Drake Preview and Game Thread -- 2-14-2021

[swellafelon]

If we play Drake at Arch Madness I'll have a full arsenal of Trash Talk ready to go.

Example:

Drake is such an easy school to get into that it took only TWO tries for GoRamblers to be admitted!

[bgilmore06]

Unless I'm wrong on the tiebreaker, only thing that stands between us and a conference championship are three home games. Let's get it done.

Looks like I was wrong on the tiebreaker (at least in terms of the #1 seed). If both teams win out, Matt Hackman says there is a modified MVC tiebreaker this year that appears to give the #1 seed to Drake. Record vs. highest common opponents gives them the edge, us being 3-1 vs. MOSt and ISUb, them being 4-0.

https://twitter.com/mjhackman/status/13 ... 8158842883
https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2021/1 ... FINAL_.pdf

[lusuperfan]

Unless I'm wrong on the tiebreaker, only thing that stands between us and a conference championship are three home games. Let's get it done.

Looks I was wrong on the tiebreaker (at least in terms of the #1 seed). If both teams win out, Matt Hackman says there is a modified MVC tiebreaker this year that appears to give the #1 seed to Drake. Record vs. highest common opponents gives them the edge, us being 3-1 vs. MOSt and ISUb, them being 4-0.

https://twitter.com/mjhackman/status/13 ... 8158842883
https://mvc-sports.com/documents/2021/1 ... FINAL_.pdf

That’s the dumbest tiebreaker ever. Basically, you’re penalizing the team with the better, on paper loss? We lost to a better team than Drake did, therefore they’re the more deserving top seed?



Edit: of course Drake’s 2 games against InSU weren’t cancelled in their covid stoppage which thus officially makes this the dumbest tiebreaker they could come up with

[01grad]

Interesting and odd tie-breaker. It doesn’t say “opponents” plural, but “opponent” which would be Missouri State. Is the intent to keep going down the ladder until there is a different result, or move to NET ranking after looking at each record against the highest rated opponent?

[ahunte1]

It goes to NET .. no going down the ladder.

If InST is solo or tied 3rd with MSU, my understanding isDrake would be the 1 seed bc we lost to InST. But if it's MSU solo, we'd be #1 because of the next tiebreaker, NET.

I assume they did this thinking there would be an uneven number of games played. It's rewarding the best wins.

[01grad]

It goes to NET .. no going down the ladder.

If InST is solo or tied 3rd with MSU, my understanding isDrake would be the 1 seed bc we lost to InST. But if it's MSU solo, we'd be #1 because of the next tiebreaker, NET.

I assume they did this thinking there would be an uneven number of games played. It's rewarding the best wins.

So then the reporter (?) is wrong. That actually makes more sense, when considering this was all put together at a time when it was unclear how many games would be played.

[ahunte1]

It goes to NET .. no going down the ladder.

If InST is solo or tied 3rd with MSU, my understanding isDrake would be the 1 seed bc we lost to InST. But if it's MSU solo, we'd be #1 because of the next tiebreaker, NET.

I assume they did this thinking there would be an uneven number of games played. It's rewarding the best wins.

So then the reporter (?) is wrong. That actually makes more sense, when considering this was all put together at a time when it was unclear how many games would be played.

I'm not really sure if he's wrong. His probabilities would need to account for the scenarios where Indiana State is part of that tiebreaker. If we win out, that's the only way we don't get the #1 seed.

35% chance of that feels high, given that Drake has to win 5 games vs our 3 to tie us in the first place. And he also likes MSU to have more wins than Ind St.

[01grad]

It goes to NET .. no going down the ladder.

If InST is solo or tied 3rd with MSU, my understanding isDrake would be the 1 seed bc we lost to InST. But if it's MSU solo, we'd be #1 because of the next tiebreaker, NET.

I assume they did this thinking there would be an uneven number of games played. It's rewarding the best wins.

So then the reporter (?) is wrong. That actually makes more sense, when considering this was all put together at a time when it was unclear how many games would be played.

I'm not really sure if he's wrong. His probabilities would need to account for the scenarios where Indiana State is part of that tiebreaker. If we win out, that's the only way we don't get the #1 seed.

35% chance of that feels high, given that Drake has to win 5 games vs our 3 to tie us in the first place. And he also likes MSU to have more wins than Ind St.

He seems to think Drake would be #1 so long as Valpo does not overtake Indiana State, which makes me think he believes it’d be determined by each teams record against the fourth place team (Indiana State) since both have the same record against the 3rd place team. Which means he thinks they go down the ladder.

Honestly, i don’t think there’s much of a difference/preference between the one and two spots this year, except for the game times.

[ahunte1]

Gotcha. That's not how I read the rules from the league.

I've heard a couple writers talk about NET in a way that makes me think they missed this change altogether.

[Scream]

Honestly, i don’t think there’s much of a difference/preference between the one and two spots this year, except for the game times.

Two years ago we claimed the conference title based on the tie breaker and (God forbid this year) got the auto NIT after losing in StL. Mostly, though, I'd like to be able to say 3 championships in 4 years in the Krutwig-Williamson-Baughman era.