Bad team, bad schedule = bad 3 1/2 years

[Da Coach]

OK, for the foolish fans and admins who believe we are much better off scheduling weak non-conference opponents in an attempt to rack up a few more wins and fool people, here are some numbers, and they aren't pretty.

Here are the teams we have played so far, and their current RPIs-
Date.....Opponent.............Opp Record.....Opp RPI.....score
11-14....TX Arlington.............4-4...............121.......75-86 L
11-19....Robert Morris...........2-6...............208.......61-68 L
11-23....N.C. A&T.................2-8...............339.......58-50 W
11-25....TAMU Corpus Christi..2-3...............235.......52-38 W
11-28....vs TCU....................9-0................49........49-57 L
11-29....vs Saint Louis...........4-4...............231.......57-60 L
12-02....Cent. Michigan..........6-1...............162.......84-73 W
12-06....at Memphis..............3-2...............224.......45-73 L
12-09....at Kansas St.............5-4...............192.......47-50 L

Looking at the actual RPI numbers, it actually a bit of a stretch to call the Kansas State loss a "moral victory". Their RPI is 192- they haven't been very good. In fact, none of Bradley's opponents have been very good, except TCU. Our losses have been to teams with RPIs of 121, 208, 49, 231, 224, and 192. That is not good. And our wins have been against bad teams with RPIs of 339, 235, and 162. Those are some pretty ugly RPI numbers. The sad thing is that this is the same path we have decided to follow for the past 3 seasons- playing bad teams at home, and losing to everyone away from home.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=300921#post300921

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=300294#post300294

Bradley fans can only hope and pray that some day we can actually compete and win a game against a good opponent, especially away from our home court, which has not happened since the final season under Jim Les- the 2010-2011 season (BU beat USC).

Bradley has only won a total of 6 games against teams either on the road or on neutral courts in the last 3 1/2 seasons! The total record is 6-46 (winning percentage of .115)

Here are all our road and neutral court wins since the coaching change:
12/15/12- at George Washington...RPI 187
11/17/12 at IUPUI......................RPI 326
11/28/12 at Central Michigan........RPI 266
1/2/13 at SIU(Last place in MVC)...RPI 193
2/23/13 at UIC...........................RPI 169
2/6/14 at Loyola(Last place in MVC)RPI 292


Here is a bit of trivia- which MVC team is the only one that did not have a win over a team in the top 100 RPI last year?
Of course, the answer is Bradley- every one of the other 9 MVC, even Loyola, Drake, SIU, Evansville, Missouri State, Illinois State, etc, had 1 or more wins against Top 100 teams!
That is a combination of woefully poor scheduling, a downgraded MVC, and a bad team that is unable to beat anyone good.

Here is another bit of trivia- Bradley has not beaten a Top 50 RPI team since 2010 (UNI & WSU).

Another trivia question-
How many wins has Bradley had in the last 3 1/2 years against Top 100 RPI opponments?

I'll save you the trouble of looking it up- The answer is just 2 such wins- Northern Iowa with an RPI of 72 in Feb, 2012 and Indiana State with an RPI of 72 in Feb, 2013. Both were home wins, and we were never even close to any Top 100 road or neutral court wins. That is by far the fewest such number of wins over Top 100 opponents among any MVC school in these last 4 seasons.
The last win away from home over a Top 100 PRI team was in Jim Les' final season. Bradley beat USC, despite not having Taylor Brown, to go to 4-0 that season.

[tornado]

I heard someone claim that Bradley's win against Tulane in 2013 was a quality win, do you think it was?

In 2012-13, Tulane had an RPI of 178 and a SOS of 202 and lost 15 games that season against that weak schedule.
I remember that game, we rode a monster game by Will Egolf (20 pts/12 rebs) who stole the show from Josh Davis (who later signed with the NBA San Antonio Spurs) and hit the go ahead 3-pointer with a minute to go.
Dyricus (13 pts, 4 rebs, 6 asst) and Walt (12 pts. 6 rebounds, 6 assists) also helped a ton proving that cupboard wasn't all that empty after all.

(BTW - the team we had rallied to beat just a couple days earlier, Green Bay, actually had a better RPI & SOS (160,158 ))

[Tulsa Brave]

Kansas State and Memphis are right now, and will remain throughout the season, top 100 teams by every single metric available that realistically assesses a team's strength. By the end of the season, the RPI will be such a metric, but at this point, it clearly is not, for reasons that are extremely obvious to9 anyone with even the slightest bit of statistical background. Pomeroy, Sagarin, etc. need to be used if you wish to see a true picture of a team's strength at this point in the season.

For example, do you really believe the following...

That Green Bay is the #1 team in the country? They lost by 24 to both Wisconsin and Georgia State.

That Colorado State is #8?

That Boise State is #11?

That Old Dominion is #14?

That Buffalo is #18?

That no SWAC teams are among the 24 worst teams in the country?

If you believe any of these things are true, then I have some wonderful oceanfront property here in Oklahoma to sell you.

I agree that Bradley's schedule overall has not been all that good. Texas Arlington is actually inflated in the RPI right now. However, we are 3-6 against that schedule, so it is what it is.

[Da Coach]

...
I agree that Bradley's schedule overall has not been all that good....

That is my point. I am glad you agree, and it is hard to argue otherwise. The non-conference schedule has been bad for a 3rd straight season now, and its ripple effects can be devastating to a program. As I have said, the few extra wins obtained by playing 300+ SOS every year are simply not worth the massive exodus of paying fans, donations/revenues lost, negative effect on recruiting, and prestige and interest lost.

[bu fan 9]

Geno likes cup cakes!

[Vent]

I have been watching BU basketball for parts of 6 decades, and the last 3 years have been the worst scheduling I have ever seen. It just shows how out of touch the president, A.D. and coach are, with the expectations of BU fans. But that is what happens when you sever all ties to the past and surround yourself with people that have some money, but don't know the ball is round. And what's really bad is...we still can't win. I for one am tired of the excuses as to why we can't get decent mid-majors to come here. It is a lie. All mid-majors are in the same scheduling bind that we are in. When you take into account Creighton is gone from the Valley, the league schedule is nothing to hang your hat on. I know of several fans that have given up their season tickets, and just bought individual game tickets, in their former season ticket location, for games against ISU, Wichita, SIU and maybe Northern Iowa. They don't pay a maintenance fee or get caught up in what is almost a "bait and switch" scheme. In my mind there is no way they can put enough spin on why they're playing Eureka.

[Da Coach]

For the record- ISU's home schedule this year includes:
Utah State
Youngstown State
VCU
IPFW
Tennessee-Martin 140


No Big Ten caliber teams, but way better non-conference teams than we have seen the past 3 seasons. UT-Martin is not usually a great opponent (probably a one-and-done, "buy game), however, this year they are pretty good, better than any team on Bradley's home schedule. And the rest of their home games and non-conference schedule are better than any on the Bradley schedule.

Stop giving Bradley fans lame excuses. If virtually every other MVC school can schedule better than Bradley, and do it every year, then it can be done, and there is simply no excuse for the poor quality of opponents that season ticket holders are given.

[tornado]

Kansas State and Memphis are right now, and will remain throughout the season, top 100 teams

I agree that Bradley's schedule overall has not been all that good. Texas Arlington is actually inflated in the RPI right now....

--on your 1st point I am not ready to agree - maybe they will be Top 100 but they have to play better than they have been...
Both are in tough enough conferences that they could end up with 15 losses.

--We are nearing the end of the NON-conference part of the season...
We have only four more non-conference games, one of which won't affect our RPI- so only 3 games left to help our non-conference RPI.

If you can't use the RPI by now as a tool to judge a team's quality, then tell me how much longer should we wait?
I think with a few exceptions, the RPI right now has the best teams rising to the top and the worst teams dropping to the bottom.

Summary - Bradley's RPI is 242 - and the excuse I have heard since game-1 was "it's too early to judge Bradley by the RPI".
Well, baloney - IMO Bradley is a 242 RPI team and nothing I have seen yet and I doubt nothing we will see vs. Eureka, in Las Vegas, or anywhere will show otherwise.

[Buesch N Chips]

--on your 1st point I am not ready to agree - maybe they will be Top 100 but they have to play better than they have been...
Both are in tough enough conferences that they could end up with 15 losses.

--We are nearing the end of the NON-conference part of the season...
We have only four more non-conference games, one of which won't affect our RPI- so only 3 games left to help our non-conference RPI.

If you can't use the RPI by now as a tool to judge a team's quality, then tell me how much longer should we wait?
I think with a few exceptions, the RPI right now has the best teams rising to the top and the worst teams dropping to the bottom.

Summary - Bradley's RPI is 242 - and the excuse I have heard since game-1 was "it's too early to judge Bradley by the RPI".
Well, baloney - IMO Bradley is a 242 RPI team and nothing I have seen yet and I doubt nothing we will see vs. Eureka, in Las Vegas, or anywhere will show otherwise.

RPI has Wisconsin Green-Bay as the #1 team in the country. I can wait.

[tornado]

if we face Green Bay it'll maybe be the highest RPI team we've played in a long time - but I think we'll see UCI & UALR

[Buesch N Chips]

When we beat TAMCC, their RPI was 8. Impressive?

[tornado]

at this stage all wins are impressive