When things don't go exactly as I think they should, there is always a conspiracy. That is the only logical reason that it could happen.

It's largely a product of three things:

1) Playing Kentucky and Wisconsin who are 1 and 6 in the RPI respectively
2) Playing the majority of our OOC schedule on the road and getting a good amount of road wins
3) Our only 2 home losses are top 100 RPI teams.

The RPI seems to reward playing good teams regardless of outcome and punish home losses. Road losses to middling teams don't seem to have too strong an impact.

Buffalo hasn't done much terribly wrong this year (Ohio is our only 150+ RPI loss), they just haven't done anything to stand out. The SOS is skewed largely by the two teams. Outside of them, South Dakota State is really the only "quality" OOC win.

I don't think I've seen any Buffalo fans seriously talk at-large bid this year. It's more conference guys (Jeremy Guy) and university employees pumping up our chances. If the 2005 squad didn't get it, this squad won't, and that's coming from someone who really likes this squad. I think something like 4 teams historically have been left out of the tournament with better RPIs than ours is currently, and half of them were from power conferences, so there's no blaming the MAC either if we get left behind.

I'm still a homer, though. If Hurley sticks around and we don't lose any of our key contributors to transfers over the off season, I think Buffalo has outstanding potential for the NCAA tournament next year. And I'm still optimistic about our chances for winning the MAC tournament this year.

Good luck tonight, though not too much. There's usually a decent atmosphere in Alumni Arena when Ohio comes to town. I hope your down season doesn't diminish that any.

But that's not a conspiracy. That's just good, clean fun.

In-ept.

The loss tonight means that unless we win the national championship, we'll finish with 20 losses.

Who said, "I'm not inept. . . I'm ept," from a 1960s TV show?

Thank god I had to take a grandson to indoor soccer practice tonight. Didn't see or hear the game. Looks like the season has finally gotten to them. Can we just pass on the rest of the season?

Tone needs improvement on basic BIGMANZ D position and footwork. Leaning and reaching does not work in D1......

Not Barney, but the right show. Surprised SBH has gotten this.

Amazing how little discussion there is about the game. Maybe it shows how we care now.

/\ This /\

Two early fouls were because guards were given the lane easily, as has been the case many games this year.

I have often wondered why coaches at the college level do not go the way of the NBA on guards or basically anyone who slashes in the lane for a lay up or dunk. Just let em go? Give them the two just do not give them a plus one or yourself into foul trouble. Seems like college coaches teach you MUST contest everything in the lane? Why, so you can foul out after playing 16 mins? I don't get it? Borna, help me...

That was my point for the reasoning there was little discussion. People are choosing not to beat a dead horse.

The ESPN3-Buffalo broadcasters readily and easily picked out our flaws. They commented numerous times about our gunning up 3's without anyone near the basket for potential rebounds, our lack of taking care of the ball with countless unnecessary turnovers, our lack of defense resulting in uncontested lay-ups due to non-existent guard defensive skills and then getting guys like Tone in foul trouble by having to react much too often. I think that pretty well sums up why there is not much "chatter" on this board anymore.

If it's obvious to the occasional viewer like the ESPN3 guys last nite - there is really nothing left for those of us who have witnessed this same schtick all season long to say. The only thing I could really comment on about last nite is just how much this team continues to regress as this season plays out and that Wiggington kid would have been a big help to us this year had he chose to honor his LOI.