Mid Major Top 25

Just for fun:

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mmpoll/

Four WCC teams in the Top 25 now, and we moved up to #12 with the win over SMC. The Zags are at #11.

Well, at least we're ahead of Montana this time...

The win in Montana was not a super great win...like speculation on the board how it was to shoot us to the heavens onsaintlybloggers radars..........Montana is the weak, underpreforming UCLA teams BAD LOSS how could it be anything but an average win for the Pilots...... because UCLa lucked out against BYU in Pauley...this is the exact problem with Joe Lunardi, and all these other guys that take your money for "insider" subscription you guys waste your money on oh well I guess its better than drinking to much beer or having a cigarette habit...I equate joe lunardi to fantasy football..got to give it to him though at least he did not start an illegal business when he got into blogging, ha,ha... . Give me won loss records, and sudden death conference tournament results...but I understand its fun to look at for some .....enjoy!!!

Well, it was a bad loss for UCLA because it was at Pauley Pavilion. It's a good win for us because it was in Missoula - we're the only team to beat them at home this year.

It's not a *great* win, but it's not bad either... we beat a top 100 RPI team that's 14-5 and 8-1 in their own conference on the road. That's not an easy thing to do, as our losses at USF and SCU go to show.

The Pilots aren't going dancing unless we win in Vegas, but a better post-season tournament like the NIT is definitely still in play.

If we aren't going, then either are the puppies, which makes the WCC a one team bid conference.

I find that hard to reconcile with the conference RPI being 3 slots higher than last year at this time.

Gonzaga is an interesting case. I actually still think they can make it, even if they lose to us tomorrow and don't win the WCC tournament.

The thing they have going for them is that they have good wins, and no one can question the difficulty of their schedule. Wins over Marquette, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Xavier and (yes, I'm including us) Portland... that's a solid resume.

They've got plenty of losses, but no "bad" ones unless you count USF and SCU, and the way those teams are playing they could play themselves right into the Top 100 RPI - USF is already almost there. I mean... losing to WSU, Notre Dame, San Diego State, Illinois, Kansas St., and St. Mary's... those are ALL tournament teams.

Their own RPI isn't great, but that's not the be-all and end-all when it comes to selection. We've seen plenty of major conference teams get selected as at-larges without a great RPI. Plus, I think reputation helps... remember when Arizona squeeked in a few years ago with a very flimsy resume?

And to be perfectly honest, I think they deserve to get in as long as they don't drop any more in WCC play other than to us... and maybe SMC on the road. Their non-conference slate was brutal (and they got some nice wins out of it) and the WCC is damn tough.

It'll be quite a test to see if the Selection Committee will respect the WCC enough to give a team that maybe finishes 10-4 in conference play an at-large bid. I very much hope they do. As much as I don't like the Zags and as much as I will be rooting against them on Thursday, I would LOVE to see that level of respect for our conference.

The zags padded that resume with some real cupcakes. Southern U at 339, eastern Washington at 314, and what turns out to be a horrible Wake team.

Counting conference teams, they will have played 8 or 9 teams higher than 260 before the season is done

Hardly at large material.


Us? Maybe 5 -- four of them conference games.

If they lose to us OR St Mary's, they need the automatic or they watch from a bar in Spokane.

Purplegeezer wrote:
Us? Maybe 5 -- four of them conference games.

If they lose to us OR St Mary's, they need the automatic or they watch from a bar in Spokane.

In the non-conference schedule we have played PSU (264) and UC-Davis (281) plus wherever Seattle will be. So far we've had 9 non-conference games against teams between 101 and 250. It could be 8 soon since FAU is at 101 and playing well.