It's a coincidence Michigan St. is the 35th best RPI team in the country...because we lost to them by 35.
We played a inspiring, emotionally draining game against Boise St. without 2 starters and won on the last possession.
The Kent St. game was a great game (before and after) but it was only on the schedule thanks to Bracket Busters.
We lost at home to the 131st team (Tulane)
Texas Tech hasn't won a game this calendar year and are currently down 20 as I write this. They are struggling mightily and will probably have an RPI well into the 200s by season's end.

UTSA, Abilene Christian, UIC, Southern Utah, and Jackson St. all have RPIs between 255 and 314. Factor in not one but two D2 opponents, and that's 7 out of 12 non-con opponents (maybe 8 depending on Texas Tech's finish to the season) who you can legitimately claim are below average. Among the other four are a home loss where we were outplayed and a road loss where we were absolutely pummeled. Our recent play (3 and a 1/2 games of meh basketball against a ranked team, a home game against a comparable opponent, and 2 Valley bottom feeders) has exposed our non-con schedule as a very suspect one built to inflate a win total.

We need to win 7 of our last 11 to finish with a 20 win season. Seriously, how many other teams enter conference play with 10 wins only to fall short of 20 overall?

Texas Tech entered Big 12 play with 10 wins. They may not even get 11

I guess my question is answered then. But it goes to show you just how unprepared we are for conference play this season.

All I see in your post is a bunch of reaching reasons. Your mind is made up and are looking for any excuse to complain. That's fine, but, unfortunately, you're wrong. MSU is MSU. Are you seriously going to sit there and try to say that playing on Breslin isn't a test? Sure, we got destroyed but that is what top teams do. I guess you think that last years team was better prepared because they were close at MSU.

As for Kent State, who cares why it was on the schedule. Porter could have blackmailed their coach with incriminating pictures for all I care. We went there and won.

Boise State. Who cares if they were down 2 players. The post-season committees don't look at that. They see a win against a good team. Besides, it's not like the rest of their team is a bunch of scrubs.

I'll grant you Tech, but it was a good win at the time.

Basically, you are looking for any excuse to complain. Again, that's fine. But your argument is wrong. If we weren't prepared, how is it that we played as tough as we did AT Evansville and AT UNI?

I am still not sold on the coach but Christ man, let it go. We were without our top player and we still almost beat Evansville again.

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Cigarboy sucks!

While yesterday's outcome was a disappointment, we were playing without Doyle and still almost pulled it out.

In particular I want to add it was a great game plan to stay on Ballantin as per my scorecard he had two points at half on freethrows and only six for the game (but a key one down the stretch.)

One heck of a shadow job particularly by Crisman. Speaking of Crisman, although he still starts, his minutes have been significantly reduced. He has handled this with great poise, maturity and without complaint. Joe is a fine young man and he has a great family as well. His reduced playing time is not a reflection on him but rather the success of upgraded recruiting.

Last night's loss was also the result of some key shots not falling. I counted five three points that were in and came out. These were Turk 2, Knuth, Richardson, Thomas. Also down 57-53 Montel's two pointer rimmed in and out as well. If any two of those five had fallen, we would have been right there.
Simmons had two points at the half and I believe 11 in the second.

Hats off to Evansville on a hard fought and well deserved victory on our court.

Gotta agree with Go on this one. I complained about the schedule when it came out -- mostly because of the D2 games -- but the fact is it put us in position to get our first postseason bid in 30 years.

Lastly, it should go without saying that just because you win 10 games in noncon doesn't mean you have a 20 win season on your hands. BUT... let's look at the most likely path to winning 10 games in conference:

Bradley (W)
Drake (W)
@SIU (L)
Evansville (L, but won @Evansville)
ISUr / @MOSt
ISUb
SIU
@Bradley
@Drake
MOSt

The only bad loss we have in conference is at SIU, and that was with Doyle playing on one leg. If he can be healthy by the end of the month, we can still be in shape for 10 wins.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I absolutely complained about the schedule. I'm still not a fan of it, but to say that our schedule didn't prepares us for league play...sorry, I don't buy it.

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Cigarboy sucks!

From here, I suppose, it is how do we progress? There are 11 conference games left. In my opinion, the Valley isn't really that good this year. It's top-heavy with Wichita and UNI, maybe In St is playing well these days but I can't comment as I've not watched them. From there, a lot of teams like Loyola that are fighting to be average and there are a bunch of games there for the taking left to play. First thing is to get Milton back healthy, hopefully by the game on 1/31. If LU can finish with a .500 conference record I'd call it a successful season despite this current little skid. If we finish with 6 or 7 conference wins, I don't think anyone will be pleased.

I actually think the schedule for this year was perfect. With so many new guys you did not need to play 10 Michigan States. It was an improvement over past years at least in name. IT was challenging enough while giving us a chance to integrate all the new guys into the program and work all the different combinations. You can only schedule schools you cannot account for how good or bad they may be. So the Las Vegas Tnmt with Texas Tech and Boise definitely a step up.
While we may not do as well in the Valley that will be a factor of being so undersized and the lack of any real muscle inside. Our last two losses to SIU and Evansville we were out-rebounded by double digits.
I like this group of kids. I think they play hard but there are deficiencies and they need to play at a high level to win and that is hard to do day in and day out. 6 more Valley wins would be great.

Agree, Go. I wasn't just unhappy with the schedule, I was alarmed by it. But we came into the season not having won a road game for almost a season and a half, with our best player pushing through an injury, and no significant contributor taller than 6'7". After the loss at Michigan State, we won THREE road games in a row, and four of five true road games between Michigan State and SIU.

Before the game at SIU, we were 12-1 against Division I teams not in the AP Top 25, and 6-0 against unranked teams away from home. The fact that not all of our wins were against TRULY GREAT teams is true for every team in Division 1 college basketball. Thinking the team is better than they are while not factoring physical problems to Doyle, White, James, and Peterson is a miscalculation, not a betrayal.