Wright state series over?
The contract was for one game, but with no payment. It seems like a handshake home and home.
I went with 3 friends to the final basketball workout of the summer. Girls were already done last week. They get a break until school starts in a couple of weeks.
About scheduling we talked to Coach Richburg (celebrating birthday #39) after practice and he said we cannot find anybody who wants to play us. No G5 home and homes and no P5 money games. The whole staff is contacting friends at other schools to see if we can get something done. So stay tuned.
For the men our transfer from Bradley who is from Iceland has been home for awhile playing for the national team in age group play. For the girls Ilsa DeVries has been home playing for the Netherlands National team on a 19 and under competition.
Otherwise, Suter and Skaljac were out with leg injuries ( nothing serious to worry about).
I focused on the 5 freshman. They can all shoot the basketball and anyone of them could play a role in our usual 9 man rotation. Since shooting is not a need with our 7 for sure rotation guys, Carl said it will probably comes down to who can fill a need the best, such as becoming a defensive stopper or a dive on the floor fight for loose balls, get some rebounds to create extra possessions type of guy. Or if one of the rotation guys gets hurt ( always seems to happen) who can fill his spot the best.
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Did he mention why this is?
Copying a post from @Hawkattack06 earlier this year that explains it well from the buy game side. It’s hard getting home-and-home matchups with good mid-majors too since it carries a high risk of loss while a win doesn’t really move the needle in building a resume for March Madness.
“We are in no mans land as a team with a projected NET ranking around 100 or so. A good program doesn’t want to host us since we’d be a quadrant 3 home game. Therefore, you get no credit for beating us and get severely penalized for losing to us. No win situation. We could realistically only get bought by a top 10 team that knows they will beat us.”
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I would be happy getting a chance to play someone good.
Yup, I also wrote a quick explanation about it in a post earlier this summer. We are literally in the worst spot a team can be for getting games:
The NET “game” is pretty solved at this point and playing a team in the 100-150 range is generally regarded as not desirable. They are losable games that don’t get a team credit if they win. Even others teams in that same range who are looking for games don’t want to play another peer team…for the same reason: its big risk/little reward.
Teams looking to make the NCAA want Q1 games (1-30 at home and up to 75 on the road) and Q2 games (31-75 at home and 76-135 on the road). Neutral site is usually the “loophole” where a team can play up to 50 for Q1 and 100 for Q2 at a “neutral” (like another city in their home state).
Q3 losses are to be minimized so they don’t want a dangerous Q3 team which is what bringing in teams 76-160 at home is. Miami should be in this bucket this year, but if we are 161+ (which would be disappointing but not out of the question), that’s a Q4 game if we are brought in. We are way too dangerous as a Q4 game.
If Miami could get up to flirting around 100, then we drop into the fake neutral site loophole and it opens up the game for us…but we need to prove we are there before we start to get those calls.
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Oh yeah thanks, I totally forgot about that post
Tamar Singer went home to Israel for the summer, but will be on campus soon.
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Seems like there should be some mid-majors in our same boat.
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Except playing teams in the same boat is especially bad for them. High risk games that don’t reward them (and us). Peer teams are even less likely than major teams to want to play teams in the 100-150 range. If they lose, it hurts their resume and if they win it does nothing. You aren’t gonna get many top 100 games in conference so you want you try and find them ooc. Miami who was fluttering around 140 NET all last year not appealing.
It’s almost like the system was designed to freeze out competitive mid majors in favor of middle of the pack or worse big teams.
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Quad 3 and 4 games are basically viewed the same: you are expected to win and more than a loss or two just kills your resume
So if you were a team in the 70-120 range, would you rather schedule Miami who could be competitive or NIU/EMU/another bad team who you can beat by 20? Remember, both wins basically affect your resume the same but a loss to Miami is much more likely.
As Kent showed last year, getting punched in the face by a quad 1 team is often better for your NET than beating a peer team (Miami beat them three times, was better in conference, and still was lower than them in NET)
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Did not know that.
Exactly!!! MAC teams (and most mid-majors) look a a lot stronger under the previous RPI system (those 2024-25 numbers are out there) than the NET, which indeed was designed as an advantage for the big boys.
The Kent State example shows this perfectly. Playing and losing two games to Alabama and Auburn was a ‘plus’ compared to Miami winning three games against Kent. Note the RPI conference rankings RealTimeRPI.com Mid-American Men's College Basketball Rating Percentage Index (RPI) Ratings - A leading sports ratings and resources community on the Internet
vs. the NET rankings Conference Standings - 2025 Mid-American Men's Basketball | WarrenNolan.com
A 7-place difference (16-23) in league rank while the team individual rankings were even more glaring.
NOTE: While Alabama-Aubern were big, when it comes to Kent-Miami comparisons and the spread in their rankings, Kent’s non-con games vs. Arkansas State and Cal-Irvine - both Top 100 NET games that they split - also plays into the equation as Miami had less Top 100 games overall than Kent.
In the end, Kent going 1-3 in Top 100 non-con games was valued higher than Miami going 3-0 vs. Kent. Not saying that was right. Just explaining ‘the system’ as best I can. Those Top 100 non-com games are critical, no matter who it is.
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Maine released their OOC schedule and we host them on Saturday, December 6.
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Not a good date - the MAC football Championship is that same day.
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Noon kick, 4 hour drive to Oxford, lets tip at 7:30 or 8. Love a good double header.
Gotta wash the taste of the overnight double header some of us did last year out of our mouths seeing hoops down at IU in Bloomington for 7pm tip then up to Detroit for the noon kickoff the next day.
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Article on mid-major scheduling difficulties from Extra Points, though need to be a subscriber to read most of it:
I get this is the other end of the home and home but I hope they end up being a bit better than 4-20something and in the 300s last year.
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