Bubble Watch

[gavitspeaks]

Iowa loses on the road to Northwestern.

awesome matchup last night between Nova and Butler. Classic.

[stever20]

Iowa loses on the road to Northwestern.

yeah their 1st bad loss of the year. With games left with Rutgers, @ Nebraska, @ Penn St, and Northwestern again- if they can win those 4 they will be 19-12(even losing to both Illinois and @ Indiana). Should be safely in with that.

[NJRedman]

I forgot about that Auburn loss. Yuck.

[ta111]

Iowa loses on the road to Northwestern.

yeah their 1st bad loss of the year. With games left with Rutgers, @ Nebraska, @ Penn St, and Northwestern again- if they can win those 4 they will be 19-12(even losing to both Illinois and @ Indiana). Should be safely in with that.

Actually, they are in trouble. Lost earlier in the week at home to Minn. that is a bad loss at home and their RPI has dropped to 55. That's NIT territory.

[stever20]

Iowa loses on the road to Northwestern.

yeah their 1st bad loss of the year. With games left with Rutgers, @ Nebraska, @ Penn St, and Northwestern again- if they can win those 4 they will be 19-12(even losing to both Illinois and @ Indiana). Should be safely in with that.

Actually, they are in trouble. Lost earlier in the week at home to Minn. that is a bad loss at home and their RPI has dropped to 55. That's NIT territory.

You may be right just looking closer. Thing would be if they can beat one of Illinois or Indiana, they should still be safe.

Never easy for Iowa.

[Jet915]

Stanford loses on the road to Colorado. Rpi is now bubbilicious at 47.

[billyjack]

Couple of thoughts...

---> "gavitspeaks"... his name is spelled wrong... "Gavitt" has double "t" at the end. So he can't be a Friars fan.

---> Xavier is basically a lock... with all the criticism thrown at them about their results, and all the hoping and praying of stever20 and our Dayton friends that have taken up residence, XU still has an RPI of 40...! They'll be playing with house money at Cincinnati this week... win and they clinch an NCAA bid, lose and it's a good loss.

---> Xavier's SOS of 12 (wow!) is a great intangible.

---> Long Beach beat Joe Lunardi's Kansas State Dream Team. They've had a killer schedule the last couple of years under Dan Monson (great coach who kickstarted the Gonzaga juggernaut in the late 90's).

---> as Bill Marsh has tried to point out, the other bubble teams suck... Xavier's resume will be looked at compared to the assorted misfits that currently sit on the bubble... teams that have lost to Virginia Tech, Wofford, Hawaii, Clemson, "North Florida", Gardner-Webb, "Southeast Oklahoma Junior College", Houston, East Carolina, etc, but which also have no good wins like Xavier does...!

---> The Big East will get 6 bids this year. Should've been 7, but Seton Hall stumbled. Frankie the Barber from Pawtucket predicted 6 bids 2 months ago. Stever... why do you choose to not listen to Frankie...? You ignore him at your peril.

---> a lightbulb just went off in John Swofford's degenerate mind over the weekend, as a panicked ACC is desperately trying to squeeze an additional team or 2 of their sucky product into the NCAAs... so Swofford's minions in the "No Defense Jumpshot Conference" arranged for UNC to lose to Pitt, and Louisville to lose to whomever.

[stever20]

Couple of thoughts...

---> "gavitspeaks"... his name is spelled wrong... "Gavitt" has double "t" at the end. So he can't be a Friars fan.

---> Xavier is basically a lock... with all the criticism thrown at them about their results, and all the hoping and praying of stever20 and our Dayton friends that have taken up residence, XU still has an RPI of 40...! They'll be playing with house money at Cincinnati this week... win and they clinch an NCAA bid, lose and it's a good loss.

---> Xavier's SOS of 12 (wow!) is a great intangible.

---> Long Beach beat Joe Lunardi's Kansas State Dream Team. They've had a killer schedule the last couple of years under Dan Monson (great coach who kickstarted the Gonzaga juggernaut in the late 90's).

---> as Bill Marsh has tried to point out, the other bubble teams suck... Xavier's resume will be looked at compared to the assorted misfits that currently sit on the bubble... teams that have lost to Virginia Tech, Wofford, Hawaii, Clemson, "North Florida", Gardner-Webb, "Southeast Oklahoma Junior College", Houston, East Carolina, etc, but which also have no good wins like Xavier does...!

---> The Big East will get 6 bids this year. Should've been 7, but Seton Hall stumbled. Frankie the Barber from Pawtucket predicted 6 bids 2 months ago. Stever... why do you choose to not listen to Frankie...? You ignore him at your peril.

---> a lightbulb just went off in John Swofford's degenerate mind over the weekend, as a panicked ACC is desperately trying to squeeze an additional team or 2 of their sucky product into the NCAAs... so Swofford's minions in the "No Defense Jumpshot Conference" arranged for UNC to lose to Pitt, and Louisville to lose to whomever.

Xavier is far from a lock. You can't call any team that finishes at 18-14 as a lock. Period. Definitely not a team with at least 3 if not 4 bad losses(and pretty much you can kiss them goodbye if one of the losses was to Creighton on their senior day). You and Marsh are just remembering back to yesteryears where 18-14 teams made the tourney regularly. Look at Marsh's list- no 18-14 teams at all on there. I'd say Team Rankings have it about right- them finishing with 18 wins is about a 33.6% chance of making the tourney. Still a chance, but no where near a lock at all. Now look at them with 19 wins- up to 75% chance(that to me even seems low).

Long Beach has lost 3 in a row and is barely hanging on to being a top 100 team. If they don't- that hurts double for Xavier- they lose a top 100 win, and they get a top 100 loss.

Also you are showing your power conference bias when you put Wofford on your list of bad losses. Wofford is a projected top 55 team. So how in the hell is that a bad loss at all for anyone? The answer is it isn't in any fashion at all. Now Auburn, that's a bad loss.

[DudeAnon]

Xavier ain't a lock. But its a huge testament to the Big East that a team with 14 losses 13 losses could still make the tourney.

[stever20]

Xavier ain't a lock. But its a huge testament to the Big East that a team with 14 losses 13 losses could still make the tourney.

yeah it's that- and it's also the fact that the bubble is extremely weak this year.

let me re-say that. the bubble the last few years is weak every year.