Jeff’s partial listing of RPI rankings earlier this week held several surprises and spurred me into looking at State’s ACC schedule versus these too-early RPI rankings. So let’s look a little closer at the surprises (well they surprised me anyway) as well as State’s ACC schedule which doesn’t open until next weekend against UNC.
STATE
The unpleasant aspects of this young season have been beaten to death, so I won’t dredge back through any of that. However, one thing that I didn’t expect when the schedule was unveiled was that State’s OOC schedule would be rated this highly.
From kenpom.com, State’s overall schedule currently ranks 73rd in the nation (which will change on a daily basis even when State doesn’t play). Now that doesn’t sound that tough for a team expecting to play in the NCAAT this March. However, this represents a tremendous improvement over what we’ve seen over the last too many years. (Check out this previous entry for a historical perspective on the OOC schedules and some of the problems caused by a weak OOC schedule.)
Unfortunately, the last two OOC games are exactly the kind of game that I would like to see removed from State’s schedule…Presbyterian (1-16), and NCCU (1-15). You can come up with reasons (some good, some not so good) to schedule UNCW, WCU, ECU, the Citadel, etc, but I can not think of any good reason to schedule the absolute dregs of Div I basketball with no ties at all to NC State.
MARYLAND
I don’t follow UMD closely, so I was surprised to see them with the worst RPI ranking in the ACC. The same day that I read Jeff’s entry, I stumbled across this Q&A from Rivals.com through their apparent association with yahoo sports.
Are Maryland’s woes because of recruiting, talent, coaching, all or none of the above?
Maryland’s lack of success since its national title run is rather puzzling. But I don’t think lack of talent is the problem. You certainly can win without elite prospects. But to win without that kind of talent, you almost always need a lot of experience…
Gary Williams is a good coach. Once he has an experienced team, he will start winning again.
At first glance, I thought that this entire blurb was totally worthless and I intended to tear into this unbelievably weak analysis. However when I pulled up a list of UMD’s recent scholarships offers, I found that 10 of the 13 scholarship players are freshmen or sophomores. I expect that this will not be the last time that “youth†will be used as the excuse for UMD this year.
I do not intend to spend an enormous amount of time tracking Gary Williams’ successes or failures, but I believe that UMD’s problems run much deeper than this year’s inexperience. I say this because UMD has only had one winning record in the ACC regular season over the last four years….and that ain’t good no matter how many excuses you come up with.
CLEMSON and MIAMI
Clemson and Miami both appear to be using the strategy of a weak OOC schedule to build as many wins as possible. This strategy has many weaknesses that we’ve discussed more times than I can count. The chief one being that a 9-7 conference record is not necessarily good enough to get an at-large bid to the NCAAT. Stay tuned to see how the strategy works out for these two schools this year.
FLORIDA STATE
If you caught the FSU-GT game Sunday night, then you heard the announcers mention several times that FSU hasn’t been to the NCAAT for nine years. Over the past several seasons, we’ve watched FSU climb onto the bubble and then fall into the NIT several different ways. Through Sunday night, FSU appears to be correcting several issues that have landed them into the NIT: an improved OOC schedule and the ability to scrap out a victory on the road.
I have no idea how Leonard Hamilton is perceived by FSU fans or administration, but this is his sixth year at FSU with no NCAAT appearances so far. You have to think that he needs to get FSU into the NCAAT soon…and the sooner the better.
STATE’S ACC SCHEDULE
Using the RPI rankings thru games played on 12/31, here is State’s ACC schedule for this year.
|
|
Games |
RPI |
|
|
|
(12/31) |
|
UNC |
2 |
4 |
|
Duke |
2 |
17 |
|
FSU |
2 |
27 |
|
Clemson |
2 |
42 |
|
Miami |
Home |
46 |
|
BC |
Away |
52 |
|
UVA |
Away |
60 |
|
WF |
2 |
65 |
|
VT |
Home |
77 |
|
GT |
Home |
81 |
|
UMd |
Away |
180 |
My apologies for the crappy looking table. This is the best that I could do with over an hour’s effort. If any of the authors know what is going on with WordPress and tables, I would appreciate some help. Note that tables in past entries are not being displayed like they used to be….so the problem goes beyond whatever issues lie between my ears. 🙂
