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

[Gopher+RamFan]

Georgetown's road wins: #141, #160
Neutral: #14, #22, #38

VCU's road wins: #9, #43, #58, #71, #104.
Neutral: #157, #181 (BC), #227 (Va Tech).

Georgetown "bad losses": #136, #136 home, #224.
VCU: None (@UNI #99 is close)

Bad losses are categorized as #100<

There's a reason road games are weighted 1.6, Neutral 1.0 and Home 0.6 in the RPI for seeding purposes in the NCAA tournament.

I don't think VCU's resume is "barely" above Georgetown, regardless of the Georgetown win over VCU. That's like saying VCU would be ACC champs since they beat UVA at their place (something Syracuse couldn't do).

[Flyer75]

Georgetown's road wins: #141, #160
Neutral: #14, #22, #38

VCU's road wins: #9, #43, #58, #71, #104.
Neutral: #157, #181 (BC), #227 (Va Tech).

Georgetown "bad losses": #136, #136 home, #224.
VCU: None (@UNI #99 is close)

Bad losses are categorized as #100<

There's a reason road games are weighted 1.6, Neutral 1.0 and Home 0.6 in the RPI for seeding purposes in the NCAA tournament.

I don't think VCU's resume is "barely" above Georgetown, regardless of the Georgetown win over VCU. That's like saying VCU would be ACC champs since they beat UVA at their place (something Syracuse couldn't do).

And this illustrates how much more of a flawed team Gtown is vs. VCU who is solidly in. Gtown was better on that given night when they played, but the season is 30+ games. You can't lose to Northeastern and Seton Hall twice and struggle to win on the road and claim said team would be 2nd or 3rd in the A10 "and it's not even close". Gtown to finish 2nd-3rd would have had to win games on the road too in the A10, possibly against any combo of 6 Top 50 RPI teams.

[BuckyBilliken]

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.

Now maybe. Our two leading scorers are hurt.

[ta111]

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)

Comferences don't get bids, teams do. You need to look at each teams entire resume, so yes it's possible, and even likely for the A-10 to get 6 bids. The BE has 2 really good teams and 4 more middle of the pack teams of which 1 or maybe 2 have a chance of getting an at- large. It's just a matter of resumes. As for Mack, it's ne thing to stick up for your league, it's a totally different thing to make silly, unfounded statements, especially when the clear facts don't support the statement.

[milwaukeejedi1]

Comferences don't get bids, teams do. You need to look at each teams entire resume, so yes it's possible, and even likely for the A-10 to get 6 bids. The BE has 2 really good teams and 4 more middle of the pack teams of which 1 or maybe 2 have a chance of getting an at- large. It's just a matter of resumes. As for Mack, it's ne thing to stick up for your league, it's a totally different thing to make silly, unfounded statements, especially when the clear facts don't support the statement.

Coach Mack is entitled to his opinion just like your are. Opinions are subjective; after coaching in both leagues, he feels the Big East is a tougher conference. You are entitled to disagree; you did, we understand how you feel, but you do not need to keep restating it over and over again. I am sure there are plenty of dayton fans who will agree with you on a dayton board. Before the fractuaring of the Big East, I didn't pay that much attention to dayton and its fans despite cheering for St. Joe's. Since the aforementioned, it seems like the vocal minority (could be the majority) of dayton fans, more so than any other super fans of other A-10 teams, are out to prove the A-10 is a better conefernce than the Big East and that they could care less about joining it. But Ironically, they post on other Big East school's boards and this one to show us how little they care about aligning with the BEast.

[ruechalgrin]

... it's a totally different thing to make silly, unfounded statements, especially when the clear facts don't support the statement.

Coach Mack is entitled to his opinion just like your are. Opinions are subjective; after coaching in both leagues, he feels the Big East is a tougher conference. You are entitled to disagree; you did, we understand how you feel, but you do not need to keep restating it over and over again. I am sure there are plenty of dayton fans who will agree with you on a dayton board. Before the fractuaring of the Big East, I didn't pay that much attention to dayton and its fans despite cheering for St. Joe's. Since the aforementioned, it seems like the vocal minority (could be the majority) of dayton fans, more so than any other super fans of other A-10 teams, are out to prove the A-10 is a better conefernce than the Big East and that they could care less about joining it. But Ironically, they post on other Big East school's boards and this one to show us how little they care about aligning with the BEast.

I am an unabashed Dayton fan. 99% would kill for an invite to the Big East including me. It is bluster or idiocy to argue otherwise.

A-10 is up this year and will not receive 5-7 bids most years whereas the BE is down this year and will have more than 3-5 bids most years. It happens, but not about public relations or ESPN hating the BE. http://www.unf.edu/~jcoleman/dance.htm (most accurate the last years, but will change materially next 10 days) - right now A-10 has 6 bids and BE 3.

Admittedly, I am not a Mack fan, but his comments are not smart on many levels. (1) As a BE coach, you do not want to compare yourself to what you consider an "inferior" conference; (2) you don't make this statement from a position of weakness, it looks desperate when you are one of many teams are on the bubble; (3) you invite comparisons to Mick Cronin and past similar odd statements; (4) you bolster the A-10; (5) the facts don't support the statement, etc., etc., etc.

[lolhoya]

Number of bids is a horrible way to judge the overall strength of a conference. Raw number of bids has a ton to do with overall league size. The Big East beats the A10 by any reasonable statistical measure of overall strength (league RPI, league KenPom rating, etc), and it's not even close. Not to mention the head to head record this year.

Of course, perception matters and a lot of people DO care about number of bids. And that's a big reason why I have come to like the idea of expanding more.

[Hoopfan]

Number of bids is a horrible way to judge the overall strength of a conference. Raw number of bids has a ton to do with overall league size. The Big East beats the A10 by any reasonable statistical measure of overall strength (league RPI, league KenPom rating, etc), and it's not even close. Not to mention the head to head record this year.

Of course, perception matters and a lot of people DO care about number of bids. And that's a big reason why I have come to like the idea of expanding more.

Are you crazy? The whole point of the season is to make the NCAA tournament. GT is down this year so we change the way to determine the strength? Spin it any way you want but at the end of the day everyone talks about how many the conference sent to NCAA not how good teams 4-8 are

[Bill Marsh]

Number of bids is a horrible way to judge the overall strength of a conference. Raw number of bids has a ton to do with overall league size. The Big East beats the A10 by any reasonable statistical measure of overall strength (league RPI, league KenPom rating, etc), and it's not even close. Not to mention the head to head record this year.

Of course, perception matters and a lot of people DO care about number of bids. And that's a big reason why I have come to like the idea of expanding more.

Are you crazy? The whole point of the season is to make the NCAA tournament. GT is down this year so we change the way to determine the strength? Spin it any way you want but at the end of the day everyone talks about how many the conference sent to NCAA not how good teams 4-8 are

He has a point. Using bids focuses on only part of a conference. His comment was about OVERALL strength of a conference. In order to do that, it's necessary to factor in the strength of every team, not just those getting bids.

[Hoopfan]

Number of bids is a horrible way to judge the overall strength of a conference. Raw number of bids has a ton to do with overall league size. The Big East beats the A10 by any reasonable statistical measure of overall strength (league RPI, league KenPom rating, etc), and it's not even close. Not to mention the head to head record this year.

Of course, perception matters and a lot of people DO care about number of bids. And that's a big reason why I have come to like the idea of expanding more.

Are you crazy? The whole point of the season is to make the NCAA tournament. GT is down this year so we change the way to determine the strength? Spin it any way you want but at the end of the day everyone talks about how many the conference sent to NCAA not how good teams 4-8 are

He has a point. Using bids focuses on only part of a conference. His comment was about OVERALL strength of a conference. In order to do that, it's necessary to factor in the strength of every team, not just those getting bids.

From the point of view of people like the three of us and everyone else who follows college bball thats true. To the general fan they will look at how many bids did the conference get because thats what the sports networks will be talking about. Think to the past few years where all you hear is how the BE is so good because of how many teams they sent. We don't hear about the teams that dont make it and go to the NIT even though they had pretty good years.