If it pleases the proletariat, I’ll aim to post something like this each Monday (or close to it 🙂 ). I didn’t post anything this Monday since there were several new topics on the front page that I did not wish to push down. The idea is to generate discussion on ACC/College Basketball at-large and how the various trends and standings may affect N.C. State … Plus, provide a place to discuss the RPI and what respective teams need to do (or not do) in order to have hope for high, low, or any seeding on Selection Sunday. Future editions should be more brief in scope (probably!).
We’re rapidly approaching full-fledged conference play, so with an eye towards March teams across the land need to put a pretty bow on top of their non-conference performance. November and December are when respective conferences define their overall RPI, and how each member team’s ranking will be affected when conference play begins against one another. RPI is not a be-all, end-all of course – but it is an important metric for selection. So, the next couple of weeks of non-conference play are indeed important for everyone.
N.C. State put itself a little behind the 8-ball with the home loss to Wofford. The result doesn’t cripple the Wolfpack, but there’s a bit of a hole to climb out of. Thankfully, smart and strategic scheduling gives the Pack opportunities to counter this result as the final four non-conference games include solid opposition in Tennessee, West Virginia (in NY), Louisiana Tech, and Cincinnati. It can be argued that the Wolfpack did not schedule enough road/neutral contests in the non-conference portion of the schedule (Purdue and WVa are the only contests away from Raleigh), but the level of competition could leave the Pack in a favorable position given a requisite number of wins.
The NCAA’s RPI has the Pack ranked at #71 as of today. Outside of a couple of historical outliers, this ranking is below the threshold for at-large selection. It’s way early though – and as stated, numerous opportunities lie in front of the Pack to turn this number upside down.
Moving on to the ACC, here’s a few links and general notes:
ACC standings w/ RPI, AP Top 25, Coaches Poll
– 7 of the league’s 15 teams have RPI’s of 100+, with 2 of those being 200+ (Pitt (100), BC (136), Notre Dame (146), Clemson (166), Wake Forest (191), FSU (200), VT (260) )
– Duke, Louisville, and Virginia have been the class of the league early with impressive results and rankings. I don’t have a lot of love for UVa’s – at times – ‘avert thine eyes’ style of basketball, but they are a really good team.
– Amusingly, Notre Dame is rated in both the AP and Coaches Polls but has an RPI near 150. They’re ranked basically because of one win over Michigan State.
– Unless we see marked improvement over the next couple of weeks, the bottom half of the league is going to make it pretty difficult on teams that will place 6-10 in the ACC standings to have any type of solid footing going into Selection Sunday. There will be a dearth of quality victories to be had, instead offering numerous landmines that could derail a resume.
– The Cheats are still The Cheats. That’s all.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts or add anything relevant that you find of interest. Have a great week everyone, and Go Pack.
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