horizon league looking weak thus far

[agibson]

That's what Detroit did last year (and so far this year).

Detroit 37, Pitt 29 at the half.  Color me surprised.

[motowntitan]

Well, we couldn't hold on @ Pitt and fell to another BC$ team. 

However, I would also like to provide some caution to this thread so early in the season.

Outside of your Nebraska and Kent State games, the combined W-L total of your remaining opponents (against DI) is 2-23.  I do realize that several of your opponents had to play the same opponent, negating each other out.

Last year @ Dec 5, Milwaukee was sitting at 8-1, with their only loss at Michigan State. This included a victory against DePaul.

It is great when the league can do so well, but we really need to stop scheduling the NIU and Chicago States until they rise to the top of their respective conferences.



     

[HC]

 I'm confused about our 2-23 comment, hopefully I'm not the only one. Looking at Murray State and New Mexico they have at least 12 wins against D1 opponents with only 1 loss.

[valpotx]

He was speaking about the other 4 games we have already played, outside of Kent and Nebraska

[bbtds]

He was speaking about the other 4 games we have already played, outside of Kent and Nebraska

Anyone can pick and choose. If you take Kent, Nebraska, Murray State & New Mexico their records are 22-5. Also 4 teams. So what?

[valporun]

Take out those games against Kent, Nebraska, Murray State, New Mexico, and possibly St. Louis, and our RPI TANKS!! We need the other teams we've played, Georgia Southern, NIU, Bethune, Chicago St., IPFW, and IUPUI, to win games. Most of the teams outside of the big ones we're playing, are getting slammed in guarantee matchups for the payday. I understand we can't schedule some of the teams that we want to help our RPI, but the teams we do schedule, or get matched up with in the tournaments, need to WIN GAMES. Sure, Oakland is reloading, but we need these other mid-majors to start turning things around and start winning games against the opponents that they should "on paper" beat by a few points or soundly.

[motowntitan]

Valporun,

Thanks for understanding what I was saying.

Anyway- Good Luck against what should be a fired up St. Louis team today.

[valporun]

I went through our schedule to look at the records of the teams we're playing in non-conference, looking at their overall wins/losses, and their D-I wins/losses that affect the RPI ranking. I have it on a Word file, so I'll post it here, but the overall record is 19-44, and the D-I only is 9-43. This took the parameters of not including Kent St., Nebraska, Murray State, New Mexico, and St. Louis. I can do another one in a little bit that only focuses on the top teams we're playing, but I just wanted to focus on the lower teams for now, because we really need them to win some games to help our RPI.

Of the teams in D-I that we've played so far, the overall record is 7-23, but D-I only, we're looking at 3-22 because Northern Illinois and Chicago St. haven't won ANY D-I games yet. This is where motowntitan was getting his "2-23" comment from.

[valporun]

Valporun,

Thanks for understanding what I was saying.

Anyway- Good Luck against what should be a fired up St. Louis team today.

Not a problem, motown. I do what I can, just not willing to keep drinking the kool-aid of this team getting an at-large bid, when the teams we need to have winning games ARE NOT HELPING US in the RPI rankings.

[StlVUFan]

Valporun,

Thanks for understanding what I was saying.

Anyway- Good Luck against what should be a fired up St. Louis team today.

Not a problem, motown. I do what I can, just not willing to keep drinking the kool-aid of this team getting an at-large bid, when the teams we need to have winning games ARE NOT HELPING US in the RPI rankings.

Unfortunately, it is looking bleaker and bleaker by the game.  I was really hoping Detroit would finish it off (Oakland blew it even worse at Pitt, if I recall correctly), and I certainly think the Green Bay game looked winnable as well.  Of course, we slipped up at Nebraska.  It also doesn't help that Milwaukee couldn't get past UNI.  And we need to take down SLU today and continue on that same path the rest of the way.  Even if at-large is diminishing to a microbe on the horizon, seeding can still be impacted.

Baby steps, folks.

[milanmiracle]

The reality is the Horizon League just isn't very good this year. The two teams that were supposed to carry the conference this season...haven't. Valpo beats bottom feeders as demonstrated by their opponents record and Detroit is well, Detroit. Talented but maddeningly inconsistent even within the game. There's no at large bid for anybody in this league, and the goal now is to not be a 16 seed for whoever gets into the Dance.