Green Bay WAS a bubble team until they lost last night to Wisconin-Milwaukee, in overtime, on their home floor in the semi-finals of the HL Tournament. Their RPI dropped to 61 as a result of the loss, which pretty much knocks them off the bubble. Now the HL Tournament final moves to Wright State on Tuesday, which will mark the fifth city to host HL Tournament games-- Rochester MI, Valparaiso IN, Milwuakee WI, Green Bay WI, and Fairborn OH-- over the span of a week.
Most of the oldtimers here know what my quarrel is with the HL. Their entire conference tournament format is the result of a temper tantrum the league had when Loyola made the conference final in 2002. Many people will claim the HL made the change to the format because Butler lost in the first round, not because of Loyola making it. But if it had been #6 UIC vs. #4 Wright State instead of #5 Loyola in that tournament final, do you really think they would have immediately taken the radical and unprecedented step of creating the most stratified conference tournament format in the country to prevent it from happening again? I don't.
There were some other issues leading up to that drastic and stupid move-- such as Loyola getting called for 44% of the technical fouls called in the league in 2000-01, the Theo Dixon spitting incident, and an issue that I unwisely agreed not to mention again (some people know the story, which resulted in their Asst. Commish leaving the conference for another job).
Nevertheless, if it hadn't been for the creation of that tournament format just weeks after Loyola made the final, I would probably have a much less hostile view of that league.
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