2017-18 Conference RPI

[ghostofdylan]

By my count, the Horizon League is a collective 26-46 in measured non-conference games with 39 left to play. So it's no longer "early in the year."

And I appreciate what some here are saying about "winning our way out of the league." But there was a much easier way to upgrade our program and we completely missed our window of opportunity ... twice!

Now we're left to suffer in shame with Youngstown State, Cleveland State, IUPUI and soon enough SIUE and IPFW.

[BBFran]

Some medical issues have kept me away and my posting is currently limited but i had to comment here. i follow kenpom. the drop in the ranking of the horizon is precipitous and accelerating. it has reached depths never before seen and has simply plummeted even in the short time since our ad thought she would blow up the status quo with utterly no apparent appreciation for the fact that the risk of doing so massively outweighed the potential benefit. so now, in addition to having bottomed out programmatically with the all too predictable unintended consequences of that action, we are faced with trying to revive the program at a moment when the league has the exact opposite effect of the rising tide that can lift all boats. of course, our ad's mystifyingly awful decisions/votes on crucial league questions such as the insane decision to condemn the conference tournament to a long-since-proved-to-fail one site solution -- in detroit!!! -- and the entry of new programs we long ago had tried to escape from, played no small part in the league's descent.

is there anybody in our university's adminisration who has paused to consider that after four years -- yes, incredibly she has darkened our doors for over four years already! -- she totally and completely owns this mess?! the argument many of us made when she fired jeter, even putting aside the way she did it, was that things were not bad and were obviously looking up, but could, and likely would, get much worse if she blew it up. they have! but there's no such argument to be made on her behalf. let's be honest -- there is now literally no way to go but up, if only we had the leadership necessary to the task. our once proud milwaukee athletics program is a mediocre afterthought in a terrible league.

if only there was anyone left to care.

apologize for the lack of capitalization. just typing it this way took me a long time.

[ghostofdylan]

Well, the season is now officially one month and one day old and H League members collectively have won a little better than one-third of our games against D-1 opponents, going 28-51. Studying results of the last 15 years, I couldn't find anything remotely close to this. In all other seasons, we were at least hovering around .500 at this point in the year. As already noted, this has resulted in a league RPI of 30.

As disturbing as that is, it's even more unsettling to note that these results have come against the fourth-weakest schedule in Division 1. So not only do we for the most part feature soft-serve opponents, we can't beat nearly enough of them to even make our records appear respectable.

So once again I put it to the conference presidents and chancellors: what kind of athletics conference do you wish to have? On second thought, I retract the question.

[steveisback]

Reserve your spots now for Motor City Madness!! ...absolutely brutal....never thought much of LeCrone even in the "better days of old". I guess C students need a job too....

[ghostofdylan]

Dec 11, 2017 15:28:29 GMT -6 steveisback said:

Reserve your spots now for Motor City Madness!! ...absolutely brutal....never thought much of LeCrone even in the "better days of old". I guess C students need a job too....

"Not showing off, not falling behind."

I only wish that we could be as successful as Steven Koren!

[ghostofdylan]

Green Bay lost to Indiana State 85-63.

28-52. It's not getting any better.

[SRT4driver]

Dec 6, 2017 7:36:15 GMT -6 Title said:

The RPI (and conference RPI) are meaningless because they are wholly backwards looking. There’s an argument for always ignoring it because the calculation is so cave man but certainly until after Valentines Day.

Pomeroy recognizes the problem with fractional seasons which is why they have the preseason index that serves as ballast (there’s always ‘complete’ data)

Sadly it shows the same thing though. The Horizon sits at 22 of 32, between the Patriot and OVC, and 6 spots below the Summit. The HL is clearly a low major league.

Friends don’t let friends use the RPI

kenpom.com/conf.php?c=Horz

I agree, and I find Sagarin, and especially Pomeroy, to be much better metrics. But as long as the NCAA selection committee still uses the RPI, I'll pay attention to it.

[SRT4driver]

RPI update Thur 12/14/17.

As of today, non-conference play is now 75% complete in the Horizon League, which ranks 30th of 32 conferences in D1. Since there's only 27 non-conf games left of 109, there will be very little future movement. And in about two weeks when all 109 are played, there will be virtually no future movement (a few teams in other conferences have Jan and Feb non-conf games, which can indirectly affect the HL's strength, albeit nominally).

This is easily by FAR the worst season in the 39 year history of the HL, by a country mile. Welcome to being a low-major. If you thought getting a 13 or 14 seed sucked when your team had a great season with single digit losses, get ready for a new kind of disrespect.

[SRT4driver]

118 MKE - 2 D1 non-conf games left
140 NKU - 2
156 OAK - 3
220 WSU - 3
260 DET - 3
315 GB - 2
322 IUPUI - 2
325 UIC - 3
330 CSU - 4
331 YSU - 3

[nickpanther]

well, losing our last couple games has smacked our rankings (and i dont use RPI, this will be the last year its used by the tourney committee, if I recall right) and our league rankings blow more than the Santa Ana winds. in short, win the conference tourney, and I hope you like a 16 play-in game. Last year, no one here would have cared as we would have been 12-23 and yet still dancing. now, well its a different matter. as this conference lineup is far weaker than last years.

[ghostofdylan]

Big day today in the Horizon! Michigan vs. Detroit and Michigan State vs. Oakland at Little Caesars Arena and IUPUI at Washington State!!!

[SRT4driver]

Dec 16, 2017 12:01:52 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

Big day today in the Horizon! Michigan vs. Detroit and Michigan State vs. Oakland at Little Caesars Arena and IUPUI at Washington State!!!

Despite all three HL teams losing those games by double-digits, (a valiant effort by Oakland for 7/8ths of the game), the HL improved it's RPI slightly thanks to the SOS bump, which is still awful overall. 

For the record, MKE is the only HL team with a SOS in the top 150, at 92nd in the nation. Next best is Detroit at a mediocre 162. Props to both the Val Jordan and Pat Baldwin coaching staff's for scheduling strong, as they likely both had a hand in this year's schedule!

As of 12/18/17
Horizon League - 29th of 32 in Division I

RPI - Team - Rec - D1 non-conf games left
77 MKE (6-4) - 1 (169 WMU)
133 OAK (6-5) - 2 (34 Towson, 171 EMU)
173 NKU (5-4) - 1 (@9 Texas A&M)
175 WSU (5-4) - 2 (@124 Missouri State, @235 Georgia Tech)
257 DET (2-7) - 2 (141 ETSU, 129 Murray State)
303 IUPUI (1-7) - 1 (@37 Gonzaga)
311 GB (2-6) - 2 (198 Bowling Green, @84 Uw-Madison)
316 UIC (3-6) - 2 (@68 Illinois State, @228 NIU)
322 CSU (2-6) - 4 (@195 Niagara, @42 Cincinnati, 177 Toledo, @3 Michigan State)
340 YSU (0-8) - 3 (@334 Idaho State, @205 Utah State, @121 Indiana)

32-57 (.360)
20 games left - 7 home, 13 road.

[SRT4driver]

Both IUPUI (@37 Gonzaga) and YSU (@334 Idaho State) play on the road tonight, while GB is hosting non-D1 Rockford University.

[Spirit of Bruce]

32-64. 5 games, 0 wins tonight. Whomever gets the Automatic Bid is staring "First Four, 16 seed" right in the face. LeCrone & Co. have absolutely destroyed this conference.

[BBFran]

The league actually has a great chance to pick up a win this week as IUPUI plays Indiana-Kokomo on Friday!