Big East vs. A-10

[MU88]

Each year, Lunardi changes his picks at the last minute and as a result, he claims to be more accurate than others. A conspiracy nut might say he adjusts his picks after ESPN gets a look at the preliminary bracket.

In any event, the A-10 this year is a lot like the Missouri Valley a few years ago. Missouri State had an rpi of 21 one year and were left out. MSU had 3 years under 36 in the rpi and didn't make the tourney. If you look at the numbers, many of the alleged good teams have a number of losses to teams outside the top 50. In contrast, MU is 15-3 against teams outside the top 50. If MU, Providence and Georgetown win, MU could be 13-2 against teams outside the top 50 and 5-11 against the top 50. I truly believe that if MU had played 4 more games against schools in the 100-200 range, instead of SDSU, ASU, NM and OSU that they would be in the tourney. We would be 21-9 and our RPI would be in the top 50. Unfortunately, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

MU88, you are 100% right. Alternately, if we had played 4 teams in the 100-200 range instead of Grambling, New Hampshire, IUPUI, and Ball State, we would probably also be in the top-50 and be closer to in than out.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

MU88, you are 100% right. Alternately, if we had played 4 teams in the 100-200 range instead of Grambling, New Hampshire, IUPUI, and Ball State, we would probably also be in the top-50 and be closer to in than out.

I completely disagree, schedule had nothing to do with us missing the tournament... Us not closing games all season did... There was more than enough quality games we had a chance in that we didn't close out on. Win 3 or 4 of those games and we are in and nobody is even questioning the schedule...

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I completely disagree, schedule had nothing to do with us missing the tournament... Us not closing games all season did... There was more than enough quality games we had a chance in that we didn't close out on. Win 3 or 4 of those games and we are in and nobody is even questioning the schedule...

I still would be, just like I was before the season started. Had we closed out a few more games, we'd still be in, but this was a flawed schedule from day one. Marquette tried to offset tough games with cupcakes so soft they would be better called batter. That formula only works when you win the tough games.

Here's the problem with how our schedule worked out. When we played tough teams, we lost. When we played cupcakes, we lost. When your opponent's RPI is sub-300, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, you still lose because they drag you down. Play teams in the 100-200 range and you don't take a RPI hit. Honestly, I'd rather play the exempt tourney, Wisconsin, and all teams expected to be 100-200 than all the high-profile games we do. It will never happen, but it would be much better for our tourney chances come March, even in down years.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

Replace all the RPI 300+ on our schedule with RPI 100 to 200 teams and we are exactly where we are now... Not in the tournament... Our issue isn't that we had bad losses, our issue is that we didn't have enough top 50 wins... We have 0 top 25 wins and only 2 top 50 wins... Replacing bottom 300 teams with better teams does nothing to solve that problem... Bottom line if they win some more against the 10 top 50 teams they lost to then we'd be in.