Bradley has a shot at 6th place

[Tulsa Brave]

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

Rpiforecast.com shows Loyola moving ahead of UNI with a win tonight.

[Da Coach]

That would be interesting if it happens. My calculations (I used to be a math major, but that was a long time ago) suggest they would fall just short, but there are a lot of variables that cannot be predicted reliably.
The gap between UNI & Loyola remains 11 slots (see updated RPIs- link below)

Here is some minor good news- this site updates RPIs every few minutes (there are sites that update in real time, but they require a subscription).
Now it shows Missouri State's RPI dropping 1 place since my last post to 214, and Bradley's remaining at 218. Again, it would take a lot of things to happen right for the gap to close the rest of the way, but it is remotely possible-

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

[Tulsa Brave]

Braves really need Delaware, Campbell, UT Rio Grande Valley, and Long Beach State to win tonight. Yes that means rooting against UC Davis.

TCU fell just short and that would have been huge.

[BUfan39]

Braves really need Delaware, Campbell, UT Rio Grande Valley, and Long Beach State to win tonight. Yes that means rooting against UC Davis.

TCU fell just short and that would have been huge.

Campbell just edged Radford so that's a good start lol

[Da Coach]

The gap between UNI & Loyola remains 11 slots (see updated RPIs- link below)
http://warrennolan.com/basketball/20...issouri-Valley

Yes, that TCU loss hurt!

Just to show how things can change without teams even playing-

At 3:37 this afternoon, Loyola was 11 slots behind UNI, but a new update now shows them now moving to within 7 spots. UNI now at 150, Loyola at 157.
With Loyola now this close, the chances they will catch and pass UNI for 3rd seed are now better if they win tonight.

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

No further change in Bradley (218 ) or MSU (214)

[tornado]

either one of those two close losses to Indiana State or at UNI woulda had us playing Friday

[basketball nut]

either one of those two close losses to Indiana State or at UNI woulda had us playing Friday

That close loss to IN St @ home was when we barely shot 50% on FT's. That is the one that hurt the most. Also UTA was another one we lost because of not making FT's. That one would probably give us a higher RPI then MS.

OH well the past is the past and now we have to play them one game at a time and continue to play at the level we have for the last 3 games.

[tornado]

I hate that the MVC uses RPI instead of SOS
we are 100 pts better in Strength of Schedule and more than 150 pts in non-conference SOS and yet we lose the 6-seed by 5 RPI points

[battlebasset]

That close loss to IN St @ home was when we barely shot 50% on FT's. That is the one that hurt the most. Also UTA was another one we lost because of not making FT's. That one would probably give us a higher RPI then MS.

OH well the past is the past and now we have to play them one game at a time and continue to play at the level we have for the last 3 games.

This is the point in the year when it really hits home - not making free throws, unforced turnovers, etc. The good news is that for the past several years, this wasn't even a topic of conversation - we were the bottom dwellers, destined to play (and probably lose) on Thursday. We now see hope to legitimately leave the basement, and have our first game on Friday, vs the previous best hope of winning on Thursday and a shellacking on Friday by the 1 or 2 seed. Progress!

[Da Coach]

Bradley's shot at the 6th seed falls just short.
Missouri State's final RPI is 216, and Bradley's RPI is 220.
So Bradley will be the 7th seed in the MVC Tournament.

MVC RPIs-

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

Schedule for Thursday & Friday-

Game 1- #9 Indiana State vs. #8 Evansville - 6:05 PM
Game 2- #10 Drake vs. #7 Bradley- 8:35 PM

Friday, March 3-
Game 3- Winner of Game 1 vs. #1 Illinois State- 12:05 PM
Game 4- #4 SIU vs. #5 Loyola- 2:35 PM

Game 5- Winner of Game 2 vs. #2 Wichita State- 6:05 PM
Game 6- #6 Missouri State vs. #3 UNI - 8:35 PM

[Bradleyfan1]

I'm having trouble swallowing this.
TCU has 2 RPI helping games left but our tournament starts before they are completed.
Also the bears SOS is worst in the conf.
We won the most recent match up.
The formentioned games we should have won.
On a positive note we did almost avoid Thursday night.

[Da Coach]

I'm having trouble swallowing this.
TCU has 2 RPI helping games left but our tournament starts before they are completed.
Also the bears SOS is worst in the conf.
We won the most recent match up.
The formentioned games we should have won.
On a positive note we did almost avoid Thursday night.

The MVC has to have a defined tiebreaker system, so this is what we have. A few years ago the secondary tiebreaker was some complicated point system based on which teams in the MVC you beat (10 points for beating a 1st place team, 9 for second, etc.).
Then for a couple years, they switched and made the secondary tiebreaker the Non-conference Strength of Schedule. That helped persuade teams to play a stronger schedule, but was felt to be unfair because it did not actually consider which team was the better and more deserving team.
So now it is based on RPI. The RPI does factor in the strength of your non-conference opponents, but is also a bit more fair in that it mostly considers which team may be the better team all year.
Maybe they should switch to one of the advanced metric ratings like Ken Pom or ESPN's BPI, which consider other factors like the margin of victory, weigh road wins more heavily, and adjust for games in which key players were injured.
There will always be some components of the tiebreaker that might seem unfair, but I think the RPI is better than the ones the MVC used previously.

Does anyone have an idea for a different system they suggest be used?