I was surprised this morning to see Ohio with a 47 RPI.  Last I looked it was in the 70s.  With that, there are  at least 16 teams already in the tourney with worse RPIs than the Cats:  Belmont, NMSU, Colorado, Davidson, Montana, Loyola(MD), Long Island, Lehigh, UNCA, Lamar, Detroit, Norfolk St., Vermont, Miss. Valley, Western KY, N. Dakota.

That should put Ohio at about #52 with RPI among tourney, so the Cats should have no worse than a 13 seed.  They could move up if St. Bonny wins the A10 today.

I wouldn't mind being a 14 seed if it mean we could play in one of the drivable sites.

I listened to several guys who were interviewed by local radio after participating in the sessions in INdy. Very interesting stuff.

TOday the most compelling conversation I heard was the Drexel coach who took the position that calls out the elephant in the room. After their resume was reaad and the fact that they are on a roll with 25 wins before their loss to VCU in the conference final.

WHen asked about his teams lack of SOS he stated the obvious.... and something we will have to contend with next couple of years...."we dont get the chance for big teams to come play us, they won't come to our house and really do not want to schedule us much at theirs"  He then talked about the ins and outs of scheduling as it relates to your ultimate SOS

Anyne here knows my feeling regarding the power 6 and their need to stay at home till conference rolls around in January. Very few teams will d like Ohio State and schedule a Butler on the road. Indiana will only play Butler in Conseco.

It is going to become more difficult intil the NCAA gets those teams to go on the road. For those here when UK came OUr way....did we have problems selling tix? was there as much Blue inthe stands as green?

Drexel may indeed have problems scheduling outside the conference as probably does VCU, Butler and a list of elite mid level programs Ohio hopes to join.....

any one catch Dambrot's comment..... seems all of us at this level are seeking the same gooal...    ....

... talent next season could help the Zips make the leap Dambrot seeks. He wants his program to be mentioned in the same breath with NCAA Cinderellas like Gonzaga, Butler, VCU and George Mason.

IMHO that can only help the MAC in general if we are all trying to elevate the programs collectively

I'm surprised that Drexel isn't scheduling games with Villanova, Penn, LaSalle, and Temple. Those would be quality opponents and obviously easy to travel to (walk over to the Palestra). They did play St. Joe's this year (and lost).

That comment stuck out to me too.  Is this a slight shift in the committee?  Makes me think teams like ourselves and Marshall, in the same RPI range, might get more benefit from the committee based on OOC SOS than in years past, perhaps rewarding scheduling up a bit more?  I like looking at OOC SOS instead of overall SOS

The only reason we got that Kentucky home game goes back to the 1994-95 Ohio team.  OU scheduled had an unreal schedule on purpose due to Trent and others returning.  They were on the road for the Preseason NIT @OSU, @Virginia, in NY for George Washington and one of the New Mexico's, then had games @Kentucky, @Iowa and @Xavier. 

Anyway, winning the preseason NIT vaulted us to around 14th ranking in the nation going into Kentucky and the media was giving Pitino the "Is a MAC school really a 14th ranked team? Yeah, right." before the game.  Pitino was saying that Ohio team had Final Four potential and the Kentucky fans/media were hearing coach speak.  After Ohio nearly pulled off the upset, the media was giving Pitino crap about Kentucky being "flat" and not ready to play.  Pitino quips "We are taking a Kentucky team to Ohio, they were legit and they deserve a return trip."

Of course, he takes off for the NBA and Kentucky makes good on the visit well after they were comfortable OU was in a rebuild.

And we beat ourselves up so bad in preseason that we limped through the MAC and Miami took our at-large bid.


Really, the elimination of most preseason tournaments was another dagger to the mid-majors.  Gave them better chance at upsets on neutral sites.