MBB: C-USA, RPI, etc.

[SpaceRaider]

There's still some out of conference games to be played for most schools, but here's

Conference USA
Team Tot. W-L RPI Rank
Old Dominion 10-1 13
La. Tech 8-3 215
UTEP 8-4 61
FAU 6-4 166
North Texas 6-4 190
Middle Tenn. 7-5 204
Charlotte 6-5 57
FIU 6-6 145
So. Miss 5-5 306
Western Ky. 5-5 111
UT-San Antonio 4-5 271
Marshall 4-8 307
UAB 4-8 315
Rice 3-7 351


as a whole the conference is 5-19 against 1-50 in rpi



usm and uab have really tumbled this year. The blazers weren't competitive against chattanooga who MT easily beat. Looks like Tyndall left usm just in time though the ncaa seems to be hot on his trail. utsa, marshall, and rice are what about where I expected them to be. North Texas' win over Creighton this past was really surprising. WKU and Charlotte I thought might be a little better than they have shown so far. FIU and FAU are a little better than I thought they would be. UTEP and Latech are about where they were expected to be.

ODU is a big surprise at this point.

MT is about where I thought they might be, record wise.


here are the rpi's for the d1 programs in the state of TN

utk 57
belmont 91
vandy 126
ut-martin 138
memphis 142
tech 169
chattanooga 190
etsu 193
MT 201
lipscomb 264
peay 336

 

[MTFNBY5]

Was hoping that after the three year run, and move to C-USA, we would be able to maintain a double-diget (top 100) RPI. We really needed to pick-up one can't miss player in each of the previous two classes which, IMHO, we didn't do. I do think we got better prospects last year, however.

Envious of how Byrd has been able to reload after losing really good players and maintain a top 100 RPI ranking.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

I also share that envy of Rick Byrd but I really do think Kermit has his own recipe that he has factered while at MT to be a solid program. Where I used to have little faith in his style, I now have confidence because he has proven himself.

Originally posted by MTFNBY5:
Was hoping that after the three year run, and move to C-USA, we would be able to maintain a double-diget (top 100) RPI. We really needed to pick-up one can't miss player in each of the previous two classes which, IMHO, we didn't do. I do think we got better prospects last year, however.

Envious of how Byrd has been able to reload after losing really good players and maintain a top 100 RPI ranking.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

What is CKD recipe? Serious question.

 

[dukewayne]

Count me still concerned about the effects of the departure of Asst coach Monte Towe. IIRC, he was here pretty much for the whole ride of MT breakthrough and success so many of us had been long waiting to see.

It seems some improvements are being made with men's basketball in the OOC schedule. Unfortunately, I'm not sure enough improvements made to even have nailed down starters and/or good rotation 8 or 9 deep. Seems the coaches are still trying to find that as conference play is set to begin.

Harris is an improvement and quite possibly a real plus for the team as a PF. Some of the young freshman are showing inconsistency. No surprise there. Seems to be real potential in those freshman, but a long ways to go still. I like the effort and attitude Buford is beginning to demonstrate. A little rough on the edges, but attitude and effort will eventually win the day.

Lastly, it seems the players just have not really come together as a cohesive team yet. Little chemistry seems to be established at this point. I'm referring to players not knowing the other players well enough to anticipate what each other will do next and to each others strengths. While the team has seemed to be learning to swing the ball, reverse it, decent ball movement around the court while developing decent effort on the defensive end, there is just a lack of aggressive play that attacks the rack. Most of the players, especially the guards, just aren't attacking the basket. They are not going strong to the rim off the dribble to dish to a cutting teammate who can finish the play. This has really shown up in the guards just settling for way too many 3 pt attempts late in the clock. They are not getting opponents in foul trouble that way. When the 3s aren't falling, MT can go on long spells of little to no scoring.

Bottomline, this team really needs the guards to begin to attack the basket. Penetrate! Get in the paint. Dribble penetration. Draw fouls. Dish to teammates when defenses collapse on the penetration. Make the extra pass. Dish to the cutting forward to hammer the ball in the rim to finish the play. That is what is missing right now. That is what MT did really good the last 3 years of really good success. It's just not there right now. It seems the players have the athleticism and strength, they just have to get after it and attack the rim.

 

[dukewayne]

If I don't say so myself, it seems my above ^^^ post a week and half ago proved to be fairly prescient. After the UAB loss at home to open conference, it seemed MT was going backwards. The Holidays off proved more a disruption than a help. Be that as it may, Kermit did not sound happy at all about the UAB loss. Rightly so, he sounded concerned. He then mentioned this past week just the same sort of thing I had written above. Specifically getting into the paint and attacking the rim.

MT suffering woeful offensive numbers were too ugly to ignore. Kermit mentioned that the team had been settling for way too many low percentage out of sync 3 pt attempts. He mentioned being more sound and aggressive at the rim to improve FG% that the guys were missing at a tremendously high rate. Kermit intimated earlier this week that he was going to work on the players being more aggressive towards the rim. Lots more paint touches and scoring in addition to drawing fouls. I was glad to hear him allude to this stuff on his Monday radio show.

Sure enough, it was clear in the first game up vs FIU that the team took a huge step forward by attacking the rim for most of the game...not counting the last 5 mins or so. What do you know, it looked like MT was making progress. And they were! Attacking the basket is what has been desperately missing from MT's game this season.

If there were any lingering questions regarding this renewed focus on attacking the rim, it appeared to me that the team's performance vs FAU tonight cleared up a lot of those questions. It was really nice to see MT have a dominating win back in the Murphy Center this season! It looked to me that MT even made progress from FIU Thurs night to Sat night vs FAU. Attacking the rim cures a lot of ills. The benefits were showing up vs FAU. Seemingly for the first time this year, the team was finishing at the rim as a team. If the driver in the paint missed the close shot, players like Upshaw & Harris were there to clean up the miss and put the rock back in the hole. It was beautiful to see! Points in the paint were moving to a respectable level. FG% dramatically improved. And what do you know, the 3 pt shot became more effective when taken in sync and more open i.e. 3pt from the drive to the paint and kick out.

As my above post mentioned, Harris and Buford were starting to improve. And boy did they improve. Especially Harris. His numbers really showed it vs FAU tonight. Buford still has some refining to go through, but he is clearly showing improvement and potential.

Before I pat myself on the back too much here, there is still a lot of work and improvement to be made. Tougher competition on the road will demonstrate just how hard the MT men have to work at attacking the rim. They will have to maintain focus on continuing to attack the rim. They also still have a long way to go in developing chemistry in attacking the rim. It does not appear that the players have developed to the point of effectively making the extra pass when attacking the paint to a cutting Upshaw or Rozier just to name a couple of examples. It is great to see some progress that helps provide some hope for conference competition. At least now it feels like they are building upon some success this season.

In the end, credit to Kermit for coaching up the young men in getting them to begin to attack the basket. Right on time for Kermit, his team is starting to figure it out and playing better as January progresses. If history is any indicator, Kermit's team should be real competitive in conference through Feb to close out the regular season. Unfortunately, that is usually followed up by an early exit from the conference tourney right after getting our hopes up with a strong performance down the stretch run of the conference season. With another year, hopefully, hopefully, this could be the year that Kermit's team has a breakthrough in the conf tourney.

 

[MTsumner92]

Good post Duke.

 

[dukewayne]

Thank you sir. Clearly, I don't get out enough.