The final order of finish in the 2011 Diamond Head Classic:
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Kansas St. Wildcats
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Long Beach St. 49ers
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UTEP Miners
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Auburn Tigers
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Hawaii Warriors
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Clemson Tigers
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Xavier Musketeers
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Southern Illinois Salukis
Though the field was far from a giant-killer like your typical Maui Invitational, I think we still can take some things away from this rewarding experience. K-State had to beat the second- and third-place teams to win this one.
The Beach's resume is pretty well discussed at this point, but I would like to spare a few words about UTEP. The Miners had pretty bad numbers coming in, but my eyes tell me they are a young team that is improving rapidly.
Apparently, Tim Floyd had several players unavailable earlier in the year when UTEP suffered its most ignominious losses, but once they got back, the Miners looked pretty good. They gave us our closest game in Hawaii, after all.
The win over Auburn (and their former coach) hopefully should springboard the Miners to greater things in Conference USA play. Ideally, they would challenge Memphis for league supremacy. We could use the resume help.
Associated Press Ranking = 26
ESPN/USA Today Ranking = 25
Overall Record = 10-1
Big 12 Record = 0-0
Top 50 Record = 2-1
RPI = 24
SOS = 79
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = Alabama, Long Beach State
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = Charleston Southern, Virginia Tech
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = none
- Charleston Southern (7-4, 2-0 Big South) | RPI = 96
- Loyola Chicago (5-7, 0-2 Horizon) | RPI = 194
- UMES (3-9, 0-1 MEAC) | RPI = 300
- George Washington (4-7) | RPI = 158
- Virginia Tech (10-3) | RPI = 56
- West Virginia (9-3) | RPI = 35
- North Florida (6-7, 1-0 A-Sun) | RPI = 137
- Alabama (9-3) | RPI = 19
- Southern Illinois (3-8) | RPI = 319: Loss to No. 14 Xavier (77-87) in the Diamond Head Classic
- Clemson (7-6) | RPI = 226: Loss at Hawaii (68-75) in the Diamond Head Classic
- UTEP (6-6) | RPI = 164: Win over Auburn (83-76) in the Diamond Head Classic
- Auburn (8-3) | RPI = 185: Loss to UTEP (76-83) in the Diamond Head Classic
- Hawaii (7-5) | RPI = 261: Win over Clemson (75-68) in the Diamond Head Classic
- Long Beach State (7-6) | RPI = 12: Loss to Kansas State (60-77) in the Diamond Head Classic
- No. 14 Xavier (9-3) | RPI = 64: Win over Southern Illinois (87-77) in the Diamond Head Classic
- Howard (4-9, 2-0 MEAC) | RPI = 279
- No. 12 Kansas (8-3) | RPI = 30
- No. 9 Missouri (12-0) | RPI = 51
- No. 6 Baylor (12-0) | RPI = 10
- Oklahoma (9-1) | RPI = 36
- Texas (9-3) | RPI = 73
- Oklahoma State (6-5) | RPI = 109
- Texas Tech (5-5) | RPI = 215
- Iowa State (9-3) | RPI = 67
- Texas A&M (8-3) | RPI = 235