Top 144 - Evansville at #117

by **Aargh** » August 6th, 2013, 9:50 pm

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/6936

The writeup looks pretty good to me, but I'm not that familiar with Evansville's squad.

They're picking UE to be in the top half of the Valley.

Last year the Valley had 6 teams with rpi's better than 117. The worst rpi in the top half of the league was Evansville at 90.

Get ready for the Valley to be outside the top-10 conferences this year.

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by **rlh04d** » August 6th, 2013, 10:21 pm

To be fair, most of the Valley jumped up in the RPI rankings thanks to WSU's Final Four run, Evansville particularly.

When you take out the Final Four (realtimerpi.com doesn't include the postseason), Evansville was only #106, and we only had five teams in the top 117.

by **acesrmyteam** » August 7th, 2013, 7:54 am

i like the article, i like the prediction of 4th.

i agree with his starting five as well. Gibson, Balentine, Wing, Sawvell, Mockevicius :dance:

with some unknowns coming in, i don't see 4th being that much of a reach for the aces this season.

less than three months to go! let's go!

by **agrinut** » August 7th, 2013, 8:07 am

Just don't see it. Too many teams got better for Evansville to finish top half. I imagine the aces are a play in team.

by **jackwagon** » August 7th, 2013, 8:18 am

Not seeing it either. Have one proven scorer and relying way too much on freshmen. Calling a 6th-8th place finish. Bradley and Missouri st should be 4 and 5.

by **AngryShock** » August 7th, 2013, 9:19 am

I won't be surprised if Evansville finishes 6th or 7th and maybe even 8th.

by **havoc** » August 7th, 2013, 9:49 am

rlh04d wrote:To be fair, most of the Valley jumped up in the RPI rankings thanks to WSU's Final Four run, Evansville particularly.

When you take out the Final Four (realtimerpi.com doesn't include the postseason), Evansville was only #106, and we only had five teams in the top 117.

To be fair, Evansville did play and beat Tennesse State (107) and Eastern Kentucky (76) at home, Canisius (120) on the road, and lost to East Carolina (73) on the road. Those games certainly did not hurt UE's RPI.

by **rlh04d** » August 7th, 2013, 9:56 am

havoc wrote:
rlh04d wrote:To be fair, most of the Valley jumped up in the RPI rankings thanks to WSU's Final Four run, Evansville particularly.

When you take out the Final Four (realtimerpi.com doesn't include the postseason), Evansville was only #106, and we only had five teams in the top 117.

To be fair, Evansville did play and beat Tennesse State (107) and Eastern Kentucky (76) at home, Canisius (120) on the road, and lost to East Carolina (73) on the road. Those games certainly did not hurt UE's RPI.

Not sure what point you're trying to make. Are you under the impression I was stating their entire RPI was due to WSU?

The difference between their RPI when you include the postseason and when you don't is 17 spots. Doubt that is due to much more than WSU's tournament run. I don't recall Tennessee State doing anything to drastically change their RPI in the postseason.

by **rlh04d** » August 7th, 2013, 9:58 am

agrinut wrote:Just don't see it. Too many teams got better for Evansville to finish top half. I imagine the aces are a play in team.

Almost no teams got better in the bottom 8, except MoSt and Bradley. And MoSt was god awful last year.

by **havoc** » August 7th, 2013, 10:29 am

rlh04d wrote:
havoc wrote:
rlh04d wrote:To be fair, most of the Valley jumped up in the RPI rankings thanks to WSU's Final Four run, Evansville particularly.

When you take out the Final Four (realtimerpi.com doesn't include the postseason), Evansville was only #106, and we only had five teams in the top 117.

To be fair, Evansville did play and beat Tennesse State (107) and Eastern Kentucky (76) at home, Canisius (120) on the road, and lost to East Carolina (73) on the road. Those games certainly did not hurt UE's RPI.

Not sure what point you're trying to make. Are you under the impression I was stating their entire RPI was due to WSU?

The difference between their RPI when you include the postseason and when you don't is 17 spots. Doubt that is due to much more than WSU's tournament run. I don't recall Tennessee State doing anything to drastically change their RPI in the postseason.

I'm under the mipression you were stating UE's jump in RPI was due to WSU, which is what you said, and said again.

Using numbers from Statsheet, On 4/17, UE had an RPI of 102, on 4/20, after playing Tennessee State, it went to 100 (+2), WSU didn't play a game in that time frame. On 4/22, UE's RPI was 99, on 4/23, after playing Eastern Kentucky, it went to 96 (+3), WSU's game against Gonzaga on 4/23 was not figure in to the RPI released on 4/23. On 4/25, UE had an RPI of 95, on 4/26, after playing Canisius, their RPI went to 79 (+16), WSU didn't play a game in that time frame. On 4/29, UE's RPI was 79 even though WSU beat LaSalle. On 4/30, after playing ECU, UE's RPI went to 86 (-7), even though Wichita beat OSU in that time frame. Statsheet's last RPI had UE at 88, down 14 spots. UE had an overall delta between games of...... exactly 14 spots. Sorry, but looking at these numbers, I have no clue how one could come to the conclusion that UE's increase in RPI standing was most correlated to WSU's Final Four run.