ESPN Bubble Watch

[WestWYOPoke]

ESPN has SDSU and CSU on the bubble, with Wyo on the outside.

Before we sat down to examine this league, we assumed Wyoming, led by star forward Larry Nance Jr., would be on the page. Instead, the Cowboys' nonexistent, 331st-ranked nonconference schedule (which includes just five games against top-100 teams) disqualifies them at least until Wednesday's home game against Colorado State (if not longer). Meanwhile, Derrick Marks-led Boise State is in better numerical shape than Wyoming but likewise needs another top-100 win or two before actual contention is in the cards.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bubblewatch

 

[BeaverPoke]

God we really need to go play a hard road trip every season.

Come to the PNW coach Shyatt!

How about a 3 game stretch against Zaga, Washington, and Oregon State?

Those 3 will certainly be better than fucking Regis, WyoTech, and Evanston Middle School.

 

[LanderPoke]

We have got to schedule up! If we don't make the tourney because of our crappy schedule that's got to be a giant strike against the AD. It's not like we have tourney-caliber teams every year!

 

[BeaverPoke]

I realize teams like SDSU don't have an issue with scheduling OOC because teams can afford a loss to them. SDSU is a power. We are not quite there.

We need to catch a lucky break and get into the Maui Invite somehow. I am not holding my breath. That invite seems to be pretty hard to get, harder than the Sweet 16 maybe. Seems like Duke or Arizona always win the Maui.

But, god if we could get in to something like that, win 3 games against Top 50 teams, we can play our Southerns, and Montana States and not worry about being left out because of our OOC.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Does anyone know how many early season tourneys there are? And I am not talking about some 5th tier one where Wyo hosts some round robin thing with teams like Southern, NC Central, etc.

I want one where the Pokes can go to Vegas (the Beavers did, why wouldn't Wyo be able to?) or the Maui or the one in the Bahamas.

 

[seattlecowboy]

I saw the bracketology yesterday and knew we wouldn't be in it but Lunardi doesn't even have us close to being in also.

We basically either have to go 7-2 the rest of the way with 2 wins in the conference tournament to be even on the bubble or we have to just win the MWC tournament. That is how bad of shape we are in to get into the tournament.

So even if we end up in first place or tied for first place in the conference for the regular season it probably won't be enough to get us in unless we practically run the table which probably isn't going to happen.

If Boise gets a couple more decent wins they are for sure going to be above us in the at large talk even if we finish above them. Between our OOC schedule and that loss to Utah St. we are looking at going to the NIT unless we get hot at the right time.

Hope we get hot! Have to take it one game at a time.

 

[POKE FAN]

Here is a re-post of comments made by Shyatt back on 1/13/15 concerning the difficulty in scheduling quality OOC opponents.:

MW Spotlight - Larry Shyatt (MountainWestConf)

Wyoming Men's Basketball Coach talks about the return of Larry Nance Jr., Non-Conference Scheduling and the first-class facilities in Laramie.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRWF4KULPV8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

 

[kansasCowboy]

We just need our opponents to go on a tare! I've been watching a few. Southern has gone from 3-12 since playing us to 10-13, and about to take over their conf. NMSU is now 13-10 and moving right along in their conf. If they keep winning, that keeps helping us. SMU continues to show it wasn't a bad loss. CU is down and will probably have a losing record, sadly. Cal, just when I think they are falling apart bust out a win sitting at 13-9.
Denver, Mont St (x2), Stetson, FAMU (0-21, worst in the NCAA) have hurt us. But at the very least, they were wins and not a bad loss, like most WYO teams of the past have had.
N Colorado needs to get going, they are right at the cusp of taking the Big Sky sitting at 11-9, if they take control of their games, instead of losing it at the end, the won't be such a bad win either.
And Boise. Yes, Boise. We played them once, and we won. Since that they have won and not lost. The more they win the better that win was for us. Especially if we take care of business and maybe meet them for a game two in the conf tourney. We need to steal at least one against SDSU or CSU. I think we can get CSU. And we need to steal one against UNLV or UNM. Don't get me wrong, I hope we win all four of those games. But if we go two of four and finish up by winning against the teams we should beat FSU, USU, AFA, SJS, Nev, that would put us at 25-6, with wins over conf champs: NMSU and Southern.
Top wins: CSU (x2), UNM, Boise, UNLV, NMSU, Southern
Bad loss: USU, Cali. (Both not terrible, even now)
25-6 going into conf tourney, a win in the first round, and close sec rnd win on Boise again, and sadly a third loss to SDSU.
That has us at 27-7 and I think, IN.
But that's dreaming.
Reality, we finish 23-8 we go 1-1 in conf tourney and we are NIT bound at 24-9.
And yeah, it's not NCAA bound, but I will not be disppointed with this team in the slightest. Very proud of this group! They've been fun to watch and they rep UW very well!

And by the way, I've read several different posts on Adams being a horrible at turnovers, and yes I've seen "some" lazy passes by Adams, but seriously, for those that complain about his "so many" turnovers!!! He will never come close to the two worst in Brad Jones and Jay Straight. Adams handles the ball very well and will probably go down as one of our guards with more Assists than turnovers in his career.

Go Pokes!!! Here's to 27+ wins!!!

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I wish Matt Mead would get on board with an early season ooc tournament with some real prize money. Call it the Wild West Shootout/Kenny Sailors Invitational and invite a bunch of our old rivals. If Mead got behind it we could get the state to cough up the prize money.

You would have to imagine that Utah, and BYU would come if we put a couple of million dollars in for the winner.

Imagine a field with Wyoming, Utah, BYU, Wichita State, Utep, Tulsa, Nebraska, and Kansas. That's just one team from a lot of different conferences we have history with.

 

[BeaverPoke]

CU or Cal winning the Pac12 Tourney wouldn't bum me out at all. SMU getting as many wins as possible would be great. Hope they win out regular season and their tourney.

Boise can keep winning as long as we do. They have a great chance to really improve themselves with a win over USU and SDSU this week. Not only that, but them giving SDSU a loss means we gain another game on SDSU without even playing them.

 

[BeaverPoke]

I wish Matt Mead would get on board with an early season ooc tournament with some real prize money. Call it the Wild West Shootout and invite a bunch of our old rivals. If Mead got behind it we could get the state to cough up the prize money.

You would have to imagine that Utah, and BYU would come if we put a couple of million dollars in for the winner.

Imagine a field with Wyoming, Utah, BYU, Wichita State, Utep, Tulsa, Nebraska, and Kansas. That's just one team from a lot of different conferences we have history with.

Love this idea. Hell, it wouldn't even need to be all played in Laramie.

Maybe have SLC and Wyo, or Lawrence and UTEP host one year.
Kind of an old-school WAC Conference Tourney (plus a couple others obviously).

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I wish Matt Mead would get on board with an early season ooc tournament with some real prize money. Call it the Wild West Shootout and invite a bunch of our old rivals. If Mead got behind it we could get the state to cough up the prize money.

You would have to imagine that Utah, and BYU would come if we put a couple of million dollars in for the winner.

Imagine a field with Wyoming, Utah, BYU, Wichita State, Utep, Tulsa, Nebraska, and Kansas. That's just one team from a lot of different conferences we have history with.

Love this idea. Hell, it wouldn't even need to be all played in Laramie.

Maybe have SLC and Wyo, or Lawrence and UTEP host one year.
Kind of an old-school WAC Conference Tourney (plus a couple others obviously).

I moved it to a seperate thread, but I think this should be our goal. If the state ponied up the cash for it you could guarantee they would want to do it in Laramie.

 

[SDPokeFan]

I just saw the Bubble Watch too. When we play a bunch of DII teams, it shouldn't surprise us that we aren't on there, I guess. That and the one big OOC game we had at SMU, we lost. This team needs to beat Colorado State, beat Boise and win at San Diego State to have a prayer of an at-large bid. I can't see them picking CSU or Boise over us when we swept both. Otherwise, they better plan on winning the MWC tournament. Tomorrow night's game against the Sheep is huge!

 

[calpoke25]

I just saw the Bubble Watch too. When we play a bunch of DII teams, it shouldn't surprise us that we aren't on there, I guess. That and the one big OOC game we had at SMU, we lost. This team needs to beat Colorado State, beat Boise and win at San Diego State to have a prayer of an at-large bid. I can't see them picking CSU or Boise over us when we swept both. Otherwise, they better plan on winning the MWC tournament. Tomorrow night's game against the Sheep is huge!

We don't play Boise again.

This bubble watch basically confirms what some of us have been pointing out for a while. Wyoming needed and has always needed to basically go 15-3 or better and run away with the MW to have any kind of at large hope with our schedule. Theoretically that is still possible, but I don't think even Kansascowboy thinks we are finishing 15-3. I think the absolute worst Wyoming can do and still have some kind of at large hope is 14-4, and an appearance in the MW title game, preferably beating SDSU somewhere along the way.

 

[cali2wyo]

This team needs to...beat Boise to have a prayer of an at-large bid.

We already swept Boise this year. The joys of an 11 team conference. We are guaranteed easy wins by getting San Jose twice, but we lose out on tourney clinching opportunities.

I seriously hope commissioner Thompson regrets letting BYU leave and not letting them stay for all non-football sports like they wanted too. Things could be so different...

 

[J-Rod]

Boise State beat UNLV/CSU and New Mexico in Albuquerque. If they win in Logan, and then beat SDSU in Boise this week...then I'd start worrying a little. They have the tougher OOC schedule, including a win @St. Mary's. I set the line at 26 wins for Wyoming....they have to hit that number, anything under it and we'll be sweating bullets on Selection Sunday. The committee hammers the shit outta teams with weak OOC's every year. You cannot be under 25 wins and expect charity. 26+ and we're good.

 

[JimmyDimes]

Boise State beat UNLV/CSU and New Mexico in Albuquerque. If they win in Logan, and then beat SDSU in Boise this week...then I'd start worrying a little. They have the tougher OOC schedule, including a win @St. Mary's. I set the line at 26 wins for Wyoming....they have to hit that number, anything under it and we'll be sweating bullets on Selection Sunday. The committee hammers the shit outta teams with weak OOC's every year. You cannot be under 25 wins and expect charity. 26+ and we're good.

Currently, Wyoming has more wins against top 100 RPI teams than Boise and the same number of losses against teams outside the top 100 RPI. We just played a couple more cupcakes.

 

[J-Rod]

Currently, Wyoming has more wins against top 100 RPI teams than Boise and the same number of losses against teams outside the top 100 RPI. We just played a couple more cupcakes.

...and sometimes, that is the difference. Boise is no threat right now, but they can become one.

Wyoming is at 18 wins right now. Need 26 IMO to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday. 9 regular season games left +1-3 in the MW tournament. Qwest for 8 more wins begins tomorrow. Hell, just hold serve at home (4 games), win @Reno and @AFA, and win 2 more from the remaining 3-5 games.

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

This team needs to...beat Boise to have a prayer of an at-large bid.

We already swept Boise this year. The joys of an 11 team conference. We are guaranteed easy wins by getting San Jose twice, but we lose out on tourney clinching opportunities.

I seriously hope commissioner Thompson regrets letting BYU leave and not letting them stay for all non-football sports like they wanted too. Things could be so different...

Are you kidding? FUCK BYU! They were leaving the conference high and dry no matter what because they are "too good" for the MWC. Fuckers made their move for THEMSELVES leaving everyone else in the MWC in a tight spot. Take this crap and peddle it somewhere else please cause it stinks like rotten shit.
FUCK BYU and the imaginary holy horse they rode in on!!! :finger: :finger: :finger:
I miss their presence like I miss the plague.

 

[SDPokeFan]

Oh OK I didn't know we didn't play Boise again. Thanks for the info.