Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Quick Hit: Men's Basketball SoS Takes Another Hit

I had the opportunity displeasure of watching some non-conference action tonight, and what I saw didn't look too good. Here's a quick recap:

-Georgia Tech lost to Georgia at home. This was a game that the Yellow Jackets should have won, as they led through most of the 40 minutes and had momentum going into the last two. Then they let G Dustin Ware loose for the umpteenth time, and he made them pay with a late 3 that would decide the game, 73-72. In the short run, this game will boost Tech's SoS, but their RPI could have improved vastly with a win here. Instead, they just look like a mediocre team.

-St. John's was upset by St. Bonaventure, 67-66, at home. Ugh. What looked like a promising RPI boost might now be destined to be a no-help win (provided we play them and provided we win, of course). Bonaventure might be good in the RPI right now, but KenPom tells a much different tale: they had the Bonnies ranked 162nd going into this game.

-Michigan State hurts the conference RPI by failing to beat another Top 10 team on the road, this time against Syracuse. I know that Izzo's team is rarely a "great" team early in the season, but would it hurt to have a big signature win before conference play started? (That said, I'm really glad we play them at home early on in January.)

-Mount St. Mary's lost to Penn State... oh, wait, we play both of these teams, and we play Penn State twice. Nevermind.

I'll be interested to see where we end up in the RPI as of tomorrow. We're trending downward and could see ourselves back in the triple-digits if play doesn't improve.

2 comments:

  1. Nice blog you've got here. I didn't even know it existed before today. Wasn't a very good day for NU hoops as far as the RPI goes, was it?

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  2. No, not a very good one at all. We're down to 109th overall, a place we didn't see much of last year in the non-con season.

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