RPI freefall

[GonzoCat]

Jeez, lose one game to a top 40 rpi team and we fall from 9 to 22. That seems a little harsh. I don't see other teams fall that far from a single loss. I imagine we will drop further even with a win tomorrow. Oh well, top 10 did seem a little high in all honesty.

[panther2317]

I think as long as the conference hangs on at #5 and UNI wins the games it needs to, the rpi thing will take care of itself. The Panthers just need to win Saturday. GO PANTHERS!!! Beat the Redbirds.

[ceaser150]

The fact that the loss was at home to a team with a much lower RPI is what hurt us. A road win on Saturday would probably help us rise a few notches. Monday will also be big. SIU has an RPI that is similar, so that is a chance to jump a few spots.

[MGLD Panther]

Are we getting spolied already??? At any point in the last three years we would have been happy with 22! 22 is still pretty good.

[UNI MadCat]

Jeez, lose one game to a top 40 rpi team and we fall from 9 to 22. That seems a little harsh. I don't see other teams fall that far from a single loss. I imagine we will drop further even with a win tomorrow. Oh well, top 10 did seem a little high in all honesty.

I honestly do not know, is there any subjectivity in the RPI?? I mean, isn't the BCS at least one tiny bit (or maybe a lot, I dont pay enough attention) based on subjectivity? Is this at all similar?

[ejacobson]

RPI is just an equation, and losing to a lower RPI always hurts some, and road wins are about the best way to boost it. Check out collegerpi.com, or realtimerpi.com for explanations of the equation used. But from 9 to 22 is not terrible. If we pick up the road win in Omaha that will erased in the equation, so we just need to break that glass ceiling we have with playing CU. GO PANTHERS!!!!

[GonzoCat]

I believe it is totally objectively, based on numbers alone.

22 is fine, I just thought 13 spots was a large drop for a single loss to a very good team in one of the best conferences in the country.

I think we are going to lose another 4 games this year and I just hope we don't drop 13 spots for every loss while only moving up 1 or 2 for every win. You have to finish in the top 40 or so to be fairly safe for an at large bid due to all the automatic qualifiers from poor conferences.

[speechpanther]

If we lose only four more games, I think we would have 21 D-I wins (discounting whatever happens in St. Louis). 21 got us in last year...and our conference is far stronger this year. I don't think we gotta get too worried about the RPI just yet.

[UNI MadCat]

I believe it is totally objectively, based on numbers alone.

22 is fine, I just thought 13 spots was a large drop for a single loss to a very good team in one of the best conferences in the country.

I think we are going to lose another 4 games this year and I just hope we don't drop 13 spots for every loss while only moving up 1 or 2 for every win. You have to finish in the top 40 or so to be fairly safe for an at large bid due to all the automatic qualifiers from poor conferences.

Oh, so you were just whining then GC?

JK! Glad to know we're a lot alike!!!

Ok, well, I think we'll be fine. I'm with you GC on the 4 more losses line of thinking - 22-7/10-6. That's better than last year and I believe our RPI was 37 so, given the improvement of the league, I'd imagine we'd be better than that. And we could secure it with a nice tourney run. 24-8 with a loss in the final and we're in nicely with 9/10 seed. Win the thing and there is no sweating and we might be looking from a 6-8 seed.

Long ways to go... too much thinking ahead for me on a Friday afternoon!!

[ejacobson]

I believe it is totally objectively, based on numbers alone.

22 is fine, I just thought 13 spots was a large drop for a single loss to a very good team in one of the best conferences in the country.

I think we are going to lose another 4 games this year and I just hope we don't drop 13 spots for every loss while only moving up 1 or 2 for every win. You have to finish in the top 40 or so to be fairly safe for an at large bid due to all the automatic qualifiers from poor conferences.

Not to sound rude or anything but which of the remaining games do you think the boys might lose GC? I know there are some tough ones, but thus far they have proven to be able to win everywhere except Qwest in Omaha. Just gaging where my thoughts are related to others. I was thinking at worst 2 more that could be L's. From the beginning I have thought that @ Drake and @ Creighton were the only two left that scare me, the guys just never look confident in those places. But everywhere else they look solid on the road and at home, but I guess I never thought CU would have beat us in the Dome either.

[GonzoCat]

I don't have a specific 4 in mind, but I'll feel very fortunate if we go 9-4 the rest of the regular season. If pressed I'll say:

We lose these two:

@ Southern
@ Creighton

and split these four:

@ Drake (at least Lonnie Randolph is gone)
Southern (won't have to wait long to prove me wrong here)
MSU (revenge)
WSU (double revenge)

And the bracket buster will be no walk in the park nor will any of the other 6 conference games, there just is no easy win in the valley. We may well be the best team in the conference, but that doesn't mean you win every game, there will be upsets. Guys have off nights, the whole team has off nights, the coaches probably even have off nights.

[Newsbreaker]

We go 9-4 and we're all going to be rightfully nervous on selection sunday, IMHO.

[NJ Panther]

Way too many of us are Cubs fans. If I remember right there was some sport this fall, can't remember which one, where everyone thought it was all over after loosing to Illinois St. A couple of kep players were hurt and doom and gloom was rampant in Panther Nation, yet I believe we made it to the national title game in that sport. So lets can the doom and gloom and "we're going to loose x number of games" talk, get our fannies in the stands, and keep cheering, because negativity helps nobody.