Also, I am in favor of penalizing Northwestern for having the ugliest home court in basketball.
RPI rewards consistency, which is a rare commodity in college athletics in general, especially hoops. The Cats have had a few stinkers against decent teams, but have avoided the horrid loss, which has really helped them. RPI also shares a similarity with horseshoes and hand grenades, which gives credit for being close. Close losses to some top 20 teams has also bolstered their case.
I think that home court is why attendance is so weak. There are rumors floating around of a major capital campaign to build a new basketball facility on the lakefront, which would be awesome for the program. It would also include practice facilities for the football program, which would be additionally awesome. Obviously they would still play the games at Dyche Stadium.
This seems to be the chief complaint of RPI critics. It is also the number one reason people cite for replacing the RPI with the ratings put together by Jeff Sagarin of USA Today.
vinsanity wrote:So after that unimpressive showing for Purdue....do they skip the NCAA and go to the NIT?
No way. Purdue has 20 wins against a very good SOS with no horrible losses. Their worst non-conf loss was a neutral game vs. Butler. They have good (top 50) wins against Michigan, Temple, Iona, and Northwestern(twice).
They might be the last B1G team in, but I think they are definitely in.
I was not pleased with the result, but "unimpressive" isn't really accurate, as much higher ranked teams than Purdue have also gone down to IU in Bloomington this season.. Purdue actually outscored IU in the 2nd half, and after an abysmal first half, had closed to within striking range before Hummel committed a dumb 5th foul, which ended any hope of a late comeback....
HJ is correct, though--Purdue is in--the win at Michigan essentially punched their ticket, by guaranteeing them both 20 wins, as well as a winning conference record. Assuming they take care of business against Nebraska in the first round of the B1g Tournament, Purdue ought to be a solid 7 seed-- maybe a 6 seed if they do further damage this week in Indy...
Only 12 teams have avoided losing to a team with an RPI higher than 100: the nation's top 10 (Syracuse, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, Marquette, Ohio State, Baylor and Georgetown) plus UNLV (15 RPI) and...Northwestern (48).
Hungary Jack wrote:No way. Purdue has 20 wins against a very good SOS with no horrible losses. Their worst non-conf loss was a neutral game vs. Butler. They have good (top 50) wins against Michigan, Temple, Iona, and Northwestern(twice).
They might be the last B1G team in, but I think they are definitely in.
I was being flippant, but I don't think they're a lock. The Michigan win (on the road) seems to be the signature win, I think a loss to Nebraska today could bump them off the bubble.
Romar is the best recruiter, prob. the worst in-game coach of the 4, Mack is a solid balance of recruiter and in-game coach.
I don't think Romar wants to leave Washington, but the right money could pry him out of there.
I think Smart is an interesting choice, he's a great coach, but I don't know how he'd recruit.
Like you, Mack seems to be the best of both worlds...and with Temple leaving the A10, he might want out.
Smart is from the Midwest, I don't think he has any ties to Chicagoland recruiting. It's hard to tell with guys like Stevens and Smart, whether or not they can recruit given they're from mid-majors.
It would be a small upgrade for Romar, Illinois is a step up for him despite Wash being in a major conference and what it'd take to buy him out. I wonder how much ethnicity matters for the next coach.
If I was an Illini fan, I'd be pulling for Mack.
Xavier has solid recruiting classes and from what I've seen from them, appear to be well coached.
