KenPom Rankings and schedule

[rocket city poke]

Wyoming now 150th in the KenPom rankings. Every other program (besides Tech, which is just there for the LInder buyout) on the remaining non-conference schedule has a lower KenPom ranking than Wyoming. San Diego State is at 30, CSU is at 62, UNM at 95, Utah State at 40, Nevada at 91, UNLV at 123, Hawaii at 98, BOise at 45. I like Sunny, but apparently we are paying these people these salaries because that is what similar programs in our conference pay their people, but the scheduling philosophy seems to be pad the record with some tomato cans to justify the AD salary of $555k a year and the coaches salary of $750k a year. It's not right and needs to be called out by either the media (who doesn't do much of anything in Wyoming) or some sort of backlash from the fan base.

 

[Bryoming]

The schedule was setup specifically to give this nearly all-new team some challenges, but still be able to come away with some wins. Sunny specifically said that the MW is a meat grinder, and we need these guys to be able to develop and be ready for it instead of getting their asses whipped throughout the non-con schedule and being beat down by the time conference play starts.

UNLV is currently in the FO phase of FAFO scheduling. They've already lost to KenPom #291 Tennessee Martin and #157 Montana, both at home. Coming up they've got:

• @Memphis (#52)
• vs. Saint Josephs (#115)
• vs. Maryland (#57) - Players Era Championship
• vs. Alabama (#18) - Players Era Championship
• vs. TBD (minimum ranking of #71) - Players Era Championship
• @Stanford (#85)
• vs. Tennessee State (#227)

Every one of those schools (with the exception of Tennessee State) is ranked higher than both teams they've lost to. They're likely going to be 3-7 heading into conference play against Fresno State. I would much rather have a team that's gone through some adversity and won going into conference play than a team that has gotten beat down game after game.

Wyoming's schedule, by comparison is:

• W vs. Northern State (NR)
• W vs. Cal State Fullerton (#330)
• W vs. Austin Peay (#235)
• vs. Portland (#269)
• @Sam Houston State (#178)
• vs. Norfolk State (#244)
• vs. Denver (#305)
• @Texas Tech (#13)
• vs. Dartmouth (#282)
• vs. South Dakota (#299)
• vs. South Dakota State (#163) - Neutral site

I'll guess the record going into the conference opener against Grand Canyon as 8-3. Wyoming is going to be a hell of a lot more resilient come conference play than UNLV. That doesn't mean they'll be better, but it does mean that they'll have more belief in themselves than the Rebels will.