Bradley has a shot at 6th place

[BUSongwriter]

Yes, a bit of tongue-in-cheek fake news. But our odds of moving ahead of Missouri State are at least better than winning the lottery! And as the old coach says, Yajusneverno! Go Braves!

[LittleBrave]

Tough Braves

From what I watched last night - granted, I didn't see most of the 1st half, and the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half, the Braves effort reminded me of when we beat a ranked UNI team (I believe the same one who knocked off #1 Kansas in the tournament to reach the Sweet 16) near the end of the conference season.

We showed a toughness on both ends of the court and a willingness to do everything a bit better than the opponent.

Nice to see - I hope our guys are growing in confidence...and TOUGHNESS!

[bigjimmy]

There are still a couple of places to be decided. Illinois State and Wichita are tied at 16-1 and to me if they both win the Redbirds will win the tiebreaker. They split their season series and as of now ISU's RPI is at 34 while Wichita's is at 41. The Redbirds play at UNI and Wichita plays Missouri State at home so Wichita's RPI should fall more than ISU's which would give them the #1 seed. UNI looks like the #3 seed regardless of what they do Saturday as they beat SIU 2-0 in the season series and have a better RPI than Loyola. The winner of the game between SIU and Loyola should be the #4 seed.

[Da Coach]

There are still a couple of places to be decided. Illinois State and Wichita are tied at 16-1 and to me if they both win the Redbirds will win the tiebreaker. They split their season series and as of now ISU's RPI is at 34 while Wichita's is at 41. The Redbirds play at UNI and Wichita plays Missouri State at home so Wichita's RPI should fall more than ISU's which would give them the #1 seed. UNI looks like the #3 seed regardless of what they do Saturday as they beat SIU 2-0 in the season series and have a better RPI than Loyola. The winner of the game between SIU and Loyola should be the #4 seed.

I think you are probably right about your projections. If both ISU and WSU win, ISU will be the #1 seed and WSU #2. I don't think that scenario would bother Gregg Marshall much. They just want to focus at getting to the championship of the tounament and having another chance at ISU. However, a loss for either one of them could be a ticket out of an NCAAT at-large bid.

One possible exception is if Loyola beats SIU (the game is at SIU, so it will not be an easy task for LU) and UNI loses to Illinois State (note that UNI played ISU very close [57-51] in Normal and this game is in Cedar Falls), as you said, they would then tie for the 3rd spot. Having split the season series 1-1, it would fall to RPI to determine seeding. But they are close enough in RPI (UNI 144 & Loyola 151 today) there is a small possibility that with UNI losing and Loyola winning, the RPI could favor Loyola on Sunday morning. As with the seeding we analyzed for the lower spots, it depends on enough variables that it is not possible to be sure that Loyola would get seeded lower than UNI.

One other variable- I hear MiKyle McIntosh's knee is still bothering him. He did play 23 minutes in last night's game against SIU, but he was scoreless for the first time this season and he had just 3 rebounds (he averages 13 & 6). Since Dan Muller knows he needs McIntosh healthy for the MVC Tournament (potentially 3 games in about 48 hours), he might limit his play on Saturday and that would hurt ISU's chances.

[tornado]

As of right now, the RPI's of the two are fairly close. Bradley's RPI is 225, and Missouri State's is 214. ...

overnite, based on the results of last night's games - some of our and Missouri State's former opponents, the RPI gap widened slightly..

Bradley now at 227, Missouri State now at 213
Why aren't they using the Strength of Schedule? (See this LINK) Wasn't that THE whole point ??
- to add the SOS as tiebreaker to force schools to try to schedule tougher? Why did the MVC backtrack and insert the RPI that nobody wants to use any more since winning over a ton of crappy teams helps the RPI more than taking a loss to a good team.


In a year that our STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE is one of the toughest in the MVC- and it's much better than Missouri State's - then they choose to use RPI instead of the SOS?? What a rip...

[Serbiansniper34]

I will be watching the scoreboard Saturday and rooting for a sweep by Delaware, SEMO, Hofstra, Wofford, George Mason, Eastern Illinois, Nevada, Ball State, Chicago State (good luck with that), UT-Arlington, Ole Miss and TCU.

Missouri State played Chicago St and SEMO as well, so any games those teams play don't matter. What we really need is for one of the teams we played to get a big upset (like TCU beating West Virginia on Saturday) or one of Mo St.'s good opponents to lose a game they aren't supposed to (like Valpo losing to Wright St.) That's the only way we can make up the gap.

[AZ BU Fan]

Just Win The Dang Game!

RPI, SCHMARPI ....

6th or 7th ......

Just win the dang game vs DU, BU!





Help make BU MBB better again!

[pfcmsh]

Hats

Maybe he'll sell a few hats to us at a loss, get a tax break on the loss and we can stencil in BU instead of America on the hats

[pfcmsh]

No Kidding

overnite, based on the results of last night's games - some of our and Missouri State's former opponents, the RPI gap widened slightly..

Bradley now at 227, Missouri State now at 213
Why aren't they using the Strength of Schedule? (See this LINK) Wasn't that THE whole point ??
- to add the SOS as tiebreaker to force schools to try to schedule tougher? Why did the MVC backtrack and insert the RPI that nobody wants to use any more since winning over a ton of crappy teams helps the RPI more than taking a loss to a good team.


In a year that our STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE is one of the toughest in the MVC- and it's much better than Missouri State's - then they choose to use RPI instead of the SOS?? What a rip...

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

[Dub]

As much as I'd like to see Bradley beat Drake this Saturday it won't be easy. They're due for a win and it's Senior night.

More important to me is getting a least one win in St. Louis. We need something to build upon for upcoming years at the Scottrade Center. I want one of those cheesy championship shirts that they sell at the conclusion of the tournament, and heck I'll even take one of those memento tickets encased in the plastic holder.

[Tulsa Brave]

There are still a couple of places to be decided. Illinois State and Wichita are tied at 16-1 and to me if they both win the Redbirds will win the tiebreaker. They split their season series and as of now ISU's RPI is at 34 while Wichita's is at 41. The Redbirds play at UNI and Wichita plays Missouri State at home so Wichita's RPI should fall more than ISU's which would give them the #1 seed. UNI looks like the #3 seed regardless of what they do Saturday as they beat SIU 2-0 in the season series and have a better RPI than Loyola. The winner of the game between SIU and Loyola should be the #4 seed.

Loyola will get the 3 seed if they beat SIU and UNI loses to ISU. Loyola will easily pass UNI in RPI if both occur.

[tornado]

are you sure?
The RPI gap currently is 14 and a loss to a high RPI team like ISU will not drop UNI's RPI much

[Da Coach]

The announcers for the Bradley-Drake game on ESPN3.com have stated that Bradley is now assured the 7th seed with the Evansville win over Indiana State, regardless of whether they win or lose at Drake.
But as we have previously pointed out, that is not 100% true. There is a small (1-2%) chance Bradley could get the #6 seed with a win at Drake. They would finish in a tie with Missouri State, both with 7-11 records. It will take a lot of help from other teams to boost Bradley's RPI to win the tiebreaker with Missouri State, but technically, the ESPN3 announcers are wrong.

[Da Coach]

Late in the game, the announcers have corrected themselves. It sounds like they got informed by Dave Reynolds.

[Da Coach]

This site just updated the RPI's after the conclusion of the Bradley game-

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2017/conference/Missouri-Valley

Currently, Bradley's RPI has risen to 218, while Missouri State's RPI changed minimally and is now 213.
There could still be some change before all the D1 games today are completed, but it is highly unlikely Bradley can make up the 5 spot difference.



Also, Illinois State's RPI remains 5 slots above Wichita State's. So likewise, there is only a remote possibility that could change enough to move WSU ahead of ISU to the #1 seed.
Also, Loyola is 11 slots behind UNI. If Loyola wins tonight, they will make up most of that gap, but probably not enough to overtake them for the 3rd seed.