Here Are the Teams with the Highest RPI Ever to Miss the NCAA Tournament

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There are two ways to look at this.

1. Statistically. Statistically by any measure you want to base it on, they are in with ease.
Straight up RPI. They are in.
Best 5 wins. They are in.
Worst 5 losses. They are in.
Road and neutral site wins. They are in.
Strength of schedule. They are in.
The only criteria they wouldn't be in would be last 10 games which IS NOT a factor anymore.

You name the criteria whether a single criteria or a mix of criteria they are in with 10 teams to spare.

2. What message does the committee want to send.

Do they want to ignore SOS, quality wins, after years and years of preaching how important it is. Is that the message they are going to decide to send with somehow "passing" on Minnesota?


In summary:
It's silly.

The Gophers aren't even going to be in the bubble conversation.
They will get voted in with all the 6-7-8 and 9 seeds along with North Carolina, Wisconsin, Temple, Illinois, Missouri, etc.
There isn't one statistical number other than "last 10" and "conference record" that would make you even see MN stick out from that group in a bad way.
Solely looking at the statistical analysis of how the process works, they are closer to a 7 seed than they are a 9 seed right now in my opinion.
 

The Gophers are in, but I don't really blame the fans who see reasons why this team should be worried on Sunday. We watch every game, we see how brutal they have played for basically the past 2 months and we think "this can't be a tourney team". I would think that most regular observers of Gopher basketball would agree that the team we've watched for much of the Big Ten season has been horrific at best. Still no matter how excruciatingly disappointing this season has been, the Gophers still have done enough to be solidly in the tournament. Coach Esposito deserves a lot of credit for creating a schedule that included a number of very winnable non-conference games that would look good on the resume. If the Gophers simply did the bare minimum of what they should have done this year, we'd be looking at 3/4 seed because of that strong non-conference schedule. Instead, the Gophers are comfortably "in" with a road win over Illinois and three significant home wins over MSU, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Unless the committee does something completely out or character, the Gophers will be in the bracket on Sunday.
 

These tourney bids are getting similar to bowl game bids.

If you are in a major conference, and you get your RPI to 40 or better.
You are in no questions asked.
If you get your RPI under 70 and you knocked off a couple good teams, your in.
 


I think we are a lock, but we are in by the thinnest of margins. Imagine if the clown doesn't shuffle his feet on the in bounds play and Austin misses the three vs. Iowa. We could have easily been 6-12 and if we lost to Indiana 5-13.

I think it was Gopher Warrior who said that the Memphis game would be huge because it would be an RPI builder, he was dead on. That and the Indiana and Michigan St. victories and the fact that we were selected to play Duke as well as the strength of the Big Ten saved us.

That being said, I'm not sure winning today can help us. I think a win might lock us into the dreaded 8-9, where a loss might get us a 10 or hopefully an 11, much easier seeds to reach the 16 from.
 


I'll take the 8-9 if it's against Gonzaga in the west. I'm predicting the west to be the lightest region. If the Gophers got an 8-9, and won two games, they could have some nice matchups after that against beatable teams.
 

balds said:
I think we are a lock, but we are in by the thinnest of margins. Imagine if the clown doesn't shuffle his feet on the in bounds play and Austin misses the three vs. Iowa. We could have easily been 6-12 and if we lost to Indiana 5-13.

I think it was Gopher Warrior who said that the Memphis game would be huge because it would be an RPI builder, he was dead on. That and the Indiana and Michigan St. victories and the fact that we were selected to play Duke as well as the strength of the Big Ten saved us.

That being said, I'm not sure winning today can help us. I think a win might lock us into the dreaded 8-9, where a loss might get us a 10 or hopefully an 11, much easier seeds to reach the 16 from.
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Don't forget about the gift foul vs. Stanford on a half court heeve that gave MN 3 FT's in a tie game with no time on the clock.
 

B1GSportsGuy said:
Don't forget about the gift foul vs. Stanford on a half court heeve that gave MN 3 FT's in a tie game with no time on the clock.
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Don't forget the shot clock buzzer beater Traevon Jackson threw up in Madison to beat us. Don't forget the Dre Hollins shot that almost fell against Nebraska to beat them at the buzzer. We could be 10-8 in conference with another Top 50 win.
 

Gold Vision said:
Don't forget the shot clock buzzer beater Traevon Jackson threw up in Madison to beat us. Don't forget the Dre Hollins shot that almost fell against Nebraska to beat them at the buzzer. We could be 10-8 in conference with another Top 50 win.
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I recall Hollins hitting a meaningless 3 at Nebraska to make the final score 53-51 instead of 53-48.
 



B1GSportsGuy said:
I recall Hollins hitting a meaningless 3 at Nebraska to make the final score 53-51 instead of 53-48.
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Maverick missed an open 3 with 6.9 seconds left to tie the game 51-51. My point is the whole discussion about if bounces went a different way we could be 6-12 is a stupid argument. And why throw out our best win against Indiana? The whole idea is just stupid.
 

Gold Vision said:
Maverick missed an open 3 with 6.9 seconds left to tie the game 51-51. My point is the whole discussion about if bounces went a different way we could be 6-12 is a stupid argument. And why throw out our best win against Indiana? The whole idea is just stupid.
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Even if he tied the game 51-51 Nebraska had a final shot and/or OT to win the game. It's only a stupid argument when it goes against your team, right? :p
 


B1GSportsGuy said:
Even if he tied the game 51-51 Nebraska had a final shot and/or OT to win the game. It's only a stupid argument when it goes against your team, right? :p
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My argument was intended to be stupid, to match yours. We didn't win or lose those games in question, and the committee looks at the body of work, not the what if scenarios. We could have easily won the Illinois game too had a couple shots gone different ways and Rodney played. See, now we're looking at 11-7 and a 4 seed. Buy your tickets to the regional championships!
 





Gold Vision said:
My argument was intended to be stupid, to match yours. We didn't win or lose those games in question, and the committee looks at the body of work, not the what if scenarios. We could have easily won the Illinois game too had a couple shots gone different ways and Rodney played. See, now we're looking at 11-7 and a 4 seed. Buy your tickets to the regional championships!
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Great points Gold Vision. It drives me up the wall when people argue the what ifs. Every team could have won or lost a few more games by making or missing a few other shots. Who cares? This is competitive sports. You get credit for what you do, you bear responsibility for both not making and not missing the shots that result in the "what ifs". We don't "deserve" to be 6-10 any more than we "deserve" to be 10-8. In sports, you earn your record, and what we earned was 8-10. Let's go earn a BTT title and an NCAA championship.
 



mnsports1 said:
You sound as though that is what you're hoping for. Am I wrong?
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No. This RPI business is starting to look Mbakwe-esque. The only difference is a few other GH'ers seem to be joining him in rooting for bad news. Strange.
 

howeda7 said:
No. This RPI business is starting to look Mbakwe-esque. The only difference is a few other GH'ers seem to be joining him in rooting for bad news. Strange.
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Not really that strange. More than one poster has said that Tubby needs to be fired regardless of how this season comes to an end. At least one even explicitly stated, "I don't care if we win a national title...". Tubby is the latest scapegoat for Gopher basketball's interminable mediocrity-to-suckitude, and many need his blood to sate the masses. The pound of flesh will be much easier to extract with the next-to-impossible-now Tournament miss.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Not really that strange. More than one poster has said that Tubby needs to be fired regardless of how this season comes to an end. At least one even explicitly stated, "I don't care if we win a national title...". Tubby is the latest scapegoat for Gopher basketball's interminable mediocrity-to-suckitude, and many need his blood to sate the masses. The pound of flesh will be much easier to extract with the next-to-impossible-now Tournament miss.
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That's the nature of sports though. Head coach / GM almost always take the blame. That's the way it works in the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA basketball, NCAA football.

I don't think that is unique to MN.

Now if we win the title and you still want Tubby gone, that's a little concerning.
 


looks like they are 29 on a couple sites.
30 on another.
 

Face The Facts said:
looks like they are 29 on a couple sites.
30 on another.
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Gophers are 32nd at the moment.

Live-RPI has them at 29 because they have the wrong designation of today's game (they are treating it as a road loss for Minnesota, but the NCAA will treat it as a neutral site loss). Adjusting for that error, Minnesota comes in 32nd per their site.
 

Let's see if everyone includes us in their bracket now.

Very easy team to leave out.
 


Gopher Warrior said:
Gophers are 32nd at the moment.

Live-RPI has them at 29 because they have the wrong designation of today's game (they are treating it as a road loss for Minnesota, but the NCAA will treat it as a neutral site loss). Adjusting for that error, Minnesota comes in 32nd per their site.
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So not 38?
 

scher215 said:
That's the nature of sports though. Head coach / GM almost always take the blame. That's the way it works in the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA basketball, NCAA football.

I don't think that is unique to MN.

Now if we win the title and you still want Tubby gone, that's a little concerning.
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I think that is more fair in college than in pros. In pros, one guy picks the players, another coaches them. In college, the coach is the GM. Tubby made his bed, and come tournament time, we'll see where he sleeps.
 

If you commented that the team should: fire Tubby before the postseason, decline a bid, or will miss the tournament outright, you are a troll.

None of those things will happen, shut up about them.
 

Assuming the most likely outcomes for today's games, I'd project Minnesota to finish at #35 in the RPI later today. Still a very good RPI ranking, but quite a bit higher than the #24 it was several days ago.
 

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