Games of Interest - March 10

[BeKnighted]

Conference tourney finals in the Horizon, Summit and WCC – automatic bid winners marked with a *


Big Ten

None (of course)


Other RU opponents

Niagara 64 St. Peter’s 53 – they get Rider next
Southern 59 Prairie View A&M 55 – Johnson had 15 and 6 for the Lady Jaguars
Maryland Eastern Shore 62 Coppin State 50 – Thomas had 21 points for the Lady Hawks
South Alabama 82 Arkansas State 69 – Jones had 22 and 10 for the Jaguars

There are still 6 RU opponents with games left to play, by the way.

Other ranked teams

*#17 South Dakota 63 South Dakota State 58 – 30 wins for the Coyotes and an NCAA bid


Also – championship in the Horizon and WCC; tourney games in the Big Sky, Big South, Big West, MAAC, MEAC, Sun Belt, and SWAC

*IUPUI 51 Wisconsin Green Bay 37 – 1st NCAA bid for the Jaguars
*Portland 64 San Diego 63 OT – another upset in the WCC, on a late OT shot by Andrews
Montana State 67 Northern Colorado 62 – closer than it probably should have been
Northern Arizona 68 Montana 65 – close most of the way
Idaho 56 Portland State 54 – Klinker had 15 and 12 for the Vandals
Idaho State 64 Southern Utah 56 4:18 4th – close in the 1st half
North Carolina Asheville 82 Charleston Southern 46 – never close
South Carolina Upstate 60 Winthrop 57 – technically an upset
Presbyterian 82 Longwood 73 – ditto
California Polytechnic 57 Long Beach State 48 – Campisano had 30 and 13 for the Mustangs
Monmouth 69 Iona 60 – kind of an upset
Howard 79 South Carolina State 72 – Thornton led the Bison with 22
Louisiana 81 Georgia Southern 64 – about what you’d expect
Texas Arlington 74 Texas State 50 – 31-10 1st quarter set the tone
Arkansas Little Rock 48 Appalachian State 47 – big comeback for the Trojans to win it
Texas Southern 77 Arkansas Pine Bluff 46 – 20 wins for the Lady Tigers
Jackson State 71 Alabama State 53 – SWAC favorites cruise
Alabama A&M 74 Alcorn State 54 – Lewis led the Bulldogs with 20 and 9.


B1G

Today: 0-0
Year to date: 122-33

Other RU opponents

Today: 3-1
Year to date: 154-160

There have been no palindromic scores in 23 games completed so far today. There have been 33 palindromic scores in 5,197 games so far this season. It’s been six sad days since the last palindromic score.

 

[BeKnighted]

Update:

Idaho State 70 Southern Utah 63 - Oltrogge had 27 for the Bengals

 

[ea_1]

How often is the Other RU opponents record a losing one? Seems to me that is the main factor the RPI is where it is, given the formula.

 

[Knight Time Fan]

How often is the Other RU opponents record a losing one? Seems to me that is the main factor the RPI is where it is, given the formula.

Its more than just that - Rutgers played a team from the MEAC (Coppin State), the MAAC (Niagara) and the SWAC (Southern). These are 3 of the worst conferences out there, with the weakest conference RPI's (I didn't look it up, I "just know its true", they are historically dreadful)

Southern is a power "in-conference", going 13-5, however, their only 2 wins out of conference were not even D1 teams.

Niagara is 9-20 and Coppin State 3-25. Yikes.

South Alabama and Towson are ".500 ish" and Marshall just a tad under.

Harvard was the best of our Non-P5 opponents, and they finished their season 15-12; not much help there.

Of the P5's, Vanderbilt and Virginia were under .500 as well, though anyone in a P5 is better than a team that isn't. Yes, LSU and Georgia Tech at least were 20 game winners, but that's it.

So yes, the OOC (as I very quietly tried to suggest at the time) was not helpful this year.

 

[BeKnighted]

How often is the Other RU opponents record a losing one? Seems to me that is the main factor the RPI is where it is, given the formula.

I don't recall another season when it's been below .500. (This is where I stick in the caveat that I can't be 100% sure I haven't missed some games - I have a system to pick them up but the success of a system depends on the system operator, so there's definitely some potential for sand in the gears.)

The funny thing is that it had been sitting around .500 most of the season, started trending up maybe 3 weeks ago, and then cratered badly over a period of about a week. I mean, it's all small sample size, etc., so it's not that strange, but there was a point when I thought it would look okay by season's end.

 

[ea_1]

This year is the first I recall opponents record being below 0.500 since I began following Games of Interest. Fortunately, RU won all the Quandrant 4 games; there were two Quandrant 3 losses, both to Michigan State. I am not going to look up MSU's schedule to figure out if any remaining game outcomes could bump the Spartans to Quadrant 2, but those quad-3 losses are likely to remain. RPI does give RU two top-20 RPI wins. B1G RPI rank is #2.

If the Selection Committee peeks at ELO, that ranking is a solid 32 per Warren Nolan.