I didn't book that schedule ;) Trust me ... I've got requests out for next year for some better teams, including your Lawrence team, if you feel like accepting ;)

Thanks....very happy to be 4-2 at this point, doubled my noncon win total from last year, and I have one more "easy" win before i play several stretch games.

Scheduling is an art in this game. Some go with 10 easy wins, some with the hardest schedule they can find (like Corn). I think it depends on your conference some (if you are in a weak conference, schedule hard out of conference and vice versa), and you want to make sure that you schedule teams that will have an acceptable reward for beating them.

Like if there are 2 identical teams, but one will be 24-1 vs an average schedule and the other will schedule really hard and be 13-12, I want to play the 24-1 team.

HUGE win for Wichita State last night as we improve to 5-2 in noncon upsetting Oral Roberts. We mauled them on the boards in their 3-2 zone and were able to pull the upset as they had a rough night from 3. We pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and they only managed 14 defensive rebounds!

RPI numbers are out and we are a 90! With about 110 SOS. Pretty excellent considering the inexperience. I have a game tonight I think I will regret scheduling. I put a sim AI Winthrop road game on the schedule, thinking I wanted a road win. But their RPI is 320 of 324 D1 teams (oops). I better win the game then, huh?

Tried a new lineup last night after getting hurt on the boards, going big with Crowe at PF instead of Mount and Mount my main backup at SF & PF. It worked vs. a 3-2 zone, but I am sure it would be a mistake vs. the press since I have so much less Passing and BH with Mount/Crowe/Pierce in the game together. But the 3 of them were so good on the boards, it might be my #1 zone offense now.

6-4 seems possible now. Maybe even a PT berth could be considered? Focus on Winthrop. Can't lose to a terrible SIMAI team. They have 2 ineligbles and a walkon. Time for my first uptempo game of the season.

Wow, things are going well here. Just got a win over a 700 overall team (we are 630) on the road. Now I get to play Michigan at home to wrap up my noncon schedule.

The MVC is really improved, up to #8 in the RPI and I have a 71 RPI, am 7-2 and am feeling good about my chances to make the PT. I figure I have 6 easy sim wins in conference, and I can split the other 10 games to go 11-5. So if I lose to Michigan I'll end up 18-8, which should do it, especially if I can win a CT game and end 19-9. We'll see.

Key to this season has been good defense. Speed and Athleticism are as good or better than my opponents, and the press can be magic when that occurs. Seems like there are a lot of limited BH/Passing SFs and SGs out there :)

Well loyal readers, things are going pretty well for Wichita State and the MVC as well. We dropped a tight one to Michigan at home to close out the noncon season. We actually had a lead in the second half, but they were too strong for my sophomores. Speaking of them, they have all improved a ton since I recruited them.

Macy has really been playing well, and his ratings are really looking good for a SF.

74 Ath, 76 Spd, 49 reb, 74 def, 56 LP, 58 Per, 26 BH, 71 Pass....very balanced.

Mount is my 6th man right now with 80 ath, 56 speed, 75 reb, 70 def, 85 blk, 70 LP and 45 Per and 39 passing. Backs up at SF and PF. Even let him shoot a few 3s.

Pierce has become a good center. I realize now how lucky I was to get him with a D+ prestige. 57 ath, 43 spd, 96 reb, 81 def, 93 blk, 95 LP, 28 Pass, C FT.

Crowe has been the one disappointment. I expected him to be better than Pierce, but it has not happened...yet. His low WE is causing him to improve at a glacial pace, despite starting most of the games for 1.5 years. Anyway, he isn't maxed out in anything yet, (neither are any of my recruits in anything other than FT shooting) so I hope he can continue his slow improvements for a while yet.

Crowe = 49 Ath, 53 Spd, 86 Reb, 83 Def, 86 Blk, 82 LP, 48 Pass, B- FT...just 5-10 pts behind Pierce on all of the 4 cores, but quicker and I still think has the potential to be more athletic. We'll see.

Won my first 2 conference game on the road, one vs. a Sim and one vs. a human. Now I have to play Northern Iowa who has a 9 RPI and is about 50-60 pts better than me in the core areas. Not too much hope.

Good news is we are 9-3 (2-0) and have a top 75 RPI though. And losing to Northern Iowa will help my SOS a bit so I should stay in the double digits. I'm thinking if I can avoid home losses to humans other than Northern Iowa (our best team) and beat the sims for 5 more wins, I should be able to make the PT.

Our conference RPI is 10th, which isn't too bad, and I think there is a good chance it gets to 8th by the end of the year. We're neck and neck with the SEC if you believe it.

Another home win vs. Creighton. D1 is cool because I just looked at the RPI chart. #34 Wichita State, #33 Duke, #36 Georgetown. That's right, I am in the hunt for the NT!

Seriously though, if I had the Prestige of Duke I would be peeved. But I have been really lucky this year.

7 point win over Wyoming

6 point win over Mt. St Mary's

3 point wins over Binghamton & Northern Iowa

1 point win over Central Conn St.

and my only close loss was a 5 pointer to Elon. That's 5-1 in games decided by 7 points or less. Very fortunate indeed. Actually the entire MVC is playing pretty well. We are 9th in the RPI, ahead of the SEC and the WCC and the Mtn West and some other decent conferences. We're not at the level of the Big 12 or Big 10, but we'll compete with the A10/CUSA for the best non-power conference. I think that award still belongs to the Ivy League, but we have some geographical and baseline prestige adavantages over them. And once we get full, we'll really be good.

Anyway, I finished the first quarter of conference play 4-0. My schedule is super front loaded so it looks pretty good, but the second quarter is tough too.

Home vs. Western Kentucky, at Illinois St (sim), vs. Gardner-Webb, at S. Illinois.

Southern Illinions has an RPI of 17, so beating them on the road looks pretty difficult. I beat GW on the road by 19, so I expect to win that one, and Illinois State isn't very good. WKU is the swing game. I hope to go 3-1 here, or 2-2 at the worst.

5 of my last 7 conference games are vs. Sim's so I can safely expect a nice finish.

Got a home win vs. WKU to get to 5-0 in conference play, 27th RPI and 12-3 overall. I keep wondering when the wheels are going to come off. I really should win my next 2 vs. a sim on the road and Gardener Webb at home, who I beat by 20 on the road.

After that is probably the start of my difficulties, with road games vs. SIU and NIU, which will be 2 losses I think.

After 2 more 20+ point vs. at Simmy and home vs. GW, we are up to 7-0 in conference play, 14-3 overall and have maintained our 28th RPI.

Now is the tough stretch. At Southern Illinois and at Northern Iowa. Both games should be losses based on ratings. I beat NIU at home by 3, but I think I got lucky. If I win either one, I will be very very happy.

What I am hoping for now is to finish tied with NIU for 1st in the South. I'd like to get the prestige boost from the "conference champion' title. But I think my chances are slim. Good news is I have no pressure to win either of these games so I can try some weird strategies out.

After that I have 7 games , 5 vs. sims and 2 others that should be winnable. We're still improving pretty fast, with 4 guys up more than 40 points and another 4 up more than 30 for an average of 31 points, even with a +2 from Kron, who is peeved he is only getting 8 min/g as a junior

I've been trying to figure out why we so much better this year, and I think the answer (besides the obvious IQ improvement) has been the play of William Pierce at the Center position. Last year we had zero inside game. This year, we are still perimeter oriented, but Pierce will make you pay if you try to run a + defense against us.

Last year he shot 40% from the field and averaged 6.8 points and 5 rebounds. This year its 54% with 8.5 points and 6 rebounds. Not bad considering I almost always run slowdown since my second team is all freshman.

The other key player has been Kevin Hummel, my RS frosh PG. He has been extremely efficient, shooting 57% from the field, 20 of 32 from 3, and has 4.3 assists to 1.8 TOs. Plus he is getting 2.7 rebounds a game (.5 offensive) with 0.7 steals. He uses very few possessions and puts up 6.1 ppg, which is really solid. He has taken 65 shots, and scored 104 points, that's 1.6 points/shot, which is nuts. 1.1 isn't bad and 1.25 is good. For comparison, Pierce, who is also playing great is averaging 1.37 pts/shot. My other starters:

SG Pete 1.24

SF Macy 1.14

PF/SF Mount 1.24

PG Chasse 1.41

C Crowe 1.01

Team 1.26

Opponents 1.16

Stunning win last night vs. SIU. I thought I had no chance, but got very lucky. My whole gameplan was to shoot a ton of 3s and pray for some RNG luck. I also was screwed because he had so much depth. And what happens?? My opponent goes normal tempo and -3 on defense....result? I am just able to keep my thin squad from getting exhausted, and shoot 8 of 15 from 3 and pull off the win.

Also for some wierd reason all his good starters don't shoot and his few lousy backups take 1/3 of his shots. Lucky for me, and my RPI is up to 17. Now I have to go to play Northern Iowa on the road. There will be no 3 point magic this time. Have to come up with another weird strategy. But this gives me hope to split the Conference Championship....if I can win the rest after this one.

How I am I doing it? Defense. Dominating Defense. 9th in D1 in points allowed, 16th in fewest rebounds, 5th in fewest assists, 18th in 3pt FG defense. And opponents are shooting about 41%. Hope we can keep it up.

Aside form me missing the settings...normal and -3, I haven't changed anything with distro all season. I guess my starters wanted to take the night off. Go figure.

Yeah, pretty weird. Your center is a really good player and only took 3 shots. Lucky for me I guess.

Well, we've pushed our record to 17-4, and have gotten our RPI to 16, right between UCLA and Arizona. Not too shabby. Time for the end of that, as I have 3 home games vs. Sims, that SHOULD be easy wins, but will lower my RPI a bit.

Got past WKU on the road last night and really starting to think that an NT bid is very likely. Almost impossible to lose it now, as long as I don't have 2 weird result games to go. My HCA is up to a B+ from starting the year at a D+, so hopefully that will help me win these next 3, and then I have 1 road game vs. a sim and end up with Evansville at home.

Given how bad we have been, I don't expect to get any top25 votes this year, but we are laying the groundwork for next season.

One thing I am finding funny is that everytime I see I have an email, I find myself hoping that its not my center maxing out in REB/LP or my PG maxing his Passing or something. So far I have been lucky, and none of my freshman or sophomores have maxed out in anything except for a couple guys with low potential in FT shooting, and Phillip Pete, my SG maxed in PER at 71. He was 67 with low potential when I recruited him, and the low potential is probably the only reason why I was able to get such a skilled player. He is our leading scorer and shooting 39% from 3, so PER isn't everything.

His 70 Ath, 91 Speed, and 91 Ball handling all factor into the equation for 3pt% I think. And he is still improving in all 3 :), plus his passing (74) and defense (82) are still getting better and he went from B- to B FT shooting this season.