|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Oct 19, 2014 10:49:30 GMT -5
Massey rankings of the contenders, with Best Win, Worst loss
22 Northidge: Best Win = @ San Diego (29), Worst Loss @ SB (78) 25 Long Beach BW, Northidge (22), WL, LMU (24) 32 Hawaii, BW, Ohio (34), WL, @ Long Beach (25) 78 Santa Barbara BW, Northridge (22), WL, @ Davis (114) 79 Irvine, BW, SB (78), WL, neutral Cincy (116) 114 Davis , BW, @ SB (78), WL, Fresno St (176)
if there is one team that could afford being upset, it was Northridge, but better not push their luck. Northridge's stock is weighted significantly to UNLV (although it'd be better for the Big West if UNLV didn't make the field) who Northridge beat twice @ UNLV and is having a decent year.
Santa Barbara & Irvine are pretty much in win-out territory. SB actually has two top 50 wins (Santa Clara & North), which is more than Hawaii has, so Hawaii better be ready for SB, and a win by SB on the islands wouldn't be out of the question.
Hawaii has a solid RPI, and no bad losses, and the Ohio win keeps looking better, but there is nothing that really stands out on their resume, especially considering the home heavy schedule.
Long Beach's four losses are to some really solid teams, with Illinois having beat both Neb/Penn State on the road, and North Carolina top 10, plus LMU & Oregon State having surprisingly very good years.
Irvine (like SB) still has yet to prove it can beat a decent team away from home. Irvine really has to be regretting the match points (at home no less) that it couldn't convert vs. Utah State & Northridge - flip those two matches and they are a top 50 team likely.
RPI doesn't like the the Big West (and it really hates the WCC even more, so I guess it could be worse) - Santa Barbara & Irvine give the Big West 5 top 100 teams, but only 3 top 100 if you go by RPI. UOP/Santa Clara/Gonzaga/USF are all between 36-64 Massey, but RPI downgrades them)
If they used Massey (or Pablo), the BW/WCC could get 9 teams combined - but because of the use of RPI, my bet is that only 6, or 7 max (after reviewing RPI), actually get in from the two conferences.
|
|
|
Post by kahusancali on Oct 19, 2014 11:08:49 GMT -5
UCSB seem inconsistent. Didn't they lose to Davis at home last week or two weeks ago?
What did they do right this time to beat CSUN? Am shocked that it was a sweep.
|
|
|
Post by BeachbytheBay on Oct 19, 2014 11:10:05 GMT -5
Alabama will be this year's poster child for what is wrong with RPI and Eastern Bias in it. Alabama RPI is 29 () Alabama Massey is 51. Who have they beat? , a RPI 51 (overrated) LSU team and a lower tier ACC Clemson team, and that's it. but RPI says they are the 29th best team in the country!!
|
|
|
Post by volleyjeep on Oct 19, 2014 12:34:15 GMT -5
#1: LB - road wins are gold - and LB came away with two, despite getting frustrated by some good Cal Poly defense. They get Davis & Riverside next week, and Davis is no sure thing, if they can navigate two more wins, they'll be in good shape going to the 2nd half & North/Haw but still surviving without a decisive left-side terminator. #7: Poly - pushed Northridge & LB at home, but still have yet to play a complete match against the top teams. I was at both Cal Poly games this weekend (against Northridge and Long Beach) and this is what I noticed... Cal Poly is very inconsistent. They look great then they look bad. Most likely because they're a very young team going up against teams that are much more experienced. This was extremely evident last night against Long Beach. The Northridge match was good until it reached 20-20 in game 3. Northridge played tremendous defense and Cal Poly couldn't put a ball away and Northridge's hitters took advantage of their OH's jumping ability to kill the ball. CP had no answer for that. Game 4 was horrible to watch if you were rooting for CP or great if you were cheering for Northridge. CP just hit into the Northridge's defense all game long, or hit it out. CP had a lot of success during the match with fast slides to the pin and then hitting back sharp angle. This seemed to be a strategy of theirs that paid off. But CP couldn't stop North's OH's. Northridge also missed a lot of serves in Games 1 & 2. Long Beach seemed asleep in game 1 and when CP took it from them they woke up and dominated the rest of the match. LB's blocking shut CP down and they couldn't do anything to counter it. I don't know how many blocks the OH's got against CP's slide, but that play didn't work at all for the whole match. LB read CP's setter in Games 2-4 and had the hitters pegged. CP had no answer for that and just got frustrated and tried to make things happen, thus hitting it out or in the block again. LB passed fairly well, but had moments where they were all over the place. The frustrating thing about this match was the refs were extremely bad and inconsistent. LB's coach got carded twice 1 yellow, 1 red, and LB's libero got a yellow as well. Both teams were constantly on the ref because of his bad calls. Not calling lifts or doubles on either side that were obvious, and then suddenly calling it very tight, then to turn around and not call anything anymore. CP had a ball that their OH hit that went off the block grazed the net, but called it out and point to LB. LB's OH had a tool on the block that went sideways off the arm and actually bent the antenna towards the down ref, and no out call was made and the rally continued.
|
|
|
Post by vballfreak808 on Oct 20, 2014 15:57:33 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by thebeach1 on Oct 20, 2014 16:29:05 GMT -5
Congratulations to Ashley Murray. A true freshman with an legitimate shot at winning Big West Conference Freshman of the Year.
|
|
|
Post by ACE on Oct 20, 2014 22:18:28 GMT -5
Although it's in the AVCA thread...congratulations Long Beach for cracking the top 25!
|
|
|
Post by jake on Oct 21, 2014 0:37:37 GMT -5
#1: LB - road wins are gold - and LB came away with two, despite getting frustrated by some good Cal Poly defense. They get Davis & Riverside next week, and Davis is no sure thing, if they can navigate two more wins, they'll be in good shape going to the 2nd half & North/Haw but still surviving without a decisive left-side terminator. #7: Poly - pushed Northridge & LB at home, but still have yet to play a complete match against the top teams. I was at both Cal Poly games this weekend (against Northridge and Long Beach) and this is what I noticed... Cal Poly is very inconsistent. They look great then they look bad. Most likely because they're a very young team going up against teams that are much more experienced. This was extremely evident last night against Long Beach. The Northridge match was good until it reached 20-20 in game 3. Northridge played tremendous defense and Cal Poly couldn't put a ball away and Northridge's hitters took advantage of their OH's jumping ability to kill the ball. CP had no answer for that. Game 4 was horrible to watch if you were rooting for CP or great if you were cheering for Northridge. CP just hit into the Northridge's defense all game long, or hit it out. CP had a lot of success during the match with fast slides to the pin and then hitting back sharp angle. This seemed to be a strategy of theirs that paid off. But CP couldn't stop North's OH's. Northridge also missed a lot of serves in Games 1 & 2. Long Beach seemed asleep in game 1 and when CP took it from them they woke up and dominated the rest of the match. LB's blocking shut CP down and they couldn't do anything to counter it. I don't know how many blocks the OH's got against CP's slide, but that play didn't work at all for the whole match. LB read CP's setter in Games 2-4 and had the hitters pegged. CP had no answer for that and just got frustrated and tried to make things happen, thus hitting it out or in the block again. LB passed fairly well, but had moments where they were all over the place. The frustrating thing about this match was the refs were extremely bad and inconsistent. LB's coach got carded twice 1 yellow, 1 red, and LB's libero got a yellow as well. Both teams were constantly on the ref because of his bad calls. Not calling lifts or doubles on either side that were obvious, and then suddenly calling it very tight, then to turn around and not call anything anymore. CP had a ball that their OH hit that went off the block grazed the net, but called it out and point to LB. LB's OH had a tool on the block that went sideways off the arm and actually bent the antenna towards the down ref, and no out call was made and the rally continued.
Thanks for that report.
Hope to see a healthy Mathiesen back on the court for POLY this week against UHawai'i'
GoPOLY!!!
|
|
|
Post by DaDawgFather on Oct 21, 2014 0:44:15 GMT -5
Alabama will be this year's poster child for what is wrong with RPI and Eastern Bias in it. Alabama RPI is 29 () Alabama Massey is 51. Who have they beat? , a RPI 51 (overrated) LSU team and a lower tier ACC Clemson team, and that's it. but RPI says they are the 29th best team in the country!! Well as I understand it 50% of your RPI score is who you play and not who you beat. 25% is how often you win not necessarily who you win against and 25% I think is how your opponent's opponent's do. So who you beat isn't really the main factor.
|
|
|
Post by Garand on Oct 24, 2014 4:28:01 GMT -5
While there's some truth in that, consider a scenario with the bottom team in a strong conference that schedules all solid RPI teams for its preseason and loses all of them plus all its conference matches. It sounds like you are suggesting that the team's 0-30 season coupled with a strong SOS would leave it with a reasonably good final RPI. That would not be the case.
Actually, the real point to be made here is that the OP and OOP values tend to move or converge toward similar central values and even though they represent 75 percent of the total RPI value between them, they don't have as large an impact on the overall RPI value as you might think. Instead, the 25 percent based on your own W/L percentage becomes a critical factor in separating yourself from these other teams with similar opponents and opponent's opponents percentages.
|
|
|
Post by Garand on Oct 24, 2014 4:46:12 GMT -5
This week's BW schedule doesn't offer many exciting matchups: tomorrow night, Northridge should handle Davis, Long Beach will surely trounce Riverside, Hawaii will have their way with Cal Poly, and I expect Irvine to beat Fullerton. I don't see any upsets among those matches. Possibly Davis over Northridge? Could be.
Saturday isn't much better: Northridge will crush Riverside and Long Beach will roll over Davis.
On Sunday, Hawaii at home should take care of Santa Barbara. Irvine has a non-conference match against SDSU on Monday at SDSU, and this is probably the hardest match to call for the entire weekend. I'll bet on UCI in four, maybe five.
|
|
|
Post by eastbeach on Oct 24, 2014 23:43:53 GMT -5
This week's BW schedule doesn't offer many exciting matchups: tomorrow night, Northridge should handle Davis, Long Beach will surely trounce Riverside, Hawaii will have their way with Cal Poly, and I expect Irvine to beat Fullerton. I don't see any upsets among those matches. Possibly Davis over Northridge? Could be. Saturday isn't much better: Northridge will crush Riverside and Long Beach will roll over Davis. On Sunday, Hawaii at home should take care of Santa Barbara. Irvine has a non-conference match against SDSU on Monday at SDSU, and this is probably the hardest match to call for the entire weekend. I'll bet on UCI in four, maybe five. Looks like Davis might have added a bit of excitement to your weekend! Look for more upsets and surprises to come.
|
|
|
Post by thebeach1 on Oct 25, 2014 0:39:20 GMT -5
Davis is playing very well at this point in the season. Tomorrow's contest at Long Beach State will be good one. Look for the Beach to elevate its game and to win in 4 tomorrow night.
|
|
|
Post by bucky415 on Oct 25, 2014 0:48:25 GMT -5
Alabama will be this year's poster child for what is wrong with RPI and Eastern Bias in it. Alabama RPI is 29 () Alabama Massey is 51. Who have they beat? , a RPI 51 (overrated) LSU team and a lower tier ACC Clemson team, and that's it. but RPI says they are the 29th best team in the country!! I only saw the third set of their win over Auburn on Wednesday, but I was pretty surprised they were ranked that highly after watching that. Maybe they were just not playing well, but I wasn't impressed.
|
|
|
Post by eastbeach on Oct 25, 2014 0:57:03 GMT -5
Davis is playing very well at this point in the season. Tomorrow's contest at Long Beach State will be good one. Look for the Beach to elevate its game and to win in 4 tomorrow night. I would wager that Davis will give the Beach more of a battle then you expect. They are elevated this year - new coach, new attitude.
|
|