So Far This Season

[Kiwi Techster]

I wish Jelena got a chance to prove herself. Even if she didn't prove herself, having the opportunity to seems only fair...especially in light of some of the incredibly poor play on the part of other players. Seems like an imbalanced situation to me as a distant observer.

I have mostly kept quiet for obvious reasons, not the least of which is to avoid the appearance of personal bias. Having said that, I just can't resist pointing to a spot last year which I will never forget. There was a game (Central Arkansas) where Jelena led the team in points, assists and even steals. She was basically the difference in a 2-point win, the Techsters first win of the season. The next game she never saw the court. I was stupified. At first I was worried because she had to be injured somehow, what other explanation could there be, but no. She was simply benched. I mean, if anyone can point to me an instance in any basketball league anywhere where a player leads their team in 3 statistical categories including points in one game and then gets a DNP the next (that doesn't involve an injury or some sort of disciplinary action) then I'll sit down and shut up. But come on. How can you stay motivated under those conditions.

[fanfromafar]

I have mostly kept quiet for obvious reasons, not the least of which is to avoid the appearance of personal bias. Having said that, I just can't resist pointing to a spot last year which I will never forget. There was a game (Central Arkansas) where Jelena led the team in points, assists and even steals. She was basically the difference in a 2-point win, the Techsters first win of the season. The next game she never saw the court. I was stupified. At first I was worried because she had to be injured somehow, what other explanation could there be, but no. She was simply benched. I mean, if anyone can point to me an instance in any basketball league anywhere where a player leads their team in 3 statistical categories including points in one game and then gets a DNP the next (that doesn't involve an injury or some sort of disciplinary action) then I'll sit down and shut up. But come on. How can you stay motivated under those conditions.

It would be a waste of time to research your point. It doesn't happen, at least anywhere other than at Tech with Spoon. Her substitutions have been another point of contention. But, this is what Tech wants or they would change it. It appears, at least from the outside, that Tech would prefer a "celebrity" name rather than a program that is successful and represents the university. While Spoon's name is part of the success of the HISTORY of women's basketball, her name TODAY is associated with driving a program into the ground, and losing. That's reality.

[RealityCheck]

As of this morning Tech's RPI is at 291 (out of 349) against the 165th best SOS.

Tech's only win so far is against team 349...UNO. Tech has two other bottom 5 RPI games left...Alabama A&M (346) and Marshall (345).

[fanfromafar]

That is not an opinion. That is a factual statement. It is based in reality as to what has actually happened with the Techster program over the past three years and what is happening this year: A slow and painful death of a once proud tradition. Seems to me too many egos were involved and no one has been willing to 'fess-up that this just didn't work out the way we'd all hoped it would.

[bulldogbacker2]

Well said

[Kiwi Techster]

I think RPI ratings are heavily flawed (I think we've had that conversation before) and prefer the Sagarin ratings. As soon as I saw 165th best SOS I thought there's no way that can be true, we've had a much tougher schedule than that. Turns out according to Sagarin that is indeed the case:

http://www.rpiratings.com/womrate.php

Sagarin has us at 195th in the country with the 68th best SOS. If you look at Conference USA we are 4th from the bottom. Anyone who says we have a realistic chance to win the conference I don't think is armed with very good evidence to back themselves up.

[RealityCheck]

I think RPI ratings are heavily flawed (I think we've had that conversation before) and prefer the Sagarin ratings. As soon as I saw 165th best SOS I thought there's no way that can be true, we've had a much tougher schedule than that. Turns out according to Sagarin that is indeed the case:

http://www.rpiratings.com/womrate.php

Sagarin has us at 195th in the country with the 68th best SOS. If you look at Conference USA we are 4th from the bottom. Anyone who says we have a realistic chance to win the conference I don't think is armed with very good evidence to back themselves up.

This early in the year Sagarin still has some prior year factor from his starting ratings built in, and that is a major flaw in his system. RPI starts every team out equally at 0.

Tech's RPI was 285 and SOS was 160 going into Saturday's games. Tech has two Top 20 RPI losses to South Carolina (8-0, 16) and LSU (7-1, 9), but no other team Tech has played has an RPI better than 144 with its only win before today against the bottom team on the list. The other 5 opponents were 13-21 going into today when not playing Tech.

RPI calculation before Saturday games--.4036
Tech's weighted record (25% of RPI) (1-6)--.1034 (0.6 wins, 5.2 losses)

Total SOS factor (75% of RPI)--.5037
Opponent's record when not playing Tech (50% of RPI)--.5417 (26-22)
Opponent's opponent records (25% of RPI)--.4277

[Kiwi Techster]

This early in the year Sagarin still has some prior year factor from his starting ratings built in, and that is a major flaw in his system.

Yeah that's a good point. I have seen his NFL ratings in Week 1 before any games were played and have always wondered how he came up with them. For college sports it must be even harder with a much bigger turnover in players.

But RPI must be way out of whack early in the season if everyone starts at zero, way worse than Sagarin. Sagarin has at least the prior year to guide it to kick off the season but RPI has absolutely nothing. It must take at least 5 or 10 games for RPI to start forming some semblance of coherence.

[dawg80]

I don't need Sagarin or RPI to tell me the Techsters suck. Getting to my generous prediction of 7-22 will take some luck.

[champion110]

I don't need Sagarin or RPI to tell me the Techsters suck. Getting to my generous prediction of 7-22 will take some luck.

I see two choices: 1- We sit around and complain, post negative remarks, and be miserable or 2. Cheer on our Techsters and know they are working hard to improve.

What I truly see is a team struggling to put it all together. Our defense is improving, but our offense didn't look good at all last night. It has been a real struggle for these players and I want SO bad to see them succeed. We won last night and, yes it was ULL, but we WON! Every win is good and this team needs to build from each game. Brooke and Scott are going to have NW State ready to play us hard Wednesday night. It will be a tough but winnable game. GO TECHSTERS!

[LT]

Yeah that's a good point. I have seen his NFL ratings in Week 1 before any games were played and have always wondered how he came up with them. For college sports it must be even harder with a much bigger turnover in players.

But RPI must be way out of whack early in the season if everyone starts at zero, way worse than Sagarin. Sagarin has at least the prior year to guide it to kick off the season but RPI has absolutely nothing. It must take at least 5 or 10 games for RPI to start forming some semblance of coherence.

Excellent defense of Bayesian probability.

[LT]

I see two choices: 1- We sit around and complain, post negative remarks, and be miserable or 2. Cheer on our Techsters and know they are working hard to improve.

What I truly see is a team struggling to put it all together. Our defense is improving, but our offense didn't look good at all last night. It has been a real struggle for these players and I want SO bad to see them succeed. We won last night and, yes it was ULL, but we WON! Every win is good and this team needs to build from each game. Brooke and Scott are going to have NW State ready to play us hard Wednesday night. It will be a tough but winnable game. GO TECHSTERS!

Are those not narrow minded choices you lay out? (1) Is it not possible for one to complain and post negative remarks to put even more pressure on the administration to make a coaching change? -and to do this without being miserable but rather to feel good about trying to improve the situation? (2) Is it not possible to cheer on the team and still know that the coach (and maybe some players) aren't working hard enough to succeed?

[fanfromafar]

Are those not narrow minded choices you lay out? (1) Is it not possible for one to complain and post negative remarks to put even more pressure on the administration to make a coaching change? -and to do this without being miserable but rather to feel good about trying to improve the situation? (2) Is it not possible to cheer on the team and still know that the coach (and maybe some players) aren't working hard enough to succeed?

Exactly.

But in the time-warper world, everything is black and white and you are either negative OR a fan. You can't be both, according to them. Oddly enough, they have not put two and two together to realize that if we didn't care about the program or tradition we would not be commenting at all. The program is dead. Spoon has killed it. Those are my opinions. The facts are that the program has for three consecutive years reaches levels of decline that would have been unimaginable four years ago.

[champion110]

Are those not narrow minded choices you lay out? (1) Is it not possible for one to complain and post negative remarks to put even more pressure on the administration to make a coaching change? -and to do this without being miserable but rather to feel good about trying to improve the situation? (2) Is it not possible to cheer on the team and still know that the coach (and maybe some players) aren't working hard enough to succeed?

No one is putting any pressure on the administration by posting on this board. Yes, they read it, but they react usually opposite of anything posted here. The players, recruits, and coaches read it, as well. If you want to make an impact on the administration, write THEM. You will get a response most times. Complaining on here is fine, if you just want to blow off steam, but it doesn't accomplish anything, except making the current players feel worse.

[bulldogbacker2]

I hope it makes them feel worse...they are sucking right now