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Post by sweep on Feb 19, 2019 11:58:37 GMT -6
How can ANYONE have any confidence in this staff when the question is... Can Ball State beat a bottom feeder from a terrible basketball conference? The MAC is not a terrible conference. Miami is not a bottom feeder. The power rating is middle of the conference and they are at home.
Yeah beating Miami on the road during our BANNER SEASON is something we shouldn't expect. What's wrong with us around here.
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Post by cardfan on Feb 19, 2019 12:12:49 GMT -6
ish still had a brace saturday and gunn was still in a boot Next week has been the word. We’ll see.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 19, 2019 12:13:44 GMT -6
There are a lot of putrid conferences out there.
You can say the MAC is better than them if you want, but the truth is the product the MAC puts on 4-5 of its courts every game day is pretty terrible, almost unwatchable, and that takes into account everything from the game day environment to the coaching to the officiating to the overall quality of play.
Buffalo and one or two others, depending on the day, are going to show well, but the rest of the league has been pretty much a dumpster fire in terms of quality.
Miami should be a good challenge, but if we're as good as we're supposed to be we should go into the MAC tournament on a 9-game winning streak.
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 19, 2019 12:23:37 GMT -6
But we’re supposed to be better then that, right? Or is the Whitford program simply middle of the pack and that’s it? To beat the middle of the road teams at their place puts you in the upper echelon of the conference. Home court is worth around 3 points. 3 points in power rating is the difference between being ranked 50 and ranked 90 nationally or 90 versus 160. The point is that middle of the pack this year is better than any time in two decades.
True enough we "expected" to be a bit better. Maybe top 50-100, this year. Top 2 or 3 in the MAC. Instead after injuries and a poor month with some close losses we are outside that range trying to claw back. When we get the roster healthy we are going to be perhaps only a little short of "expectations." But we can't get those losses back, so we will be disappointed.
I hate the MAC bashing here. At least this year. Middle of the road MAC teams are pretty good this year.
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Miami
Feb 19, 2019 12:25:53 GMT -6
Post by 00hmh on Feb 19, 2019 12:25:53 GMT -6
There are a lot of putrid conferences out there. You can say the MAC is better than them if you want, but the truth is the product the MAC puts on 4-5 of its courts every game day is pretty terrible, almost unwatchable, and that takes into account everything from the game day environment to the coaching to the officiating to the overall quality of play. I won't argue officiating and game day. But quality of play is tougher than you are giving credit. Not terrible, unless we are comparing to the top 5-7 conferences. The MAC has never been a top 5 conference. Not a fair comparison.
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Post by cardfan on Feb 19, 2019 12:30:44 GMT -6
We were down no starters during most of the losses. If our starting 5 isn’t good enough to win against meh teams then it just isn’t good enough, injuries or not. We shouldn’t need a couple of reserves who hadn’t done that much. The starters were not playing quality minutes.
We are two of OU’s three MAC wins. If a coach can’t get his team to win a least one of those you are never gonna sell us on Whitford or his program, hard as you keep selling. Al Brown woulda beaten Ou this year.
All the middle of the pack teams (that’s half of the league this year) are the same level of bad. ThAts not good. It’s bad.
But, we have injuries as this year’s handy excuse. If we fall short of expectations we fall short, period.
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Miami
Feb 19, 2019 12:35:44 GMT -6
Post by 00hmh on Feb 19, 2019 12:35:44 GMT -6
Miami should be a good challenge, but if we're as good as we're supposed to be we should go into the MAC tournament on a 9-game winning streak. "should" and "ought" are slippery. If we were buffalo, or even as good as we were at the best point in this season, ranked top 60, a computer simulation would say we would win maybe 8 of 9, not be easily unbeaten. It is likely the best team loses games...
I am not going to be very disappointed if we close out with 7 wins in 9, and on an uptick with players recovered. I certainly hope we are 9 of 9, it would mean we are back to peak performance and have a decent chance in the MAC tourney.
The games I regret are the home court losses that were close and the Ohio debacle.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 19, 2019 13:15:23 GMT -6
We play one good MAC team in our final 9. It's a team we've already beaten on the road and we'll play them at home this time.
Our final 9 opponents have a combined winning percentage of .392 in MAC play. If we're good, we win them all.
We can have a nice end to the regular season (winning 7-8 of our final 9) playing no more than mediocre basketball. It'll be deceptive and make us feel good, but we'll likely still be no more than a middle-of-the-road MAC team.
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Post by sweep on Feb 19, 2019 13:26:43 GMT -6
But we’re supposed to be better then that, right? Or is the Whitford program simply middle of the pack and that’s it?
I hate the MAC bashing here. At least this year. Middle of the road MAC teams are pretty good this year.
Get off this ridiculous MAC Conference RPI garbage, Buffalo has a current RPI of 10 and Toledo has current RPI of 37, both of which are ridiculously too high. This is a one bid league and Buffalo will wind-up with the appropriate 7-8 seed and not a high three as indicated by their RPI. Buffalo should really be in the 30-35 range and Toledo in the 65-70 range.
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Post by cardfan on Feb 19, 2019 13:27:33 GMT -6
The main thing is to for once be on a roll and feeling good about ourselves going into the tourney. If we go stumbling in like we usually do it’s hard to see us accomplishing anything. I’d really like to see Persons and Moses go out on some sort of high note.
But like Mills said, what does winning most of our remaining games really mean? That we’re the best of the bad?
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Post by Lurkin McGurkin on Feb 19, 2019 13:58:43 GMT -6
Get off this ridiculous MAC Conference RPI garbage... (angry shouting follows...)Ah, yes. The Mid American Conference Conference.
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Miami
Feb 19, 2019 14:28:21 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by 00hmh on Feb 19, 2019 14:28:21 GMT -6
I hate the MAC bashing here. At least this year. Middle of the road MAC teams are pretty good this year.
Get off this ridiculous MAC Conference RPI garbage, Buffalo has a current RPI of 10 and Toledo has current RPI of 37, both of which are ridiculously too high. This is a one bid league and Buffalo will wind-up with the appropriate 7-8 seed and not a high three as indicated by their RPI. Buffalo should really be in the 30-35 range and Toledo in the 65-70 range. Power ratings more reliable indication of quality of teams. That's the topic here. Not NCAA policy. There are lots of good teams not going to the NCAA.
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Post by sweep on Feb 19, 2019 14:42:58 GMT -6
Get off this ridiculous MAC Conference RPI garbage, Buffalo has a current RPI of 10 and Toledo has current RPI of 37, both of which are ridiculously too high. This is a one bid league and Buffalo will wind-up with the appropriate 7-8 seed and not a high three as indicated by their RPI. Buffalo should really be in the 30-35 range and Toledo in the 65-70 range. Power ratings more reliable indication of quality of teams. That's the topic here. Not NCAA policy. There are lots of good teams not going to the NCAA. Okay let's go through this step by step so you can understand a simple point. YOU point out the MAC's current RPI rating of 9. I point to the fact the two highest rated teams (RPI) in the MAC are ridiculously overrated at this point. You then instead of understanding the point for some reason start talking about "NCAA Policy" and other non related matters. The point is if the RPI rankings were more accurate the MAC wouldn't be #9.........................Do you understand or do I need to create some sort of pop-up-book.
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Post by redbirdman on Feb 19, 2019 14:58:33 GMT -6
Toledo is not nearly as good as that RPI rating. We will not get to a better level with this coach. I agree with sweep we are still a one bid league & Buffalo even winning out will not get more than a 7 seed. The only recent surprise I read on other schools blogs is that Akron wants to beat Whit & Persons more than anyone else in the MAC. Why Whit? Persons I can understand.
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Miami
Feb 19, 2019 15:07:11 GMT -6
Post by sweep on Feb 19, 2019 15:07:11 GMT -6
Toledo is not nearly as good as that RPI rating. We will not get to a better level with this coach. I agree with sweep we are still a one bid league & Buffalo even winning out will not get more than a 7 seed. The only recent surprise I read on other schools blogs is that Akron wants to beat Whit & Persons more than anyone else in the MAC. Why Whit? Persons I can understand. My understanding is Whitford and Dambrot had some sort of feud going on when Dambrot bolted.
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