Monthly Archives: December 2003

After a few requests, I have added conference SOS to the conference RPI page. This is calculated by taking an average of each conference member’s non-conference SOS. There will be no updates of the ratings until January 1st, at which point daily updates will resume.

This is the final post in a three part series. (The first two parts are here: part 1 and part 2). This one deals with how a lack of including home court advantage affects the formula. For the most part the effects are negligible. For one, most of a team’s schedule is made up of […]

Nebraska is not even on the radar of the folks in Lincoln, where even a lowly 9-3 football team still captivates the locals attention through December. The hoops team must play second fiddle to Creighton for the state’s basketball interests. Creighton is also the only team Nebraska has lost to so far this year. Nebraska […]

All the talk has been about parity this year. But it’s really just a way for folks to excuse the fact that they didn’t realize how good Georgia Tech, Stanford, St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, etc. would be. This year is no different than any other year. In fact, if anything there is less parity. […]

Unloved

In one of the few compelling games of last night, UNLV collapsed at home and lost to Northern Arizona, who might not even qualify for its own conference tournament. Why is it so hard to build a winner at UNLV? It’s going to be a long year for the Rebs. They can’t rebound, don’t shoot […]

The previous post in this series addressed the myth that strength of schedule controls the RPI, while winning percentage is relatively insignificant. Now I’ll examine the common complaint that merely playing “so and so” can lower or raise your RPI, regardless of the outcome. This is a statement that can’t be refuted because it’s true. […]

Before a review of today’s team in issue 3 of OtR, let’s review how the previous 2 OtR picks have fared in their next game, just to establish some credibility. Week 1: Troy St. Next game: Lost to a D2 team who had won like 6 games the year before and had to hitchhike to […]

A follow-up to last night’s post on how teams making big comebacks fare in overtime: I looked back on all the OT games played so far. I limited my search to games involving the “BCS” conferences and the A-10, Mountain West, MVC, and WAC. When you start dealing with lower conferences, it becomes difficult to […]

I guess I wasn’t really surprised that Florida once again failed to win a game as #1. They couldn’t put away a dreadful Stetson team in their last game, like a top team should. This game provides an introduction for one of my wacky theories: A team making a big comeback to force overtime often […]

Most discussion of the RPI involves the weaknesses of the system. I haven’t seen anyone come to its defense, but the RPI is not that bad, really. Let me clarify – in the middle of December it’s bad. But the RPI is a tool in the tournament selction process, so it’s not meant to be […]