MVC RPI

[Da Coach]

Despite the underwhelming performances of the 2018-19 MVC teams, The MVC had risen to #10 in Conference RPI-

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conferencerpi

Bradley's RPI is 139

Among the 10 MVC teams, there are no teams in the top 50 RPI. Plus, there has been only 1 win against the NCAA's new Quadrant 1 category of opponents, and that was Bradley's neutral court win over Penn State (current RPI 46). No other MVC team has a Quadrant 1 win. And among all the remaining MVC non-conference games, there are only a handful of opportunities left to get any more Quadrant 1 wins. Bradley will likely have only 1 more chance in their game at Georgia Southern. GSU is currently RPI 26, so though that number will change before the end of the season, a road win there could qualify as a Quadrant 1 win (Quadrant 1 definition is a home game against RPI 1-30, a neutral court win against RPI 1-50, or a road game against RPI 1-75).

Though it's still early, without quality wins, and with worse RPI's than we've seen in recent years, it is looking likely that the MVC is a 1 bid league again.

[Da Coach]

The MVC RPI has fallen back to #12 after some bad losses-

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conferencerpi

Here are the RPIs for each team. As of last week, the only Quadrant 1 win by any member was Bradley's neutral court win over Penn State. But now after 2 losses in the last 4 days, Penn State has fallen out of the top 50 RPI, so there are currently no Quadrant 1 wins by any MVC team-

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conference/Missouri-Valley

[tornado]

the whole Quadrant 1 argument is a very moot point.....as I seriously doubt there's any MVC team left that would get an at large bid even if they won every single remaining game but failed to get the automatic bid. ISU went 17-1 in conference play and didn't get one.

[PeoriaLou]

the whole Quadrant 1 argument is a very moot point.....as I seriously doubt there's any MVC team left that would get an at large bid even if they won every single remaining game but failed to get the automatic bid. ISU went 17-1 in conference play and didn't get one.

You may be right but look at Furman this year, they beat Villanova a few weeks ago and are ranked #25 this week. Even if they lose one conference game and lose their conference tournament championship, I'd hope their early season schedule would have them get an at large. Beating quality teams is the key, we did this in Cancun but couldn't keep the momentum going against UIC, IUPUI, and New Mexico. That's a killer.

[tornado]

well, yes, I agree -- there aren't any MVC teams that have any quality wins - so who among our MVC teammates is in line for an at-large?

[Da Coach]

As noted in my last post, there is currently No Quadrant 1 or quality wins among any of the 10 MVC teams. Perhaps the closest one is Bradley's win over Penn State, but they are now RPI 72, and need to do a lot of work to get back at RPI 50 or less.

Here IMO are the only non-conference games remaining that MVC teams have that might potentially qualify as Quadrant 1 or quality wins by tournament selection time
Drake- plays Iowa State (current RPI 68- needs to be 50 or less to qualify as Quadrant 1 on neutral court) in the Wells fargo Center in Des Moines Dec. 15, and they play New Mexico State (current RPI 2 in a Las Vegas tournament on Dec. 22
Indiana State- plays Colorado (current RPI 29) on a neutral court Dec. 22.
Bradley- plays at Georgia Southern (current RPI 27) Dec. 18
Illinois State- plays a home game against Ole Miss (currently RPI 42- needs to be 30 or less to qualify as a Quadrant 1 win at home). They also play at UCF (current RPI 47) on Dec. 21.
Loyola- plays at Maryland (current RPI 47) Dec. 8.
UNI- plays Iowa (current RPI 36) on a neutral court in Des Moines Dec. 15
SIU- none
Valparaiso- none
Evansville- none
Missouri State- none

So that is only 8 games with the potential to become Quadrant 1 wins, and several of them will probably not qualify by NCAA Tournament selection time. Currently, 2 of them (Iowa State & Ole Miss) are well out of the range for Quadrant 1 games, and probably a few more (New Mexico State, Georgia Southern, & UCF) will be by March because of the weak opponents they will have to play in their conferences. Plus, most of the games do not look very winnable, which negates any chance at a quality win.

So as I have been saying since the season started, I don't see any way the MVC gets an at large bid. Recall that last year by the NCAA's own team rankings, Loyola would not have gotten an at-large bid, and I don't see any team dominating the MVC this year quite like Loyola did last year.

By the way, here is the definition of the Quadrants-
The quadrant system is broken down into four categories:
• Quadrant 1: Home 1-30; Neutral 1-50; Away 1-75
• Quadrant 2: Home 31-75; Neutral 51-100; Away 76-135
• Quadrant 3: Home 76-160; Neutral 101-200; Away 136-240
• Quadrant 4: Home 161-plus; Neutral 201-plus; Away 241-plus