Charlotte. Lost by 20 at Richmond last Saturday, which would be greater cause for concern had the Spiders not flashed such an improved attack against VCU on Thursday night. Despite allowing 1.21 points per game to Richmond, the 49ers are still playing the best per-possession defense in the league. They can be downright horrific to watch on the offensive end – per-possession, they’re No. 15 in the league right now – but if you can hold opponents to just .93 points per trip you’re going to give yourself plenty of chances, particularly on the road.
LOL EB contradicts himself so many times in these rankings (as to methodology) - because it is damn near impossible to really rank these teams. Tiers maybe, at best.
The truth is, the final records in this conference are a bit of a crapshoot. Yeah there are some teams that look like they will win more consistently, but the parity in this conference is amazing. It will make for an absolutely amazing roller coaster ride of a season for the fans, but I am now leaning to being more than a bit concerned that it’s going to hurt the league in terms of NCAA bids. We’re not likely to see the separation that will get us say 5 (or daresay even 6??) bids, because it actually doesn’t exist. We have 11 teams in the top 100 for a reason. All of these teams are fairly alike in terms of ability to win games.
And as we discussed in the shoutbox, road wins in conference are going to be as prized as dates with a supermodel. You win a road game in this league, you need to text all your buddies, because it’s a helluvan accomplishment.
Let’s not be to hard on the guy, if you look at the article he even says he doesn’t know how to rank the conference in the first sentence. You nailed it about road wins though I’m actually more comfortable about the UMASS game because it’s a home over the GW game on the road eventhough umass is a much better team.
Let’s not be to hard on the guy, if you look at the article he even says he doesn’t know how to rank the conference in the first sentence. You nailed it about road wins though I’m actually more comfortable about the UMASS game because it’s a home over the GW game on the road eventhough umass is a much better team.[/quote]
You’re not alone.
Live-rpi gives has us losing to GW by 2.9 and beating UMass by 6.
Massey gives us a 55% chance of winning at GW and a 78% chance of beating UMass.
Massey has us finishing the the regular season at 22-8, while live-rpi has us going 21-9.
It’s in the Xavier blurb, you think he would’ve rated us 4th if he didn’t include that win?
[font=verdana]7. Xavier. Wherein your humble correspondent (though still not totally convinced by this young Xavier team just yet) acknowledges that through five games the Musketeers are 4-1, have held their A-10 opponents to the second-fewest points per possession in the league, are playing at least decent offense (or decent enough) and pushed that aforementioned high-quality Charlotte defense on the road Wednesday night. I’m not sure whether Chris Mack can get this transitional team to the tournament; I sort of doubt it. But he’s doing his hardest to try. [/font]
It’s in the Xavier blurb, you think he would’ve rated us 4th if he didn’t include that win?
[font=verdana]7. Xavier. Wherein your humble correspondent (though still not totally convinced by this young Xavier team just yet) acknowledges that through five games the Musketeers are 4-1, have held their A-10 opponents to the second-fewest points per possession in the league, are playing at least decent offense (or decent enough) and pushed that aforementioned high-quality Charlotte defense on the road Wednesday night. I’m not sure whether Chris Mack can get this transitional team to the tournament; I sort of doubt it. But he’s doing his hardest to try. [/font][/quote]
36% from the field, 25% from 3, 57 points, and 17 TOs is pushing our defense?
It’s in the Xavier blurb, you think he would’ve rated us 4th if he didn’t include that win?
[font=verdana]7. Xavier. Wherein your humble correspondent (though still not totally convinced by this young Xavier team just yet) acknowledges that through five games the Musketeers are 4-1, have held their A-10 opponents to the second-fewest points per possession in the league, are playing at least decent offense (or decent enough) and pushed that aforementioned high-quality Charlotte defense on the road Wednesday night. I’m not sure whether Chris Mack can get this transitional team to the tournament; I sort of doubt it. But he’s doing his hardest to try. [/font][/quote]
36% from the field, 25% from 3, 57 points, and 17 TOs is pushing our defense?[/quote]
Must be a new standard of pushing around a good D for ESPN