CAA could earn two bids in NCAA Tournament
James Mason
Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 3 next >
In less than a month, the NCAA Selection Committee will decide who will go to the big dance. What happens between now and then is, of course, wide open. However, a lot of basketball has already been played.
While last year the CAA made a name for itself, there is a lot of talk that the conference may only get one bid this year. That is ludicrous, considering that VCU, Drexel, Hofstra and ODU all either have 20 wins or are locks to get 20. Part of this problem is the lack of depth at the bottom of the conference, as opposed to a conference like the Missouri Valley Conference. That said, our big boys have proven they can ball with anybody in the nation.
Many teams benefit from being in a major conference, while the CAA teams do not because of the lack of national exposure of the conference. This is improving, but the conference still has a long way to go. To take away from this problem, strip the teams down to just their profile. No names, no conferences.
I was curious to see how our top four teams stacked up against six bubble teams from major conferences. First, I gave them ambiguous names and broke down each team's profile. For this game, I counted a good win as a win over a top-50-RPI team and a bad loss as a loss by more than 20 points, or to a sub-150-RPI team. Then I ranked the teams 1-10. If you do the same, your list might be different, but you should have at least two CAA teams in your top 5.
All stats are current as of Feb. 12.
Team A (18-6) RPI: 30 SOS: 54. Good wins: 1 Bad losses: 3. Team A is 8-5 against the RPI top 100, which is good. What's bad is their lack of wins over marquee teams.
Team B (18-6) RPI: 50 SOS: 105. Good wins: 1 Bad losses: 2. Team B is 6-5 against the RPI top 100. However, they also have one 19-point loss to a team whose RPI has hovered around 100 all season. They have two marquee wins, but their wins over A-10 teams aren't holding much weight.
Team C (17-8) RPI: 29 SOS: 13. Good wins: 3 Bad losses: 2. Team C is 5-8 against the RPI top 100. That means they haven't lost against any bad teams, which explains the computer numbers. The only thing holding Team C back is the potential losses on its schedule.
While last year the CAA made a name for itself, there is a lot of talk that the conference may only get one bid this year. That is ludicrous, considering that VCU, Drexel, Hofstra and ODU all either have 20 wins or are locks to get 20. Part of this problem is the lack of depth at the bottom of the conference, as opposed to a conference like the Missouri Valley Conference. That said, our big boys have proven they can ball with anybody in the nation.
Many teams benefit from being in a major conference, while the CAA teams do not because of the lack of national exposure of the conference. This is improving, but the conference still has a long way to go. To take away from this problem, strip the teams down to just their profile. No names, no conferences.
I was curious to see how our top four teams stacked up against six bubble teams from major conferences. First, I gave them ambiguous names and broke down each team's profile. For this game, I counted a good win as a win over a top-50-RPI team and a bad loss as a loss by more than 20 points, or to a sub-150-RPI team. Then I ranked the teams 1-10. If you do the same, your list might be different, but you should have at least two CAA teams in your top 5.
All stats are current as of Feb. 12.
Team A (18-6) RPI: 30 SOS: 54. Good wins: 1 Bad losses: 3. Team A is 8-5 against the RPI top 100, which is good. What's bad is their lack of wins over marquee teams.
Team B (18-6) RPI: 50 SOS: 105. Good wins: 1 Bad losses: 2. Team B is 6-5 against the RPI top 100. However, they also have one 19-point loss to a team whose RPI has hovered around 100 all season. They have two marquee wins, but their wins over A-10 teams aren't holding much weight.
Team C (17-8) RPI: 29 SOS: 13. Good wins: 3 Bad losses: 2. Team C is 5-8 against the RPI top 100. That means they haven't lost against any bad teams, which explains the computer numbers. The only thing holding Team C back is the potential losses on its schedule.
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this story