The biggest news from the weekend was that UCLA senior point guard Cedric Bozeman blew out his knee and is lost for the year. It’s bad news for coach Ben Howland because he had brought in freshman Jordan Farmer to be an understudy to Bozeman this year, then taking over the reigns as a sophomore […]

I know it’s November 3rd, and I know that Northern Kentucky regularly churns out one of the best D2 teams in the country, but can’t we read something into the fact that NKU made it close against #9 Kentucky for 27 minutes tonight? It’s ridiculous to read anything into an exhibition game, but it’s not […]

It’s time to look at the adjusted RPI. I don’t like bashing Joe Lunardi, because he’s the closest thing we have to a stats guy in the mainstream media, even though he’s very far away from where we should be. And actually this won’t be “bashing”. Please consider it a thoughtful critique. After all, I […]

Exhibition season started tonight with seven D1 teams hitting the floor, the most notable of which were New Mexico, Louisiana Tech, and Santa Clara.

The justification for adding a road-win bonus to the RPI is based on the premise that the home team wins 70% of college basketball games. This has been cited in nearly every article on the new RPI, and usually as a direct quote from basketball committee chairman Bob Bowlsby. This is a classic case of […]

The announcement that the NCAA will track a new “adjusted RPI” has generated a little buzz recently. Seth Davis came out of summer hibernation to write about it, Andy Katz followed, Joe Lunardi has piled on some thoughts of his own, and now local beat writers are in the mix. Here’s the truth: this alternate […]

Who would you rather have as your point guard… TO% A% Pts/40 FTA/FGA Player A 4.5 9.9 11.3 .292 Player B 3.6 9.3 16.7 .388 TO% = percentage of possessions a turnover is committed A% = percentage of possessions the player gets an assist Pts/40 = Points scored per 40 minutes of playing time FTA/FGA […]

Since I am tied up with a few things, my humble pre-midnight madness offering to you is your team’s schedule. The link actually goes to UConn’s schedule, but with a little computer savvy, you can get to the D1 school of your choice. Last year’s RPI rankings are listed next to the opponents, and exhibitions […]

Thumbs down to the Mississippi State athletic department. With a week left until practice begins, the Bulldogs still have not released their basketball schedule. Their key non-conference games are in Anaheim against Arizona on December 5th and at Xavier on December 18th. You’ll just have to wait for the rest. They should take a cue […]

“offense is behind the defense early in the season” This is not usually true. It may be true for some teams, but not for college basketball as a whole. Here’s the season-to-date scoring average for Division 1 by date over the last six seasons… 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 12/1 139.3 140.2 141.4 144.1 […]