Gotta love this line from the Gainesville Sun
- Thread starter GrenadaDawg
- Start date
This was written by Pat Dooley of the G-ville Sun BEFORE today's game....
It's amazing, isn't it? said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. It's puzzling. You look at their players. Charles Rhodes is healthy now and he's tough inside. Jarvis Varnado is one of the best if not the best shot-blocker in the country. Jamont Gordon, if he were at Duke or Kentucky, we'd be salivating over him.
I agree that Mississippi State should be getting more attention.
It's amazing, isn't it? said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. It's puzzling. You look at their players. Charles Rhodes is healthy now and he's tough inside. Jarvis Varnado is one of the best if not the best shot-blocker in the country. Jamont Gordon, if he were at Duke or Kentucky, we'd be salivating over him.
I agree that Mississippi State should be getting more attention.
but the reason you haven't got more attention is because of the lackluster 5-5 start. This is the type of basketball most thought they'd see from MSU preseason, but the poor start kept a lot of the spotlight off your team.
I hate that we stunk it up pre conference...but love the fact that no one is paying attention. MSU teams, in all sports, seem to perform better without the expectations, attention, and with a chip on their shoulder. I really would prefer not being ranked...but I don't see how we stay out of the top 25.
It's not just the 5-5 start that is keeping us from getting a lot of recognition, it's also that the SEC is seen as being down this year. So, no matter how many SEC wins we get, they can't help us all that much. It doesn't make the league look too good when 2 of the top 3 teams in the standings started the season 5-5 and 6-7 and have a combined 1 top-100 RPI non-conference win between them.
Pat, you are correct but playing So.Illinois and mentally tough teams like them helped us. Unfortunately we couldn'tshoot freebies then at all and it cost us dearly but this team has improved and become more confident. Not having Ben and Charles for a few games didn't help either, but right now if we play with not many turnovers and do what we do best, rebound and defend, we can play with anybody. The seeding is really important in the tourney and we need to get up to a 6 or 7 in the NCAA and avoid the early matchup with a 1 seed.
Dooley's article mentioned the fact that our 5-5 start really has kept people from looking at us closer. But he also pointed out that our SOS at that time was 59th compared to Florida's 113. Which explains why Florida racked up some nice numbers early but has tanked lately. When's the last time a team went from NCAA CHAMPION to not even making the tourney? Very possible.
I said the SEC was seen as being down this year, I didn't say it's CUSA. Damn! Way to stretch something to the point of absurdity.
Just for the record, the SEC's RPI ranking this year is #5. Rankings for 1999-2007 were 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 4, and 2; so yes, the league is down this year compared to what it usually is. CUSA is #10 this year by the way, which is actually an improvement over last year.
Just for the record, the SEC's RPI ranking this year is #5. Rankings for 1999-2007 were 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 4, and 2; so yes, the league is down this year compared to what it usually is. CUSA is #10 this year by the way, which is actually an improvement over last year.
by UK's struggles in pre-conference games. If UK hadn't gone 6-7 in non-conference games (losing 4 games to really bad teams), I think the SEC's overall RPI would be quite a bit higher. As it stands, even though they are 10-3 in the league, they still have a crappy RPI thanks to Gardner-Webb, San Diego, UAB and Houston. So, in fact, just playing UK hurts everyone's RPI.
It's more than just UK's losses that hurt the SEC. RPI is a mathematical formula. It doesn't know or care that the name "Kentucky" is a special name in college basketball. Kentucky's losses hurt us to be sure, but so did ours as well as Florida's and Mississippi's pathetic non-conference schedules.
You can disagree all day long if you want to, but you can't agrue the fact that he SEC is tied for the lowest its been rated in a decade. If that's not the definition of "down" then I don't know what is. BTW, how could it possibly hurt my feelings when you make a stupid comparison of the SEC beint down to it being equal to CUSA?
that Gardner Webb's RPI is in the 230's. And San Diego's was over 100 as well.
Our worst loss was #83, and all the rest of our losses are top 50.
Kentucky has lost 5 games to teams outside the top 50.
Our worst loss was #83, and all the rest of our losses are top 50.
Kentucky has lost 5 games to teams outside the top 50.
Yeah. I agree. I thought you were referring to the thought that if Kentucky's down, then the league is down that some have said the national media has. You're absolutely right that it's not so much that Kentucky was 6-7 as it was some of the really bad teams they lost to that hurt them and the league in the RPI.
attention during the regular season never seems to be good.
flying below the radar is a damn good thing. let them find out about us in the SEC tourney.
flying below the radar is a damn good thing. let them find out about us in the SEC tourney.
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