RPI WATCH: 12/05/2010
by BracketCat on Dec 5, 2010 12:00 PM CST
in Men's Basketball
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PrintSaturday results worth noting:
- Colorado absolutely manhandled pathetic Oregon State, representing the Big 12's only win of the day in the Hardwood Series, but the announcers spent the whole game talking about the Buffaloes' bright future in the Pac-12, so in my book, it still was a Big 12 loss. Adding injury to insult were Iowa State's 3-point loss at home to Cal and Texas Tech becoming the fourth opponent to yield more than 100 points to Washington this season.
- Duke pulled away from Butler only after Ronald Nored had foul trouble and Shelvin Mack left with cramps. If they had stayed available, I think the Bulldogs could have kept it close, especially considering how much Kyle Singler was struggling, but as usual, Kyrie Irving flipped the switch to "amazing mode" and put the game away. Not sure what it means, other than that Butler's defensive style seems to match up pretty well with the Blue Devils.
- Despite a wonderful game from Denzel Bowles, James Madison lost on a last-second layup on the road to Georgia State in its CAA opener. That heralded a depressing series of results for our non-conference opponents: Gonzaga was lit up from 3-point range by Illinois (the Illini made 10 of their first 11), despite playing in front of a "home" crowd in Seattle; North Florida lost at home by 10 to Stetson; Savannah State lost by 22 to at Indiana; Texas Southern lost at home to North Texas; and UMKC simply was annihilated by Oakland.
- Our next game against an opponent with a pulse, Loyola Chicago, looks to be manageable on a home court where the Ramblers have lost two straight, to conference opponents Butler and Valparaiso.
- Oklahoma State used a spectacular 30-point, 18-rebound effort from Marshall Moses, who for my money already is an early candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year, to survive a trip to Philadelphia in a narrow, double-overtime win over La Salle.
- Presbyterian has won two of its last three, including Saturday's conference win at VMI. The Keydets regularly score in the 90s and 100s, so for the Blue Hose to hold them to 78 and beat them at their own game (shooting) is impressive.
- UNLV won its eighth straight game, tying the 1990-91 team that started 34-0. It's looking like the Hy-Vee Wildcat Classic could be a match-up of top-10 teams and our second-toughest game at Sprint Center this season.
- Bonus update: Fred Brown has 18 points in a 58-67 loss to Louisiana Tech, while Bob Huggins suffered a surprising loss at Miami.
AP Ranking = 5
ESPN/USA Today Ranking = 5
Overall Record = 7-1
RPI = 11
SOS = 16
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = none
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = Virginia Tech
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = none
- James Madison (6-2, 0-1 CAA) | RPI = 112: Loss at Georgia State (63-64)
- Virginia Tech (4-3) | RPI = 58
- Presbyterian (3-5, 1-1 Big South) | RPI = 107: Win at VMI (92-78)
- No. 24 Gonzaga (4-3) | RPI = 140: Loss to No. 21 Illinois (61-73)
- No. 1 Duke (8-0) | RPI = 5: Win over Butler (82-70)
- Texas Southern (1-6) | RPI = 216: Loss to North Texas (64-70)
- Emporia State (5-3, 2-0 MIAA*): Win over Missouri Western* (91-69)
- Washington State (5-1) | RPI = 118
- Alcorn State (0-6) | RPI = 283
- Loyola Chicago (7-2, 0-2 Horizon League) | RPI = 183: Loss to Valparaiso (56-66)
- No. 16 Florida (5-2) | RPI = 17
- No. 23 UNLV (8-0) | RPI = 9: Win at Nevada (82-70)
- UMKC (4-3, 0-2 Summit League) | RPI = 272: Loss at Oakland (62-99)
- North Florida (4-4, 1-1 Atlantic Sun) | RPI = 126: Loss to Stetson (64-74)
- Savannah State (1-9) | RPI = 313: Loss at Indiana (57-79)
- Oklahoma State (7-1) | RPI = 90: Win at La Salle (92-87 in double overtime)
- Colorado (4-3) | RPI = 265: Win over Oregon State (83-57 in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series)
- Texas Tech (5-4) | RPI = 167: Loss at No. 22 Washington (79-108 in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series)
- No. 8 Missouri (6-1) | RPI = 36
- Texas A&M (7-1) | RPI = 76: Win over Pacific (79-59)
- No. 10 Baylor (6-0) | RPI = 42
- No. 4 Kansas (7-0) | RPI = 7
- Nebraska (5-2) | RPI = 138
- Iowa State (6-2) | RPI = 100: Loss to Cal (73-76 in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series)
- Oklahoma (3-4) | RPI = 234
- No. 20 Texas (6-1) | RPI = 20
*Division II
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Who cares? OU WON!!!!
Ok, now that’s out of my system, back to basketball. Nutjob State up next.
Question: In years past I remember never being real impressed with KU. They always seemed to play to the level of their competition but find a way to win. Is this the formula of good teams and is it our new norm? Or will we have some off nights, like Duke and Wazuu, but blow away lesser teams?
My circulatory system can’t take winning dirty every night.
I concur. Ding, dong, the big red bitch is dead.
by Itchy n Scratchy on Dec 5, 2010 1:37 PM CST up reply actions
O/U on T-Magic death threats this week ... an even 100.
But they will be the classiest death threats in college football.
by Itchy n Scratchy on Dec 5, 2010 3:56 PM CST up reply actions
Seems like Watson's getting most of the ire.
But a few kooks think Martinez “threw” the game, so who knows?
Yep.
If you can’t beat ’em, quit!
Hey, Big Ten, if you don’t like this Nebraska thing, just hold them without a conference title for a decade or so and they’ll run away to a lesser conference again.
The MAC?
"I refuse to write on the chalkboard because I refuse to rock chalk, at all times." -The Forum
The user formerly known as EMAWrising
As to KSU basketball ...
First, KSU focuses so much more on defensive preparation (that’s from anecdote as well as the coaches’ admission, I believe). We don’t prepare to be a pretty offensive team.
Second, KSU isn’t consistently recruiting highly skilled offensive players. So, the number of “easy looking” scores is pretty low, as opposed to teams like villanova and duke. Or teams with way less athleticism, but more pure basketball skills, like unathletic mid-majors. We just don’t consistently recruit players that score handsomely.
Third, an ugly-scoring style being the norm for KSU … there are teams with certain styles that will probably always make us look bad on offense. Any team capable of playing a solid halfcourt zone defense is going to make us look bad, because we don’t have multiple skilled scoring options at the 4-5 spots. And this year, we have no backcourt options that can reliably get into zones with the dribble, other than Jake, who is a turnover machine right now. Really, any team that wants to focus on playing disciplined halfcourt D against us, zone or man, is going to be trouble for our O … but especially zone.
What worries me about the Duke and Wazzu games … more specifically Wazzu … was the sheer amount of absolutely ridiculous, mind-numbing turnovers. Passing into a quadruple-teamed post player. Losing defensive rebounds and outlet passes to utter carelessness. Four of five Pullen turnovers are just needless. If we can cut those kind of turnovers down to a minimum … and that is not much to ask … then we’ll be so much better off.
I will say that our defensive efforts against the “real teams” has been an elite level. Duke just had an A+ offensive game against us, but we dominated Gonzaga, VPI, Wazzu, and JMU defensively. And that’s really what they want our basketball identity to be.
In summary, I don’t know if we’ll ever look pretty on offense more than a couple of games a year. But, we dominate teams on defense, which is what we’re focusing on. And, when we have games where we minimize turnovers and have a stretch of hot shooting for 4-5 minutes, we blow bad/mediocre/good teams away and make life miserable for the elite teams.
I’m with you on winning games in the fashion we did against Wazzu … my blood pressure can’t take it.
by Itchy n Scratchy on Dec 5, 2010 2:09 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Good points
Here’s hoping the emergence of Rod and Spradling this year can make the offense prettier and relieve some pressure from the other Mr. Fumble, Pullen (the original Mr. Fumble is DT).
Fire Chris Cosh!
The game was in Seattle. They had a "home" crowd, much like we had a "home" crowd in Kansas City.
See what I meant?
While we're on the subject of the Zags...
I was trying to tell myself they’ve just played really good teams (we’re No. 5, I really think San Diego State is top-10 good and Illinois is a top-25 squad whose only loss is to Texas), but when I watch them, something just seems to be missing. They’re definitely not a top-25 team right now, and they really need to beat Oklahoma State, Wazzu and possibly Baylor to ensure they make the NCAA Tournament.
And don’t even get me started on the disaster that is Virginia Tech. I’ll beat that drum tomorrow…
I agree, there is something missing with Gonzaga ...
They don’t play particularly good defense, but that’s not the mysterious thing.
They don’t seem to mesh together on offense, even though they have a very good perimeter scorer at the 3 with Gray, a dangerous inside/outside threat at the 4 with Harris, and a solid 5-man in Sacre. But none of it seems to work to cohesion yet. Maybe that’s problems at PG, I don’t know. But when you’re not strong on D, you better be consistent on O, and they are not.
VPI … they are showing some serious mental toughness issues that they shouldn’t have, especially with so much experience on the roster.
by Itchy n Scratchy on Dec 5, 2010 6:19 PM CST up reply actions
Correct that ...
Gray is a 2/3, Harris is a 3/4.
by Itchy n Scratchy on Dec 5, 2010 6:20 PM CST up reply actions
Sorry it took so long to update this, everyone.
I’ve been uber-distracted this afternoon, whether it be caring for my niece or yelling at the Chiefs. Finally got it all done, however.
really glad UNLV is doing what they're doing
I didn’t have the money to go to the CBE classic, so I vowed to make sure I go to the UNLV game no matter what. Ordering tickets tomorrow!!!
Wow
This site really needs an edit function. I accidentally hit enter and posted the above two characters. Anyway, I was going to say that I’ll be in Vegas during the UNLV game. Planning on finding a good sports bar to watch the game. Suggestions?
Also will be there during the Florida game. Not sure if I’ll be able to find that one anywhere. :(
Find the UNLV Watch Party
If they have one, just saying…
"I refuse to write on the chalkboard because I refuse to rock chalk, at all times." -The Forum
The user formerly known as EMAWrising
I would assume on Florida
That Vegas would have every game you could imagine somewhere…
"I refuse to write on the chalkboard because I refuse to rock chalk, at all times." -The Forum
The user formerly known as EMAWrising
You can just go to one of the sports books.
If you want the full experience go to Caesar’s. But if you want a nicer and more intimate place to watch I’d recommend Bellagio or Wynn sports books. And if you’re thinking someplace not in a casino then I have absolutely no clue.
Oh yeah, the sports books...
Thanks for the tips on specific ones.
I don't know if it's been said on here yet,
but I think Kyrie Irving might be the best player in the nation. As of right now it has to be him or Kemba Walker, both are just absolutely going off right now and the fact that he’s a freshman doing it is very impressive in my opinion. We’ll see if he can keep it up the rest of the year; if he does I think he might win the player of the year for the NCAA.
by tonyg8803 on Dec 6, 2010 11:28 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
I agree with you.
Irving is absolutely awesome. Walker is too, but I think the way Irving is playing as a freshman is pretty incredible. He is by far the best player on by far the best team in the nation. I think UConn is going to drop off a bit. If they don’t the POY award is Walker’s because he IS that team. But I think they’ll start losing some games soon. If I had to bet, I’d go with Irving to win that award. And based on what we’ve seen thus far it would be well deserved.
That's kinda my thoughts too
People are going to start just selling out to Walker because nobody else on the team has shown they can really do anything close to what he can do. Now at the same time I haven’t actually watched UCONN play a game, but based off of the fact that he had to have what like 28 in a half to beat Wichita State and then has had to average 30 points a game for the rest of the season for them to do what they’ve done means that at some point he’ll cool off or come up against some solid defense that will prevent him from doing that and I think that will be UCONN’s downfall
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