Comments on: The Official 2008 Tournament Bubble Breakdown

By: umass all the way

umass all the way — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:53:19 +0000

it’s so frustrating to see your team go from probable tournament bid and make one slip to go to a rare chance on the bubble. this team realy deserves to play in the tourny they are a very good team but it may not be shown in thier record.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:18:52 +0000

For Arizona, you say “Bad losses: none”. What about:
(123) Virginia at home
(83) Arizona St. (twice) - and how is an RPI 83 team even on the “bubble”? How many better teams lose a spot if they get in?
(122) Washington (by 9)

Having a tough RPI schedule strength doesn’t mean anything if you lose all the games that are ranked above you. They beat 3 teams that were ranked above them and lost to 6 teams that are ranked below them. Their average loss is to RPI 43.5 by almost 8 points across those 14 losses (regular season) Their last regular season loss to (58) Oregon (18-13) was by 9 points. There are better schools out there. The only reason Arizona is ranked where they are in RPI is because of the artificially inflated schedule strength - and as I said, they lost the games that are driving that score up. Why should a bunch of losses make you look better?

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:37:56 +0000

For all of the Arizona bashers out there, let me remind you that in the last 12 games, two of them were “stolen” at home on questionable to downright horrible/intentional non-calls against the Cats. As Billy Packer stated during the Ucla game, “Whenever you can get an elbow like that you’ll always block a shot.” The shot was only at about 16 feet away after blocking Bayless on the arm the ball fell 3 feet short. Everyone saw it, but none of the officials would make the call. Ucla went on to win on anothe last-second no call and a 2 point win. BTW, JB is an excellent FT shooter.

The other farce game was against Stanford in McKale Center. Another nationally televised game showing the BS refs we put up with all year. Picture a game of calls like ASU had in their Pac10 tournament game, but picture an entire game of calls like this one.

So yes, both Oregon and ASU swept Arizona, but WSU swept both Oregon and ASU and the Cats swept a ranked WSU. Note that Oregon and ASU did not play a full-strenght team (the last Oregon game was played after Nic Wise was back for only his second game having been out for over a month).

Does that make Oregon and ASU better than Arizona?

Hardly. Come on people, open your eyes. Let them play in front of other conference refs and watch what happens…

By: Dex

Dex — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:26:15 +0000

Although I didn’t get a response about UNLV, looks like I was right. I thought they’d get in anyway.

By: Philly Dog

Philly Dog — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:16:24 +0000

@Mark

Fair point on SIU’s bad losses. I don’t think they deserve a bid either. But ASU is only 19-12, despite the fact that they scheduled Cal Poly, Florida Gulf Coast, Delaware State, Coppin St., Montana State, Idaho, and St Francis PA. If they played a real non-conference schedule, this team would be lucky to be .500. And their only good road win is at Arizona.

I know the “bubble” is weak this year, but I don’t see ASU as tournament-worthy.

By: lefty

lefty — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:09:49 +0000

where is Nebraska. Seems like every year the big east gets marginal teams like syracuse in. Nebraska should be considered

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:12:15 +0000

@ SEC and Big East fans

If the SEC gets as many bids as the Pac-10, it should be a disgrace.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:18:28 +0000

@Philly Dog: You left out one big difference — SIU has 6 losses against RPI sub-100 teams, including 2 against Northern Iowa in the last 10 games. ASU has 2 for the season and both were early in the season. I don’t know whether ASU will get in, but you can’t just selectively throw up part of two teams’ resumes and make the judgment that way. You have to look at the whole picture, and that’s why ASU is still in the conversation while SIU is not.

By: Philly Dog

Philly Dog — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:17:21 +0000

I think Arizona State is out. Sure, RPI is not everything, but at #83, Arizona State would be getting picked ahead of a number of teams with better resumes. I’ll give you one: Southern Illinois.

SIUC
61 RPI, 15 SOS, 5-7 against RPI Top 50, 56 Non-Conf RPI, 6-4 in last 10 games
ASU
83 RPI, 77 SOS, 5-7 against RPI Top 50, 112 Non-Conf RPI, 5-5 in last 10 games

Anyone have Southern Illinois on the bubble? I don’t think so.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:42:13 +0000

So Utah St. is out for sure, and the WAC team will be either Boise St. or NMSU?