2024-2025 Around the League and Other Games of Interest

[CyCarp]

Just for the hell of it, let's say UNI wins Arch Madness. What kind of a seed are we looking at here? My guess would be anywhere from 10-14. Not a lot of great wins on the schedule but I would think our program has a lot of respect and there are people that believe we could win a few games.

We're not even close to the bubble, so I'd think we're a 12 seed at best since that's around where the at larges start. I'd guess 13-14 if I had to throw something out there.

[BCPanther]

We're not even close to the bubble, so I'd think we're a 12 seed at best since that's around where the at larges start. I'd guess 13-14 if I had to throw something out there.

12-13.

We're pretty far ahead in all the metrics of the teams that are looking at a 14.

[Wxcpanther]

12-13.

We're pretty far ahead in all the metrics of the teams that are looking at a 14.

Very true. 31 auto bids, and more than half of those are guaranteed to be below us in the metrics. That mostly accounts for the 14-16 seeds.

[Username]

The fact that we are discussing whether or not Drake is an auto-bid team shows that the whole system is clearly stacked, right? And they have convinced us all to play along. Drake is 27-3 in a good conference with a good non conference schedule. 10 years ago there is 0.0% chance they are left out. RPI has been replaced with BPI and TPI Then NET, then FPQ*Net. I know I'm just making up acronyms, but so are the NCAA/ESPN/boosters. Drake is a #28 team according to what I can find for a RPI # (which is hard to find these days yet was applicable not that long ago). I could care less if Drake makes it to the tourney. In fact I hope we knock them out in the MVC final. But my main gripe is with how stacked the deck is in general. They change ranking systems frequently. Player movement is based on how much money you've got. There are so many biases. How many years before conference champs don't get an auto bid??? Or there is a play in for the DIIAqI (made up subliminal division) champs until they get to face a 10-17 Big10 school.

Frankly I've lost about 64% of my interest in college sports over the past 5 years. But, I wish I still enjoyed it like I used to. I pull for UNI to overcome some stacked odds. I kinda still want to like March Madness. I think the underdog story is possibly alive (on life support). I'll root for Loyola or Drake or St Peter's or Steph Curry or whatever it takes to make the experience unique. But every rule change in favor of the Almighty $ makes it a little less likely, and the whole experience quite a bit more boring outside of the elite few that have countless dollars to buy talent.

Let's see meritocracy become relevant again. F$!# the dollars involved.

At a minimum, can a 27-3 team in a solid conference not be a F-ing bubble team for F sake?

Not because I want to see Drake in it, or UNI in a few years. But because I think it would be more fair.

EIther way, let's take over in STL

They are 80th in BPI, 60 in Net, and 60th in KenPom.

I'm not saying rankings are absolutely everything and they can have bias, but they do sort of serve as a threshold, and those are pretty bad for a team with 3 losses.

My bigger issue which i think relates to a lot of what you're saying with the deck being stacked against is when 30-40 metric ranked teams from quality mid major conferences get left out like Indiana State last year who had a Net ranking of 28 and still got left out, while Big 10 teams going 17-13 get in with crappier metrics.

[kochrab]

I don't know why, but it brings me so much happiness to see the Bears being one and done in the tournament (hopefully, still have a 2nd half to play). It's so funny to me to see their fan base trying to justify being excited about playing CUSA basketball, especially in a conference tournament in the middle of essentially nowhere.

[Trapped in California]

I don't know why, but it brings me so much happiness to see the Bears being one and done in the tournament (hopefully, still have a 2nd half to play). It's so funny to me to see their fan base trying to justify being excited about playing CUSA basketball, especially in a conference tournament in the middle of essentially nowhere.

Huntsville AL? **** I spent a decade there one fall. The movie Deliverance is viewed as a documentary in that town.

[nadf.]

I don't know why, but it brings me so much happiness to see the Bears being one and done in the tournament (hopefully, still have a 2nd half to play). It's so funny to me to see their fan base trying to justify being excited about playing CUSA basketball, especially in a conference tournament in the middle of essentially nowhere.

They took the check [for football], knowing that it will come with the L's. Watching those L's come early in the sport that their fans actually care about has not made me shed any tears.

[Fran McCrabby]

If Murray St plays like this against Bradley tomorrow I think they have a good chance to win.

[UNIAlum95]

If Murray St plays like this against Bradley tomorrow I think they have a good chance to win.

Not sure if it's playing this well or Evansville is just that bad... I hope you are right though.

[Username]

Well. Good news potentially, 11 seed Valpo is up 16 against UIC at half.

Bad news, I'm not sure I'd rather play Valpo at this point.

[UNIAlum95]

We better bring our A rebounding game tomorrow.

[SteinPizza]

SIU is making Drake work for it so far. Physical game, tied at 16, 8 min left 1st half. Drake’s gotten a bunch of offensive rebounds but score still very close.

Interesting stat from yesterday’s DMR. Stirtz and Mascari were 1-2 in the nation in regular season minutes played. Let’s see how that plays out this weekend.

[kochrab]

Are those real Belmont fans? Can someone confirm they aren't AI robots? Or maybe Belmont paid people to come sit in their section.

[CyCarp]

Bradley breezing by North Alabama, up 18 at the half.

[Fran McCrabby]

I'm watching the drake tournament game and what stands out to me is the emotion the drake players play with. There boarder line cocky and complaining. I personally don't care for that, but maybe we need a little more of that on our team. It makes me think about when we had Lucas O'Rear. Our team is almost to nice. We could use a Lucas next year on this team. Rebounding isn't great on this team neither.