Thunder & Lightning: Mississippi State’s Postseason Chances Are All But Buried

[HD6]

Thunder & Lightning: Mississippi State’s Postseason Chances Are All But Buried

It was win or else this weekend at Dudy Noble Field, and Mississippi State opted to go the “or else” route. Now looking from the outside in at not only the NCAA Tournament, but the SEC Tournament as well, what can the Bulldogs salvage from this disaster season? Brian Hadad...
The post Thunder & Lightning: Mississippi State’s Postseason Chances Are All But Buried appeared first on SuperTalk Mississippi.


More...

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Good Show. Who does the out of conference scheduling in baseball? Also no rumblings this week is disappointing.

 

[maroonmania]

Good Show. Who does the out of conference scheduling in baseball? Also no rumblings this week is disappointing.

Scheduling issue HAS to get fixed. Unlucky that LBSU wasn't as good was we thought they would be but teams like Northern KY, Princeton, and an assortment of SWAC schools are RPI busters from the start and should never have all been loaded onto our schedule. And that is not to even mention UNA. Those kind of teams are known from the start on what kind of RPIs they are going to carry. Way too many other teams available to schedule that could fill the bill without harming our post-season chances if we don't have a stellar regular season.

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

It absolutely has to. Especially on the weekends. I give midweek games some

leeway since travel dictates us playing teams from the drivable region. You're always gonna have the JSU, Pine Bluff, UAB, and Alcorn's of the world just because of that. But that's all the more reason to really beef up the weekend non conference schedule.

 

[maroonmania]

leeway since travel dictates us playing teams from the drivable region. You're always gonna have the JSU, Pine Bluff, UAB, and Alcorn's of the world just because of that. But that's all the more reason to really beef up the weekend non conference schedule.

Sort of funny you mention UAB as they have a better RPI than we do this year.

 

[MSUDC11]

Playing in the Frisco tournament next year should help a little. Oklahoma, Cal, and Ohio State aren’t world beaters but they’re better than what we played this year.

We played some part 2’s of home and homes this year so we likely won’t play LBSU or Tulane again. I like the idea of playing a regional home and home like we did against USM and Tulane in recent years. Get another one going with someone like ULL or even like a Coastal Carolina. Our fans would be into that and you’re playing solid competition.

I have been beating the drum for a home series against Utah ever since they hired Gary Henderson. Honor Gary for the 2018 run and then play a three game weekend series.

The issue this year was you had both Northern Kentucky and Princeton. One of those kind of series is usually OK, more than one can cause problems down the road. Especially if you drop one of those games like we did.

 

[maroonmania]

The issue this year was you had both Northern Kentucky and Princeton. One of those kind of series is usually OK, more than one can cause problems down the road. Especially if you drop one of those games like we did.

Its more than just that. We have 4, yes FOUR SWAC schools on our schedule this year (Ark-Pine Bluff, Grambling, Southern and JSU). That is ridiculous. We should never schedule more that 2 SWAC games in the same year. And then we threw in this upcoming game with UNA (RPI 282) to boot. Even winning that game will drop us another 5 spots in RPI (not that it matters anymore). Whoever masterminded the scheduling this year really put us in a bind from the outset. By comparison, OM only plays one game against SWAC competition this year while playing USM twice. You are telling me USM wouldn't play us more than once if the alternative is to play another RPI bottom feeder?

 

[MSUDC11]

Its more than just that. We have 4, yes FOUR SWAC schools on our schedule this year (Ark-Pine Bluff, Grambling, Southern and JSU). That is ridiculous. We should never schedule more that 2 SWAC games in the same year. And then we threw in this upcoming game with UNA (RPI 282) to boot. Even winning that game will drop us another 5 spots in RPI (not that it matters anymore). Whoever masterminded the scheduling this year really put us in a bind from the outset. By comparison, OM only plays one game against SWAC competition this year while playing USM twice. You are telling me USM wouldn't play us more than once if the alternative is to play another RPI bottom feeder?

We always play several SWAC/SWAC adjace midweek games and usually end up fine RPI-wise. Some of that is unavoidable, and a midweek game here and there isn’t going to impact your RPI or SOS just a ton. I am not sure why we played a few more of those games than usual this year but I just don’t see us totally getting away from the JSU/Alcorn type midweek games. We’ll always have 3-5 of them I feel like.

The weekend series are rough because it’s three game sets against these bad teams. NKU and Princeton are two of the worst RPI teams we’ve played in a weekend series in a while, and we played both of them this year. If you schedule those nonconference weekends better then the midweeks don’t matter as much.

The other RPI killer that no one has really talked about is we’ve been pretty bad at home this year in general. Three bad home non-conference losses and now are 4-8 at home in SEC play. The RPI formula punishes you for home losses and we haven’t done nearly enough on the road to make up for it.

 

[maroonmania]

We always play several SWAC/SWAC adjace midweek games and usually end up fine RPI-wise. Some of that is unavoidable, and a midweek game here and there isn’t going to impact your RPI or SOS just a ton. I am not sure why we played a few more of those games than usual this year but I just don’t see us totally getting away from the JSU/Alcorn type midweek games. We’ll always have 3-5 of them I feel like.

The weekend series are rough because it’s three game sets against these bad teams. NKU and Princeton are two of the worst RPI teams we’ve played in a weekend series in a while, and we played both of them this year. If you schedule those nonconference weekends better then the midweeks don’t matter as much.

The other RPI killer that no one has really talked about is we’ve been pretty bad at home this year in general. Three bad home non-conference losses and now are 4-8 at home in SEC play. The RPI formula punishes you for home losses and we haven’t done nearly enough on the road to make up for it.

Like I said, 2 SWAC games in any season is plenty. OM is only playing one this year. If they can get by on one then I don't see why we need more than two. Apparently playing 3 or 4 SWAC games is plenty avoidable for them.

 

[8dog]

To our credit we at least go away from Alcorn and Valley. They are the worst offenders. They have won 8 games total this year. 8. And JSU Or Southern are typically fine.

Again its not about predicting who will be good as much as avoiding the teams you know will be really bad.