CUSA Action (1/30/2020)

greenminer · January 30, 2020

WKU (76)
@FAU (248)

MTSU (312)
@UTEP (159)

Marshall (223)
@FIU (162)

Charlotte (180)
@LaTech (122)

ODU (219)
@SMiss (289)

UAB (194)
@UTSA (222)

Edited January 30, 2020 by greenminer

chrisfisher · January 30, 2020

Go FAU! We need some help with WKU.

Green Crazy · January 30, 2020

Just noticed that the uab vs utsa game is on fox sports sw. Have we/will we have a game on there?

golfingomez · January 30, 2020

hell no, go WKU... i want us to have a tougher looking schedule at the end of the year!

Greendylan · January 30, 2020

9 minutes ago, golfingomez said:

hell no, go WKU... i want us to have a tougher looking schedule at the end of the year!

Here's what I believe would be the ideal CUSA finish before pod play:

1. We win our final 5 games (obviously)

2. Louisiana Tech goes at least 5-1 (including a win over Charlotte tonight)

3. Western Kentucky goes 5-1. (They play 4 of their final 6 on the road, and 1 of their 2 home games is against Louisiana Tech, so I consider it highly likely that they'll lose at least 1. If they go 4-2, that would be OK too--maybe even crucial as insurance in case North Texas gets upset in 1 of our final 5. As of right now, we'll be favorites in all of them, but with 3 on the road, it's statistically more likely than not that we will lose a game.)

If the above scenarios play out that way, then this will be the result:

1. North Texas will enter pod play as the top seed of the top pod.

2. North Texas will get home games against WKU and LaTech and 2 tough but winnable road games, which would likely be against Charlotte and one of the following: FIU, FAU, UTSA, or Old Dominion.

3. North Texas, Western Kentucky, and Louisiana Tech will all enter pod play with NET rankings in the top 100 (or pretty close anyway), and each of the above teams will have the opportunity to really boost its ranking by the end of the regular season.

4. North Texas could go 3-1 (maybe even 2-2) in pod play and still enter the CUSA tournament as the top seed and earn an automatic NIT bid.

TCC Mean Green · January 31, 2020

Undefeated the rest of the way...just take one game at a time! GMG!

BillySee58 · January 31, 2020

WKU goes down at FAU. We’re the lone 1-loss team in CUSA.

Mean Green Matt · January 31, 2020

5 hours ago, golfingomez said:

hell no, go WKU... i want us to have a tougher looking schedule at the end of the year!

Well, we did need WKU to lose at least once (they lost to FAU tonight) considering they have the tiebreaker. I do NOT want to have to play in Bowling Green again. That’s basically a basketball death sentence

greenminer · January 31, 2020

The Mean Green are now in the driver's seat.

FirefightnRick · January 31, 2020

12 hours ago, greenminer said:

The Mean Green are now in the driver's seat.

happy lebowsi GIF

Rick

Green Lantern · January 31, 2020

12 hours ago, greenminer said:

The Mean Green are now in the driver's seat.

Jason Howeth · January 31, 2020

I'm so bored without UNT playing a game for a week. Then we get another week after 2/5

Shark84 · January 31, 2020

Now is the time to see how much our basketball program has grown. Are we ready to accept the challenge of "being in the drivers seat"? It becomes a maturity and focus thing now. We SHOULD win at Rice but can't let up against a team that shoots the ball really well at home. Take it one game at a time and don't look past the next opponent. I think we will probably go 4-1 down the stretch and get to host Western and LaTech at home. That will be a lot of pressure to win on a team that hasn't had those expectations before. I have confidence in Grant and his staff to have them ready for the challenge! Go Mean Green! Beat Rice.

GreenN'walinsVet · January 31, 2020

Outside of the immediate standings, this was not a good deal for UNT that WKU lost to FAU...We needed their loss to be to a team at the top, not the bottom, this will certainly hurt their RPI.

greenminer · January 31, 2020

19 minutes ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

Outside of the immediate standings, this was not a good deal for UNT that WKU lost to FAU...We needed their loss to be to a team at the top, not the bottom, this will certainly hurt their RPI.

Do we think CUSA has a strong case for an at-large? I haven't given it much thought.

Salsa_Verde · January 31, 2020

No

BillySee58 · January 31, 2020

1 hour ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

Outside of the immediate standings, this was not a good deal for UNT that WKU lost to FAU...We needed their loss to be to a team at the top, not the bottom, this will certainly hurt their RPI.

They dropped 6 spots in NET with that loss from 118 to 112. We dropped 3 spots last night from other teams hopping us. It was an immaterial loss for WKU in terms of our SOS. And they lost to FAU, who we also played and beat, so it’s not as direct a hit as our NC opponents.

If we keep winning we’ll be in a good spot to go into the CUSA tourney staring a 13 seed, maybe 12, by winning it. And both of those seeds should give us a matchup we would likely have a good shot at being competitive in. Not much more we could ask for imo.

BillySee58 · January 31, 2020

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Do we think CUSA has a strong case for an at-large? I haven't given it much thought.

No but what we are shooting for is a 13-seed imo. We are in control of our own destiny when it comes to that. Maybe a 12-seed as well, but that might require help from our schedule.

Obviously this talk means nothing if we don’t win the CUSA tourney, but this talk is relevant to the position we are putting ourselves in headed into the tourney.

Greendylan · February 1, 2020

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

No but what we are shooting for is a 13-seed imo. We are in control of our own destiny when it comes to that. Maybe a 12-seed as well, but that might require help from our schedule.

Obviously this talk means nothing if we don’t win the CUSA tourney, but this talk is relevant to the position we are putting ourselves in headed into the tourney.

Totally agree. I would also add that a strong NET/RPI ranking could be relevant for NIT seeding, if we finish first in the regular season but don't win the CUSA tournament.

97and03 · February 1, 2020

As far as I am concerned the only thing to worry about is the conference regular season championship. Everything else is gravy.

greenminer · February 1, 2020

7 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

No but what we are shooting for is a 13-seed imo. We are in control of our own destiny when it comes to that. Maybe a 12-seed as well, but that might require help from our schedule.

Obviously this talk means nothing if we don’t win the CUSA tourney, but this talk is relevant to the position we are putting ourselves in headed into the tourney.

I asked that question because my initial thought was to disagree with it: it doesn't really matter who WKU lost to. We need to win the CUSA tourney no matter what. As far as a potential NCAA seed, can't imagine WKU losing to a higher RPI CUSA team would make a huge difference in our SOS. Probably not even a small difference, but what do I know? The committee can be wacky sometimes.

BillySee58 · February 1, 2020

WKU goes down again at FIU

Andrew · February 1, 2020

20 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

WKU goes down again at FIU

Starting to wish we had held our lead there... 😐

MeanGreenTexan · February 1, 2020

23 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

WKU goes down again at FIU

Ugh. Not going to help the NET and RPI rankings if the other top teams in conference keep losing. Need LA Tech to keep winning and for WKU to get back to winning.

Edited February 1, 2020 by MeanGreenTexan

97and03 · February 1, 2020

32 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Ugh. Not going to help the NET and RPI rankings if the other top teams in conference keep losing. Need LA Tech to keep winning and for WKU to get back to winning.

Dude seriously. No we don’t. This program has struggled for a decade. We need to qualify for the NIT and then try to win the conference tournament. At this point just getting to the NCAAs would be amazing and a higher seed is gravy.