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Post by freewind on Dec 6, 2021 7:23:19 GMT -6
1. Oakland (2-0 Con, 7-2 Overall)- No Brainer here. Winner of the Gulf Coast Showcase and has quality wins over Oklahoma State and Toledo. Has been hovering around one of the top RPI's in College Basketball. Kampe has to feel good about all the haters giving him crap for playing a tough non-conference schedule. Good on him.
2. Cleveland St. (2-0 Con, 6-2 Overall) - Winner of the Lake Erie Challenge (if that's even such a thing). Their losses against BYU & Ohio U don't look too bad for now. Currently on a six game winning streak beating both WSU & CSU on their home floor to open league play. Gates doing what he does best, quietly taking caring of business.
3. Detroit (2-0 Con, 2-6 Overall) - Outside the top 2, no one else has non-con worth talking about. After losing 6 games on the road, you start figuring out how to win there against your conference opponents. Beating IUPUI isn't saying much on the road but I still think UIC will be a mid-pack team and picking up that win is good for early con.
4. Wright St. (1-1 Con, 2-6 Overall) - Wright State might become the team that i usually hate to see. Can't win against their non-con but you can slowly see them figure things out each game on the court. Their 5 starters have all had double digit scoring games with maybe only Finke being the only player who really hasn't had a break-out performance. AJ Braun is looking to cement his starting role after putting 17 on PFW. If they get their defense situation worked out, they'll compete for the top spot.
5. YSU (2-0 Con, 4-3 Overall) - I hated to see this team lose Covington for the season, but honestly this team has looked pretty good without him in conference play. Olison has looked really good last couple games and though I don't want to get too carried away, but it looks like the rest of the team was clicking against Green Bay. Jerrod Calhoun does his best coaching when people aren't thinking about him.
6. Milwaukee (1-1 Con, 2-6 Overall) - This team is below a .500 win rate without PBJ. This team is above a .500 win rate with PBJ.
7. PFW (1-1 Con, 4-4 Overall) - Coffman navigated the Non-con as well as could be expected so far and splitting NKU/WSU at home isn't terrible. If he can keep the team's composure and win consistently against the lower teams of the league, might be able to avenge the OT loss from the tournament to CSU last year.
8. NKU (0-2 Con, 2-5 Overall) - Not the start of conference play you wanted to see out of this team for sure. The talent is on this roster. It might take all season to get it working together but I feel Horn can do it. Warrick will find his stroke again until then the team needs to get the ball in the hands of the players shooting better. I am also very partial to Langdon, he's on my fantasy team.
9. UIC (0-2 Con, 2-6 Overall) - At least you got the win over Valpo. I look forward to the day you can beat Loyola again too. It feels like I say the same thing about this team every year. The talent is there. Losing 2 at home to start conference is tough. Played close with Oakland which feels good, but then to lose to Detroit as well, not so much. Luke Yaklich has a lot of work to do still.
10. Green Bay (1-1 Con, 2-6 Overall) - They are better than 11th where the pre-season polls had them! Just not much better. They beat RMU at home and lost to a YSU team that recently lost one of their starters. Ansong has to find some help.
11. IUPUI (0-2 Con, 1-7 Overall) - We all knew they'd be down here. This is Crenshaw's learning year and this is going to be a long work in progress before we see any spark out of this program. The only positive thing I can say at this point is the D has been average.
12. RMU (0-2 Con, 0-7 Overall) - Bobby Mo fans are probably missing the NEC by now. I blame a lot of this on the after effects of Bramah. It's so hard when your star player gets up and leaves late last season and to come into this season with your dynamics completely change and starting from almost scratch. Toole will do better, the question is when?
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Post by commissioner on Dec 6, 2021 11:25:21 GMT -6
The NCAA has released its first NET rankings of the year:
47. Oakland 167. Detroit 190. Youngstown State 206. Cleveland State 266. UIC 289. Northern Kentucky 294. Purdue-Fort Wayne 297. Wright State 325. Milwaukee 328. Green Bay 334. Robert Morris 349. IUPUI
Pretty dismal that we have a third of our league in the bottom 10%, and a majority (7) in the bottom 20%.
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Post by metrosjags1969 on Jan 7, 2022 6:34:48 GMT -6
IUPUI is all the way down to 357, with only Delaware State being worse. As far as the NCAA is concerned for NET rankings, the Spalding game doesn't count, so they are technically winless.
This has been an atrocious year for the Jaguars, even for their standards.
Next lowest is Green Bay at 340. Robert Morris is up to 328.
Oakland is still the top Horizon school, but they're all the way down to 72, no doubt thanks to all the crud schools they now have to play.
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Post by freewind on Jan 24, 2022 11:02:34 GMT -6
Almost Half way through the Conference Schedule
Tier 1
1 Oakland 8-1 - Looked terrible at Milwaukee, started off sluggish against GB before pulling away. Tough road trip for this team, they are hoping it was just a hiccup and not a sign of things to come. 2 Cleveland State 9-1 - Only loss came to Oakland, unfortunately it was on their home court, gonna have to get a win back in Michigan for the return game. 3 Wright State 8-2 - A series of unfortunate situations led to the Raiders only playing 5 scholarship layers on road games at RMU and YSU. I think this team has come a long way since its loss to CSU early in the season. They've also played an easy conference schedule so far, so who knows.
Tier 2 4 Purdue Fort Wayne 6-4 Has only lost to teams above them in the rankings. They'll get a 3rd shot at CSU this year and possibly a 4th in the tournament. They have to figure out how to win that game if they want to dance. 5 Detroit 4-3 Detroit has had a bunch of cancelled games so its probably the hardest team to fill for. They've beaten Milwaukee twice. Like PFW, they've beaten everyone below them, and lost to everyone above them. 6 Northern Kentucky 4-4 Another team i feel like I need to see more games from. I feel if they can win a big game like against rival WSU at home this week, it could boost this teams confidence. The talent is there, its just not clicking. If it doesn't get it going this could be the worst looking team in NKU we've seen in awhile. 7 Milwaukee 5-6 - take the team that played Oakland, put PBJ in the picture in a smooth transition and you would have a dominant team this year. But this team is without PBJ on most nights and consistency is just not there and here you are.
Tier 3
8 Youngstown State 4-6 if it wasn't for the raiders being shorthanded this team could be on a 6 game losing streak, far from the 2-0 sweep in Wisconsin. In some ways I hope Calhoun can find some more wins, but it looks bleak. 9 UIC 3-5 with the exception of playing Wright State, this team keeps most of its games close. I feel the flames don't have to do much to start winning again. 10 Green Bay 3-6 team has shown major improvement over the season. They have some easier opponents to play on the road, it'd be good to pick up a win or two here to keep the momentum going.
Tier 4 11 Robert Morris 1-9 this team has some skill, but the problem comes when you constantly have new players on the court. The end of close games you need a team and not just raw talent and Toole needs to send his teams to some sort of training camp where the players get comfortable with each other to help close out the close ones. 11 IUPUI 0-8 The best thing about being at the very bottom is you can only go up, right? Really looking forward to the game against RMU on the 5th.
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Post by freewind on Feb 7, 2022 8:39:41 GMT -6
Update on my thoughts:
Tier 1 Probably getting a bye in the Horizon league tournament and a home game
1 Cleveland St 12-2 - I think Oakland and Wright State has higher bars than CSU does, but this teams is overwhelmingly more consistent. Looking forward to their final game against OU at the end of the season. 2 Oakland 9-3 - tough break on the road against the southern teams of the conference. Overtime and then having to play against the raiders probably doomed Oakland that game. Kampe will have time to reset the teams emotions and will have time to right the ship. 3 Wright State 11-4 - Of the tier 1 teams, i feel Wright State is the only one that continues to improve, where the other two are known quantities. Nagy still has to work jitters out of some of his younger players he's rotating in.
Tier 2 Competing for the final bye and home game
4 Northern Kentucky - 8-5 It took a freshman to get everyone working together back on the same page but Vinson has done it with this team. Props on Detroit for seeing that, but this just means it's an avenue for someone else to step up on this team. Got plenty of games still to figure it out. 5 Detroit 6-4 All 4 losses has come on the road. They have yet to lose at home. Which makes their cancelled games hurt like hell come towards the end of the season. 6 Youngstown St 8-6 Cohill, Akuchie, and Olison are all averaging around 12-13 points a game. Usually 2 of the 3 have a decent game. When they all play well they win. 7 Purdue FW 8-6 Looked good at home against the Wisconsin teams this week. I still worry about this teams chances against tier 1 clubs.
Tier 3 Competing for the final first round home game.
8 UIC 4-8 If you can't get to .500 in the Horizon, good luck in the Missouri Valley. 9 Milwaukee 5-10 I'd probably sit PBJ the rest of the season. He's a liability and they are running out of time to work him into the roster. Don't want to see him ruin his career to try to save this season. 10 RMU - 4-10 Their wins against the Wisconsin schools looked good, but that's not saying much sadly. 11 Green Bay 3-10 I feel for the "rise with us fans" Everything keeps falling apart for this squad.
Tier Ooey Pooey
12 IUPUI 0-10 Lost probably their best chance to get a win against RMU at home. Their match with YSU was closer. Last game of year they host GB, so maybe there's a chance.
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Post by metrosjags1969 on Feb 7, 2022 12:48:35 GMT -6
Oakland and Cleveland State are the two schools that have a legit shot at making the NCAA Tournament, but Cleveland State has some of the best offensive performance in the league and ball management. If I had to choose an outside pick, though, I would probably go with Detroit given their historical strength.
IUPUI is a freaking disaster. They only have six players that are healthy at the moment, and at full strength, they would have seven. Four players are out for the year due to injury, one guy had to go back to the Balkans, and two players aren't allowed to play because they're redshirts. When COVID hits the team, it hits the team hard, which explains all the cancellations. Then again, even when they do play, they can't hit the damn basket. They play five straight on the road, which if they don't get any cancelled, are guaranteed losses (like every game this season), and even against a bad team like Green Bay, they would need an absolute miracle to win due to their horrendous offense, which is dead last in the country at 51.7 points a game (Eastern Illinois, the second worst team, averages 5 more points a game than IUPUI). That explains why the team plays almost exclusively defense, which surprisingly is 116th.
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Post by freewind on Feb 21, 2022 8:05:49 GMT -6
Tier 1 The future looks bright
1 Cleveland St 15-4 - Consistency wins you conference titles. The ability to adapt will get you to the NCAA tournament.
Tier 2 The competition for a first round bye
2 Northern Kentucky - 12-6 - I hate it when fans give up on their teams especially early. NKU has had a great 2nd half of the season and continue to show the ability to improve their game, despite a lot of their fans were giving up on their coach early on. Good on the players on this team who keep working at it. 3 Purdue FW 13-6 Quietly climbed up in the rankings. Currently on a 7 game winning streak, they're taking care of business. 6 of the 7 games have been against the bottom half of the conference though. I hope they play Cleveland State again in the tournament, always an exciting match up. 4 Wright State 13-7 - This team plays better the longer the game goes. If they can improve the ability to adapt earlier in the game and not get behind by so much, could be a dangerous team come March. Could also be done early in March if not. They either have someone get hot behind the 3 point arc or figure out a way to score inside on the zone. Props to all the Horizon League coaches getting their players to be able to play good zone defense in this league, its not an easy thing to have players adapt to. 5 Oakland 11-6 - it seemed like it wasn't too long ago we were seeing Oakland fans talk about what their seed would be in the NCAA tournament. The problem with starting good, especially with veterans, is the inability to improve upon it as time goes on, By the time people find your weaknesses you run out of time to improve on your game, and thats where this team is, coupled by a short bench and a Jalen Moore who is probably playing through an injured wrist.
Tier 3 Talented but not consistent
6 Detroit 9-6 After last weeks game, Detroit would definitely want to play its make up games and ride the hot home streak they have going. Honestly thought Detroit looked good without AD on the floor as well, so i think there's hope in the future as well. Detroit has 2 tough home games left which will be good, Mike Davis should continue playing with the roster, wins aren't as important as the ability to adapt to situations at this point, but if you can get the win while improving your team, do it! 7 Youngstown St 12-7 I play around with stat simulators all the time, and they LOVE YSU and its starting to show why. Currently 8-1 in the last 9 games including wins against the Michigan teams. Questionable loss to Bobby Mo, will have a 2nd shot at Wright State with close to a full roster this week should be fun to watch.
Tier 4 - Grasping for straws
8 UIC 7-10 Beating Cleveland State and almost losing to IUPUI. This has been UIC's MO for awhile. You dont want to have to play them in the tournament but you are also not betting on them to win 4 games in a row. 9 Milwaukee 7-13 Will be the most interesting off season team in the League. Don't put away your popcorn once this season is over. I think PBJ will probably have another season in the NCAA, where he ends up, who knows, might still be in the Horizon of PB stays coach. Poor Milwaukee fans. You all play the best ball when you've given up on your team. As a Raider fan, i know this painfully well. 10 RMU - 5-14 I understand what Toole is trying to do with this team. It didn't work this year. Doesn't mean it can't work. Figure out what you are going to keep for next year and try again. 11 Green Bay 3-15 Best fans of a Net 300+ team. Young team on a 10 game losing streak. A win before the season is over would do lots for this team.
Tier Ooey Pooey
12 IUPUI 1-14 I'll take flak on this but I think Matt Crenshaw is a good coach. He's just been dealt one of the toughest hands in College Basketball. To take what he has, defensively, they've looked like an average team which I think says a lot. Good on this roster as well to go out and give it their all as only a 6 player unit and be able to compete. You have to realize, this team really can't afford to foul. Yet they won a game. They've been a possession away from beating UIC twice this season and have made YSU sweat a time or two. Green Bay fans have it rough, but IUPUI fans are going to have to go the long haul before this looks like a functional basketball program again.
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Post by commissioner on Feb 21, 2022 10:41:41 GMT -6
Tier 1 The future looks bright 1 Cleveland St 15-4 - Consistency wins you conference titles. The ability to adapt will get you to the NCAA tournament. Tier 2 The competition for a first round bye 2 Northern Kentucky - 12-6 - I hate it when fans give up on their teams especially early. NKU has had a great 2nd half of the season and continue to show the ability to improve their game, despite a lot of their fans were giving up on their coach early on. Good on the players on this team who keep working at it. 3 Purdue FW 13-6 Quietly climbed up in the rankings. Currently on a 7 game winning streak, they're taking care of business. 6 of the 7 games have been against the bottom half of the conference though. I hope they play Cleveland State again in the tournament, always an exciting match up. 4 Wright State 13-7 - This team plays better the longer the game goes. If they can improve the ability to adapt earlier in the game and not get behind by so much, could be a dangerous team come March. Could also be done early in March if not. They either have someone get hot behind the 3 point arc or figure out a way to score inside on the zone. Props to all the Horizon League coaches getting their players to be able to play good zone defense in this league, its not an easy thing to have players adapt to. 5 Oakland 11-6 - it seemed like it wasn't too long ago we were seeing Oakland fans talk about what their seed would be in the NCAA tournament. The problem with starting good, especially with veterans, is the inability to improve upon it as time goes on, By the time people find your weaknesses you run out of time to improve on your game, and thats where this team is, coupled by a short bench and a Jalen Moore who is probably playing through an injured wrist. Tier 3 Talented but not consistent 6 Detroit 9-6 After last weeks game, Detroit would definitely want to play its make up games and ride the hot home streak they have going. Honestly thought Detroit looked good without AD on the floor as well, so i think there's hope in the future as well. Detroit has 2 tough home games left which will be good, Mike Davis should continue playing with the roster, wins aren't as important as the ability to adapt to situations at this point, but if you can get the win while improving your team, do it! 7 Youngstown St 12-7 I play around with stat simulators all the time, and they LOVE YSU and its starting to show why. Currently 8-1 in the last 9 games including wins against the Michigan teams. Questionable loss to Bobby Mo, will have a 2nd shot at Wright State with close to a full roster this week should be fun to watch. Tier 4 - Grasping for straws 8 UIC 7-10 Beating Cleveland State and almost losing to IUPUI. This has been UIC's MO for awhile. You dont want to have to play them in the tournament but you are also not betting on them to win 4 games in a row. 9 Milwaukee 7-13 Will be the most interesting off season team in the League. Don't put away your popcorn once this season is over. I think PBJ will probably have another season in the NCAA, where he ends up, who knows, might still be in the Horizon of PB stays coach. Poor Milwaukee fans. You all play the best ball when you've given up on your team. As a Raider fan, i know this painfully well. 10 RMU - 5-14 I understand what Toole is trying to do with this team. It didn't work this year. Doesn't mean it can't work. Figure out what you are going to keep for next year and try again. 11 Green Bay 3-15 Best fans of a Net 300+ team. Young team on a 10 game losing streak. A win before the season is over would do lots for this team. Tier Ooey Pooey 12 IUPUI 1-14 I'll take flak on this but I think Matt Crenshaw is a good coach. He's just been dealt one of the toughest hands in College Basketball. To take what he has, defensively, they've looked like an average team which I think says a lot. Good on this roster as well to go out and give it their all as only a 6 player unit and be able to compete. You have to realize, this team really can't afford to foul. Yet they won a game. They've been a possession away from beating UIC twice this season and have made YSU sweat a time or two. Green Bay fans have it rough, but IUPUI fans are going to have to go the long haul before this looks like a functional basketball program again. Agreed on Crenshaw. At the least it's too early to say he's not a good coach. Re Oakland, Kampe has been riding his Big 4--Cain, Moore, Parrish and Townsend--hard all season. Each averages over 34 minutes per game. Moore is 2d in the country; Townsend 11th; Cain 85th and Parrish 125th out of over 4000 D1 players, and almost 1800 starting spots in D1. There's very little depth behind them--the 5th starter, Conway, averages 1.9 ppg. Blake Lampman is a decent catch-and-shoot guard. Other than Lampman at 7.2 ppg, there's no one outside the Big 4 who averages as much as 5 points, 3 rebounds, or 2 assists. Note how their problems work in tandem--Moore is less effective shooting than last year, due to his wrist--but Kampe doesn't dare take him off the floor to let his wrist fully heal, because there's no one else. Oakland has a couple of really good non-conference wins over mid-majors--at home against Toledo, neutral floor against Vermont--and the win at Oklahoma State, which is real good but not as overwhelming as they like to think (OSU is 13-13, with a very strong NET rank of 53, but they were lucky to beat Cleveland State in overtime, and beat Oral Roberts by just a point; it's not taking anything away from OU's win to say that their fans tend to overrate it, and quite a few mid-major teams have better wins over high majors this year). In conference, their first 5 games were @ UIC, @ IUPUI, and YSU, Robert Morris, and Milwaukee at home. They then squeaked out a win at CSU--again, due props for that--but I think that soft early schedule and that one possible fluke win gave a false impression. They're only now playing the meat of their schedule--two games with WSU, 2 with NKU, Detroit (they managed to skip playing Detroit in Calihan Hall, and were unwilling to reschedule--Detroit has won 14 straight at home), so it's not too surprising they've sagged. Now they close at home, but with two tough games, red-hot PFW and champ CSU. Don't get me wrong--OU is good, and if they sweep at home this weekend they'll have 20 wins and could finish as high as second. But that's a good team, not a "special" team, and if they lose twice--I don't think they will but they could--they could finish as low as 7th. If Detroit had been able to play its home games against RMU, IUPUI, Green Bay, and YSU (in December, before YSU jelled) they'd likely have 4 more wins, even if they'd lost to Oakland had that game been played. That just emphasizes what a total mash up the league is from the 2-7 positions. The first round of the league tournament should eliminate the riff-raff. From the quarter-finals on, this should be a wild conference tournament. Lost Conference Games: CSU - @ UIC, @ IUPUI, gained PFW PFW - @ UIC, @ IUPUI, gained @ CSU NKU - @ UIC, @ IUPUI WSU - None Oak - IUPUI, Green Bay, @ Detroit YSU - @ Detroit Det - IUPUI, UIC, RMU, YSU, Oakland UIC - CSU, PFW, NKU Mil - None RMU - @ Detroit Green Bay - @ Detroit, @ Oakland IUPUI - CSU, PFW, NKU, @ Oakland, @ Detroit I don't think there's any doubt that Detroit was really hurt by Covid cancellations, though NKU missed a chance for a couple road wins. Oakland would likely have swept IUPUI and Green Bay, so whether they would have benefited just a little or a lot would depend on whether they'd have beaten Detroit on the road. My projected current standings with full schedules: CSU - 16-4 PFW - 14-6 NKU - 14-6 Det - 14-6 WSU - 13-7 Oak - 13-7 YSU - 12-8 UIC - 9-11 Mil - 7-13 RMU - 5-15 GrB - 3-17 IUPUI - 1-19 I'm giving Detroit a home win over OU--if you want you can switch that, given OU's dominance of Detroit and the fact that OU was playing better in early January, and flip flop those two in the standings.
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Post by ougrizz05 on Feb 21, 2022 12:22:29 GMT -6
Tier 1 The future looks bright 1 Cleveland St 15-4 - Consistency wins you conference titles. The ability to adapt will get you to the NCAA tournament. Tier 2 The competition for a first round bye 2 Northern Kentucky - 12-6 - I hate it when fans give up on their teams especially early. NKU has had a great 2nd half of the season and continue to show the ability to improve their game, despite a lot of their fans were giving up on their coach early on. Good on the players on this team who keep working at it. 3 Purdue FW 13-6 Quietly climbed up in the rankings. Currently on a 7 game winning streak, they're taking care of business. 6 of the 7 games have been against the bottom half of the conference though. I hope they play Cleveland State again in the tournament, always an exciting match up. 4 Wright State 13-7 - This team plays better the longer the game goes. If they can improve the ability to adapt earlier in the game and not get behind by so much, could be a dangerous team come March. Could also be done early in March if not. They either have someone get hot behind the 3 point arc or figure out a way to score inside on the zone. Props to all the Horizon League coaches getting their players to be able to play good zone defense in this league, its not an easy thing to have players adapt to. 5 Oakland 11-6 - it seemed like it wasn't too long ago we were seeing Oakland fans talk about what their seed would be in the NCAA tournament. The problem with starting good, especially with veterans, is the inability to improve upon it as time goes on, By the time people find your weaknesses you run out of time to improve on your game, and thats where this team is, coupled by a short bench and a Jalen Moore who is probably playing through an injured wrist. Tier 3 Talented but not consistent 6 Detroit 9-6 After last weeks game, Detroit would definitely want to play its make up games and ride the hot home streak they have going. Honestly thought Detroit looked good without AD on the floor as well, so i think there's hope in the future as well. Detroit has 2 tough home games left which will be good, Mike Davis should continue playing with the roster, wins aren't as important as the ability to adapt to situations at this point, but if you can get the win while improving your team, do it! 7 Youngstown St 12-7 I play around with stat simulators all the time, and they LOVE YSU and its starting to show why. Currently 8-1 in the last 9 games including wins against the Michigan teams. Questionable loss to Bobby Mo, will have a 2nd shot at Wright State with close to a full roster this week should be fun to watch. Tier 4 - Grasping for straws 8 UIC 7-10 Beating Cleveland State and almost losing to IUPUI. This has been UIC's MO for awhile. You dont want to have to play them in the tournament but you are also not betting on them to win 4 games in a row. 9 Milwaukee 7-13 Will be the most interesting off season team in the League. Don't put away your popcorn once this season is over. I think PBJ will probably have another season in the NCAA, where he ends up, who knows, might still be in the Horizon of PB stays coach. Poor Milwaukee fans. You all play the best ball when you've given up on your team. As a Raider fan, i know this painfully well. 10 RMU - 5-14 I understand what Toole is trying to do with this team. It didn't work this year. Doesn't mean it can't work. Figure out what you are going to keep for next year and try again. 11 Green Bay 3-15 Best fans of a Net 300+ team. Young team on a 10 game losing streak. A win before the season is over would do lots for this team. Tier Ooey Pooey 12 IUPUI 1-14 I'll take flak on this but I think Matt Crenshaw is a good coach. He's just been dealt one of the toughest hands in College Basketball. To take what he has, defensively, they've looked like an average team which I think says a lot. Good on this roster as well to go out and give it their all as only a 6 player unit and be able to compete. You have to realize, this team really can't afford to foul. Yet they won a game. They've been a possession away from beating UIC twice this season and have made YSU sweat a time or two. Green Bay fans have it rough, but IUPUI fans are going to have to go the long haul before this looks like a functional basketball program again. Agreed on Crenshaw. At the least it's too early to say he's not a good coach. Re Oakland, Kampe has been riding his Big 4--Cain, Moore, Parrish and Townsend--hard all season. Each averages over 34 minutes per game. Moore is 2d in the country; Townsend 11th; Cain 85th and Parrish 125th out of over 4000 D1 players, and almost 1800 starting spots in D1. There's very little depth behind them--the 5th starter, Conway, averages 1.9 ppg. Blake Lampman is a decent catch-and-shoot guard. Other than Lampman at 7.2 ppg, there's no one outside the Big 4 who averages as much as 5 points, 3 rebounds, or 2 assists. Note how their problems work in tandem--Moore is less effective shooting than last year, due to his risk--but Kampe doesn't dare take him off the floor to let his wrist fully heal, because there's no one else. Oakland has a couple of really good non-conference wins over mid-majors--at home against Toledo, neutral floor against Vermont--and the win at Oklahoma State, which is real good but not as overwhelming as they like to think (OSU is 13-13, with a very strong NET rank of 53, but they were lucky to beat Cleveland State in overtime, and beat Oral Roberts by just a point; it's not taking anything away from OU's win to say that their fans tend to overrate it, and quite a few mid-major teams have better wins over high majors this year). In conference, their first 5 games were @ UIC, @ IUPUI, and YSU, Robert Morris, and Milwaukee at home. They then squeaked out a win at CSU--again, due props for that--but I think that soft early schedule and that one possible fluke win gave a false impression. They're only now playing the meat of their schedule--two games with WSU, 2 with NKU, Detroit (they managed to skip playing Detroit in Calihan Hall, and were unwilling to reschedule--Detroit has won 14 straight at home), so it's not too surprising they've sagged. Now they close at home, but with two tough games, red-hot PFW and champ CSU. Don't get me wrong--OU is good, and if they sweep at home this weekend they'll have 20 wins and could finish as high as second. But that's a good team, not a "special" team, and if they lose twice--I don't think they will but they could--they could finish as low as 7th. If Detroit had been able to play its home games against RMU, IUPUI, Green Bay, and YSU (in December, before YSU jelled) they'd likely have 4 more wins, even if they'd lost to Oakland had that game been played. That just emphasizes what a total mash up the league is from the 2-7 positions. The first round of the league tournament should eliminate the riff-raff. From the quarter-finals on, this should be a wild conference tournament. Lost Conference Games: CSU - @ UIC, @ IUPUI, gained PFW PFW - @ UIC, @ IUPUI, gained @ CSU NKU - @ UIC, @ IUPUI WSU - None Oak - IUPUI, Green Bay, @ Detroit YSU - @ Detroit Det - IUPUI, UIC, RMU, YSU, Oakland UIC - CSU, PFW, NKU Mil - None RMU - @ Detroit Green Bay - @ Detroit, @ Oakland IUPUI - CSU, PFW, NKU, @ Oakland, @ Detroit I don't think there's any doubt that Detroit was really hurt by Covid cancellations, though NKU missed a chance for a couple road wins. Oakland would likely have swept IUPUI and Green Bay, so whether they would have benefited just a little or a lot would depend on whether they'd have beaten Detroit on the road. My projected current standings with full schedules: CSU - 16-4 PFW - 14-6 NKU - 14-6 Det - 14-6 WSU - 13-7 Oak - 13-7 YSU - 12-8 UIC - 9-11 Mil - 7-13 RMU - 5-15 GrB - 3-17 IUPUI - 1-19 I'm giving Detroit a home win over OU--if you want you can switch that, given OU's dominance of Detroit and the fact that OU was playing better in early January, and flip flop those two in the standings. On the OU message board many of us have commented at length that playing the Big 4 as much as Kampe does is not a sustainable strategy. We have had injuries that contributed to that. Moore has some consistent injuries, and really each of the big 4 has been injured. In my view Conway could be more of a scoring threat if he saw more floor time. He doesn't seem like a bad player. Zion Young has been injured all year mostly, he could have really been helpful. He went 9/9 from 3 at Detroit last year. In prior years he was a consistent scoring threat in the Summit League. We lost a big just before the season started who transferred in from Michigan State and never played a minute at OU. As was stated, due to COVID we lost out on home games to some of the lower teams in the league and at UDM. It is what it is. But to knock our out of conference wins, come on? We beat some strong mid majors like Vermont, Toledo, and won on the road at Oklahoma State. They aren't Kansas, but they are a Big 12 team with wins over #1 Baylor, #14 Texas, etc. Those are all quality wins. Any reasonable observer can see that. Also, OU was picked somewhere in the middle of the pack. I think it was 5th or 7th in the preseason Horizon poll. We have had some disappointing losses this year, especially as of late. UDM was not one of them.
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Post by commissioner on Feb 21, 2022 22:32:59 GMT -6
But to knock our out of conference wins, come on? We beat some strong mid majors like Vermont, Toledo, and won on the road at Oklahoma State. They aren't Kansas, but they are a Big 12 team with wins over #1 Baylor, #14 Texas, etc. Those are all quality wins. Any reasonable observer can see that. I'm not sure that what I wrote: exactly counts as "knock[ing]" your wins. That you think calling them "real good" wins is a "knock" maybe indicates my point--good as they are, OU fans tend to be overvaluing these wins.
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