Digger: 'Friday Night Cincy vs WVU - Great Game!'

[UNI MadCat]

Crapper Phelps is at it again this morning. Ripping the Valley to shreds. What else is new? He hasn't changed his talking point (yes, he only has one) all week, only focusing on the lackluster MVC Championship game. Hey, it wasn't the greatest game ever but could you for once admit that defense might have been a key to it too? Anyway, Crapper's big mouth drowned him out a bit but Lunardi did have a couple stingers back at him in defense of the MVC.

Crapper: "Did you watch the MVC game last Sunday? I did and it was the worst game I've seen in the college basketball season."
Lunardi: "There have been a lot of bad games this week, thats what happens. Did you watch the (ACC Game, couldn't catch it)?"
Crapper: "I was busy watching teams like Cincy go toe to toe with WVU on Friday night to advance."
Lunardi: "Really, that's odd since Cincinatti lost in the first round of the Big East to Syracuse."

Seriously, this a-hole, prick of a guy just said he watched Cincy/WVU!!! But we should respect his opinion and believe that he really watched the MVC and understands anything about this league?



Bilas was critical of the MVC a bit, but he admitted that he thought 4-5 teams would get in. In general, I agreed with most of what he had to say.

[UNIpanther99]

The best comment was by Lunardi, accusing Digger of drinking too much big conference kool-aid. Classic.

[SteinPizza]

The thing Digger doesn't realize is that SIU's style makes any game look bad. I heard a talk show host here say something relevant to this, "every good NBA team needs at least one spaz, a Kurt Rambis type player." Well, SIU has a whole team of them, guys that play defense and rebound like they're nuts. Since he's never seen SIU, he has no idea. I'm not defending him, just pointing out that he's ignorant and uninformed, and an a$$wipe for being so since he's paid to be an analyst.

[TheMacHouse]

If ACC games were low scoring like the Valley he would say that the ACC is great because they play great defense and if the Valley scores were in the 70's and 80's he would say that the Valley is terrible because they play no defense and that is why scores are high. All he cares about is the BcS and Gonzuke.

Dykes said Friday night that Maryland would finish no worse than 2nd in the Valley based on his Common Sense Index. I will go on record and say that UNI would go no worse than .500 in the ACC based on my CSI. I also base it on some numbers. The last 3 years UNI is 4-6 against BcS schools including the NCAA tourny and 7 of those games were agaisnt tourny worthy opponents. They played 3 home 5 road and 2 neutral (NCAA tourny). Give them more home games and games against the bottom feeders of the ACC and they would finish at least .500. On the other side Maryland the last 2 years is 4-15 against tourny teams not including the lower 1 bid leagues. They played 6 home 8 road and 5 neutral. They are 15-17 they last 2 years in the ACC so most of their wins are against bottom feeders and the fact they play more at home. If someone presented these numbers to the talking heads they would still say you are wrong and say Maryland is better.

[ejacobson]

They can talk and whine all the want the thing is though, none of them are on the selection committee, and

UNI= Dancing

Maryland= NIT

Any questions Digger, you jack@$$?

[DRAKELAWPANTHER]

Did anyone else hear Jim Nantz trash the RPI during the Iowa game? CBS put up a chart of 'bubble teams' which included Bradley and Northern Iowa, among others. He noted how high the RPI's of those bubble teams were, and said he didn't understand how they could be that high when those teams didn't play anyone. He, of course, used Hofstra's schedule as an example - he conveniently did not note UNI's out-of-conference wins over LSU, Iowa, and Bucknell.

I'm just ready for Selection Sunday to be over - I'm tired of this crap. I just hope all this RPI-trashing doesn't make it tougher for MVC teams next year. I mean, really, UNI is 23-9 with some really big wins. How much more do they have to do to get off 'the bubble????

P.S. As I'm writing this, Nantz trashed the RPI again - noting that there are the same number of Under-40 RPI teams in the Colonial league as in the ACC. He said those smaller leagues would stand no chance playing an ACC schedule...Maybe he's right - maybe we should do away with at-large bids and just allow the biggest D-1 schools in EVERY year - regardless of how bad they are or how cushy their schedules are....Ridiculous...

[NJ Panther]

I wish I had a $ for every time Digger used "I watched the MVC title game..." He just said that NO MVC team would go .500 in the ACC or Big East. Whatever, the committee is smarter. What I know for sure is every UNI and Valley fan better be cheering loudly for every mid-major in the dance. The more we all win the more we make Digger look stupid, and the less we have to put up with this crap in the future

[Panthers to the Bone]

I love how they conveniently take the top three teams in the "big" conference and the top 3 teams in the "lower" conference and say, "who would win these games?" Well, that's not the point. The point is would the #1,2,3 teams in the "lower" conference beat the rest of the teams in the "bigger" conference. There is no doubt that the top teams in the Mo Valley would struggle to compete on a daily basis with Duke, UConn, Nova, etc...but those are the #1 and #2 teams in the "bigger" conferences. Yes, UNI beat LSU and Iowa, both at the top of two "bigger" conferences, but for the rest of the MVC, there is no such concrete objective evidence. The more fair comparison is to compare teams 3-8 in each league with the top half of the MVC. Would the MVC beat those teams regularly? My thinking is yes. And this year, UNI proved it could go higher.

[DWadle1983]

If ACC games were low scoring like the Valley he would say that the ACC is great because they play great defense and if the Valley scores were in the 70's and 80's he would say that the Valley is terrible because they play no defense and that is why scores are high. All he cares about is the BcS and Gonzuke.

Dykes said Friday night that Maryland would finish no worse than 2nd in the Valley based on his Common Sense Index. I will go on record and say that UNI would go no worse than .500 in the ACC based on my CSI. I also base it on some numbers. The last 3 years UNI is 4-6 against BcS schools including the NCAA tourny and 7 of those games were agaisnt tourny worthy opponents. They played 3 home 5 road and 2 neutral (NCAA tourny). Give them more home games and games against the bottom feeders of the ACC and they would finish at least .500. On the other side Maryland the last 2 years is 4-15 against tourny teams not including the lower 1 bid leagues. They played 6 home 8 road and 5 neutral. They are 15-17 they last 2 years in the ACC so most of their wins are against bottom feeders and the fact they play more at home. If someone presented these numbers to the talking heads they would still say you are wrong and say Maryland is better.

BCS conference teams are held to a different standard and are given more chances to succeed because they are BCS conference teams according to, I think, Doug Gottlieb. He didn't say it was right, just the way it works.

[tcondon]

I'm going to take a guess on how Seton Hall would do in the MVC with Missouri State's schedule and visa versa.

Missouri State (10-6)
Wed Jan 4 (137) St. John's W
Sat Jan 7 @ (75) Rutgers W
Wed Jan 11 (28) Marquette L
Tue Jan 17 @ (2) Villanova L
Fri Jan 20 (236) South Florida W
Sun Jan 29 18) @ Syracuse L
Wed Feb 1 (108) @ Providence W
Sun Feb 5 (75) Rutgers W
Wed Feb 8 (236) @ South Florida W
Sat Feb 11 (3) Connecticut L
Tue Feb 14 (34) West Virginia L
Sat Feb 18 (95) Notre Dame W
Tue Feb 21 (137) @ St. John's W
Sat Feb 25 (89) @ DePaul W
Tue Feb 28 (41) Cincinnati W
Fri Mar 3 (7) @ Pittsburgh L

Seton Hall 11-7
Fri Dec 30 (163) Indiana St. W
Mon Jan 2 (176) @ Drake W
Thu Jan 5 (191) @ Evansville W
Sat Jan 7 (23) Northern Iowa L
Wed Jan 11 (233) Illinois St. W
Sat Jan 14 (24) @ Wichita St. L
Thu Jan 19 (27) Southern Illinois L
Sun Jan 22 (24) Wichita St. W
Wed Jan 25 (35) @ Bradley L
Sun Jan 29 (163) @ Indiana St. L
Wed Feb 1 (176) Drake W
Sat Feb 4 (35) Bradley W
Tue Feb 7 (27) @ Southern Illinois L
Sat Feb 11 (23) @ Northern Iowa L
Tue Feb 14 (191) Evansville W
Wed Feb 22 (233) @ Illinois St. W
Sat Feb 25 (40) Creighton W

[PantherHawk]

I truely beleive that digger phelps is just doing this for publicity. he was backing the MVC last year and now that the Big Easy has 16 teams, he all of sudden thinks it's the best conference in the world. I am sorry i watched the whole Big easy tournament and none of the teams impressed me. They had no set offenses, it was all run and gun style, which will win you some games, but not a lot. Digger Phelps truely does not know what he is talking about, And i hope ESPN fires his ass, he is no good because he is so ND prone. He loves the Irish even when they suck. I am sorry right now with syracuse winning i feel the only teams taht should be in are Syracuse, UCONN, Villinova, West Virgina, Pitt, and a couple of others, OUT should be Cinici, Seton Hall, Rutgers! if any one of those teams gets in, its BS. They can't get above 500 in their conference tough ****, get better and win some games. I am sick of having the MVC and other conferences looked down at because we don't play at the big arena's. If these teams are so good, go on the road and play some mid majors. I am sending a copy of this to Digger Phelps email addy, so i hope he posts it on ESPN taht pansy! GO CATS

[UNI92]

Seton Hall would lose at Creighton as well to make them 10-8 in the MVC.
I think you left that game out accidently.

Good post!

[Blue42]

Take a look at the stats from the Iowa-Michigan State Big 10 semi-final game from Saturday. Shooting % in the 30s. More turnover than assists for both teams.

Tell me how that basketball is any different (or better) than the MVC title game. Why isn't anyone trashing the Big 10 for that?

For some, defense played in the Big10 makes it a physical league, while defense played in the MVC makes it low grade hoops. That's the definition of bias.

[TheMacHouse]

So was the SEC title game good basketball or bad basketball to Digger. The final score 49-47 with S Carolina shooting 29% and Florida having 20 turnovers.

[DrewDog]

I was thinking the same thing. I have seen a lot of ugly basketball this week, as would be expected during tournaments when more is at stake.