Texas A&M still in but we are not close to tourney???

[RougeDawg]

Yes I have heard all the BS about A&Ms non conference schedule but they finished .500 in conference. They are a lock while we are not even on the bubble with the same conference record. In arguably the best conference I the nation this year. Being an engineer by trade, this just does not add up to me.

And if you factor in the eye test, we lost two games in the waning seconds and could have easily finished 11-7. I am just having a difficult time doing the math that the ?experts? have been clamoring about all season.

[Bulldog1]

The games you play in November should NOT have more pull than the games in February. No way!

[RougeDawg]

The games you play in November should NOT have more pull than the games in February. No way!

Agree whole heartedly. The criteria they spew all year as the measuring stick does not add up with how they perceive us.

[Bulldog1]

Agree whole heartedly. The criteria they spew all year as the measuring stick does not add up with how they perceive us.

Then they take into account RPI AND SOS. When SOS is 75% of RPI. There’s no need for counting it twice.

[RougeDawg]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know what percentage Lunardi has on the teams he predicts in before selection Sunday?

Can?t remember which game it was in last two weeks, maybe OM, but the announcers were talking about our resume being better than a team that was a certain lock for tournament. Want to say it was an AAC or Big East team.

[Pit Bull]

Lunardi is mostly right, but he is never EXACTLY right. Keep an eye on upsets in the conference tourneys, especially the smaller ones. Like a sure fire MTSU getting upset in their tourney by USM is very bad for us. Means their conference will at least get two in for sure now instead of just one. BAMA with Sexton making that last second drive to beat TAMU got them into the tourney....bad for us. Had he missed, BAMA would not have likely made it and there would have been an extra spot for us to shoot for. Things like this makes it topsy turvy and Lunardi cannot predict it. Why he's always having to change it to keep it up to date. Lunardi cannot get into the minds of the committee himself. If we beat UT, then we have erased the bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths of our last two games in the reg. season. I do GENERALLY tend to agree we need to make the championship game to get in.....but......we may not. I do feel sure we need to beat UT to at least be considered. UT is a MUST win. And would be VERY helpful to win another after them.

[MetEdDawg]

Lunardi is mostly right, but he is never EXACTLY right. Keep an eye on upsets in the conference tourneys, especially the smaller ones. Like a sure fire MTSU getting upset in their tourney by USM is very bad for us. Means their conference will at least get two in for sure now instead of just one. BAMA with Sexton making that last second drive to beat TAMU got them into the tourney....bad for us. Had he missed, BAMA would not have likely made it and there would have been an extra spot for us to shoot for. Things like this makes it topsy turvy and Lunardi cannot predict it. Why he's always having to change it to keep it up to date. Lunardi cannot get into the minds of the committee himself. If we beat UT, then we have erased the bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths of our last two games in the reg. season. I do GENERALLY tend to agree we need to make the championship game to get in.....but......we may not. I do feel sure we need to beat UT to at least be considered. UT is a MUST win. And would be VERY helpful to win another after them.

There is a mild silver lining. If USM can end up winning their tournament that game against them would end up helping our non conference SOS. Their RPI went up 25 points with that win over MTSU. If they can keep it going that will help us some.

Probably would have rather them not won, but if it was going to be anyone to do it let it be a team we played.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

It will be interesting to see what pre conference schedule looks like next year.... if I am not mistaken we are not in Big12 SEC challenge again...

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

It will be interesting to see what pre conference schedule looks like next year.... if I am not mistaken we are not in Big12 SEC challenge again...

I read that next year's will have the same SEC teams as this year. So no us or Auburn. But Vandy and OM will be.

[CJDAWG85]

A&M started the year 11-1 and finished the year 9-11. How you can say they are a lock to be in over a team that beat them by 12 on their home floor is beyond ignorant.

[Bulldog1]

I read that next year's will have the same SEC teams as this year. So no us or Auburn. But Vandy and OM will be.

Read that too. The one year we get in it, they change the rule. We need to schedule a top tier ACC/ BIG10 opponent in their place

[Bully13]

A&M started the year 11-1 and finished the year 9-11. How you can say they are a lock to be in over a team that beat them by 12 on their home floor is beyond ignorant.

yep. both teams finished the regular season with identical conference records coupled with a head to head match up with us whipping their ass on their own court. then you add in the fact they lost their opener in St. Louis while we won ours.

I will admit though that their 4-3 record vs AP top 25 teams vs our 1-2 is a relevant fact.

[TXDawg]

Everything I'm seeing regarding the Big 12 / SEC Challenge is that the Top 10 SEC teams from the previous season get in. Where are ya'll seeing that the selection criteria changed?

[Bulldog1]

Everything I'm seeing regarding the Big 12 / SEC Challenge is that the Top 10 SEC teams from the previous season get in. Where are ya'll seeing that the selection criteria changed?

There was an article, I’ll have to find the link, that said they’re keeping the same 10 teams that were in it this year.
It doesn’t make any sense, but we’ll see if it’s true.

[smootness]

yep. both teams finished the regular season with identical conference records coupled with a head to head match up with us whipping their ass on their own court. then you add in the fact they lost their opener in St. Louis while we won ours.

I will admit though that their 4-3 record vs AP top 25 teams vs our 1-2 is a relevant fact.

We just have to understand that the OOC schedule matters. We can look only at conference games if we want, but if you're looking for the reason they'll be in and we'll be out, it comes down to the OOC schedule. Period.

In the OOC, they played the following RPIs:
18 - L
28 - W
31 - W
33 - W
79 - W
87 - W
111 - W
114 - W

And they only played 3 teams 200 or worse, only 4 worse than 114. We, on the other hand, played the following:
7 - L
129 - W
146 - W
148 - W

And those are the only teams better than 200 that we even played. That is a massive difference in quality of OOC schedule. We can dismiss that all we want, but if we do, we're going to continue to be confused as to why they're in and we're out. Because that is the reason.

Heck, even in conference, they beat Auburn and Kentucky, and our best win is them.

[smootness]

Then they take into account RPI AND SOS. When SOS is 75% of RPI. There’s no need for counting it twice.

And their RPI is 41 spots better than ours...

[Johnson85]

We just have to understand that the OOC schedule matters. We can look only at conference games if we want, but if you're looking for the reason they'll be in and we'll be out, it comes down to the OOC schedule. Period.

In the OOC, they played the following RPIs:
18 - L
28 - W
31 - W
33 - W
79 - W
87 - W
111 - W
114 - W

And they only played 3 teams 200 or worse, only 4 worse than 114. We, on the other hand, played the following:
7 - L
129 - W
146 - W
148 - W

And those are the only teams better than 200 that we even played. That is a massive difference in quality of OOC schedule. We can dismiss that all we want, but if we do, we're going to continue to be confused as to why they're in and we're out. Because that is the reason.

Heck, even in conference, they beat Auburn and Kentucky, and our best win is them.

And I actually think that should matter. Basketball isn't like football, where you get beat up by playing good opponents, so it would be crazy for a team in a good conference to schedule a tough OOC. So if you want to dance, you should go out and schedule good OOC.

However, I do think it's relevant that our team was so young this year. If a team is winning and scheduling crap OOC just to pad their win total, screw em. If a team that is struggling uses OOC to build confidence and then proves themselves in a good conference, they shoudln't be penalized as much. That said, I am fine with us being out right now. We proved we are a bubble team in conference play. Had we beaten UT and LSU, we should have been a lock. With the way we ended up, I think we are a tournament quality team with the way we are playing, but if we get left out in favor of a team that has a better resume for the season, I don't think that's unreasonable or unfair.

[smootness]

And I actually think that should matter. Basketball isn't like football, where you get beat up by playing good opponents, so it would be crazy for a team in a good conference to schedule a tough OOC. So if you want to dance, you should go out and schedule good OOC.

However, I do think it's relevant that our team was so young this year. If a team is winning and scheduling crap OOC just to pad their win total, screw em. If a team that is struggling uses OOC to build confidence and then proves themselves in a good conference, they shoudln't be penalized as much. That said, I am fine with us being out right now. We proved we are a bubble team in conference play. Had we beaten UT and LSU, we should have been a lock. With the way we ended up, I think we are a tournament quality team with the way we are playing, but if we get left out in favor of a team that has a better resume for the season, I don't think that's unreasonable or unfair.

I don't really see it as a penalty, though. They're trying to weigh resumes. And the fact that our OOC schedule was insanely weak means our resume is considerably weaker.

[Coach34]

we'll schedule better in the OOC next year because we wont be so young

[MetEdDawg]

we'll schedule better in the OOC next year because we wont be so young

And I think I can see why we scheduled bad. It’s a catch 22 this year. Had we scheduled harder we may have lost a couple more. We did plenty in conference. But I see why this non conference schedule was put together because the team we have now was nowhere close to the team we had 3 months ago.