Playoff Partners

After having 3 teams from the PAC 10 from our area make the tourney last year, this year is slim pickings. UW is currently 58 on RPI, OSU 63, UO 121, and WSU 135. PSU or Idaho St might win the Big Sky tourney but they are currently 198 and 200 RPI respectively. PSU lost out last year after winning the conf in reg season. Our best bet might be Idaho which currently has the best RPI (98) in the WAC. Gonzaga from our conference is 123.

Going on the road in 2005 didn't work out too bad. More important to be home for 3rd and 4th rounds.

I was going to write about how the format has changed (wrote it, actually, then deleted it) But I went back and re-read the legislation and that change is implemented for 2011. so we are still using the old rules. Hopefully next year we will host on merit and not geography.

As regards to this year, it's still early. RPI's are far from set and will depend largely on how the teams do in conference. UO and UW RPI's will rise a bit just playing us and Stanford. A normal year for Pac 10 participation is 4 teams or so. the PAC10 strength is distributed a bit differently than past years, and one of the NW teams may still make the tournament..the only lock I see is Stanford. UW will be there unless they lay and egg. they look better to me than last year. OSU only has 1 loss right now - better than UCLA

PSU could also get in. They were poor in non-conference and won the BigSky regular season last year. maybe they will pull of a win in their tourney.

But you need to pick the right teams in our travel radius of 400 miles to make the conjectures. Right now those teams are UW, UO, OSU, WSU, PSU, Zags, EWU, and Idaho {Seattle is not eligible this year). The last 3 are probably not realistic tournament candidates.

Everyone else is too far to qualify as a non-flying team. Boise St. is 434 miles, and Idaho State is 666 miles away.


https://web1.ncaa.org/TES/exec/miles

I guess there's a remote possibility of Idaho winning the WAC tournament. The WAC coaches picked them to be in the bottom half of the conference this year, but they're having a much better season than expected so far. The coaches picked Utah State to win the conference, and they're having a poorer schedule than expected. So far, it looks like the conference tournament will be wide open.