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 […]

Time for another installment of On the Radar. You may recall in the premier edition of OtR I tabbed Troy St. as a team to watch (except that you really can’t watch them unless you attend one of their games). The Trojans promptly fell on their face to Division II Christian Brothers University 62-61, almost […]

There are 51 unbeatens left. The last one standing will be either Georgia Tech or Pittsburgh.

The college basketball box score is a very misleading thing sometimes. Take rebounds for example. Just because one team has more rebounds than its opponent does not mean it is doing a better job rebounding. When Team A misses a shot, Team B is more likely to rebound it, and vice versa. So total rebounds […]

Bucknell, the same team that made 1 out of 17 free throws in their opener against Michigan St., made 9 out of 9 tonight against Northwestern. They’ve made 72% in their three games since the disaster. However, they haven’t won yet.