Updated NET Rankings

[BDYZR]

7 minutes ago, USF_Bullsharks said:

Looking at the NET there are a couple of things we have control over when it comes to boosting/padding our overall NET rankings year in and year out. Yes, the most important thing is to win all of your games. Those two Q4 losses are really hurting us, but guess what? FAU also has 2 Q4 losses and they're ranked 33rd. Play more Q1 games? We have no control over how other teams are going to perform when it comes to their own rankings - looking at you SMU and FAU. Memphis has barely snuck back into the top 75 rankings, so they are now a Q1 win again. But, we DO have control over the quadrant system handicap - by lowering the threshold for what qualifies for each quadrant - playing away/neutral site games. 

This got me thinking, so I went back and looked at true mid-majors who are highly ranked to see how their home/away/neutral splits were and found the following: 

#17 Gonzaga - 14 home games, 5 neutral site

#18 St. Mary's - 17 home, 4 neutral

#19 SDSU - 12 home, 3 neutral

#20 Dayton - 14 home, 4 neutral

#33 FAU - 13 home, 7 neutral

#73 USF - 17 home, 1 neutral

Mid-majors who are highly ranked ARE being boosted by how many Q1/Q2 games they are playing - and it could be a direct factor of playing more away/neutral games than we did this year. 

Surprised nobody has mentioned this before, but because the NET rankings reward so heavily to "what games have you played", not necessarily "what games have you won", should USF be actively trying to schedule more away and neutral site games? In football, you want as many home games as possible. In basketball, the "ranking" system doesn't reward home game success because the tiers of Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 are skewed so heavily in favor of neutral and road games to boost standings. Unless the entire conference is highly ranked in the NET (B12), as a team who needs to earn their national coverage, I think USF should drop 4-5 home games and play more neutral/road games both in and out of conference (and of course, request home/homes with all highly-ranked conference opponents, not playing at SMU and FAU this season really hurts our potential NET, even if we lost those two games). Now, the conference tournament is a neutral site, so if we beat FAU/SMU - they will count as Q1 wins next weekend. But home games against lower ranked OOC schools should essentially all but be terminated if the NET continues to exist, which sucks for us as fans. IMO, we should trade any OOC home games early in the season for a neutral site tournament invitational or a road trip. What do you all think? Below are the "splits" for Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 - 

• Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
• Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
• Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
• Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

Charlotte at home, Q3 win. Charlotte away, Q2 win. FAU/SMU at home, Q2 wins. FAU/SMU away, both be Q1 games (FAU Q1 at neutral) as long as they stayed in the top 50 (neutral) and top 75 (road). 

It's obviously a flawed system, but since it is defined and objective, VPoAMK should be doing his best to give our guys their best shot at making the tourney every season, and unfortunately that may mean sacrificing home games for us fans. 

Agree with this ↑ But until the surprise of this season there was no real reason to schedule anything but teams with a pulse. Nobody expected to have any reason to look ay NET rankings.

Does VPMK schedule OOC games. WBBCF always made it seem like he did the scheduling. I honestly don't know.

[John Lewis]

21 minutes ago, BDYZR said:

Agree with this ↑ But until the surprise of this season there was no real reason to schedule anything but teams with a pulse. Nobody expected to have any reason to look ay NET rankings.

Does VPMK schedule OOC games. WBBCF always made it seem like he did the scheduling. I honestly don't know.

I believe the head coach has a huge say in the OOC schedule. I also believe that this season's OOC was mostly games from Coach Gregory.

I would anticipate that next season OOC will be vastly improved and that we may be invited to play in a tournament or two. I think we play at Loyola - Chicago next season.

[Gat-Rat Bull]

32 minutes ago, John Lewis said:

Wouldn't it be USF ('12) vs. South Florida ('24)?

Yup. They would destroy each other I guess.

[John Lewis]

6 minutes ago, Gat-Rat Bull said:

Yup. They would destroy each other I guess.

If South Florida wears the script BULLS SoFlo, then it's over for USF.

Edited March 8 by John Lewis

[Outlaw]

3 minutes ago, John Lewis said:

If South Florida wears the script BULLS SoFlo, then it's over for USF.

I thought that was only a curse for football.

[John Lewis]

3 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

I thought that was only a curse for football.

Lifted with the script BULLS helmet sticker

[Jim Johnson]

1 hour ago, USF_Bullsharks said:

#17 Gonzaga - 14 home games, 5 neutral site

#18 St. Mary's - 17 home, 4 neutral

#19 SDSU - 12 home, 3 neutral

#20 Dayton - 14 home, 4 neutral

#33 FAU - 13 home, 7 neutral

#73 USF - 17 home, 1 neutral

Basketball scheduling is basically done in the spring/summer before a season starts.

USF had a new coach coming in with a lot of new players, so there was clearly an effort made to ensure our OOC was not as strong as these others.  Scheduling USF to face a top 50 program outside of the AAC would have been suicidal.  The 2024 schedule will be a lot better.

[Outlaw]

39 minutes ago, John Lewis said:

Lifted with the script BULLS helmet sticker

Solid point. I liked them better than the Slime green jerseys. Golesh and Caar definitely broke the curse of losing and moved the  programs forwards. Both were exactly the homerun hires we needed and deserved  .

[Rocky Style]

As long as we cut out Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray uniforms. Yuck!

[flsportsfan83]

3 minutes ago, Rocky Style said:

As long as we cut out Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray uniforms. Yuck!

also cut the usgly gold Tampa Bay uniforms