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Let's say realignment spurs up again next year and MVC team #12 involves a facilities comparison.  Now what? Have we put ourselves in the best position possible for consideration this time around? I'm not saying that we have to throw $50M to a new facility by the way--but are we in as best a position that we feasibly can be?

As I see it, this is the issue. Do we want to spend to upgrade, knowing that we will have to spend more to upgrade later, or do we want to do it at once. It's not an easy answer, and the funding isn't easy either.

The product on the field/court is what will ultimately decide, and the market, facilities and other areas will be ancillary. And that's not just in men's basketball. We need to continue to raise the level of all sports until we put ourselves in a position where conference want us.

Right now, we aren't there. But we can keep pushing to be our best.


Aside, I actually think our best look right now would be if the ACC wanted to add a 16th basketball/Olympic sports member, while keeping football at 14 (Notre Dame makes it 15 in everything else) and we jumped into the void left by Dayton or someone else.

But, as said above, we aren't ready yet.

Reports that I have heard from the basketball offices are that the program is pushing extremely hard for Keith to be granted another year.

That would be nice.

Last update before Horizon League final. Obviously, we have to win that for any of this to be important.

Change to the format today as well, as things "below the line" are now sorted by date...makes it easier (for me at least) to keep an eye on what's coming soon.

As of right now, based solely on RPI, Valpo would slot in as the "worst" of the #11 seeds.




See y'all in Detroit!

If Skara and or Walker are of little or no help with non major ankle issues then who knows how the committee might address it.

They'll pick a team that went 9-9 in a power league and justify it by saying that they had more top 100 wins, despite that they were 6-11 against the top 100 and refuse to play anyone in the non-conference and won't play on the road.

Just win the damn thing in Detroit and we don't have to worry about anything.

[Sunday Championships:]

Rooting Interests for the next couple of days:
(RPI in parenthesis)


Sunday Championships:

Atlantic Sun:
#4 Florida Gulf Coast (215) vs. #7 Stetson (299) - NO EFFECT
(Note: if Stetson wins, North Florida (161) gets the bid)

Big South:
#2 Winthop (126) vs. #4 UNC-Asheville (157) - NO EFFECT

Missouri Valley:
#2 Evansville (90) vs. #4 Northern Iowa (84) - EVANSVILLE
(Evansville has the worse RPI, though UNI has the worse seed. I think UNI has a very strange case for their seed.)


Monday Championships:

MAAC:
#1 Monmouth (50) vs. #5 Fairfield (143) - FAIRFIELD - Get Monmouth out!
#2 Iona (98) vs. #3 Siena (99) - IONA - Help Valpo, keep Iona in top 100

Colonial:
#1 Hofstra (55) vs. #5 William & Mary (67) - WILLIAM & MARY
#2 UNC-Wilmington (63) vs. #6 Northeastern (119) - NORTHEASTERN

Southern:
#1 Chattanooga (61) vs. #5 Western Carolina (175) - WESTERN CAROLINA
#2 East Tennessee State (96) vs. #6 Furman (170) - FURMAM


Tuesday Championships:

Horizon
Um, yeah...

Northeast:
#1 Wagner (181) vs. #2 Fairleigh Dickinson (225) - NO DIFFERENCE

Summit:
#2 South Dakota State is RPI #40, so root against them.
#1 IPFW is RPI #65, so we should stay ahead of them...and it would be good for us...so root for them.

West Coast:
#1 St. Mary's (#37)
#2 Gonzaga (#62)
#3 BYU (#74)
#4 Pepperdine (#134) - GO THEM!

Bids are starting to roll in now...Yale and Austin Peay yesterday.

3 Sunday
3 Monday
4 Tuesday
1 Wednesday





Rooting interests: Teams in dark uniforms (I'll have more on this later!)

I don't think there's a "deadline" other than the end of the season.

I doubt they paid any sort of retainer, but I'm guessing GCU got a nice guarantee.

They've done it before. Several years ago, Patty Mills was hurt and didn't play in the WCC Tournament, and they lost. They scheduled another game (Eastern Washington, I think) during the final weekend to try and show the committee that Mills was healthy.

But we also lose a top 100 win as Belmont falls to 101.

Per which site?

WarrenNolan had them hanging in the top 100 after the loss yesterday.

And has them at 96 currently.

NCAA has them at 94

while no NCAA bids have been claimed by tournament winners as of 5:15pm CT today.

First bids to be handed out:

Ohio Valley (currently airing on ESPN2) Champion - UT-Martin or Austin Peay
Ivy League Champion - a Yale win (at 10-3 Columbia) OR a Princeton loss (at 4-9 Dartmouth) clinches it for Yale - both games tip at 6:00 Central

Historically, home teams win 70% of games. This is obviously skewed by "guarantee" games, but it's the reason that the NCAA change their RPI calculations.

Road wins are worth 1.4, losses worth 0.6
Home wins are worth 0.6, losses worth 1.4

Since its been brought up a couple times in this thread:

At this point, all D1 schools are using Synergy. Its a great tool. Perhaps some don't use the full breakdown in house, but I've been on there and you have access to the full breakdown of every D1 game, regardless of the teams...which suggests everyone is using the full Monty.

I've played around with it a bit and you can literally find whatever you want. I could look up specifically possessions where Alec took a late-clock three off of a sideline inbounds.

[Valparaiso [26-5 (16-2), RPI: 42, SOS: 186]]

ESPN Bubble Watch:

Valparaiso [26-5 (16-2), RPI: 42, SOS: 186] Let's throw the Crusaders back on here, if only because there's a chance that their road win at Oregon State -- which, hey, is a top-30 RPI victory! -- will start to look even better before Selection Sunday. Meanwhile, Bryce Drew's team did finish the regular season with a 16-2 record against the Horizon League, the same tally Wichita State racked up in the Missouri Valley Conference. No one here is arguing that Valpo is actually better than the Shockers, and the Horizon is at least a notch behind the Valley in terms of overall league strength. But the same principle applies: This is a really good team that was banged up in nonconference play and -- in the Watch's humble opinion -- probably deserves to be in the tournament at the end of the day. We'll see.

One random thought from this morning...

If the seeds hold (which also means a Valpo title), we would pick up two additional neutral court wins, moving our D1 record to 26-5.

Those two wins would come against:
Green Bay (19-12 vs D1*) and
Oakland (22-10 vs D1*)
* - Includes tournament wins in order to play a game against Valpo

If we win, these two would benefit our RPI numbers much more than if there were some upsets. That said, I can think of a couple teams I wouldn't mind seeing lose early...

Big jump this week, both in our RPI numbers and in the positioning on this table. Road wins really help...and the data from the NCAA is dated yesterday (no timestamp). If it was before our game, which I have to believe it was, we will get another nice boost with a road win (1.4 wins to the formula) over a 19-12 team.

Down to 15 schools with 2 losses or fewer...less than last season. It's really hard to win in the league...any league...where team's know you so well. Two gutty wins this week can only help.

This isn't one of the options I had heard being discussed...but, the league basically had to step in and get this handled...




Horizon League Announces Adjustments to Weekend WBB Schedule

Thursday, February 25, 2016


The Horizon League announced late Thursday morning that the Valpo women's basketball team will play at Youngstown State on Friday at 7:05 pm ET/6:05 pm CT at Beeghly Center. The Crusaders and Penguins were originally scheduled to play Thursday evening at 5:15 pm ET/4:15 pm CT, but Wednesday's inclement weather forced the postponement of that game.

The league also announced that Valpo's contest versus Cleveland State has been moved to Monday, February 29th. A time and location for that game has yet to be determined. The two teams were initially set to square off Saturday at 11:00 am ET/10:00 am CT at Quicken Loans Arena.

Valpo Athletics will release the time and location of Monday's tilt versus Cleveland State once details become available.

YSU didn't want to move games. CSU game is at Quicken Loans Arena, so can't be moved. Looks like Thursday games will move to Monday at both YSU and CSU.

I just realized that both semifinals will be aired live on ESPNU this year. So we've got something better than previous seasons where they'd show the first semifinal tape delayed...

And the #1 seed (some school named Valpo...) will play in the first game. They did set it up as a pretty tough turnaround for the other side of the bracket. A 9:30 PM tip on Monday...

I think we are still alive for an at large.

Right now, sure. But the only way we need an at-large is with another loss. To a team not in the RPI top 100. It's not likely...even with the soft bubble.

Alec named CBS Sports Player of the Week

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25491356/valpos-alec-peters-wins-cbs-sports-national-player-of-the-week

Just for a look...if the season ended now...



No ties currently in the standings, as teams have played either 15, 16 or 17 games. I would expect that to change (even tonight, possibly)...but I was happy I didn't have to figure any out this morning.

Moved up three places this week, passing the three that are now immediately behind us.

Just keep winning...

Down to 18 teams after this weekend...were 16 on the list last year, with three going unbeaten.

Montana and Weber State play on 2/27. The other two conferences with multiple teams (WAC, Ivy) have already seen those teams meet twice.




I'm not necessarily posting this to compare us to other teams. I was generally curious about conference records...figured if I did the research (not that it took long), I'd throw it out there.

Updated before the games started today. A couple teams I think I missed in the last table are in. A few have dropped out.

Many of the teams that appear from the same conference have games remaining against each other.