Conference of the Americas......one-bid

[stever20]

Stever, in moment of honesty, when he realizes the American Athletic Conference is a dumpster fire

how is it a dumpster fire when they'll get almost guaranteed 2 spots- and without their best team being eligible. And both of the teams getting in not needing the auto bid?

[GumbyDamnit!]

Butler had a good OOC in terms of a few big wins. But overall their SOS wasn't good in OOC play vs UConn. UConn 56, Butler 213. That's a big reason why UConn by most accounts is very comfortable right now- while Butler is in trouble.

Bullish!t. OOC Butler beat Cincy away (who you claim is a tourney team), Temple (1st place in the AAC) and Purdue (RPI 20). UCONN lost to that same Temple team twice. The committee is not going to beat up Butler for having to play quality in conference nor reward Temple, UCONN, Cincy or Tulsa for finishing near the top of the AAC. (Just like last year).

Cincy I think is in pretty good shape. If they can go 4-1 rest of the way- with @ Tulsa, UConn, @ ECU, @ Houston, SMU- as long as they don't have a bad loss in the AAC tourney, it's tough to see them out. 35 RPI at that point with a 23-8 record. That's in. And Temple may win the conference.... Or Tulsa. Or Houston. A lot easier to see a non top 2 team winning it and stealing a bid in the AAC vs the Big East IMO....

What makes you think Cincy is good enough to win 4 of those 5? This is a team that lost to Temple twice and Memphis.

It's interesting about the head to head game with Temple/Nova. I think it's more of a thing where it could elevate the AAC than hurt the Big East because the perception going in is that Nova is the best team of the country and Temple is around #50. You would expect Nova to win big. When you get a situation like that- it's almost a no win situation for the #1 team. It'll be really interesting to see come Thursday/Friday what the impact of that game is either way.

Now hold on. Temple is in first place in the AAC. They have proven they are the best team in that conference (beat every other top team head to head (UCONN X 2, Cincy X 2, SMU, Tulsa). So stop with the : "no lose scenario for Temple or the AAC." If the best team in that conference gets shellacked on their home court, this late in the season, it will be noticed. Conversely if they do win (which is not a huge stretch) they will improve their lot tremendously.

[stever20]

Butler had a good OOC in terms of a few big wins. But overall their SOS wasn't good in OOC play vs UConn. UConn 56, Butler 213. That's a big reason why UConn by most accounts is very comfortable right now- while Butler is in trouble.

Bullish!t. OOC Butler beat Cincy away (who you claim is a tourney team), Temple (1st place in the AAC) and Purdue (RPI 20). UCONN lost to that same Temple team twice. The committee is not going to beat up Butler for having to play quality in conference nor reward Temple, UCONN, Cincy or Tulsa for finishing near the top of the AAC. (Just like last year).

Cincy I think is in pretty good shape. If they can go 4-1 rest of the way- with @ Tulsa, UConn, @ ECU, @ Houston, SMU- as long as they don't have a bad loss in the AAC tourney, it's tough to see them out. 35 RPI at that point with a 23-8 record. That's in. And Temple may win the conference.... Or Tulsa. Or Houston. A lot easier to see a non top 2 team winning it and stealing a bid in the AAC vs the Big East IMO....

What makes you think Cincy is good enough to win 4 of those 5? This is a team that lost to Temple twice and Memphis.

It's interesting about the head to head game with Temple/Nova. I think it's more of a thing where it could elevate the AAC than hurt the Big East because the perception going in is that Nova is the best team of the country and Temple is around #50. You would expect Nova to win big. When you get a situation like that- it's almost a no win situation for the #1 team. It'll be really interesting to see come Thursday/Friday what the impact of that game is either way.

Now hold on. Temple is in first place in the AAC. They have proven they are the best team in that conference (beat every other top team head to head (UCONN X 2, Cincy X 2, SMU, Tulsa). So stop with the : "no lose scenario for Temple or the AAC." If the best team in that conference gets shellacked on their home court, this late in the season, it will be noticed. Conversely if they do win (which is not a huge stretch) they will improve their lot tremendously.

Part of Butler's problem is that in conference play they have only beaten DePaul 2x, St John's 2x, Seton Hall and Georgetown. Butler isn't going to get a ton of credit for losing to Nova, X, PC 2x. If Butler had the OOC schedule that UConn had- I'm talking overall- instead of 213 rating, 56- they're in right now with another win.

Cincy matches up well with Tulsa and Houston. They beat UConn earlier on the road, and should beat ECU. And SMU was a close game before- this time at home.

Nova/Temple will be really interesting. I do think the risk/reward is much more risk for Nova than it is Temple- but much more reward for Temple than it is Nova.

[whiteandblue77]

Temple is in first place in the AAC. They have proven they are the best team in that conference (beat every other top team head to head (UCONN X 2, Cincy X 2, SMU, Tulsa).

There you go again, giving Murph a wet willie by using that acidic "cincy" word. talk about salt on the wound.

[Jet915]

Stever, in moment of honesty, when he realizes the American Athletic Conference is a dumpster fire

how is it a dumpster fire when they'll get almost guaranteed 2 spots- and without their best team being eligible. And both of the teams getting in not needing the auto bid?

Best team cheated so they deserve to be ineligible. They are a 2-3 bid league, best team will probably be a 8 or 9 seed. Add that to what they did last year and they arent looking like a major conference at all....

[stever20]

I'm not saying that SMU deserves to be eligible. What I'm saying is that they'll be a 2-3 bid league despite that. That's an improvement over last year. Go from having 2 with everyone eligible to maybe 3 with best team not eligible.

Also UConn could very easily move up to a 5 or 6 seed.

[Xavier4036]

Butler had a good OOC in terms of a few big wins. But overall their SOS wasn't good in OOC play vs UConn. UConn 56, Butler 213. That's a big reason why UConn by most accounts is very comfortable right now- while Butler is in trouble.

Bullish!t. OOC Butler beat Cincy away (who you claim is a tourney team), Temple (1st place in the AAC) and Purdue (RPI 20). UCONN lost to that same Temple team twice. The committee is not going to beat up Butler for having to play quality in conference nor reward Temple, UCONN, Cincy or Tulsa for finishing near the top of the AAC. (Just like last year).

Cincy I think is in pretty good shape. If they can go 4-1 rest of the way- with @ Tulsa, UConn, @ ECU, @ Houston, SMU- as long as they don't have a bad loss in the AAC tourney, it's tough to see them out. 35 RPI at that point with a 23-8 record. That's in. And Temple may win the conference.... Or Tulsa. Or Houston. A lot easier to see a non top 2 team winning it and stealing a bid in the AAC vs the Big East IMO....

What makes you think Cincy is good enough to win 4 of those 5? This is a team that lost to Temple twice and Memphis.

It's interesting about the head to head game with Temple/Nova. I think it's more of a thing where it could elevate the AAC than hurt the Big East because the perception going in is that Nova is the best team of the country and Temple is around #50. You would expect Nova to win big. When you get a situation like that- it's almost a no win situation for the #1 team. It'll be really interesting to see come Thursday/Friday what the impact of that game is either way.

Now hold on. Temple is in first place in the AAC. They have proven they are the best team in that conference (beat every other top team head to head (UCONN X 2, Cincy X 2, SMU, Tulsa). So stop with the : "no lose scenario for Temple or the AAC." If the best team in that conference gets shellacked on their home court, this late in the season, it will be noticed. Conversely if they do win (which is not a huge stretch) they will improve their lot tremendously.

Part of Butler's problem is that in conference play they have only beaten DePaul 2x, St John's 2x, Seton Hall and Georgetown. Butler isn't going to get a ton of credit for losing to Nova, X, PC 2x. If Butler had the OOC schedule that UConn had- I'm talking overall- instead of 213 rating, 56- they're in right now with another win.

Cincy matches up well with Tulsa and Houston. They beat UConn earlier on the road, and should beat ECU. And SMU was a close game before- this time at home.

Nova/Temple will be really interesting. I do think the risk/reward is much more risk for Nova than it is Temple- but much more reward for Temple than it is Nova.

What in the world are you talking about?

Butler was 11-1 in OOC and had wins over Temple (neutral), Cincinnati (away) and Purdue (neutral) with their only loss coming to Miami FL (neutral).

UConn was 9-3 in OOC and had wins over Michigan (neutral) and Texas (away) with losses to Syracuse, Gonzaga and Maryland.

How can you honestly try and argue that UConn's OOC performance is better than Butler's ..... in fact saying that if only Butler had UConn's OOC, they'd be a lock with only 1 more win! What world do you live in?

[stever20]

If you are counting Butler's OOC wins over Temple(60), Cincy(63)- then you have to count UConns wins over Georgetown(79) and Ohio St(84)

Also, UConn was 10-3 OOC, not 9-3. And yeah I do think if Butler was 16-10 but with a whole lot better OOC SOS compared to 17-8 but with a poor OOC SOS, they would be a lot closer to being in right now. Think they would have a real shot to get in with 2 wins. And if they had gone say 11-2 with it instead of the 10-3, 1 win would have gotten them in easily.....

The thing is- you look at the RPI OOC. Butler is only about 10 spots higher than UConn in OOC RPI right now- despite being 1.5 games better. That could possibly get a lot smaller here last few weeks. And I was saying if Butlers OOC SOS rating was closer to UConn's- not the performance against it- Butler would be a lot closer right now.

[billyjack]

Serious Question:
SMU cheated, and they have a 21-3 record.
Teams in the AAC benefit from playing SMU.
Can or should any win (or SOS boost) vs SMU be considered towards a team's RPI or towards a team's bubble watch?
Why the F should any AAC team benefit from SMU cheating?
If Creighton or Georgetown sit on the bubble with some weakling like Tulsa (who get a cheatin SMU boost), then CU and/or GU should get the bid.

[stever20]

Serious Question:
SMU cheated, and they have a 21-3 record.
Teams in the AAC benefit from playing SMU.
Can or should any win (or SOS boost) vs SMU be considered towards a team's RPI or towards a team's bubble watch?
Why the F should any AAC team benefit from SMU cheating?
If Creighton or Georgetown sit on the bubble with some weakling like Tulsa (who get a cheatin SMU boost), then CU and/or GU should get the bid.

Great question.... I think you can debate on should it be considered, but I think the fact is that it will be considered. Probation teams are so few and far between that I don't think they've ever set something in place like that. And a probation team like SMU- and Louisville to be honest- where they're top 20 teams- this is an extreme rarity- if it's happened ever before.