Women's bracketology

[DawgatAuburn]

An update was released yesterday. We are still hanging on to a host spot as a 4 seed.

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology

DePaul, Oklahoma and Syracuse are all 5 seeds, and all three are trending up. The RPI of 25 is still a concern although it's up from 31 over the last 10 days in which we split two games (home win, road loss).

Remaining games with current RPI
Kentucky (18) ---> projected as a 6 seed in Bracketology so this is a huge game for them too.
at Ole Miss (162)
at Vandy (71)
Alabama (176)

Need to be no worse than 3-1 and the loss can only be Kentucky, but that's a home game that we really need to win with another team fighting to host.

 

[dickiedawg]

We really need the Kentucky game. It's always tough to win at Vanderbilt.

 

[MSUDC11]

Must win all four. I stand by that. Our RPI won't be high enough to host if we don't.

We only have a few good wins, but have no losses outside the Top 50.

Kentucky scares me. A lot. We aren't great against dribble penetration, and Epps is very good at that. She eviscerated us twice last season. But that's a must-win game.

Vandy has lost three in a row at home, and neither of the last two were close. That's a game we can't lose.

So yeah, we've got to win out to host. And an extra win or two in Jacksonville would help a lot.

 

[FlotownDawg]

We can thank our non-conference schedule (again) for our predicament. This is the second year in a row that a pathetically weak non-con schedule has dragged down our RPI and potentially will cost us a host spot. I would have thought we would have learned from last year, when we were a 5 seed with a gaudy record and had to go to Duke instead of hosting. Instead, this year four of our first five games were against either SWAC or MEAC opponents. Go back and look at the scores of those games. It's ridiculous. Like playing JUCO teams. Next year's team is supposed to be even better than this year's, so we really need to step up our scheduling.

 

[MSUDC11]

I've said this for years, and this applies to the men, too:

You don't have to schedule UConn and Baylor every year. Just making some slight adjustments would help a lot.

Instead of scheduling Tennessee State, schedule MTSU or Belmont.

Instead of Grambling and SE LA, schedule Tulane and UL Lafayette.

You're always going to have at least one horrible RPI team on your schedule. Even the best teams do. But just limit those. Scheduling Sun Belt and C-USA teams instead of SWAC squads can make a big difference.

 

[13thEagle]

I've said this for years, and this applies to the men, too:

You don't have to schedule UConn and Baylor every year. Just making some slight adjustments would help a lot.

Instead of scheduling Tennessee State, schedule MTSU or Belmont.

Instead of Grambling and SE LA, schedule Tulane and UL Lafayette.

You're always going to have at least one horrible RPI team on your schedule. Even the best teams do. But just limit those. Scheduling Sun Belt and C-USA teams instead of SWAC squads can make a big difference.

UTChatt is a good womens program year in and year out. CUSA programs Western Ky and muts (as we call em) are always 50-75 in rpi. UAB will be good over the next few years. We have had a rash of injuries and an academic loss, USM will be lower than 100 over the next few years. Other than tulane there are not a lot close by ooc you can schedule that dont end up 200+ in rpi at the end of the year.
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_360_Women.html

This site is projecting yall to win out. Ive followed it for a few years and it is scary how close it is most of the time.

 

[patdog]

Exactly. You don't have to schedule top 10 teams to have a good strength of schedule. You don't even have to schedule many top 50 teams. Just don't schedule 4 300+ RPI teams and 5 more 150+ teams (not counting playing #162 Mississippi twice because we have no control over that).

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Updated today. We are now a 5 in Tallahassee. Kentucky goes from a 6 to hosting with their win over us.

Current 4 seeds: Stanford, Syracuse, Florida State and Kentucky. All four of those are 10-17 in RPI.
Current 5 seeds: Us, Florida, Georgia and DePaul. They are 20, 21 and 22 in RPI.

About all we can do now is keep on winning and hope the 4 seeds lose some games. We've got the easiest schedule which helps with wins but not RPI. Speaking of RPI, it's killing us. We're 31, 8th in the conference, despite being in third place in the conference record wise. We're 0-4 against the top 4 RPI teams in the conference: South Carolina, TAMU, Kentucky and UGA, and 2-1 against UT and Mizzouri, who are 6th and 7th in RPI.

 

[MSUDC11]

There's an outside chance that still exists for us to host. But we have to win our last two and make a serious run in the SEC Tourney.

Should be the 3 seed in Jacksonville, which is good. We want Kentucky or Georgia to be the 6 seed since we lost to both and need to make up a win against a high RPI team.

Find a way to win that game, and you get another shot at A&M.

That's the roadmap. Beat Vandy and Bama, then beat UK/UGA and A&M in the SECT, and I think we might end up hosting.

 

[klong-dog]

Beating Vandy and Bama is one thing but winning against those 3 in consecutive days will be very tough.