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Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:57 pm
by ponyboy
I guess we can. There you go mrydel.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:08 am
by Charleston Pony
I suppose SMU and Houston just traded places after they also lost at Tulane

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:42 am
by RI Stang
Charleston Pony wrote:I suppose SMU and Houston just traded places after they also lost at Tulane


It's a long season with many twists and turns, which is why the "we will be lucky to make the NIT" comments after tough losses drive me insane. The committee looks at the total body of work at the end of the season, which I get can be hard to remember during the down times. With the stated main focus being on "who you beat and where" we are in a great spot with the wins over Arizona and Wichita on our resume (not many teams in the COUNTRY have a better pair of wins). Those wins are so much more important than any losses. With 12 games to go before the AAC tourney, I think 9-3 would put us in a very good spot. Of course that won't be easy, but we certainly bought some wiggle room last night.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:19 am
by mustangxc
Keep in mind Vanderbilt made it in the last 2 years with 19-13 and 19-15 records. The committee claims to value high quality wins especially on the road and will overlook volume of losses if you have a high ceiling. We would be better served beating Wichita State, Cincinnati, and Houston with losses to USF and ECU than avoiding any more bad losses but not beating high caliber teams. I don't agree with that but that is what the selection committee has said given their recent selections. Of course we are SMU and they will change the rhetoric to screw us over. Just win!

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:31 am
by RI Stang
Correct - those "quadrant 1" wins are the most critical per the committee this year and we just got our second one with opportunities still likely at home vs Cincy and Wichita. I'm having this argument now with some Tulane fool on Twitter who didn't like Rothstein saying we were in. Uninformed I guess.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... t-process/

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:47 am
by SMU_Alum11
For the record, my NIT-bound team is because of how the selection committee treats us. If we were in a P5 conference like Vanderbilt then I wouldn't have such a negative outlook. The win yesterday was huge and definitely washes away at least Tulane or Temple if not both. That would only leave us with losing to Cincy on the road, expected. I hope they can go back into Moody and wipe away the Temple memory by crushing Tulane.

Kind of annoyed with the ESPN article. They seem to downplay our road win as "it happens to all of us WSU, dont worry" and it mentions that this win should get us back into the conversation. Again why I have a negative outlook mainly because of outside perception not reality.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:01 am
by RI Stang
No question it is "easier" for someone like Vandy because of all of the opportunities that they get for those higher tier wins, but of course at the end of the day you still have to win them. Right now we are 2-3 in quad 1 and 3-2 in quad 2. Boise is 31 in RPI, so if they can move up just one spot that goes to a quad 1 win. Cincy and Wichita at home are two more opportunities for quad 1 wins, as are Houston and UCF on the road. Still lots of opportunities for us to continue to improve the resume.

The only "bad" loss we have is Northern Iowa (ironically enough the only quad 3 game we have even played). Current record (based on current RPI, obviously subject to change):

Quad 1: 2-3
Quad 2: 3-2
Quad 3: 0-1
Quad 4: 8-0

And then remaining games, based on RPI

Quad 1: 4
Quad 2: 3
Quad 3: 2
Quad 4: 3

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:25 pm
by PonyLawExpress
Didn't get any respect from Joe Lundardi in the latest bracket release. He only moved us up a couple of spots for beating WSU. If we beat Tulane on Saturday I think we will move to the last 4 in. Has us as 5 spots out.

What gets me is he has UH still ahead of us who have no where near the quality wins we have and Maryland who has 1 Top 50 win and the same record. I don't think we will get the same treatment we got back in 2014 from the committee since we are more established now than we were then, but they wont do us any favors. Like Tulsa got in 2015-16 by the gift of the NCAA Committee.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:00 pm
by RI Stang
Lunardi bracket today is odd. He also has USC ahead of us, who doesn't have any wins nearly as good as ours, a worse loss (Princeton) than we have and a head-to-head loss against us obviously. Confusing for sure and like you said will be interesting to see how he adjusts it this weekend.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:04 pm
by skyscraper
His bracket almost looks like it was done before all of the upsets last night.
I'd give it a few days to shake out.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:20 pm
by PonyLawExpress
skyscraper wrote:His bracket almost looks like it was done before all of the upsets last night.
I'd give it a few days to shake out.


I got that feeling as well. Probably had it pretty set and just tweaked it a bit with the big time upsets.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:31 pm
by Stallion
just get to 3rd in the AAC and work up from there. I feel confident that we finish at least 3rd everything is going to work out

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:35 pm
by Charleston Pony
Most "experts" thought 15-3 would win the AAC and quite possibly a 14-4 team could take the regular season title. With the balance in this league, every home game becomes almost a must win and road wins are difference makers. Have to love our schedule with home/home games against the 2 worst teams in our league but as our guys have already learned the hard way, can't take anyone for granted

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:42 pm
by skyscraper
Stallion wrote:just get to 3rd in the AAC and work up from there. I feel confident that we finish at least 3rd everything is going to work out


Agree. I think the AAC gets 3 teams in, so just get to No. 3 in conference standings.

Re: Lunardi - First Four Out

PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:48 pm
by RI Stang
I think 9-3 the rest of the way gets it done (as long as the losses aren't ECU or USF), along with a first round win in the AAC tourney. Still very little breathing room, but more than we had this time yesterday certainly!