| Ramblermania.net https://www.ramblermania.net:443/forum/ |
|
| 2014-15 Loyola vs. 2013-14 Indiana State https://www.ramblermania.net:443/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=955 |
Page 1 of 1 |
| Author: | JCT [ Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:27 am ] |
| Post subject: | 2014-15 Loyola vs. 2013-14 Indiana State |
We're 15 games through the 30-game regular season, and we've done better than almost anyone thought. I mean, the turnaround is so stunning it takes some time to register. Going into today's games, Loyola's RPI is 46-- that's 246 places (!??!!) higher than where we finished last season. At 12-3 headed into the first game with Wichita State, I was reminded of the season that last year's conference runner-up put together. Indiana State earned an NIT bid last year with a resume that is not too dissimilar from what we've done so far. Through 15 games last year, ISUb was also 12-3 with a healthy RPI similar to what we have. They had a 9-3 non-con season with losses at Belmont, vs. Tulsa at a neutral site, and at St. Louis. Because they lost against Tulsa, they played non-D1 Alaska-Anchorage in their non-con tournament, which with their game against Truman State gave them two non-D1 wins. An early win against an under-.500 Notre Dame team gave them a lot of notice, and they also had a home win over Belmont (their only non-con win against a Top 100 RPI team). They began the conference season at 3-0, with wins over us at home, at Evansville, and at Drake. In some ways, we've done better so far than ISUb did at this point in 2013-14. We won the Vegas Tournament. Our only three losses have been to Tulane at home and two teams (ranked at the time) on the road. Although we're 2-1 to start off conference play, our first three games have been against teams picked to finish second, fourth, and eighth-- tougher than ISUb's first 3 last year. So what happened to Indiana State the rest of last year? They had a 12-6 conference record (swept by Wichita State, and splits with Missouri State, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois). They reached the Arch Madness final as a two seed, with wins over us and Southern Illinois. They received an NIT bid with a 23-10 record (21-10 against D1), and lost at Arkansas. Their final RPI was 73. I'm very hopeful, but I don't really expect us to win against #15 Wichita State on Sunday. If we do pull off the upset somehow, the conversation gets ratcheted up a notch. But after Sunday, three of our toughest four or five conference games are behind us, and we'll have some stretches of games where we can be expected to put together some winning streaks. Indiana State's 2013-14 conference record of 12-6 might be too much to even hope for, but double digit conference wins are absolutely possible with our remaining schedule. There's a long way to go, but the fact that there's a serious posibility of postseason play at all, halfway through the season-- let alone with some small room for a couple setbacks-- is mind-boggling. |
|
| Author: | BigJoe1963 [ Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:50 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: 2014-15 Loyola vs. 2013-14 Indiana State |
It is fun to be having this kind of conversation, I thought we were years away. I am still not completely on board the band wagon, but it is nice to contemplate buying the ticket for the first time in a long while. |
|
| Page 1 of 1 | All times are UTC - 6 hours |
| Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/ |
|