Non-BE Games of Interest, February 2015...

[stever20]

You do know if they run the table in the AAC, they would have beaten SMU 2x, and have a RPI of 16.7. 0% chance they would be left out at that point.

[billyjack]

I think Cincinnati is pretty safe because they beat San Diego State and NC State.

SMU beat Michigan, but that's it really except Wyoming. But i think they are in good shape too.

Tulsa and Temple are on a tightrope though. They have 1 good win combined. I can't see both making it. Maybe 1, but if UConn wins the American tourney (at home), then neither Tulsa nor Temple make it. I would guess 3 is max for the American.

[stever20]

I think Cincinnati is pretty safe because they beat San Diego State and NC State.

SMU beat Michigan, but that's it really except Wyoming. But i think they are in good shape too.

Tulsa and Temple are on a tightrope though. They have 1 good win combined. I can't see both making it. Maybe 1, but if UConn wins the American tourney (at home), then neither Tulsa nor Temple make it. I would guess 3 is max for the American.

except for the millionth time, teams make the tourney, not conferences. There is no artificial limit to the American of how many of their teams will make the tourney.

[Bill Marsh]

Billy Jack, with regard to Bryant at Pitt, can you spell t-r-a-p g-a-m-e?

Bryant's having a decent season . . . And Pitt, no so much. It could get interesting.

[billyjack]

I think Cincinnati is pretty safe because they beat San Diego State and NC State.

SMU beat Michigan, but that's it really except Wyoming. But i think they are in good shape too.

Tulsa and Temple are on a tightrope though. They have 1 good win combined. I can't see both making it. Maybe 1, but if UConn wins the American tourney (at home), then neither Tulsa nor Temple make it. I would guess 3 is max for the American.

except for the millionth time, teams make the tourney, not conferences. There is no artificial limit to the American of how many of their teams will make the tourney.

Here i was trying to be nice, and you have to step in and be a know-it-all.

If an RPI 106 team wins the AAC tourney, it means that Tulsa or Temple, or both, or Cincinnati, stubbed their toe in a conference tourney with a bad loss. Add that weak loss to other sucky losses, plus best-win being Incarnate Word (for Tulsa), then someone might notice Temple's loss to St Joe's, and very easily without much effort you're into "SMU 2014" territory.

Cincinnati... i was being nice saying they were safe. They beat San Diego State at home in OT, and won at NC State. The NC State win is looking less impressive as the weeks pass, as they needed a 40 foot shot to beat Ga Tech at the buzzer, and they just got smoked by Clemson. If Cincinnati loses against Xavier, then they're in a bind.

Memphis could have had a resurgence at Gonzaga, but they got stomped.

And over the final month, each of these teams has to avoid horrendous losses against the AAC bottom feeders...

[stever20]

I think Cincinnati is pretty safe because they beat San Diego State and NC State.

SMU beat Michigan, but that's it really except Wyoming. But i think they are in good shape too.

Tulsa and Temple are on a tightrope though. They have 1 good win combined. I can't see both making it. Maybe 1, but if UConn wins the American tourney (at home), then neither Tulsa nor Temple make it. I would guess 3 is max for the American.

except for the millionth time, teams make the tourney, not conferences. There is no artificial limit to the American of how many of their teams will make the tourney.

Here i was trying to be nice, and you have to step in and be a know-it-all.

If an RPI 106 team wins the AAC tourney, it means that Tulsa or Temple, or both, or Cincinnati, stubbed their toe in a conference tourney with a bad loss. Add that weak loss to other sucky losses, plus best-win being Incarnate Word (for Tulsa), then someone might notice Temple's loss to St Joe's, and very easily without much effort you're into "SMU 2014" territory.

Cincinnati... i was being nice saying they were safe. They beat San Diego State at home in OT, and won at NC State. The NC State win is looking less impressive as the weeks pass, as they needed a 40 foot shot to beat Ga Tech at the buzzer, and they just got smoked by Clemson. If Cincinnati loses against Xavier, then they're in a bind.

Memphis could have had a resurgence at Gonzaga, but they got stomped.

And over the final month, each of these teams has to avoid horrendous losses against the AAC bottom feeders...

If UConn won the tourney.... even if the seeds were where they are now for the top 6...
1 Tulsa wins vs 8 ECU/9 UCF in QF.
4 Temple beats #5 Memphis in QF
2 SMU beats #7 Tulane in QF
#6 UConn beats #3 Cincy in QF
Then Temple beats Tulsa in SF along with UConn beating SMU. UConn beats Temple in title game...
Where's the bad loss? The closest thing would be Cincy/UConn quite frankly. Also quite frankly, UConn would zoom up the RPI in that so it would go down. Looking at RPI forecast, they would enter at roughly a 80- so if they beat all of USF, Cincy, SMU, and Temple- their RPI would go up considerably- not quite sure how high- but it would definitely not be a bad loss. Heck in this scenario, I would think Temple, SMU, and Cincy would be in, and if Tulsa had done enough in Feb- they would likely get in as well.

One thing about Tulsa as well- they only have 3 dreg teams left now. Houston, ECU, and Tulane. Their other 6 games are vs SMU, UConn, Temple, Memphis, Cincy, and SMU. If they can win even 2 of those to get to 21 wins, that's a top 40 RPI, with 5 wins against the Temple/UConn/Memphis/SMU/Cincy group(out of 9 games).

about Temple- they would have the Kansas win, which totally seperates them from SMU. And a top 50 SOS OOC- with most of their OOC losses before their team was set. They get close, they'll be in...

about Cincy- they have 5 dreg teams left. If they sweep them(USF, Tulane, Houston, UCF, and Tulane again)- that leaves them with 5 games. SMU, Temple, Xavier, Tulsa, and Memphis. If they win pretty much 1 of those 5 games, they're set. 21-10 gets them a projected RPI of around 38. Get 2 and they're a lock(projected RPI of around 30).

Just saying there's no limit at all with 3 teams. What you are saying could happen. But then again, it might not happen. Heck in my scenario I laid out, I could see 5 teams getting in. Tulsa, Temple, SMU, Cincy, and UConn. I'm not saying it will happen, but it is possible. You just can not say now that the limit for the AAC is 3. It's VERY easy to come up with a scenario where they get 4.

[stever20]

Monday Feb 2nd, some people will be watching Virginia and UNC. But not me. The ACC is Snooze City. With no Big East action tonight, after i shovel more snow today (6 to 8 inches), i'll try to find time watch CBS-SN, where American plays at Holy Cross, from the Hart Center on-campus in Worcester.

I'm also going to pay attention to another game (again, can't watch it cuz ACC too boring), which could go a long way in further making the Midpack ACC teams look like cow patties:

Bryant at Pitt, 7pm.

Why would Pitt have scheduled this game for February? This can only be a net negative. I can't imagine Pitt will be motivated at all. Two games ago they lost to Virginia Tech. They have their next 5 games vs Syracuse, Louisville, UNC, Virginia and Syracuse again. Plus why did Pitt schedule Bryant of all teams? Is this the only way Jamie Dixon can get exposure in New England recruiting grounds? I mean, why doesn't he schedule Robert Morris or Youngstown State or something else in metro Pittsburgh as a tomato can?

Bryant has a great head coach, Tim O'Shea, who has built the Bulldogs program from scratch as they upgraded to Div-1 around five years ago. They also have Al Skinner as a bench coach.

Bryant used to be a commuter business school on the East Side of Providence, near Brown and RISD. In the 60's or 70's, the Tupperware guy built a new campus in the woods, on a mini former airport in Smithfield, around 8 miles up the road to the northwest. It remained mostly a commuter business school thru the 80's, but really expanded after that, and now has a bunch of dorms and a modern campus.

I grew up around 3 miles from Bryant (and 3 miles from PC). From around 1976 til Gillette Stadium was built, the Patriots held training camp at Bryant. Summers as a kid we would bump into Patriots players around town. I met Mike Haynes just before he moved to the Raiders.

As late as 1981 (which turned out to be a disastrous 2-14 season), the Pats training camp didn't get too much attention, and at night we could go to Bryant and run around the practice fields, toss footballs arounds, try to unsuccessfully move the blocking dummy sleds (on the front of the sled was the slogan "I'm the smart dummy!")... meanwhile nobody was around, no security, only crickets and opossums and squirrels... and Ron Erhardt's coaches' tower which seemed to be around 40 feet high.

Anyway, keep one eye on Bryant tonight. Pitt's plodding offense should allow Bryant to stay in the game.

so far 50% right. Bryant up 36-34... I was going to say about teams getting on the bubble and maybe including Pitt- but man their resume is AWFUL!

[Jet915]

Billyjack, u know stever is a AAC homer

[billyjack]

Billyjack, u know stever is a AAC homer

Yeah, and he never gives up...

[Bill Marsh]

Monday Feb 2nd, some people will be watching Virginia and UNC. But not me. The ACC is Snooze City. With no Big East action tonight, after i shovel more snow today (6 to 8 inches), i'll try to find time watch CBS-SN, where American plays at Holy Cross, from the Hart Center on-campus in Worcester.

I'm also going to pay attention to another game (again, can't watch it cuz ACC too boring), which could go a long way in further making the Midpack ACC teams look like cow patties:

Bryant at Pitt, 7pm.

Why would Pitt have scheduled this game for February? This can only be a net negative. I can't imagine Pitt will be motivated at all. Two games ago they lost to Virginia Tech. They have their next 5 games vs Syracuse, Louisville, UNC, Virginia and Syracuse again. Plus why did Pitt schedule Bryant of all teams? Is this the only way Jamie Dixon can get exposure in New England recruiting grounds? I mean, why doesn't he schedule Robert Morris or Youngstown State or something else in metro Pittsburgh as a tomato can?

Bryant has a great head coach, Tim O'Shea, who has built the Bulldogs program from scratch as they upgraded to Div-1 around five years ago. They also have Al Skinner as a bench coach.

Bryant used to be a commuter business school on the East Side of Providence, near Brown and RISD. In the 60's or 70's, the Tupperware guy built a new campus in the woods, on a mini former airport in Smithfield, around 8 miles up the road to the northwest. It remained mostly a commuter business school thru the 80's, but really expanded after that, and now has a bunch of dorms and a modern campus.

I grew up around 3 miles from Bryant (and 3 miles from PC). From around 1976 til Gillette Stadium was built, the Patriots held training camp at Bryant. Summers as a kid we would bump into Patriots players around town. I met Mike Haynes just before he moved to the Raiders.

As late as 1981 (which turned out to be a disastrous 2-14 season), the Pats training camp didn't get too much attention, and at night we could go to Bryant and run around the practice fields, toss footballs arounds, try to unsuccessfully move the blocking dummy sleds (on the front of the sled was the slogan "I'm the smart dummy!")... meanwhile nobody was around, no security, only crickets and opossums and squirrels... and Ron Erhardt's coaches' tower which seemed to be around 40 feet high.

Anyway, keep one eye on Bryant tonight. Pitt's plodding offense should allow Bryant to stay in the game.

Billy Jack, you nailed it. Bryant @ Pitt was one heckuva game. Bryant played great on the road.