and UConn and Memphis should hang around the top 25-30 at least and move up or down depending on their own results and that of other teams as well.

3. As far as recency - we really want to win the AAC tournament. It would be great to go undefeated the rest of the way (especially if that resulted in a regular season title, though i think that's unlikely) but again, a loss to cinci or lville won't damn us. Losing in the first round of the conference tourney would be worse, in my opinion. To that end, assuming the standings stay relatively unchanged, SMU losing today was a good thing. Do we really want to see Memphis in the early rounds of the tournament after seeing how they played this weekend and knowing that they essentially have home court advantage? I don't think so. We'll obviously have to play a few of the Cinci/Lville/Memphis triumvirate but, depending on what happens in the next few weeks, I think I'd rather play Cinci and Lville with more on the line later in the tournament rather than Memphis early on, despite the fact that we've thus far lost to the former and beaten the latter.

Just my opinion, sorry for the length and the obvious caveat to all of these points is that I firmly believe that UConn will win the remainder of its games and take the conference title rendering everything I've said moot and the ten minutes I spent typing this wasted
 
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A #23 UNLV has never been left out. You might be thinking of the 25-3 Utah State team that got left out a few years ago (2004?) They were ranked during the year but I think they dropped out right at the end. I think their RPI was high 30's or low 40's.

I looked it up and it was #25 UNLV in 1993.
 

CAHUSKY

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I looked it up and it was #25 UNLV in 1993.
I just looked and that team was ranked as high as 10 that year but went 5-5 in their last 10. The 5 losses were by 4,3,2,1 and 2. That must have hurt.
 
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I just looked and that team was ranked as high as 10 that year but went 5-5 in their last 10. The 5 losses were by 4,3,2,1 and 2. That must have hurt.

Yikes. They were also 19 the week before so that must have come as a shock.
 
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