I know I shouldn't even post this because of the bias opinions of sports writers. I know the basketball team is about as predictable as louisiana weather, but I don't understand how ESPN can forsee them as a #5 seed in the tourney and not even rank them in the Top 25. Oh, almost forgot...the team they forsee us playing is a #12 seed team, So. Illinois. These guys are #23 in the country.
The Top 25 is mostly a popularity contest with college basketball. Only two rankings matter in basketball.... conference standings and RPI. And our RPI is dang good. Brady's schedule was not as soft this year as in year's past. Still, it could be better. LSU Tigers, 16-4, 6-3 in SEC play RPI: 18 vs. RPI Top 100: 10-3 vs. RPI sub-150: 6-0 (huge factor that we didn't have so many cupcakes on our schedule this year) Quality wins: Utah (38), UAB (29), Alabama twice (24), Tennessee (56) Worst loss: Houston (126) Projected seed at the moment: 5
$200 to a boiled peanut So. Illinois can throw a zone in our face that will baffle Brady. I don't think I have ever seen a coach so determined to make Parade All-Americans run the Hoosiers offense. "Hey guys, 10 passes before a shot or I'll yank you." "Oh, and Hudson, you better be super patient OK and take 38 minutes to get your shot off. Miss two shots and I'll scream the F word like a truck driver....and then I'll yank you." Wonder why they stare at a zone like a baby looking at a Rubic's Cube? They are so afraid to shoot and miss that they pass the ball around the zone until one of them turns it over........
The reason our RPI isn't low as usual has nothing to do with Brady and his great tough scheduling. It's the other SEC teams playing so well early on against non-conference opponents. Bama beat Wisconsin early on, Kentucky beat MSU and Indiana...etc etc. That's all that has our RPI at 17. RPI and crap may mean a bunch to get you in to the tourney. But to get past the first round, you have to know how to score more than 40 points against a zone of which we can't do.
dont want to burst any bubbles, but the season basically comes down to the next few games. if we only win against miss and aub, we'll end up 9-7. in that case i dont think we'll get a good seed, but 10 or 11. the knock on us would be that we havent beaten a good team---bama may not be top 25 rpi at end of year. we have msu, uk, uf, vandy games left with only uk at home. damn this will be tough. i wouldnt be so surprised if we lose all of those (we will likely be dogs in all of them), but i'd be dissappointed. we CAN win all of these, but i like our chances against vandy and uk. win two of those four and win a couple in the sec tourney, and we might be 3 or 4. i'd hate to be an 8 or lower again this year.
Well our non conference schedule is not the best but what do you want. You bitch now because you say Brady does not play anyone. Well what if we did have a killer non conference schedule and lost 5 games, then what. I see it now, why the hell did Brady play those games, he knew we could not win them. BTW we did play a good team last year in #1 Arizona at the PMAC. Wait I guess you don't remember that because we only had 9,000 fans at the game. We managed to have had a #1 come to BR last season and could not draw fans to the game. Now that is sad. You want to know one reason we can't get good teams to come play in the PMAC. Two words "fan support". A big name team will not come to BR if they know we can't sell tickets. Brady has said that he has contacted big named teams but no one will play us. A team like Kentucky will play Michigan State at Ford Field for many reasons one being they will be able to draw ten's of thousands of fans. When you can draw fans to games, the game becomes much bigger. It becomes a spectical. National T.V., ESPN coverage. Back in the early 90's we could play those big teams because we would fill the PMAC night in and night out. Remember when we played ND in the Superdome. We had over 60,000 fans there for that game. Think a team would play us in the Superdome now. Not a chance. Boy how times have changed.
I know that Gum. We are about to find out whether LSU is a contender or a pretender. I'm not asking for much, just to finish above .500 in this seven game stretch and beat at least ONE of the good teams (Florida, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Miss. State) and at least one SEC Tourney victory. That, in my opinion, would sew up at least a 6 seed, probably a 5, maybe even a 4. We have another golden opportunity at Florida. I hope and pray we take advantage of it.
Re: $200 to a boiled peanut that may have been earlier in the season, but I think they are doing decent against it now
