With the way the new RPI is set up, there are many more mid-majors that will be in position to get an at-large berth. Teams like Pacific and Gonzaga, St. Mary's and Southern Illinois and Wichita State will have a pretty good shot at making it into the tourney even if they fail to win their conference tournaments. Kinda takes the excitement out of some of their conference tourneys for those teams, but if they are deserving they should get in.
I still think that even with a change in the RPI, there won't be many mid-majors getting at large berths. They may have a better chance but winning the conference tournament or championship will be the best way to assure a mid major of a berth.
Yeah, first Kansas gets knocked off in a 2OT thriller by Texas Tech the other night and then Kentucky gets schellacked on the road by South Carolina. Illinois is getting quite the cushion for themselves at the top. Now only Kansas even has two losses, while the Illini cruise on undefeated. Even should they lose, they won't deserve to be taken from that top spot, although with the nature of the polls, should they lose, they probably will end up bumped off for some reason.
I got to watch the Kansas game. It sure is nice watching them get beat. I saw the Kentucky and South Carolina game for a part of the 2nd half. It looked to me like the rankings were reversed for what I got to see.
If Illinois loses a game, I think they'll definitely get knocked down a spot. North Carolina looks to be up next for the #2 spot, right? I think all of the "experts" out there have wanted UNC to be at the top for a while and if the Illini lost, they'd have no problem putting UNC at #1. I've heard there will be several thousand Illini fans in Iowa for the game there. Some say as many as 6 or 7,000. Should be a fun sight to see.
How big an arena does Iowa have? Must be really big to fit 6000 Illini fans as well as all the Iowa fans. Anyway, Wake Forest is next in line for that spot, although they have to travel to Cameron this Sunday night, so that spot could be in jeopardy for them. Illinois will deserve to be #1 still even if they lose, but like you said, they'd probably drop them anyway just because they lost. Still, I don't see them losing at least until the NCAAs, the Big Ten is too weak this year to provide them with many challenges the in the rest of their schedule or the Big Ten tournament even.
Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena seats up to 15,500 Hawkeye and Illini fans for basketball games. Last year, the Orange Krush (Illini student section) organized groups to travel to opponent arenas and cheer on the Illini on the road. I know last year, they had a few rows right behind the student section. Since the Illini won there, I heard a few reports that the Illini faithful were louder than the Hawk's Nest (their student section). I also got to see a few pictures which were hilarious.
I think this year, they're trying to build upon what they did last year. I think Krush is trying to make one annual road game where they can buy up as many tickets as they can and possibly turn a road game into a "neutral" court.
I think Michigan State may give the Illini some trouble in the tournament. It's in Chicago this year and the Spartan fans should travel well there but there will be a lot of Illini fans there, too. Beating them in East Lansing was a good win for the team and is making entering the tournament undefeated look like a real possibility.
I think Michigan State may give the Illini some trouble in the tournament. It's in Chicago this year and the Spartan fans should travel well there but there will be a lot of Illini fans there, too. Beating them in East Lansing was a good win for the team and is making entering the tournament undefeated look like a real possibility.
Oh how I wish, but I don't think it's going to happen for Sparty this year.
February 14th, 2005, 06:16 PM
I doubt it, but it'll be quite the beatdown I'm sure.
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