Strength of Schedule
- Thread starter 501Clone
- Start date
This seems to be the conventional wisdom but I think it's flawed. Before I go further, I will stipulate that we are 0-2 against Kansas, they are more than likely to win the conference regular season title and their non-conference schedule was tougher than ours.
Right now Kansas is 17-5/8-1, ISU is 17-4/5-4. Both still have nine regular season games. Anything is possible, but I think Kansas is likely to go somewhere between 6-3 and 9-0 the rest of the way. They could run the table, but given their recent loss at Texas, I don't think it's unreasonable to predict that Kansas will lose two, possibly three of those remaining games. That would put Kansas at 24-7/15-3 or 23-8/14-4 as of March 12.
Same goes for ISU, anything is possible. I think ISU also is likely to go somewhere between 6-3 or 9-0 the rest of the way. Given how we've been playing of late, I don't think it's unreasonable to predict that ISU will lose one or two of those remaining games. That would put ISU at 25-5/13-5 or 24-6/12-6 as of March 12.
Here's my point: With all due respect to KU, I think it is unlikely they would be a #1 seed if they finish the regular season at 24-7 or 23-8. Even if they win the conference tourney (and they'll be heavily favored barring injury) they'd still have 7 or 8 losses. Even with their strength of schedule, that is #2 seed territory.
My secondary point is that if ISU finishes strong with only 1-2 losses over the next 9 games, I think the argument could be made that we'd be at best a #2 seed, at worst a #3 seed.
Of course, none of this takes into account what could happen in Kansas City. But I think it does demonstrate that KU is not a lock to be a #1 seed.
How dare you bring reason into this discussion. KU fans know that the NCAA should just bow down to their greatness. Or at least they will tell you that.
I think ISU fans who are primarily interwebz based in fan interaction dislike KU much much more than Iowa. The Iowa fans I talk to in real life are friends and loved ones, then a few trolls. The KU fans I talk to are 100% pathetic internet trolls, the better Hoiball gets the more frequent they become. There was one guy on here a few weeks ago who was a classy KU fan but it blew my mind because it's so rare.
Giving one team a #1 and the next guy #2 and the next guy #3 doesn't mean that there isn't a huge gap between #1 and #2 and just a tiny gap between #2 and #3. ISU has a solid SOS because they played Kansas twice and Michigan once. Most of the other conferences don't have a round robin formate so they usually luck out and only have to play an elite conference opponent once.
The best part is I have numerous, KU friends that get it. And they are die hard crazy fans, they just understand, much like I do, where its appropriate to bring up KU/ISU in a conversation. Both fan bases have their trolls, but seriously this guy just loves to hang outside in the hallway interjecting KU into the conversation whenever they think its relevant.
I 100% agree. Winning the conference alone does not guarantee a #1 seed. I frankly think that if Kansas loses any more games that they will be a #2 seed unless one of the top teams (Wichita State, Syracuse, Arizona, Michigan State drops some bad games. Right now I would have Kansas as a #2 and ISU as a #3 seed. I think ISU is going to do some damage in the tourney this year.
Which is why you used RPI top 30 in your first post instead of top 25 or top 50 like normal people/media use as a cutoff, am I right?
I did nothing to belittle the OP's statement; I merely disagree that Iowa State has the toughest schedule, regardless of what an an arbitrarily determined BPI rating says. I then proceeded to state why I feel the way I do. That isn't trolling; I didn't blast ISU or it's fans. If you have a different opinion than mine, just state it and why. Attempting to rag on me personally is the "rarely add anything meaningful to the conversation". I am participating in the conversation, not making personal statements. Again, if you feel differently, participate in the conversation as well; don't just freak out and resort to silly name calling. I think we are all grown ups and can handle a conversation with different opinions. There have been several ISu fans that have agreed with my opinion that while ISU has had a very tough schedule, Kansas has a tougher overall schedule, yet I don't see you blastng them and telling them to go away.
Shall we make it RPI Top 25 then? Kansas: 8 games (4-4), Iowa State: 6 games (2-4). More than about Top 30 and you get into teams that really make no difference. There are teams in the bottom of the RPI Top 50 that are NIT bound teams. We won't call those "tough games."
Why are you hear talking about this crap? KU beat ISU twice this year, once quite handily on our own floor. Is that not enough to make you feel adjacently victorious? The thread was about ISU's SOS which is impressive, when you started complaining myself and other posters gave a shout-out to how insanely difficult your own schedule is.
ISU fans dislike KU fans because KU is their competition for what they want. Iowa is not. It may be fun to brag locally about a game against Iowa but in the scheme of things it makes no difference at all if ISU beats Iowa or not in a game. And I am well aware that my point of view ruffles feathers for the simple reason that it comes from a Kansas fan. I am fine with that. All of the dozens of posts I have put out here discussing my respect and admiration for Hoiberg and ISU go unnoticed and ignored. People get their hackles up at the first scent of any statement that might in any way, shape or form be any type of negative statement about their team. I get it. But stating that I think that Kansas' schedule has been harder than ISU's isn't an attack on ISU. It's just a statement about the topic. Good grief...
Because this is an ISU Board, not a KU board. KU Sucks so we don't want to hear a non-ISU fan about "how great KU is". They might win basketball games, but in the end, they SUCK because of fans like you.
Let me dumb it down for you then, on kenpom.com the gap between the SOS rating of #1 (Kansas) and #2 (Boston College) is 0.0619. That is slightly larger than the gap between the #2 team and the #21 team. Does that help you understand that #1 to #2 isn't simply the same as #2 to #3, etc...? 2014 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings
Makes it look better than top 30, just thought 30 was an interesting cutoff. I forget the stat, but most top 50 RPI teams make the tournament.
