Chris Mack on Xavier's NCAA chances and BE vs A10

[tsmithohio1234]

I must now say that as a UD and Seton Hall Fan, and after the experience of the inaugural new BE season, I hope UD does not jump to the BE.
The main reason is the affiliation with FOX. The TV coverage nd expsure that the A10 has with CBS and NBC has been fantastic. EVery game with the exception of one has been on CBS and NBC. Fox reminds me of Fox News and their NFL coverage. I dislike both. So I would have not thought this at the beginning of the year, but UD will be just find in the A10 and I hope it stays that way

1. You don't have to worry about UD being invited to join the Big East.
2. Why are you still posting here?

1. can you read - see above mention of Seton Hall- ??
2. if you are not interested in UD, why did you respond to my post ??

[stever20]

I've watched tons of games from both conferences. I really, don't have any huge bias. The BE teams are stronger. The A10 had some good timely wins. ( Prov. and Creight. did their part to help) Do you remember the Mountain west last year? They got 5 teams in? They all fluffed each other up. I think they got 2 wins last year in the ncaa. My bracket won't have any A10 teams going far. Congrats to the A10 for getting a bunch of teams IN the tourney.
My guess is the BE will have more tourney wins then the A10.

A10 with VCU and UMass did a lot more OOC than what the MWC did last year. MWC fluffed up their RPI's by instead of playing dog D1 teams played D2 teams that didn't count against the RPI.

[milwaukeejedi1]

Some really strong comments from Mack tonight after the loss to Villanova. I love this guy - saying what we're all thinking

As reported by Shannon Russell on twitter:

Said Mack "I know people had us predicted at seventh in the preseason poll. And we’re going to..."
"finish the regular season with 20 wins. Our strength of schedule right now sits at 20. And history has shown that..."
"...any team with a Top 20 schedule in the country that finishes with 20 wins is a NCAA tournament team. Period."

"Maybe we haven’t won the PR battle but I do know this: I coached in the A-10. And I coach in the Big East now," Mack said.
"And I’m telling you right now, Georgetown would be a Top 2 or 3 team in the Atlantic 10. And it’s not even close," Mack said. #Xavier

Here is a Georgetown vs. VCU (2nd in the A-10) comparison: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... /GTOWN/VCU

Surprisingly, the quantitative data barely favors VCU.

VS. RPI 1-50, VS. RPI 51-100, VS. RPI 101-200, VS. RPI 201-PLUS
GTOWN 5-5, 2-4, 7-2, 3-1
VCU 4-4, 2-3, 12-0, 4-0

(GTOWN's 2 RPI 101-200 losses are to Seton Hall.)

[stever20]

Some really strong comments from Mack tonight after the loss to Villanova. I love this guy - saying what we're all thinking

As reported by Shannon Russell on twitter:

Said Mack "I know people had us predicted at seventh in the preseason poll. And we’re going to..."
"finish the regular season with 20 wins. Our strength of schedule right now sits at 20. And history has shown that..."
"...any team with a Top 20 schedule in the country that finishes with 20 wins is a NCAA tournament team. Period."

"Maybe we haven’t won the PR battle but I do know this: I coached in the A-10. And I coach in the Big East now," Mack said.
"And I’m telling you right now, Georgetown would be a Top 2 or 3 team in the Atlantic 10. And it’s not even close," Mack said. #Xavier

Here is a Georgetown vs. VCU (2nd in the A-10) comparison: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... /GTOWN/VCU

Surprisingly, the quantitative data barely favors VCU.

VS. RPI 1-50, VS. RPI 51-100, VS. RPI 101-200, VS. RPI 201-PLUS
GTOWN 5-5, 2-4, 7-2, 3-1
VCU 4-4, 2-3, 12-0, 4-0

(GTOWN's 2 RPI 101-200 losses are to Seton Hall.)

2 major differences...
Georgetown 3 home losses, VCU 0
VCU 8-7 road/neutral, Georgetown 5-9(this is a huge thing come tourney time, where you don't have home games)

those 2 things are killers against Georgetown, not to mention the 3 101+ losses.

Oh and the NCAA says that Xavier doesn't have 20 wins. Abilene doesn't count. What hurts Xavier's resume now- 3 bad losses and they are only 5-9 road/neutral(and one of their wins was in their home city)

[Gopher+RamFan]

Some really strong comments from Mack tonight after the loss to Villanova. I love this guy - saying what we're all thinking

As reported by Shannon Russell on twitter:

Said Mack "I know people had us predicted at seventh in the preseason poll. And we’re going to..."
"finish the regular season with 20 wins. Our strength of schedule right now sits at 20. And history has shown that..."
"...any team with a Top 20 schedule in the country that finishes with 20 wins is a NCAA tournament team. Period."

"Maybe we haven’t won the PR battle but I do know this: I coached in the A-10. And I coach in the Big East now," Mack said.
"And I’m telling you right now, Georgetown would be a Top 2 or 3 team in the Atlantic 10. And it’s not even close," Mack said. #Xavier

Here is a Georgetown vs. VCU (2nd in the A-10) comparison: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... /GTOWN/VCU

Surprisingly, the quantitative data barely favors VCU.

VS. RPI 1-50, VS. RPI 51-100, VS. RPI 101-200, VS. RPI 201-PLUS
GTOWN 5-5, 2-4, 7-2, 3-1
VCU 4-4, 2-3, 12-0, 4-0

(GTOWN's 2 RPI 101-200 losses are to Seton Hall.)

The whole road/neutral thing is important. VCU has played the top 7 A10 teams on the road at least once. VCU will be under seeded (as Jon Rothstein keeps pointing out).

Georgetown does have that 4 point neutral win, as well as the neutral MSU victory. But that VCU true road win @UVA is worth its weight in gold right now.

[FormulaX]

I've watched tons of games from both conferences. I really, don't have any huge bias. The BE teams are stronger. The A10 had some good timely wins. ( Prov. and Creight. did their part to help) Do you remember the Mountain west last year? They got 5 teams in? They all fluffed each other up. I think they got 2 wins last year in the ncaa. My bracket won't have any A10 teams going far. Congrats to the A10 for getting a bunch of teams IN the tourney.
My guess is the BE will have more tourney wins then the A10.

A10 with VCU and UMass did a lot more OOC than what the MWC did last year. MWC fluffed up their RPI's by instead of playing dog D1 teams played D2 teams that didn't count against the RPI.

So the mwc, fluffed their rpi by playing teams that don't count against their rpi?

[BillikensWin]

I've watched tons of games from both conferences. I really, don't have any huge bias. The BE teams are stronger. The A10 had some good timely wins. ( Prov. and Creight. did their part to help) Do you remember the Mountain west last year? They got 5 teams in? They all fluffed each other up. I think they got 2 wins last year in the ncaa. My bracket won't have any A10 teams going far. Congrats to the A10 for getting a bunch of teams IN the tourney.
My guess is the BE will have more tourney wins then the A10.

A10 with VCU and UMass did a lot more OOC than what the MWC did last year. MWC fluffed up their RPI's by instead of playing dog D1 teams played D2 teams that didn't count against the RPI.

So the mwc, fluffed their rpi by playing teams that don't count against their rpi?

Absolutely. They're not playing buy games against 200+ RPI teams, so they don't get dinged by having those teams on the schedule.

Playing a D2 team is a hell of a lot better than playing a 250ish RPI team if the goal is max bids.

[FormulaX]

I think VCU is the best of the A10. I wouldn't want my team to play them. VCU does have a better resume then GTown. If they played each other? It's a coin toss. Like Coach Mack said.....

[xsteve1]

I think VCU is the best of the A10. I wouldn't want my team to play them. VCU does have a better resume then GTown. If they played each other? It's a coin toss. Like Coach Mack said.....

And no offense to the Billiken fan's that post here but after watching SLU play 3 times in the last 7 days Georgetown would beat them as would Xavier.

[PMThor]

This is the best that the A10 has EVER performed. EVER. Hell, just 9 years ago that conference was the 18th ranked conference. So I have nothing against the conference getting better than what it used to be. With that being said, the buzz about getting so many teams in is really overboard. A conference ranked 6th as a whole has NEVER gotten 6 teams into the tourney. Also, the idea that the 4th best conference (per RPI), with no team above #90 in SOS, could only get 3 (maybe 4?) is ludicrous.

We will have our answer soon enough, and I'm sure people will have a spin on it no matter how it turns out.

(As an aside, I love Mack going to bat for the league. Hell, somebody has to do it. We get no attention from ESPN, gotta thump our own chest somehow)