Basketball scheduling. How do we fix our mistakes

[SECOBuffsFan]

Don't schedule Division II school like Western New Mexico...they serve no purpose if you win and kill you if you lose.

Play neutral site games like Gonzaga and Memphis do sometimes...once a year...use the Pepsi Center as your home site and maybe play like an Indiana in Indianapolis.

Don't play the mid major at their home.

Win your conference tourney so they can't even have the chance to screw you.

 

[KDBuff]

I agree with most of the points here. The games you're "supposed" to win probably need to be at home so that you don't lose games that the committee thinks you should have won. Play a couple of tough games on the road. It seems that losing to good teams on the road doesn't penalize you.

Finally, schedule more teams that are more of the middle of the pack in RPI instead of at the bottom. We probably still win all of those games, and it bumps up our RPI quite a bit, even though the competition probably isn't all that different.

 

[tante]

you get .6 worth of a win at home versus 1.4 on the road, so there is a decent benefit. I'll study the rpi a bit more.

 

[Lt.Col.FrankSlade]

you get .6 worth of a win at home versus 1.4 on the road, so there is a decent benefit. I'll study the rpi a bit more.

So if you went 12-0 at home, you would get 7.2 points

If you go 6-0 at home, but only 2-4 on the road - you only get 6.4 points.

 

[tante]

So if you went 12-0 at home, you would get 7.2 points

If you go 6-0 at home, but only 2-4 on the road - you only get 6.4 points.

sorta you can say that is 7.2 wins and 0 losses versus 6.4 wins with 2.4 losses. here is the formula:

The basic formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP).

For the 2004-05 season, the formula was changed to give more weight to road wins vs home wins. A team's win total for RPI purposes is 1.4 * road wins + neutral site wins + 0.6 * home wins. A team's losses is calculated as 0.6 * road losses + neutral site losses + 1.4 * home losses.
For example, a team that is 4-0 at home and 2-7 on the road has a RPI record of 5.2 wins (1.4 * 2 + 0.6 * 4) and 4.2 losses (0.6 * 7). That means that even though it is 6-7, for RPI purposes, it is above .500 (5.2-4.2).



This "weighted" record is only used for the 25% of the formula that is each team's winning percentage. The regular team records are used to calculate OWP and OOWP.



As always, only games against Division I opponents count in the RPI.

Now here is something that is very interesting that makes scheduling very hard. It is very important to find teams that schedule hard as well since 25% of the rpi is based upon your opponents' opponents' win percentage and 1/3 of their winning percentage is used in the strength of schedule.

 

[Buffnik]

"Colorado fans. Get your tickets to the puerto rico classic."

I'm still debating on that one. It's the same weekend as the UCLA away game in football. We'll travel to one or the other.

 

[Buffnik]

How to Calculate RPI

1. Multiply the team's number of home wins by 0.6, the number of road wins by 1.4 and the number of neutral site wins by 1 then add the three results. For example, if a team had 3 home wins, 2 road wins and 1 neutral site win, you would compute 3 times 0.6 to get 1.8, 2 times 1.4 to get 2.8 and 1 times 1 to get 1. Then you would add 1.8 plus 2.8 plus 1 to get a win total 5.6.

2. Multiply the team's number of road losses by 0.6, the number of home losses by 1.4 and the number of neutral site losses by 1 then add the results. For example, if the team had four home losses and one road losses and one neutral site loss, you would multiply 4 times 1.4 to get 5.6, 1 times 0.6 to get 0.6 and 1 times 1 to get 1. Then you would add 5.6 plus 0.6 plus 1 to get a loss total of 7.2.

3. Add the totals from steps 1 and 2 to get the game total. In this example, you would add 5.6 and 7.2 to get 12.8.

4. Divide the win total by game total to calculate the team's winning percentage. In this example, you would divide 5.6 by 12.8 to find the team's winning percentage equals 0.4378.

5. Compute the winning percentage of each of the opponents the team has played using the steps 1 through 4. When performing the calculation, do not include the opponent's game against the original team. For example, if you are calculating the RPI for team A and team A played teams E, F, G and H, when you calculate team H's winning percentage you would not include the game team H played against team A.

6. Calculate the average of the opponents' winning percentage by adding the winning percentages and dividing by the number of opponents. For example, if the opponents' averages were 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8, you would add 0.5 plus 0.6 plus 0.7 plus 0.8 to get 2.6. Then you would divide 2.6 by 4 to get 0.65.

7. Calculate the winning percentage of the opponents' opponents using steps 1 through 5.

8. Calculate the average of the opponents' winning percentage by adding the winning percentages and dividing by the number of opponents. For example, if the opponents' opponents' averages were 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7, you would add 0.4 plus 0.5 plus 0.6 plus 0.7 to get 2.2. Then you would divide 2.2 by 4 to get 0.55.

9. Calculate the RPI by multiplying the team's winning percentage by 0.25, the average of the opponents' winning percentages by 0.5 and the average of the opponents' opponents' winning percentages by 0.25 and adding the results. Finishing this example, you would multiply 0.4378 by 0.25, 0.65 by 0.5 and 0.55 by 0.25 to get a total RPI of 0.473445.

Read more: How to Calculate the RPI in Basketball | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6701480_calculate-rpi-basketball.html#ixzz1Ggw3brCQ

 

[Mick Ronson]

OK, great thread and i agree heartily with its aim and such....however, you have to play some road games to prepare for conference play. let's not swing too far to one extreme. how did Mizzou do down the stretch in conference play? how were they on the road?

winning road games is the key to challenging for conference titles. not winning road games is the key to going .500.

 

[Buffnik]

Here's the thing for RPI:

1. You need to win.
2. You need to schedule opponents that will finish with winning records.
3. You need to schedule opponents that play opponents that will finish with winning records.

The way it shakes out, losing to a team like Duke is a huge boon. Especially if you play them on the road. Not only doesn't the loss count as much since it was a road game, but they are likely to win 80%+ of their games (50% of RPI) and they play in a tough conference so the likelihood is that their opponents will win 60% of their games. CU can lose that game by 40 and it does more for our RPI than beating someone like New Mexico State.

But you can't fill the schedule with road games at places like Duke or you'd be like 1-11 at the end of the non-conference schedule. So you play 1 of those a year. Then you play a neutral court tourney for 3 or 4 solid games. Then, you play either CSU or Wyoming on the road and the other at home. Then you play about 5 or 6 home games against RPI 100-250 type teams to round out the OOC schedule.

That's my formula for a strong RPI and feeling confident that having 20+ wins heading into the Pac-12 tournament has us on the right side of the bubble.

 

[Mick Ronson]

others have complained (posters, Patton, Tharp) about not getting home-homes with top teams. who cares? play them in a one off at their place. we are what we are, not in a position to expect "equal terms" with the Mich State and Duke's of the world. yet.

 

[Buffnik]

others have complained (posters, Patton, Tharp) about not getting home-homes with top teams. who cares? play them in a one off at their place. we are what we are, not in a position to expect "equal terms" with the Mich State and Duke's of the world. yet.

:nod:

And based on my rudimentary understanding of the RPI, it's a really good thing for the Buffs if we go take a shot at someone like Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

 

[Mick Ronson]

:nod:

And based on my rudimentary understanding of the RPI, it's a really good thing for the Buffs if we go take a shot at someone like Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

agree. i have no idea what the post Big XII dynamic will be for us, but i see no reason not to play ATM (Houston recruiting) or OSU or KU (or other former conference foes)....they'd play us home-home. you get a quality opponent at a place where we already sorta know the ropes. our fans would show up OOC; heck, with MU or KU, THEIR fans would show up at the CEC too.

i don't like the Kansas fans here, but OOC....if they want to pump money into our program vs. 4000 attendance for Stetson....that's sorta OK.

 

[tante]

OK, great thread and i agree heartily with its aim and such....however, you have to play some road games to prepare for conference play. let's not swing too far to one extreme. how did Mizzou do down the stretch in conference play? how were they on the road?

winning road games is the key to challenging for conference titles. not winning road games is the key to going .500.

I am fine with playing on the road, but only teams that you know will finish with two things:

1 - a top 50 rpi
2 - a top 25 SOS

 

[tante]

others have complained (posters, Patton, Tharp) about not getting home-homes with top teams. who cares? play them in a one off at their place. we are what we are, not in a position to expect "equal terms" with the Mich State and Duke's of the world. yet.

we can do two one-offs per year, but it would be best to get a home and home with a team from the big east and one from the big 10 every year, and they need to be a pretty good program.

 

[dyemeduke]

OK, great thread and i agree heartily with its aim and such....however, you have to play some road games to prepare for conference play. let's not swing too far to one extreme. how did Mizzou do down the stretch in conference play? how were they on the road?

winning road games is the key to challenging for conference titles. not winning road games is the key to going .500.

I agree - road games OOC are key to developing your team. Being scared of them is not good. There's a simple fix to all scheduling questions - the games you have before you...win them. It's not like we're in a weak conference, so if we had played better this season, we would be dancing.

I disagree with Boyle and some in this thread, even though I completely understand the validity of what's being said. However, I think trying to come up with a method for scheduling is futile, because the committee is not going to be able to consider it. RPI, OOC schedule, SOS, etc. are all moot points in my opinion compared to one overriding factor - wins. If you win the games you're supposed/need to win, then you're in. If not, then you're on the bubble, and yes, many teams will get their bubble popped every season.

The wrong people are on the committee - they need to bball people (ex coaches, players, journalists, etc). Instead we have university figure heads that are only able to choose teams on wins and losses, and politics. Slight variations to our scheduling is not going to dramatically help us if we played like we did this season. We played like a bubble team (which I greatly applaud the team for), and we received a fate like many bubble teams. Same with VTech and Greenburg (who is not being classy at all about this...), Alabama, etc.

I'd personally like to see less fluffs on the schedule, but a few are necessary at the start to gel the team and develop a rythym. I'd also like a series like the Big 12/Pac10 as well as a tournament in the schedule. Those are all personal preferences though. We could easily made the tournament if we had played better...not scheduling. We beat Georgia, and we're in. We win at Baylor and TAMU, I also think we're in.

 

[boulder77]

How to Calculate RPI

1. Multiply the team's number of home wins by 0.6, the number of road wins by 1.4 and the number of neutral site wins by 1 then add the three results. For example, if a team had 3 home wins, 2 road wins and 1 neutral site win, you would compute 3 times 0.6 to get 1.8, 2 times 1.4 to get 2.8 and 1 times 1 to get 1. Then you would add 1.8 plus 2.8 plus 1 to get a win total 5.6.

2. Multiply the team's number of road losses by 0.6, the number of home losses by 1.4 and the number of neutral site losses by 1 then add the results. For example, if the team had four home losses and one road losses and one neutral site loss, you would multiply 4 times 1.4 to get 5.6, 1 times 0.6 to get 0.6 and 1 times 1 to get 1. Then you would add 5.6 plus 0.6 plus 1 to get a loss total of 7.2.

3. Add the totals from steps 1 and 2 to get the game total. In this example, you would add 5.6 and 7.2 to get 12.8.

4. Divide the win total by game total to calculate the team's winning percentage. In this example, you would divide 5.6 by 12.8 to find the team's winning percentage equals 0.4378.

5. Compute the winning percentage of each of the opponents the team has played using the steps 1 through 4. When performing the calculation, do not include the opponent's game against the original team. For example, if you are calculating the RPI for team A and team A played teams E, F, G and H, when you calculate team H's winning percentage you would not include the game team H played against team A.

6. Calculate the average of the opponents' winning percentage by adding the winning percentages and dividing by the number of opponents. For example, if the opponents' averages were 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8, you would add 0.5 plus 0.6 plus 0.7 plus 0.8 to get 2.6. Then you would divide 2.6 by 4 to get 0.65.

7. Calculate the winning percentage of the opponents' opponents using steps 1 through 5.

8. Calculate the average of the opponents' winning percentage by adding the winning percentages and dividing by the number of opponents. For example, if the opponents' opponents' averages were 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7, you would add 0.4 plus 0.5 plus 0.6 plus 0.7 to get 2.2. Then you would divide 2.2 by 4 to get 0.55.

9. Calculate the RPI by multiplying the team's winning percentage by 0.25, the average of the opponents' winning percentages by 0.5 and the average of the opponents' opponents' winning percentages by 0.25 and adding the results. Finishing this example, you would multiply 0.4378 by 0.25, 0.65 by 0.5 and 0.55 by 0.25 to get a total RPI of 0.473445.

Read more: How to Calculate the RPI in Basketball | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6701480_calculate-rpi-basketball.html#ixzz1Ggw3brCQ

 

[CarolinaBuff]

:nod:

And based on my rudimentary understanding of the RPI, it's a really good thing for the Buffs if we go take a shot at someone like Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

I have no doubt the Cuse would love to have CU come into the dome in December. It would be a refreshing change from the Colgate's and Binghamton's of the world. :thumbsup: