Bubble Watch

Fire Cluess?  Would you guys stop trolling Baldi.  Not only does it derail these threads, but it is getting old. 

Cluess is the best thing to happen to Iona since Jimmy V.  Yes, his team is much better this year, and if he loses he should take a hit.  But everyone loses and he has done a tremendous job overall (and I think Manhattan was just as good as Iona last year in terms of talent).

Not trolling.

It's probably a non issue as I don't see Iona losing to Manhattan this year but if they do lose, this will be 3 out of 4 years in which Iona finished first during the regular season just to lose in their tournament. The only time they won their tournament was when they finished 4th during the regular season. In a league where winning your tournament is super important if Iona doesn't win it the season has to be looked at as a failure.

I just hope Iona beats Manhattan and gets Virginia. That would be a great game of contrasting styles. It would be like LMU vs. Princeton with a shot clock.

Regular season champs need to get the automatic bids to the NCAA tourney. Reward the best team & get best representative from the conf.

Jay Williams tweet

Regular season champs need to get the automatic bids to the NCAA tourney. Reward the best team & get best representative from the conf.

Jay Williams tweet

He works for ESPN. They are making millions this week. Not going to happen.

Quote from: Marco Baldi on March 09, 2015, 08:31:10 PM

Regular season champs need to get the automatic bids to the NCAA tourney. Reward the best team & get best representative from the conf.

Jay Williams tweet

He works for ESPN. They are making millions this week. Not going to happen.

So does Jay Bilas

In a way I like that a lot because I feel teams should be rewarded for going through a full schedule and winning their leagues.  Makes the regular season that much more important. Granted a lot of leagues are not as tough to say the least, but would also make the bubble teams have to have a stronger resume to get in NCaa's

Jay Williams battling it out on ESPN with Greenberg on this very. Topic

Quote from: LoganK on March 09, 2015, 01:46:37 PM

Quote from: Marco Baldi on March 09, 2015, 01:28:58 PM

Quote from: hnk on March 09, 2015, 01:26:49 PM

if the win, like they should you'll have nothing to complain about if they don't win, they shouldn't get in.

Agreed.  But I just  don't see how teams who can't even finish top 5 in their conference deserve bids.

Xavier would steamroll through the MAAC.

Xavier lost to teams like Auburn, Long Beach St, DePaul and has 19 wins. They still have work to do

Long Beach St is 16-16

Xavier is in, barring an insane amount of bid thieves.

I made no mention of their record, just the way they schedule.  Although, using your point, at 14-16 in D1, they are 103 in the RPI because they had a beastly non-con schedule, as they have the past few years.   BYU, Xavier, Stephen F Austin, San Diego St, Texas, St. John's, Louisville, and Xavier again (neutral win) were road top 50 opponents.  Also tried to get others in K state, UCLA, Syracuse, Washington, and Nevada (although K State was a home game). 
Obviously they're the extreme, but if Iona scheduled 6/7 big time opponents and won 3, they'd be in great shape headed into the conference season.  Like I said, no one to blame but themselves for not being in the at-large picture.

3/9/15 - results

Championship games:

CAA - Northeastern (22-11) @ William & Mary (20-11):  Congratulations to Northeastern on their first NCAA birth since 1991.

SoCon - Furman (11-21) @ Wofford (27-6):  Wofford removes itself from bubble "contention" by earning the SoCon auto bid.

MAAC - Manhattan (18-13) @ Iona (26-7): Sorry Baldi...

Fwiw. Lunardi has Iona "next 4 out"

massiello did a great job in executing game plan, but lets not get away from basketball principle, its just very hard to beat a team 3 times. a good team at that, and i think iona was more of a victim of that then manhattan tonight. they took the same shots tonight they have taken all year.. just didnt fall as much tonight

Team A:  25-5 (2-0 vs DII)                                 

RPI: 70   SOS: 256   BPI: 71   KP: 77                   

Top 25: 0-0   
Top 50: 0-1
Top 100: 1-2     
Top 150: 4-4
Sub 150:  21-1 
Road:  11-1 
Neutral: 2-3   

 Team B:   19-12   

 RPI: 37  SOS: 22  BPI: 30  KP: 27

Top 25: 4-4
Top 50: 6-6
Top 100: 9-8
Top 150: 13-10
Sub 150: 6-2
Road: 5-7
Neutral: 1-2

Team C:  22-9

RPI: 34  SOS: 68  BPI: 65  KP: 52

Top 25: 1-4
Top 50: 2-7
Top 100: 7-8
Top 150: 8-8
Sub 150: 14-1
Road: 7-5
Neutral: 1-2

Team D  26-8

RPI: 51  SOS:  230  BPI: 95  KP: 106

Top 25: 0-1
Top 50: 0-2
Top 100: 0-3
Top 150: 5-3
Sub 150: 21-5
Road: 10-7
Neutral: 3-0

*Relative to where they are attempting to be ranked.  The bubble comprises 11 and 12 seeds.  That would be the 44th-48th best teams.  I allow for +- 4 of these numbers to be considered neutral.  Good is bold, bad is Italics, terrible is underlined.
RPI, BPI, SOS, and KP do not account for tonight's games.

Team B does not have 20 regular seasons wins. How can they be rewarded ?

Big picture.  Why pick an arbitrary number of wins?  Only rule regarding record is they must be above .500 for at-large consideration (That might even just be NIT, but imagine it is so for NCAA too)

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

Every team in the bracket has meaningless wins. Some even D2 wins

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

I guess it's right to award teams who finish 6th or 7th in their conference rather than teams dominate their conference?

Quote from: LoganK on March 10, 2015, 01:23:45 AM

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

I guess it's right to award teams who finish 6th or 7th in their conference rather than teams dominate their conference?

6th or 7th place team in the B10 ACC B12 goes undefeated in the MAAC and wins the conference tournament without sweating so why leave the better team out just because they are in a better conference

Quote from: LoganK on March 10, 2015, 01:23:45 AM

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

Every team in the bracket has meaningless wins. Some even D2 wins

That's true, but a D2 win doesn't hurt you in the eyes of the NCAA if you didn't schedule that game yourself. If you did, then yes, you should be penalized. In regards to Iona, they played a great MAAC season, but when they challenged themselves in Nov/Dec, they lost to Arkansas, which is fine, but then to George Mason and UMass.

If your best wins are Wake Forest, Indiana State and FGCU, you have very little to wave in front of the committee. Now, the point that I have not seen anyone bring up is that programs like Iona, and more so, Wichita State for example are avoided by many high majors, so I think that should be taken Into consideration.

St.John's and Seton Hall want nothing to do with Iona, and it's pretty obvious as to why.

Quote from: LoganK on March 10, 2015, 01:23:45 AM

Rewarding a team for 26 Sub 150 games is exactly what the NCAA does not want to do.  They want teams to schedule tough opponents.  Not to mention, going 21-5 in those games is terrible in comparison to other teams on the bubble.

Sorry to pick on Iona for the comparison, but it's a great example of piling up meaningless wins.

Every team in the bracket has meaningless wins. Some even D2 wins

No at large team in the bracket will have anywhere close to 21 of them.