The Bonnies: 2020-2021 Season Thread

Can't you still game the NET system? A school like Drake and Winthrop which collectively have no real good wins...and have solid NET rankings.

I think the thing that the A10 consistently struggles with is winning out of conference. From Davidson to Fordham, we never seem to have enough teams entering conference play with 10+ wins.

Our schedule (too many road games) and lack of performing each season is why we seem to struggle in the rankings. in '16 we had too many bad losses. In 2018 a bit of the same and the A10 was pretty bad. Not sure how many mulligans the committee gives you, but when you have north of four Q3/Q4 losses, you're in trouble.

If the committee has shown us anything lately, it might be better to have less good wins with no bad losses than a bunch of both.
NET is harder to game. It takes how you play on the court into account. Drake and Winthrop are high because they win games and look good doing it. Isnt that what we want to see? Colgate is too high IMO but they have a smaller sample set and should drop down closer to where they belong. I look at us, 35 seems right. RPI has us 9, that is not accurate (although RPI gets better as more data goes in) so I think it is doing something right.
 
If the committee has shown us anything lately, it might be better to have less good wins with no bad losses than a bunch of both.
I think this is true, and the major conferences are able to schedule like this. It's still gaming the system to an extent. But to be fair, many of the major programs do just rip right through their buy games against inferior opponents. At home of course, but no slip-ups. We don't have that luxury and have to play on the road. We also have more land mines in conference play because instead of every team being 8-3 .. 11-0, we have half our teams .500 or worse after the OOC.

At the end of the day, the majors have more opportunities for good wins, and we have more opportunities for bad losses. Until win % requirements are implemented, $ rules scheduling and scheduling rules selection Sunday. And 18-15 Oklahoma, who is 7-11 in the Big12 winds up with more Q1 wins than 22-7 SBU who is 14-4 in the A10. Never mind they played 4x as many of those contests.
 
We also have more land mines in conference play because instead of every team being 8-3 .. 11-0, we have half our teams .500 or worse after the OOC.
I feel like the only one to blame for that is the A10. If they somehow put in to effect that no A10 team can play more than two road games OOC, we would obviously have teams with better win percentages.

Can you imagine how many at large bids we would get if the bottom four or five scheduled like GMU a year ago and went 11-1?

It's obviously much easier said than done, but if the bottom scheduled more home games against duds, and if we went to a 20-game schedule, we'd be in better shape.
 
I feel like the only one to blame for that is the A10. If they somehow put in to effect that no A10 team can play more than two road games OOC, we would obviously have teams with better win percentages.

Can you imagine how many at large bids we would get if the bottom four or five scheduled like GMU a year ago and went 11-1?

It's obviously much easier said than done, but if the bottom scheduled more home games against duds, and if we went to a 20-game schedule, we'd be in better shape.
There is a limit on how many times you can be bought but each school can schedule how they want. What St Joes did this year was insane and stupid.
 
St Joes game cancelled due to "precautions". I think its fine, playing St Joes offers nothing but opportunity to fuck up and no reward for winning. Rest up and prepare for the bloodbath at SLU Saturday afternoon.
 
St Joes game cancelled due to "precautions". I think its fine, playing St Joes offers nothing but opportunity to fuck up and no reward for winning. Rest up and prepare for the bloodbath at SLU Saturday afternoon.
I agree and the wording of the cancellation makes me wonder if one of the reasons was to limit the number of landmines the Bonnies (and the A10) need to dodge to get us and possibly others into the tourney. I like the Hawks, but in a year like this playing them a second time offers plenty of downside and little upside in building a resume. Of course, there's also the great nor'easter at play here.
 
I agree and the wording of the cancellation makes me wonder if one of the reasons was to limit the number of landmines the Bonnies (and the A10) need to dodge to get us and possibly others into the tourney. I like the Hawks, but in a year like this playing them a second time offers plenty of downside and little upside in building a resume. Of course, there's also the great nor'easter at play here.
I don't think the Conference would be in the position to cancel a game without actual cause. You have to play 13 games to qualify for the tournament, there's not a lot of wiggle room left to ensure that happens.
 
Then why does "an abundance of caution" apply here and not to the others? More specifically, why not just plainly state what triggered the postponement? It would be nice to know.
 
Then why does "an abundance of caution" apply here and not to the others? More specifically, why not just plainly state what triggered the postponement? It would be nice to know.
I still post on the bandwagon, so here’s baseless speculation:

There could be an inconclusive test.
Contact tracing identified an exposure from outside basketball.
Someone is sick with symptoms but no positive.
 
Man, does Duquesne's arena look nice. While it's only 4,400 seats, it has a good mix of suites and general seating.

I know a renovation in the ballpark of $65M for the Reilly Center is very unlikely, but I remember Kenney saying that some improvements to the RC were "on the horizon." Does anyone know if that is still a possibility, and if so, what that would entail?

The new floor, the postseason banners, and center board were all nice touches, but it would be nice to see us continue to improve the RC.
 
Man, does Duquesne's arena look nice. While it's only 4,400 seats, it has a good mix of suites and general seating.

I know a renovation in the ballpark of $65M for the Reilly Center is very unlikely, but I remember Kenney saying that some improvements to the RC were "on the horizon." Does anyone know if that is still a possibility, and if so, what that would entail?

The new floor, the postseason banners, and center board were all nice touches, but it would be nice to see us continue to improve the RC.
There are a number of pie-in-the-sky improvements that could be done:

1. Replacing the red seats with padded brown seats.
2. Round out the lower bleachers/seats; make them brown, too.
3. Connect a natatorium, locker rooms, and athletics offices in the field between the RC and Swan Business building.
4. Replace the current pool with a practice court.
5. Replace the current swimming/diving offices and locker rooms with players' lounges for men's and women's basketball, respectively.
6. Relocate the men's basketball offices to the top floor; open up parts of the endzone wall (opposite the HOF) to make the court visible from those hallways.
7. A parking garage (not a gross cement one, but one that matches our campus architecture) connecting the Reilly and Richter.
8. Get the retired numbers under control. The only numbers that should be retired are 42, 31, and MAYBE 44.
9. Consolidate the NIT banners (the 1977 championship should have its own, obviously).
10. Hang proper Atlantic 10 Championship banners (no distinction between regular season and tournament is necessary).
 
1 and 2, yes. The end zone bleachers should be closer to the court. Then the current swath of space on the non-HOF side is behind the bleachers and could be a lower-level concession stand or something. On the HOF side, you might be more limited with view required from the "luxury boxes", but if you could move those end zone bleachers closer too, put a training table/quick injury/cramp/exercise bike area behind those bleachers for player attention.

I really like your idea of rounding the lower bleachers and maybe EZ bleachers get closer to the court simply as part of that.

3-6 all require a new pool, which is 8 figures minimum. I get that the M/W Swim programs are far better and have far outgrown the RC pool. But that's a lot of cash.

7 - use the money elsewhere. Put the 2-3 MM towards the natatorium.

8, 9, 10 absolutely.
 
Duquesne winning last night was helpful. NET now at 33 (RPI if you care up to #6) with @DUQ moving into quad 2 and the Dukes moving into the top 100 in KenPom. Akron losing to Toledo moved that back to Q3 for the moment since it was "neutral". Both Akron and the @URI loss are one slot away from moving up a quadrant.

With the next two midweek slots open and our next three set games all on the road, what should we be looking for? Home to Richmond and St. Louis coming here as well? Moving up the Dayton home game to get that in and leaving two open dates to close? There are still 6 teams in the A-10 with 1 or 2 conference losses, so there may be a little concern that avoiding landmines completely may hurt us in the standings.
 
I'd be pretty cool to see us do something like Pitt or GW does in the endzone under the HOF suites. Bust out that wall and connect to the Fast Break room and have three or four suites.

Granted, it would be a lot farther from the court, but if you made it slightly elevated, you could have 5-10 rows of suites seats.


Could @SBUnfurled show us what a renovated RC lower bowl would look like?
 
Duquesne winning last night was helpful. NET now at 33 (RPI if you care up to #6) with @DUQ moving into quad 2 and the Dukes moving into the top 100 in KenPom. Akron losing to Toledo moved that back to Q3 for the moment since it was "neutral". Both Akron and the @URI loss are one slot away from moving up a quadrant.

With the next two midweek slots open and our next three set games all on the road, what should we be looking for? Home to Richmond and St. Louis coming here as well? Moving up the Dayton home game to get that in and leaving two open dates to close? There are still 6 teams in the A-10 with 1 or 2 conference losses, so there may be a little concern that avoiding landmines completely may hurt us in the standings.

La Salle moved up to 2/10/21 opening up 2/24/21. @Saint Louis, hosting the Explorers, and then @UMass is a bit of a terrifying stretch for an at large contender, but we would be in great shape with three wins.
 
La Salle moved up to 2/10/21 opening up 2/24/21. @Saint Louis, hosting the Explorers, and then @UMass is a bit of a terrifying stretch for an at large contender, but we would be in great shape with three wins.
The key is to maintain tunnel vision and not even consider “stretches”. As an at-large contender from a non-P5 conference, everything is in a vacuum. Beat the team in front of us.
 
The key is to maintain tunnel vision and not even consider “stretches”. As an at-large contender from a non-P5 conference, everything is in a vacuum. Beat the team in front of us.

Not even a point of worrying about "stretches" this season since we'll know about opponents like 3 days in advance on these empty Wednesdays we have. Plus, we'll have an extra day off between La Salle and UMass since we go to the better Amherst next Sunday.
 
La Salle is like a cop that breaks up kids skateboarding at the town hall.

Provides no service to the community (A10), but ruins all the fun for the kids (A10 bubbles).

Somehow the Explorers are a Q4 as it stands right now.
 
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