Bracketology

[sybarite]

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology

Good old, Charlie. We beat Washington in Seattle. They are a five seed. We are a six seed.

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

No doubt about it, Syb. But at least he has moved us up to where the rpi rankings have us (24th). Previously he had us about 35th!

I think a couple of things are hurting us in RPI.

1. That unexplainable home loss to North Texas.

2. The fact we have lost to so many highly ranked teams. We really need to start beating some of them or it doesn't matter. The one thing it does not seem to take into account for us is that almost all were played on the road: Texas, Baylor, even OSU (who is just out of the top 25 RPI), and A&M on a "neutral" court.

Other strange things in the RPI.

1. Tennessee is ranked 12th. What in the world? They have already lost to 8 teams! How could any system argue that they could now turn it around and beat virtually every other team in the US. Really stupid.

2. Washington is ahead of us in the RPI. They have basically the same overall record. They have a worse record against the top 25. They have a worse record against the top 50. We beat them on their own home court. There is simply no valid argument for placing them ahead of us. None!

 

[BigT14]

No doubt about it, Syb. But at least he has moved us up to where the rpi rankings have us (24th). Previously he had us about 35th!

I think a couple of things are hurting us in RPI.

1. That unexplainable home loss to North Texas.

2. The fact we have lost to so many highly ranked teams. We really need to start beating some of them or it doesn't matter. The one thing it does not seem to take into account for us is that almost all were played on the road: Texas, Baylor, even OSU (who is just out of the top 25 RPI), and A&M on a "neutral" court.

Other strange things in the RPI.

1. Tennessee is ranked 12th. What in the world? They have already lost to 8 teams! How could any system argue that they could now turn it around and beat virtually every other team in the US. Really stupid.

2. Washington is ahead of us in the RPI. They have basically the same overall record. They have a worse record against the top 25. They have a worse record against the top 50. We beat them on their own home court. There is simply no valid argument for placing them ahead of us. None!

I think we will end up being a 5 seed, close to a 4. Tennessee has played a lot of really good teams that helps bolster their RPI. In regards to Washington the only explanation I think would be valid is that the Pac-12 is better than the Big 12, which would help their RPI over ours.

 

[35TangoTango]

Understand that in the system we are using this year, the difference between a 5 seed and a 4 seed is huge! The top 16 teams get the sites for the first and second rounds. We abandoned this system once because it's anti-parity. The rich get richer. But we've gone back to it to gain audience. Somehow, we need to claw our way into the top 16.

 

[sybarite]

The problem is that some teams just can't fall out of the top 16. I suppose that we will make the top 16 if we beat both Texas and Baylor in Norman. If we lose to either, I don't think we can make it. Last year, we were second in the Big Twelve and got a five seed, meaning that we had to play on Stanford's home court. This year, if we finish third, it won't mean much that Texas and Baylor are in the top five or six.

The only good news is that I think we are better prepared to beat a #4 on the road.

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

I think we will end up being a 5 seed, close to a 4. Tennessee has played a lot of really good teams that helps bolster their RPI. In regards to Washington the only explanation I think would be valid is that the Pac-12 is better than the Big 12, which would help their RPI over ours.

But that just reinforces the point. We beat them on THEIR home court. If they are better that just means we are even better.

We get hurt by losing to top 10 teams on the road, but get little/no credit for beating good teams on the road.

I say again, the big-12 scheduling system gave us an almost insurmountable problem. Playing way too many early games on the road (compared to others in the conference) - especially when compounded by several of those against the better teams. As would almost everyone, we lose some of those, and now it becomes almost impossible to move up.

It is a disaster to be given such a horrible schedule. And it just gets worse by the fact the Big-12 office also has forced us to play most of our late season games on the road - right when teams need to finish strong.

Does the Big-12 have any representation on the Tournament selection committee? Who are the members on it this year?

 

[O-State2009]

We get hurt by losing to top 10 teams on the road, but get little/no credit for beating good teams on the road.

I say again, the big-12 scheduling system gave us an almost insurmountable problem. Playing way too many early games on the road (compared to others in the conference) - especially when compounded by several of those against the better teams. As would almost everyone, we lose some of those, and now it becomes almost impossible to move up.

It is a disaster to be given such a horrible schedule. And it just gets worse by the fact the Big-12 office also has forced us to play most of our late season games on the road - right when teams need to finish strong.

I've seen you say this MANY times on the board about the scheduling, so I went and took a look. I broke down the schedule into three 6-game segments. ISU is the only team to have to play on the road 4 times in the first segment. KSU is the only team to play 4 times at home in the first segment. ISU and KSU flip in the second segment with ISU getting 4 home games and KSU getting 4 road games.

The last 6-game segment EVERY team plays 3 road games and 3 home games.

Oklahoma's first 3 road games were Baylor, TCU and OSU. Preseason 1, 5, and 8 respectively.
Oklahoma's final 3 road games are WVU, KU, TTU. Preseason 6, 10, and 9 respectively.

You can't look at how teams are performing NOW to form a conspiracy. You must look at preseason predictions as that is when the schedule is formed. I don't think the schedule was setup against Oklahoma as much as you seem to think it was.

Oklahoma did not lose any spots in the rankings until the loss to Oklahoma State. They didn't lose but 1 or 2 spots after the losses to Baylor and Texas.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I've seen you say this MANY times on the board about the scheduling, so I went and took a look. I broke down the schedule into three 6-game segments. ISU is the only team to have to play on the road 4 times in the first segment. KSU is the only team to play 4 times at home in the first segment. ISU and KSU flip in the second segment with ISU getting 4 home games and KSU getting 4 road games.

The last 6-game segment EVERY team plays 3 road games and 3 home games.

Oklahoma's first 3 road games were Baylor, TCU and OSU. Preseason 1, 5, and 8 respectively.
Oklahoma's final 3 road games are WVU, KU, TTU. Preseason 6, 10, and 9 respectively.

You can't look at how teams are performing NOW to form a conspiracy. You must look at preseason predictions as that is when the schedule is formed. I don't think the schedule was setup against Oklahoma as much as you seem to think it was.

Oklahoma did not lose any spots in the rankings until the loss to Oklahoma State. They didn't lose but 1 or 2 spots after the losses to Baylor and Texas.

Good info! I have never believed the conference, committees, or referees have an agenda against OU. I don't think Sherri believes that either.

 

[soonerstar]

Good info! I have never believed the conference, committees, or referees have an agenda against OU. I don't think Sherri believes that either.

Agree.

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

I've seen you say this MANY times on the board about the scheduling, so I went and took a look. I broke down the schedule into three 6-game segments. ISU is the only team to have to play on the road 4 times in the first segment. KSU is the only team to play 4 times at home in the first segment. ISU and KSU flip in the second segment with ISU getting 4 home games and KSU getting 4 road games.

The last 6-game segment EVERY team plays 3 road games and 3 home games.

Oklahoma's first 3 road games were Baylor, TCU and OSU. Preseason 1, 5, and 8 respectively.
Oklahoma's final 3 road games are WVU, KU, TTU. Preseason 6, 10, and 9 respectively.

You can't look at how teams are performing NOW to form a conspiracy. You must look at preseason predictions as that is when the schedule is formed. I don't think the schedule was setup against Oklahoma as much as you seem to think it was.

Oklahoma did not lose any spots in the rankings until the loss to Oklahoma State. They didn't lose but 1 or 2 spots after the losses to Baylor and Texas.

Is it a conspiracy? No way to know. Is it a bad way to start the season if you hope to be treated well by the rankings? You bet it's bad. You want to start the season in as positive way as possible. Once you drop in the rankings, it is hard to move back up.You do not want to be on the road more than at home either early or late. And you don't want to play the most challenging games of the year at the very beginning.

OU had to play each of the teams who are ranked 1, 2, & 3 by the conference right now - all on the road in the first 7 games. So, who else had to do that? I can assure you everyone expected BU and TX to be strong this year - and only the most uninformed person in America doesn't understand how challenging bedlam on the road is - every year. No matter where they are ranked.

I say that makes the start of the conference season very challenging. Has anyone else had to play at Baylor and at Texas already? Or were those challenging games spread out over the season?

Read the conference policy on scheduling and they spell out VERY clearly that they realize having to start and end mostly on the road is a disadvantage. And they say they try to avoid asking teams to do both.

Even at the end, with 3 of 5 games on the road in the last half of February, we have another very hard challenge for one of the home games. We play an away game that will end between 9 and 10 PM 6 hours from home on Saturday night. Then we must be ready to play Baylor at 8 PM on Monday night. Think about that. The kids are exhausted at the end of the game, then have to get on a plane (or worse a bus?) and probably won't get home until something like 4 or 5 AM Sunday morning, obviously needing some rest. Then have to be ready to play 36 hours later against the 5th ranked team in the country. I can guarantee you NO ONE would hope for that kind of situation.

Our schedule has been extremely challenging in many ways this year.

As far as the current moment. OU has played 4 home games 5 road games. Only WV has had a worse task (4 home 6 away). Some may think that is just an accident. I do not. Only 3 of the 10 conference teams have played on the road more than at home to this point. West Virginia is a long way from the conference offices. A&M thought there were problems. So did Nebraska. So did Colorado. Iowa State has been out spoken about it. If I recall, they even got fined for opening their mouth about it.

 

[O-State2009]

Is it a conspiracy? No way to know. Is it a bad way to start the season if you hope to be treated well by the rankings? You bet it's bad. You want to start the season in as positive way as possible. Once you drop in the rankings, it is hard to move back up.You do not want to be on the road more than at home either early or late. And you don't want to play the most challenging games of the year at the very beginning.

OU had to play each of the teams who are ranked 1, 2, & 3 by the conference right now - all on the road in the first 7 games. So, who else had to do that? I can assure you everyone expected BU and TX to be strong this year - and only the most uninformed person in America doesn't understand how challenging bedlam on the road is - every year. No matter where they are ranked.

I say that makes the start of the conference season very challenging. Has anyone else had to play at Baylor and at Texas already? Or were those challenging games spread out over the season?

Read the conference policy on scheduling and they spell out VERY clearly that they realize having to start and end mostly on the road is a disadvantage. And they say they try to avoid asking teams to do both.

Even at the end, with 3 of 5 games on the road in the last half of February, we have another very hard challenge for one of the home games. We play an away game that will end between 9 and 10 PM 6 hours from home on Saturday night. Then we must be ready to play Baylor at 8 PM on Monday night. Think about that. The kids are exhausted at the end of the game, then have to get on a plane (or worse a bus?) and probably won't get home until something like 4 or 5 AM Sunday morning, obviously needing some rest. Then have to be ready to play 36 hours later against the 5th ranked team in the country. I can guarantee you NO ONE would hope for that kind of situation.

Our schedule has been extremely challenging in many ways this year.

As far as the current moment. OU has played 4 home games 5 road games. Only WV has had a worse task (4 home 6 away). Some may think that is just an accident. I do not. Only 3 of the 10 conference teams have played on the road more than at home to this point. West Virginia is a long way from the conference offices. A&M thought there were problems. So did Nebraska. So did Colorado. Iowa State has been out spoken about it. If I recall, they even got fined for opening their mouth about it.

Go back and look at the rankings. Oklahoma was NOT penalized for losing to Baylor and UT. They fell 1 and 2 spots depending on the polls after each defeat. The biggest drop was after the loss to OSU, which was 5 spots.

Road games at halfway point of each team's schedule:
5 - Baylor, Oklahoma, TTU, WV
4 - ISU, KU, KSU, OSU, TCU, UT

This just means Oklahoma (along with the other 3 listed), get 5 home games in the last half of the schedule. That is just how a schedule has to work when there are 9 road games. And after tonight, Oklahoma will be even in the road/home game ratio.

TTU and Oklahoma are the only teams to have played at Baylor and at Texas so far.
On the flip side, OSU has played them both at home.

There are 4 other teams beside Oklahoma that finish 3 of 5 on the road (since you only want to look at 5 game stretches). KSU, Oklahoma, OSU, TCU, TTU.

OSU and KSU each get UT and Baylor on the road in the 2nd half of league play. So, while you think it was a disadvantage to play both of those teams in the first half of the league on the road, maybe OSU and KSU feel it is unfair they get both on the road in the 2nd half.

Honestly, it doesnt matter. Each team has to play on every other team's home court. Unless you go on an extended road swing, which only TCU will have 3 consecutive road games in Big 12 play, the schedules are basically identical. Baylor is the only other team that has more 2 separate occasions in which they play consecutive road games; they have 3 such stretches, while everyone else has 2.

So you have a Saturday at Kansas to Monday in Norman stretch.. OSU ends the season with a Saturday evening game AT WVU, followed by a Monday evening game in Stillwater.

Oklahoma plays the final Saturday in Norman, then travels to Lubbock on TUESDAY. Meanwhile, TTU plays that final SUNDAY before hosting Oklahoma on Tuesday.

But please, go on about how Oklahoma got the short end of the stick.