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RPI's weakness is that it's, to put it in Elmer Fudd-speak. overweighted. That the first-third of a season can be the primary determinant of how you're team or conference is going to be perceived the rest of the year is brutal. On the other hand, it's not often that a conference like the B1G has such a gross non-conference performance. We're being punished pretty hard for it. The good thing about the Toruney system is that, in the end, we'll all know the truth of the proposition. If we're better than the rpi system thinks we are, the teams who do get in will prove it. And maybe spur a discussion on how seriously to take rpi in the future, or if it's a system that has important exceptions that need to be accounted for. If we flop, then we'll also know everyone else was right and we just couldn't lay off the Kool Aid. Not much consolation, but like all questions, this, too, will get answered in the end.

gotta get by ilinois first. i'm firmly in one step at a time mode, and I hope the team is right there with me (and vice versa). this finish is not remotely easy, and I think e'd be foolish to think we couldn't trip up against any one of these teams.

has Dad tried to contact the county clerk? that's a great way to start the search.

st bonaventure isn't even a real saint. so there.

so you're telling me there's a chance.....

Lunardi publicly demands B1G be reduced in rank to Div II, claiming it is the will of Magic Johnson.

maybe some of us are taking this 72% thing a bit too literally and seriously? Would it have been better if he just rounded it to the universally understandable 75%? My takeaway is, "hey, win and they have a great chance to go!" which is basically stating the obvious anyway.

I made this same post a bit back and I agree with it still. The UCF loss was doubly bad. It was a beatable team, albeit basically a home game for them, but the loser's bracket in that tournament was a massive drop in quality that is haunting our every step now. Many here said it at the time: we were better off beating them and losing the next two to quality teams than going 2-1 against outright cannon fodder. Since we don't have many losses anyay, and all of our losses were to teams as good if not better than us (except for, arguably STJ and UCF--arguably), you can point to any one of the close ones as critical, given the effect each has had on our gaudy tier-1 futility score. And that really is our biggest weakness, and we have to account for it. We just really haven't upset anyone other than MN and Mich.

you always choose tourney over the nit. always. no exceptions. and the biggest reason for this is generally for recruiting. there's a big difference among recruits from a perennial tourney team to an NIT stalwart. It helps to remember that most players dream of going to the tourney in hoops. You need to show them they can do that most of the time with you.

Something also to add: if you handed most of us a paper with all the expanded standings in it and nothing else, we'd be able to fill out about 3/4 of the field right now (as of today, of course). The money in this business is in the "bubble". Or, to put it another way I've grown fond of by a cynical friend of mine, "bubbles = baubles" It's like when you follow those "prediction" sheets that are basically telling you what you already know, because they change with each win or loss. That's technically not a prediction: it's a description of how you're doing. I can do that myself by looking the basic descriptive stats of my team relative to the others. The wonkish term for this alchemy is "mystification"--the process by which something simple is rendered arcane and obscure, all as a means of privileging the mystifier's apparent knowledge. Eff, I love sports some days...:)

I love you for this post. we can't forget that these talking heads are in the business of selling subscriptions and advertisements, and they can't do that without eyeballs. So just as LaVar Ball gets press for being outrageous to the point of stupidity, so, too, do these radio shows and television experts. It pays to be a bit media cynical sometimes. Controversy is profitable.

Their guards were going down faster than Spinal Tap drummers.

B*obs Tan Nicely or maybe not.

yes, which is precisely why OSU will get it.

hell yes. probably a lot different. in the losses, 2 are on the road and the only terrible loss is the home loss to illinois. but in that first group? it s like a jackpot of brownie points. that would more than offset the negatives from the last three games.

Dimes: "We've seen we're capable of killing a team and capable of being killed..." All in the same game!

a happy bench is a happy team. I think my grandma said that.

hard to believe it's been 4 years since the last time we got to be this hyper at this point of a season. It's much more fun.

thanks for the company again, guys. we keep winning, I'll keep showing up with ya! Let's move up 2 spots! heh heh.

And I think we just beat the spread again, too, right?

GAME!!! WOo hoo!!!!! The streak goes on. tip of the hat to Maryland. What an amazing job by the Terps. They're gonna beat some folks the rest of the way.

phew. two wins it, but we're in good shape here barring a miracle.

not a horrible foul, given whose hands it was in. watch for the big bounce.

phew. okay, let's not give them an easy shot. they've been too good from 3 tonight. gve them nothing.

oh my. glynn. they're just fts. you got this buddy. sink 'em, we win.