Oakland? OAKLAND!!??

[Aargh]

Please tell me every site I've visited has that score backwards.

[Turner]

I saw Oakland play at Michigan State the other day and I thought the Grizz looked pretty good. I haven't followed them this year, but I think over the last decade they probably would have been a top half MVC team. I didn't really expect for Illinois St to beat them.

[Hail Our Panthers]

Oakland's record is pretty misleading. I don't have the SOS numbers in front of me but they have to have played one of the top 20-ish schedules in the nation. Their win came against a pretty solid Ohio team, also.

[TheAsianSensation]

Oakland has the #3 schedule in the country. Subject to wide variance this early in the season, obviously, but it's legitimate business.

[Redbirdfan21]

It was not a pretty game to watch... but Oakland is not a pushover... USA Today has them with the #1 SOS and realtimerpi.com has them at #2... Although they do have some bad losses,they have played UNC, UCLA, Cal, Gonzaga, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan St.

We got completely dominated on the inside. It was game #5 without Middlebrooks and the first time it has cost us... Lofton was also sick and played sparingly... The roller coaster ride continues for the Birds. I have said it all along and will say it the rest of the year... we will lose to some teams we shouldn't and beat some teams we shouldn't... However, we were 5 pt underdogs tonight... not that that means we "shouldn't" have still beaten them.

[pafan]

Wait, Middlebrooks has been suspended 5 games for supposedly missing study tables? Something smells rotten...

[Black]

Basically proves the Dayton win was a complete fraud, boasted by an abnormally large crowd (thanks to $1 tickets I believe), and abnormally over-their-heads play.

Obscurity continues for those great fans from Normal.

[rlh04d]

I like pooping in Illinois State's cereal as much as the next guy, but they replaced pretty much every player on their team. They're not going to have any consistency.

I agree with the take that they're going to win games they shouldn't and lose games they shouldn't. They're just an inexperienced, inconsistent team. There's obviously talent there, though.

My worry has been that they'll be terrible in the nonconference and things will start clicking in the conference season, hurting RPIs and possible at-large bids for non-WSU teams. Which is still possible, but they've done better in the noncon than I expected. I expected a MoSt style noncon record.

[KC MVC FAN]

FOOTBALL??? Don't see a field or stadium on Google Earth.

[Dean Wormer]

Basically proves the Dayton win was a complete fraud, boasted by an abnormally large crowd (thanks to $1 tickets I believe), and abnormally over-their-heads play.

Obscurity continues for those great fans from Normal.

One would think that after at least 3 bannings, you would try to change something besides your screen name.........