RPI Watch: 2.10.13

N Dakota, S Dakota, Lamar, N Florida, Michigan, USC-Upstate and George Washington all lost their last games. While Alabama-Huntsville, Delaware, Gonzaga, Texas Southern, Florida and UMKC all won. I'm starting to wonder if I can apply for the coaching job at Lamar (BigE want to be the 'real' coach?) as I do not see the Lamar coach keeping his job after this season.

Cats still need to continue improving rebounding and playing smart basketball, then the wins will take care of themselves. The game in Lawrence won't be easy and the Cats need to focus on playing ball while ignoring the crowd. The Cats can not take any game for granted at this point in the season as every opponent will give extra effort against the Cats.

The bracket matrix had K-State as the first 5 this week, with Marquette just behind the Cats. Monday's game will either see the Cats move up to a 4 or down to a 6.

Regarding officiating, in all games this year K-State has 189 fouls which is 4th most in the Big XII. Conference only fouls has K-State at 153 fouls for 10th in the Big XII. In other words the Cats are fouling less than the other teams during conference play. As Jon Morse pointed out, a lot of what we see as we watch games is confirmation bias. We think a call should be made and it is not, so obviously the refs want the other team to win. OSU (200) and KU (195) lead the league in fouls called.

K-State (193) is 4th for free throw attempts this year in conference play while Texas (273) has the most attempts. As KU (179) always receives the calls, it is appropriate that they are 7th in the conference in attempts.

The officials miss calls but it is not an easy job and it could be worse.

Overall Record: 19-4

Big XII Record: 8-2

RPI: 22 ↑

SOS:59

Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) : Florida (6), Oklahoma (18), @Oklahoma

Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) : Oklahoma State (27), @West Virginia (86), Iowa State (38)

Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) : none