Re: Bracketology - January 26, 2015
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:55 pm
muskienick wrote:ruechalgrin wrote:Xudash wrote:With Xavier, Temple and Butler removed from the A10, VCU has quickly ascended to the top position in that conference. The A10, notwithstanding the number of bids it got last year, when it was an anomaly waiting to happen with some of its senior-ladden teams, is not what it used to be.
Villanova blew VCU off the floor earlier this season and would do the same were they to meet in the NCAA Tournament.
Beyond that match-up, I believe VCU would struggle to make it in the top 5 of the Big East were they a member of the Big East now. Playing havoc night in and night out in the Big East? Sure, run with that strategy.
UD would get slaughtered in this conference this and most years. They would especially get annihilated this year. due to the fact that they had to kick two players off their team due to them being compulsive thieves and terrible students, they're short in stature - tallest player is like 6'6" or something - and short rostered.
I am a Dayton fan who has not posted in 6 months and come in peace. As I stated on the board last year, the Big East had an off-season in year 1 and would recover this year and it has exceeded expectations. As I have repeatedly stated, the Big East is a materially better conference than the A-10 and while an anomaly year might occur (like 2013-2014), it is clear the Big East is vastly superior to the A-10.
However, based upon objective evidence neither VCU or Dayton would be slaughtered in the Big East the last two years and in fact would have been in the top 1/3rd of the conference in 2013-2014 and top 1/2 in 2014-2015. For the 2013-2014 season, assuming VCU and Dayton were in a 12 team Big East, VCU would have been #2 and Dayton #4 according to kenpom and RPI (we could look at sagarin elo without scoring margin, warren nolan, etc. and they all take a similar view). In 2014-2015, VUC would be #2 and Dayton #6. BTW, I prefer kenpom and warren nolan to RPI, but people look at rpi. As for the eye-test, Dayton has much better computer numbers than the ones above this year AFTER the dismissal of the 2 players and they have played teams with a lot of big men who were very physical over that stretch.
Just as I believed you were way too critical of the Big East last year, you may being a little too bullish this year (except for Xavier fans where everyone seems to be upset with Mack, but he has led Xavier to #19 in kenpom which is really impressive).
The detail of the computer polls are as follows: 2015 Kenpom (villanova #7, vic #16, Xavier #19, Butler #21, Georgetown #31, Dayton #37); 2014 kenpom (villanova #14, vcu #17, Creighton #21, Dayton #38); 2015 rpi (vcu #4, villanova #6, butler #16, providence #17, georgetown #20, Dayton #27); 2014 rpi (Villanova #8, creighton #17, VCU #19, Dayton #33).
I realize that hyperbole is more the norm than the exception in such posts, but I must correct your statement, above, concerning "...Xavier fans where everyone seems to be upset with Mack..." Actually, rue, the whiners on XU Boards are in the vast minority and most of them mercifully "go into hibernation" following every Xavier victory. Should we lose again this year, you can visit either XU Hoops or Musketeer Madness and find them again in their glory.
The fact is that most of Xavier fandom is fully aware that we have a great young-(ish) head coach and staff who work well together and are making the players believers in the Muskie system and bringing about improvement where it has been most needed.
Just reading XU Hoops and Musketeer Madness -- guess the vocal critics are yelling. I just think Mack is doing a very good to great job.