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Remember, Numbers Don’t Lie

Looking at numbers which don't lie here's a number for you - THREE

I saw the article in the DNJ (behind a pay wall) last week: "Four former MTSU players advance one step closer to the Super Bowl" and could only name Byard, Ward, and James. Looking at the rosters of all 4 teams in the championship games I did find that Darius Harris is on the Chief's reserve roster but I noticed one thing as I scanned all four squads' rosters.
On all four lists (all lists were the same format) three players college affiliations were different than all the other 200+ players on the active rosters. In the block assigned for their college Byard, Ward, and James were the only college listing requiring three lines:

Middle
Tennessee
State

Change the d--n name!!! Not the way we want to stand out.
 
...in the block assigned for their college Byard, Ward, and James were the only college listing requiring three lines:

Middle
Tennessee
State


Change the d--n name!!! Not the way we want to stand out.

Yep, among the several reasons McPhee needs to be sent packing, this is first and foremost.

One thing I have noticed since the win over Michigan State in the NCAA nearly four years ago, on twitter, if you do a search by 'Middle Tennessee State' every day you will invariably find two, three or four instances of 'Middle Tennessee State' or the four letter acronym, being used as the example of a really bad team, no matter the sport being discussed in a thread totally unrelated to the Blue Raiders...

 
NET RANKINGS

76 North Texas
83 Louisiana Tech
112 Western Kentucky
148 Charlotte
158 UTEP
169 Old Dominion
171 Florida International
188 UTSA
193 Marshall
207 Florida Atlantic
217 UAB
265 Rice
278 Southern Miss
318 Middle Tennessee

KENPOM RANKINGS

55 Louisiana Tech
64 North Texas
110 Western Kentucky
139 Charlotte
140 UTEP
161 Marshall
169 Florida International
175 Old Dominion
182 UTSA
198 Florida Atlantic
201 UAB
241 Rice
255 Southern Miss
303 Middle Tennessee
 
NET RANKINGS

76 North Texas
83 Louisiana Tech
112 Western Kentucky
148 Charlotte
158 UTEP
169 Old Dominion
171 Florida International
188 UTSA
193 Marshall
207 Florida Atlantic
217 UAB
265 Rice
278 Southern Miss
318 Middle Tennessee

KENPOM RANKINGS

55 Louisiana Tech
64 North Texas
110 Western Kentucky
139 Charlotte
140 UTEP
161 Marshall
169 Florida International
175 Old Dominion
182 UTSA
198 Florida Atlantic
201 UAB
241 Rice
255 Southern Miss
303 Middle Tennessee
This is horrible! There are only 347 total div 1 basketball teams. No excuse is valid for this kind of fall. The AD and president or whoever is actually making executive decisions is responsible for this first.
 
Again, this board is awesome. One week Thomas Wolfe - Bon Jovi comparisons. The next, the wife of a former assistant coach who wanted the HC job bashing the AD/president on the board.

We may have stooges running our school like a D2 program, but we have a P5 quality message board!
 
This board is cathartic. I don't know if boards will ever be the place they were back in the delphi days. Dudes pimping hot sauce to coordinated flag flying fridays to meetups at events at coaches shows.

We have had some characters on the boards over the last 22 years or so I've been navigating them.....I think I only had one other handle about 10 years ago and that was blueraidertn.
 
This board is cathartic. I don't know if boards will ever be the place they were back in the delphi days. Dudes pimping hot sauce to coordinated flag flying fridays to meetups at events at coaches shows.

We have had some characters on the boards over the last 22 years or so I've been navigating them.....I think I only had one other handle about 10 years ago and that was blueraidertn.

There are a lot of fans I met (e-met - is that a thing?) on Delphi, The Zone, and here whose postings I miss. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I first discovered the Delphi site. Finally I had found a place to interact with other Blue Raider Fans.
Even though I live only 45 minutes from campus MT fans are few and far between. It's hell working in an environment with almost 100 employees, many sports fans, and never having your team brought up in conversation (well, someone did bring up the win over KY the Friday morning after that game).
It's hard being a MT fan, becoming harder over time; that's why there are so few of us. I'm fearful this place will go the way of The Zone (I miss many of those who didn't make the trip over here when it shut down) and since I don't tweet or f-book I'll have a real loss should that happen.
 
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There are a lot of fans I met (e-met - is that a thing?) on Delphi, The Zone, and here whose postings I miss. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I first discovered the Delphi site. Finally I had found a place to interact with other Blue Raider Fans.
Even though I live only 45 minutes from campus MT fans are few and far between. It's hell working in an environment with almost 100 employees, many sports fans, and never having your team brought up in conversation (well, someone did bring up the win over KY the Friday morning after that game).
It's hard being a MT fan, becoming harder over time; that's why there are so few of us. I'm fearful this place will go the way of The Zone (I miss many of those who didn't make the trip over here when it shut down) and since I don't tweet or f-book I'll have a real loss should that happen.

I'm in the exact same boat except I'm about 30 mins away.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens to message boards. The new generation is so consumed with likes and socialMEdia that it would require a big integration to that level o make them popular again. If it doesn’t involve a selfie or flaunting your adventures, it doesn’t make the cut.
 
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There are a lot of fans I met (e-met - is that a thing?) on Delphi, The Zone, and here whose postings I miss. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I first discovered the Delphi site. Finally I had found a place to interact with other Blue Raider Fans.
Even though I live only 45 minutes from campus MT fans are few and far between. It's hell working in an environment with almost 100 employees, many sports fans, and never having your team brought up in conversation (well, someone did bring up the win over KY the Friday morning after that game).
It's hard being a MT fan, becoming harder over time; that's why there are so few of us. I'm fearful this place will go the way of The Zone (I miss many of those who didn't make the trip over here when it shut down) and since I don't tweet or f-book I'll have a real loss should that happen.

The Zone boys did it to themselves. They couldn’t handle the truth 4 years ago when I predicted much of this current MTSU Athletics downfall and they kicked me out.
 
I'm fearful this place will go the way of The Zone (I miss many of those who didn't make the trip over here when it shut down)
I'd say that those posters are here... they either have a different username or don't post much.
 
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Kermit and Ole Miss will be fine. I think people quickly forget Kermit was the SEC coach of the year last year. He's had to replace some key players and their schedule hasn't done them many favors. They will still end the year with more than twice as many wins as MT. You can book that. He's signing some talented players to come to Oxford as well. They're going to be just fine.
 
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Kermit and Ole Miss will be fine. I think people quickly forget Kermit was the SEC coach of the year last year. He's had to replace some key players and their schedule hasn't done them many favors. They will still end the year with more than twice as many wins as MT. You can book that. He's signing some talented players to come to Oxford as well. They're going to be just fine.


The honeymoon is over. If they are this bad again next year, Ole Miss may run him off.

He has somewhat of a reprieve in that their women’s program is absolute trash and he had a good year with a lot of Kennedy’s players. Most Reb fans are on to baseball/football talk.

But he has lost a lot of the goodwill he built up last year. And unlike our Beavis/ Butthead administration, the Rebs will run him off if he doesn’t make the tourney. They fired Andy Kennedy after 1 bad year and 3 years of not making the NCAA. Kennedy’s career winning % at Ole Miss was better than Kermit’s last year and Kennedy was fired.
 
They've played a hellacious schedule so far this year. Seriously, go look at it. There are no layups in the SEC. I don't know what the rest of their schedule looks like this year, but I imagine they will close the year out with many more wins and a few wins in the SEC tournament. I still believe he will finish right around .500 in the SEC. I could see them being an NIT Final 4 type team, maybe win it. NCAA tourney bid will be hard at this point unless they go on a roll, but those .500ish SEC teams get bids all the time. There is still a ton of basketball left for this season.

With regards to next year, unless it's an absolute disaster, he'll get a 4th year. Have to think between his 3rd and 4th year he will do well. We all know he is a good coach and he's getting the talent in there. Murrell looks like the absolute real deal and could leave Ole Miss with many records. #12 ranked guard in the country and #39 player overall. Rated #7 shooting guard in the country by 247sports. Ole Miss never got talent like they're getting now before Kermit arrived. Hard to see them running him off when he's bringing in some of the best players in the country and beating blue bloods for recruits. The results will come.
 
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Once Davis left he became a nonentity to me. His success or lack of it has no bearing on me at all.
I do agree with blueraiderJT that financially at his age it made perfect sense for him to go anywhere (not that I don't value loyalty more than wealth), even to his school's (MSU) most hated rival, to coach for a handful of years and retire much more financially secure than coaching at MT for a decade or more. He does have Ally to think about but I imagine she was well taken of by financial moves Davis made while earning an (at least to me) excellent income while at MT.
(Just wondering - Did Davis sell his home on Center Hill Lake?)
 
My brother said it best. You have a rare chance to coach a SEC team but any CUSA team would greet with Kermit open arms. He did what he had to do. Not that I agree with it but I get it.

he can always come back and coach a CUSA school.
 
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Many years, it wasn't until about Feb that Kermit's teams started to come together and go on win streaks.

I know I would be fairly happy with a close to .500 record in a rebuild year.
 
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