BAD LOSSES

[FlyJays]

Ole Miss was picked 6th in the SEC (out of 14). They are hardly the worst team in the SEC.

Still, it's a game Creighton should have won, but it's not a crushing loss.

[chicagojayfan]

Ole Miss was picked 6th in the SEC (out of 14). They are hardly the worst team in the SEC.

Still, it's a game Creighton should have won, but it's not a crushing loss.

This is a good point. They are likely a top 100 RPI loss when all is said and done. A game we should have won, but it isn't like Ole Miss is a sub 300 RPI loss at the end of the season.

[muskienick]

While we had some very good wins this week, there also are just a few bad loses to add. Much less than other conferences are posting so far. Now this could change if any of these teams that beat BE squads go on to win out this season and the list is not scientific in the least. They are games we should expect to win and teams that are low in RPI. Here is what I have this season:

University of Nebraska - Omaha over Marquette.
Lehigh over DePaul
UTEP over Xavier
Ole Miss over Creighton (Ole Miss is the worst team in the SEC)

"UTEP got three times as many votes in the AP poll last week than Xavier and an infinite number of votes more than Xavier in the Coaches' Poll. Therefore Xavier's loss to UTEP is an excellent loss, not a bad loss."

The above statement is almost as meaningful and sensible as those posters here who still question the addition of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier to the Big East.

[redmen9194]

Look, at this point, those are bad losses. If Ole Miss runs the table and is a top 100 rpi team, that will change. Same for UTEP. But really, Xavier should beat UTEP every time and Creighton should beat Ole Miss every time as well. Our programs are better than that. We are all going to likely have a bad loss or two. If schools like Duke, Kentucky and Kansas would view a loss to UTEP as a bad loss, then Xavier should too. It's not a dig against Xavier or Creighton to say those are bad losses. Not at all.

[gmoser1210]

As of today, the bad losses (to a team outside the RPI top 100):
Nebraska-Omaha (RPI 222) over Marquette
Mississippi (RPI 218) over Creighton
Lehigh (RPI 193) over DePaul

The good wins (over a team in the RPI top 100):
Villanova over VCU (RPI 50)
Villanova over Michigan (RPI 41)
Seton Hall over Gardner-Webb (RPI 64)
Seton Hall over Illinois State (RPI 62)
Providence over Yale (RPI 45)
Butler over North Carolina (RPI 21)
Butler over Georgetown (RPI 82)
Creighton over Oklahoma (RPI 57)
Creighton over NC Central (RPI 97)

Wins that are close to being good (RPI 100-150):
Seton Hall over Mercer (RPI 124)
Xavier over Long Beach State (RPI 106)
Xavier over Stephen F. Austin (RPI 146)
Xavier over Murray State (RPI 116)
Georgetown over Texas A&M-CC (RPI 149)
Georgetown over Florida (RPI 110)
Saint John's over Minnesota (RPI 135)

All RPIs from http://www.warrennolan.com.

[Bill Marsh]

Look, at this point, those are bad losses. If Ole Miss runs the table and is a top 100 rpi team, that will change. Same for UTEP. But really, Xavier should beat UTEP every time and Creighton should beat Ole Miss every time as well. Our programs are better than that. We are all going to likely have a bad loss or two. If schools like Duke, Kentucky and Kansas would view a loss to UTEP as a bad loss, then Xavier should too. It's not a dig against Xavier or Creighton to say those are bad losses. Not at all.

No, they are not bad losses

Claiming that Xavier and Creighton are "better programs" and therefore should always beat these 2 teams is not the way it works.

The fact is that Andy Kennedy, a really good coach, has turned the Ole Miss program around. Last year they finished 6th in the 14 team SEC, one of the toughest conferences in the country. UTEP finished 4th in CUSA last year and Tim Floyd another really good coach is breathing new life into that program. Both teams return 5 of their top 6 players and are picking up where they left off last year. In contrast, Creighton lost almost everyone from last year and are in a total rebuilding mode. Xavier also sustained substantial losses from last year's team beginning with Semaj, their star player. It's early in the season and it's really tough for rebuilding teams to beat good seasoned, veteran teams right now.

It's not about which is the better program. It's about which is the better team right now.

[stever20]

You saying that UTEP is a bad loss is really ignorant. Last year they were 23-11. They are 4-0 this year. redman you just want to look at everything thru prism thinking that if you aren't in the F5, you suck. That is just complete ignorance.

Only way I can say that the UTEP (and Ole Miss) losses were bad losses is that they cost Xavier and Creighton a shot at Washington and Cincy respectively- which would be chances at real good wins.

[redmen9194]

Did you just call the SEC one of the toughest conferences in the country? They are certainly not one of the toughest conferences at all. It's Kentucky and Florida and that's about it. Creighton is ranked this week. They are a goid program and a good team. Xavier is picked to be in the top half of our league. They should beat UTEP. if we want to be considered a top league then we can't compare UTEP to Xavier. Xavier is a better program and a better team now. Creighton has a better basketball program and is a better team now than Ole Miss. It's ok to have a loss to a team you should beat, it happens to almost everyone. But call it a bad loss and move on. Don't equate a team line Xavier to UTEP.

[stever20]

Did you just call the SEC one of the toughest conferences in the country? They are certainly not one of the toughest conferences at all. It's Kentucky and Florida and that's about it. Creighton is ranked this week. They are a goid program and a good team. Xavier is picked to be in the top half of our league. They should beat UTEP. if we want to be considered a top league then we can't compare UTEP to Xavier. Xavier is a better program and a better team now. Creighton has a better basketball program and is a better team now than Ole Miss. It's ok to have a loss to a team you should beat, it happens to almost everyone. But call it a bad loss and move on. Don't equate a team line Xavier to UTEP.

bad losses aren't the ones to top 100 rpi teams. They just aren't. Bad losses are the ones like Omaha/Marquette or Lehigh/DePaul.

[chicagojayfan]

Did you just call the SEC one of the toughest conferences in the country? They are certainly not one of the toughest conferences at all. It's Kentucky and Florida and that's about it. Creighton is ranked this week. They are a goid program and a good team. Xavier is picked to be in the top half of our league. They should beat UTEP. if we want to be considered a top league then we can't compare UTEP to Xavier. Xavier is a better program and a better team now. Creighton has a better basketball program and is a better team now than Ole Miss. It's ok to have a loss to a team you should beat, it happens to almost everyone. But call it a bad loss and move on. Don't equate a team line Xavier to UTEP.

There's a difference between a game you should have won and a "bad" loss. Bad losses are at least to teams that end up over 100 in RPI and more likely over 150 and over 200 RPI losses. Those are losses that haunt you because the committee looks at your body of work and have a bad mark against you. I think Ole Miss ends up in the top 100 RPI this year and doesn't count as a bad loss.

On the other hand, there are games you should have won and Creighton should have won this one. It's been frustrating seeing them unable to put together two halves of great defense and offense, but the fact that they can do it for a half suggests it's there -- once the guys adjust to all the new roles with the 4 seniors gone from last year we may see it more and more often.