Arrogant prick
He clearly doesn’t respect us, by he’s not entirely wrong.
I think many of the “big time” hoops analysts that are more personality than real “in the trenches” type guys are still talking about mid major hoops like its 2005 or 2010 when its totally different in 2026.
Good, dangerous mid majors are intentionally shut out. Its not about not being willing to go on the road. We couldn’t even get invited to a neutral MTE. There’s a reason for that. Power teams don’t want to play a mid major returning almost all starters that shoots 3s. Our schedule was uniquely bad this year, yes, but look at SLU, its not like power teams were lining up to play them either. The only Q1 game Akron could get was at Purdue, not exactly a winnable game even if they are a top 40 team.
There’s a reason there’s almost no 2-3 bid leagues left. The whole concept of a mid major has almost been designed away. Its all either power conferences where half the teams go or one bid leagues now. Its been engineered this way with the NET and power conference scheduling. Even former top mid major leagues like the A10 and MWC are really feeling the screws from realignment and scheduling.
When we did it all “right” in 2005 and four MAC teams were trending toward the tournament, the damn NCAA rejiggered the RPI formula in the middle of the season, and guys like Jay Bilas cheered them on. He and I had a bit of a back and forth about it then, but I don’t have the cholesterol for that anymore, and he’s slowly but surely turning into Billy Packer, so why bother.
Jeff Goodman wasn’t buying that no one would play us on the Field of 68 show (not the donor group) last night. Rob Dauster was going to bat for us, but a neutral voice really needs to flesh this point out more in the national discourse.
Yes, no one would play us. Yes, it wasn’t just “not going on the road.” Does anyone with a brain really think Travis would have scheduled 3 non-D1 games if he had the choice? Norm Roberts (who I typically like) on that same show said that we should have played lower level power teams on the road…. I started yelling in my car.
The go on the road and get games thing pisses me off the most because you can just look at the numbers: we have 8 road wins. Only one team in the country has more road wins than that: Belmont at 9-1 on the road (coincidentally another talented mid major). Mid majors are willing to go on the road and play! We’ve gone on the road and won 8 times. No power team can say that. Wisconsin, a power bubble team, has played 4 total times on the road. Iowa, another, is 1-4 on the road.
There are several top 25 teams right now that have only played 4 or 5 road games total, so anyone telling us we have to be willing to go on the road like we aren’t willing to can fuck right off. We (good mid-majors) aren’t the teams unwilling to go play tough road games.
Joe lunardi also chimed in
A shitty TCU team has a higher KenPom rating than Miami. TCU lost to Colorado by 26 points today.
I mean, I hate to say it, but this has been about the weakest schedule we’ve ever played, at least that I can remember. And I get what Steele said, and the difficulty scheduling presented coming off of last season’s success. But to be honest, that should be on Sayler. I realize Michigan and Indiana probably weren’t going to want to host us like they did last year after we won 25 games. But settling for 3 non-DI schools, and having a SOS in the 360s should land squarely on the AD. Akron won the Mac last year, and has been in the tournament numerous times the past 5 years, and yet they can still schedule themselves comfortably into the 200s SOS. Sayler needs to negotiate better, build relationships with other mid-major ADs, something. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that we have the weakest schedule of any Mac school.
But that said, it’s a rigged system. The Mac gets no respect in these computer systems, and it’s a shame because this is a better conference than many of the 1 bid leagues in DI, yet the computers treat us like we’re worthless.
Anyway, the bottom line is that regardless of the scheduling problem this season, our boys are undefeated. And it sucks that the powers that be are scoffing at us. But if I feel like this about it, with a chip on my shoulder, I can only imagine how our players feel about it when they hear these experts and talking heads crapping on them becuase of the schedule. At the end of the day, it just comes down to one thing… just win, baby.
Honestly whether your SOS is in the 200s or 300s doesn’t matter much. I would rather have a weaker SOS and be undefeated because of all the attention we are getting. If we were 20-2 people would not be talking about us. MAC is a 1 bid league 99% of the time so our SOS being a little better doesn’t matter.
You guys might be season-ticket holders, but you don’t know more than Jay Bilas. He’s mean-spirited, but speaks the truth. Charlie C took us on the road in December against the SEC and the B1G back in the day, and that would solve the problem now. Yes, its rigged just like football is. But this team is going to win the MAC title anyway; injury or fatigue from having no bench is the only thing to keep that from happening.
This is a great take. The ROI on this season for so many reasons might not have happened if the bigs had played nice and given us a game. In retrospect, they gave us the greatest gift. Most years, the schedule sucks as presented but oddly enough, this year we turned 6’s and 7’s into a fantastic hand.
Depends on the subject. I’ll posit that Jay Bilas has little or no knowledge about the challenges of running a mid-major basketball program. He played for a blueblood, coached at a blueblood, and calls only major conference games. He probably doesn’t even know that many mid-major coaches other than Kenny Blakeney and Tommy Amaker.
ADs schedule football but basketball is scheduled by the head coach. Also as mentioned above the fact we are undefeated (even with a net at 54) is so much better than being 20-2 with a net of 40.
Being ranked and having these crowds has been amazing.
Bilas didnt think Wallys team deserved an at large bid. He wrote an article about how Miami was “screwing” Nike Sibande. He is no friend of Miami
I think there’s great joy in proving these fools wrong. They have no idea what we’ve been through the last 15 years. Mid majors are what make college hoops cool and fun.
That has at least improved from his recent take of “virtually no chance.”
Rarely do I agree with anything Bile-Ass says.
