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BASKETBALL Freedom just another word for nothing left to lose

M

MTFNBY5

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Jul 26, 2005
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For the first time in several years I feel as if a heavy weight is off of my shoulders, but damn it, I miss it.

I don't have to worry about how we'll do in the conference tournament.
I don't have to worry about whether or not we'll get in the NCAA tournament.
I don't have to check the time and channel of the selection show
I don't have to speculate on where will we be seeded and who will we play
I don't have to, as backup, know when the NIT brackets will be announced.
I don't have to wonder if we'll refuse an invite to the NIT or one of the lesser tournaments.
I don't have to wonder where and when we'll play a tournament game and if it will be convenient to go.

So much was on my mind in recent years during college BkB tournament time that is not there today. My only concern today is deciding if I will enjoy March Madness more since I "don't have a dog in the hunt" or if I just won't care enough to watch any games.

Freedom, Freedom, Freedom
 
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Until the league gets better top to bottom and it's top teams consistently schedule tough OOC schedules (and win some of those games), we will remain a 1 bid league. You just can't have teams like us, Charlotte, Rice, UTEP etc. that basically lose every OOC game they play. That is devastating to a conferences RPI/whatever-ranking-they-use-now. The top 3-4 teams in the conference also must win several impressive OOC victories if CUSA wants recognition. This is something we did in the past but usually the other schools wouldn't fulfill their ends of the bargain. Now here we are dragging the conference down.

The Mountain West really is the model I would look at. They consistently get multiple bids and rightly so. Utah State, Fresno State, UNLV, Nevada, San Diego State are fantastic programs and others like Boise State and New Mexico are not far behind. I would be interested to know what their average basketball budgets are and what they pay their coaches. It really is a magnificent league that's competitive every year and wins big games every year. They play well in the post-season too. It's just a damn good, legitimately solid basketball league. Ironically, I believe our broadcasting deals are pretty similar to them as I frequently see their games on CBS Sports Network as well as Stadium TV.

CUSA just flat out has to get better. A lot better. We need better players, better coaches, better TV deals, more fans, etc.
 
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SpaceRaider said:
Well I've managed to get some schadenfreude out of a few things this week.

Belmont didn't win the ovc tourney

Vandy completed a perfect $EC losing season

The Crimson Tide beat some team last night...
Click to expand...

So I wasn't the only one who found joy in that outcome last night...Sorry, just don't understand MT "fans" cheering for Ole Miss.
 
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Things are cyclical in basketball for teams and conferences- look no further than the Pac12 since that's a one bid league this year as well for example...
 
kingaling42 said:
Things are cyclical in basketball for teams and conferences- look no further than the Pac12 since that's a one bid league this year as well for example...
Click to expand...

Remains to be seen. I think they get at least 2 teams and maybe 3.

I do agree with being cyclical but there is still consistency in terms of bad conferences and good conferences...and good teams and bad teams.

One of the things that made Kermit's run here so great is that it didn't follow your traditional cyclical cycle that smaller schools usually go through. Kermit was able to sustain success here for 6-7 seasons which is rare. Only way to get to that Gonzaga/VCU/Nevada/Butler level is being consistently good. Of course there will be a bad season here and there, but you can't just fall off the face of the earth for 2+ seasons.
 
I feel like basketball is going the way of football and leaving worthy mid-majors out for P5 and money. Oklahoma is going to make the tournament with the least amount of conference wins over an 18 game schedule ever while Lipscomb and Belmont will likely be in the NIT. All three of those schools have NET Rankings within 10 spots of each other. If I see a year where there are no mid-major at-large teams I will not watch a second of the tournament.

Who is cheering for Ole Miss? I see all of the comments not understanding why MT fans are cheering for Ole Miss, but I have not seen it happen. I can see friends of Kermit cheering for him to succeed, but not just a casual fan cheering for Ole Miss because he is there.
 
kingaling42 said:
Things are cyclical in basketball for teams and conferences-...
Click to expand...

A good generalization most casual basketball fans can easily observe. However, the real hard work is transitioning from “Good to Great”. Ken Collins wrote a great business book a few years ago on that same title which logs successfully run companies. One can apply that philosophy to managing and coaching athletic programs. A “mid-major” example that breaks cyclical trends is Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) over last thirty years. They’ve had a line of coaches such as Mick Cronin, Steve Prohm, Billy Kennedy, and Mark Gottfried who have achieved a pinnacle excellence either there or elsewhere. Tevester Anderson not as much from a body of work, but he did reach Top 25 one year at Murray with a 3 loss regular season. MT has lost to Murray in our “excellent” seasons, such as 2014-15. Murray has been an arch rival of MT since 1930-31. We still royally trail in the all time series to the point we nearly have to win out for the series to reach .500 by the time MT’s 150th year rolls around in 2061. Folks, that record is the exhibit between good and great: the comparison between Middle Tennessee and Murray. I can almost say the same for the timeline example for Western Kentucky. By the way they are playing for a C-USA Championship today against ODU. Western first made the NCAAs back in 1940 and they may make it there again by the end of today. Western has been a #7 seed in the Sun Belt and won it all...they take championships very seriously over the course of their storied history.

At MT, we tended to spread wealth to where we win or in the running for the “all sports trophy” given by the conference office: whether that was OVC, Sun Belt, and more recently C-USA...Kudos on a good solid accomplishment. However, we didn’t sustain greatness Kermit toiled for a decade plus. We were nationally ranked for 2 weeks before sustaining Marshall and USM losses. For Kermit’s legacy, we have a pair of “one shining moments” and a deep NIT run in 2012. That greatness progress was ruined in one offseason not necessarily by Kermit, but with leadership in AD’s office and also in Cope. Planning. Vision. Philosophy. It all has to be there for it to outlast a head coach; that’s our mistake over the years—the focus on who the head coach is at a given time to fix and solve everything. Kermit apparently made the best decision for himself and family with secondary regards to MT and Murfreesboro: he even got COY honors with his first year at Mississippi. And who can really blame him?

Maybe Coach Nick McDevitt can build it from scratch again and get it done in a couple of years: it’s hard to feel great when nearly half the win total was on account of UTEP Miners and Charlotte 49ers. Then again maybe he cannot from experience and ability. Time will tell on recruiting and with the depth we can attain...no guarantees. However, leadership cannot lose sight of excellence if we want to see multiple at large bids for MT and our conference. That core value must be instilled beyond one coach and we cannot depend on or be comfortable with the conference office helping us facilitate excellence: .500 record isn’t going to pay freight. We need to be at least three games beyond 2020 and going to or winning championships in three years, tops if we want a generational legacy of excellence.
 
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Being 8-10 in our league with this team tells me it would not take a ton of improvement next year to compete for a conference championship. Just the added depth at the guard position would have accounted for at least a few more wins this year. 8-10 could have easily been 10-8 or 11-7. 11-7 would have been good enough to be tied for 2nd this year. It is not going to require vast improvement to make the NCAA tournament in this conference. We should start out the year better than we did this year and if we improve as much over the year we could make a run in the CUSA tourney and win it. We played all of the top teams in the conference very well this season. Playing the 3rd ranked OOC schedule came at the worst time. If we had played a more favorable OOC schedule and pulled off 4-5 more wins we are flirting with .500 this year. I think .500 or better is more than doable next season.
 
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crposton said:
11-7 would have been good enough to be tied for 2nd this year. It is not going to require vast improvement to make the NCAA tournament in this conference.
Click to expand...

11-7 and being tied for second is a serious problem. Our conference just as well need to be in the Patriot League or the America East in terms of seeding—our representative wont have one much better this year. If MT wants to return to the AP Top 25 and earn a single digit NCAA seed, there should be a zero tolerance policy for losses in conference. We are not even close to the same universe for that to happen and we Have. To. Run. The. Table! We need to see overall records and expectations like 29-2 or 30-1, not 17-13 or 20-9.

That’s what’s missing from most of MT Athletics (WBB and Track are generally pleasant exceptions): built on outright excellence, year after year. “Good Enough” is very much tolerated and built into our culture whether it’s football, basketball, tiddlywinks, or even extending to academics. Why can’t we be like Houston, Nevada, or even Murray State in basketball? Why can’t we be 11-1 in football year in and year out? Why can’t even get a law school? I’m beginning to see our leadership is not really trying hard with our mission, almost to the point they can be accused of stealing their paycheck. I used to think we tried very hard in most of what we did as an institution. Sure, we stubbed toes in contests here and there (like with UAB in the C-USA Championship for football), but it seems our AD and executive leadership is way too content with reverting to median or being “good enough”. I love our university, but this “Little Middle” mediocrity has invaded our culture over years and decades must stop. We are expending too many resources for the results we receive. Cut base salaries or fire people until excellence starts to happen! Many people we have on board currently cannot get us there or haven’t proven very much.
 
Murray’s last three point guards were or will be drafted. Two of them in the first round. (Payne and Morant).
Morant may be #2 overall behind Zion.

That is something for the little school next door to WKU with a one-sided football field.

Belmont may get an at-large but I doubt it. Beating a crappy UCLA team in Pauley Pavilion is no longer a big accomplishment.
 
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I'm hesitant to praise the NCAA committee so I'll phrase this as one one of my teenage kids. The committee didn't do the worst job ever in their selections this year. After the trend of the last few years that has been decidedly in the direction of college football and the power conferences, it was a pleasant surprise to see the committee give non power conferences a few decent selections.

Sadly, MT peaked right at about the same time that the NCAA were really screwing almost all of those outside the power conferences.
 
It seemed almost widely expected that the committee would forever keep the OVC a one bid league. Interestingly, the ovc gets two in the same year that the conference rating is horribly low. Clearly, Belmont and Murray St are the class of the league with Jacksonville St running close behind the two powers.

One has to wonder if Belmont picked up more recognition the last handful of years for just consistently being an excellent basketball team under almost 4 decades of excellence under coach Byrd. Throw in some high caliber players, and they got the committees attention despite their league's dismal overall rating.
 
dukewayne said:
I'm hesitant to praise the NCAA committee so I'll phrase this as one one of my teenage kids. The committee didn't do the worst job ever in their selections this year. After the trend of the last few years that has been decidedly in the direction of college football and the power conferences, it was a pleasant surprise to see the committee give non power conferences a few decent selections.

Sadly, MT peaked right at about the same time that the NCAA were really screwing almost all of those outside the power conferences.
Click to expand...

I’m glad the NCAA Selection Commuttee gave more love to the non power conferences this year versus the past several years: whether that is on account of Belmont and Murray attracting attention with Murray’s star power or acknowledgement of Coach Byrd’s consistency is highly debatable. I’m sure UMBC’s upset of Virginia and/or Loyola of Chicago getting to a Final Four last year also weighed on minds subconsciously when teams resumes were being compared. Again, I will say the Selection Committee was fair and got the teams right. Seeding is another matter in a couple of cases; that mainly affects continuing to the second weekend.

What needs to happen now are more “mid major” teams who can get to a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 versus a second round matchup. It has happened where double digit seeds make it, but frequency is still rather low when looking over a decade or so. Kent made it to an Elite 8, several years ago WKU made it with Darren Horn, Northern Iowa, of course Loyola. At other times if a 10/11 makes it to the second weekend it’s usually a fourth/fifth place P5 conference team that takes out a favored 2/3 to get there and that sort of thing happens more frequent.

The next question is this a “one off” where resumes of “mid majors” got throughout because of the NET profiles or did we have members of the Selection Committee with more empathy? Who knows! In the case of C-USA we didn’t benefit and MT didn’t help in the quality win ratings like we have in the past to others. I saw bonus play as a failure because it didn’t translate to an NIT or get ODU a seed equal to the America East champion Vermont. What I see is it comes down to winning three games in three days: if you do that, Congratulations you got your ticket punched to the dance. If not better not lose more than 4-5 games total including the Tournament results if you want to see the dance.
 
Normal years I would agree any more than 4-5 losses would not get you in the tournament, but with our non-conference SOS this year we probably would have gotten in with 7 or 8 losses given we won against some of the power conference teams we played and only had 2-3 losses in CUSA to the top teams.
 
Hard to tell if you are saying Steph was not overlooked but VT and VCU were the best offers for arguably the best shooter ever. Overlooked. What were VCU and VT when he was offered? Not basketball powerhouses. Morant obvioulsy more overlooked or a late bloomer.
 
The Dexter Dennis kid with Wichita State is already a superstar. Too bad we couldn't close the deal with him.
 
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