Sunbelt Games 11/28/08

[chrisfisher]

South Alabama 71

Maine 59

FAU 68

McNeese State 72

The "powerhouse" in McNeese State is beating up on the SBC this season. They now have wins over FAU and ULM. McNeese appears to have a much better team as evidenced by a 4 point loss against TCU and 6 point loss to Tulane, but geez, this confirms that the SBC overall is an overall weaker conference this season. I hope that we seize on this opportunity to run up a nice conference record.

[CMJ]

Yeah, the SBC is really down this year it appears. That is gonna hurt any seeding our champion(hopefully us) will get in the NCAA's.

[chrisfisher]

Yeah, the SBC is really down this year it appears. That is gonna hurt any seeding our champion(hopefully us) will get in the NCAA's.

For some reason, the powers that be seem to favor really strong records even if against mediocre competition. If we can run up our record to the low to mid 20 wins, we might get a decent seed, especially if we can win most/all or our OOC games, particularly teams in higher ranked conferences like Arkansas and Houston.

[CMJ]

We had 23 wins two years ago and got a 15 seed. Maybe acouple more wins could've got us a 14 or something, but that was a similarly weak Sunbelt(USA probably would've had a 13, don't recall all the scenarios that year in the bracketology). Of course if we just get into the 13 range, upset possibilities increase dramatically.

Edited November 29, 2008 by CMJ

[untlynchka]

Don't forget, fau is playing w/o carlos Monroe right now. Let's just hope it doesn't work out for them like it did for us when kendrick perkins went down.

Edited November 29, 2008 by untlynchka

[CMJ]

I'll get a good look at FIU today vs UCLA. Hopefully the Panthers can put up a good showing in Pauley, but I'm expecting them to be crushed.

Edited November 29, 2008 by CMJ

[e-bone ver2.awesome]

We had 23 wins two years ago and got a 15 seed. Maybe acouple more wins could've got us a 14 or something, but that was a similarly weak Sunbelt(USA probably would've had a 13, don't recall all the scenarios that year in the bracketology). Of course if we just get into the 13 range, upset possibilities increase dramatically.

I think we had 3 or more games against non D1 opponents in our tourney year, which the NCAA doesn't count. We need to stop playing those games except for an exhibition.

[CMJ]

We had three.

Those games don't count in the RPI, true enough. The selection committe probably doesn't "count" them, but they are counted by the NCAA. I did some research that year after everyone was bitching about it though - and found that like a quarter of the tournament field played at least one D2 school in their nonconference schedule.

Edited November 29, 2008 by CMJ

[Censored by Laurie]

Don't forget, fau is playing w/o carlos Monroe right now. Let's just hope it doesn't work out for them like it did for us when kendrick perkins went down.

He would've been a force for us in the post...too bad Doc Rivers out recruited JJ for his services. I think you meant Kendrick Davis

[e-bone ver2.awesome]

We had three.

Those games don't count in the RPI, true enough. The selection committe probably doesn't "count" them, but they are counted by the NCAA. I did some research that year after everyone was bitching about it though - and found that like a quarter of the tournament field played at least one D2 school in their nonconference schedule.

Having 2 or 3 more wins that the selection committee would have counted may have bumped us up to a 14 seed and given us a better first round matchup. Those games are good when you are trying to build up a program from the bottom. We should be past that now and trying for a postseason birth every season, no matter if we win our conference tournament or not.

[Buford_Julep]

We had three.

Those games don't count in the RPI, true enough. The selection committe probably doesn't "count" them, but they are counted by the NCAA. I did some research that year after everyone was bitching about it though - and found that like a quarter of the tournament field played at least one D2 school in their nonconference schedule.

Almost all mid to low majors schedule several D-2, D-3 or NAIA.

I researched Sam Houston State's 45 game out-of-conference winning streak and found 24 games vs non-D-1 competition. Some of these teams, such as Schreiner, Texas Lutheran, Austin College and LeTourneau were non-scholarship schools.

Edited November 29, 2008 by Buford_Julep