1st Schedule info - Gulf Coast Showcase Nov 21-23

1st bit of schedule info leaked and the Cougars are playing in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, FL fro 21-23 Nov. First game is against George Mason. Other teams in the tourney are Hofstra, Kent State, Wofford, South Dakota, Bradley, and Vermont. Only 2 teams in the tournament had an RPI better than 100 (Hofstra and UH) and 2 others had RPI’s better than 200 (Kent State and Vermont).

Cougars to Compete at Gulf Coast Showcase
Cougars face George Mason on Nov. 21 in Germain Arena in Estero, Fla., tournament runs through Nov. 23
http://www.uhcougars.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/061016aad.html

vs. GULF COAST SHOWCASE FIELD
The Cougars are 0-1 all-time against George Mason after dropping an 88-84 decision in overtime in Fairfax, Va., during the 2013 College Basketball Invitational Quarterfinals.

Houston is 3-0 against Kent State but has not played the Golden Flashes since an 80-56 win on Dec. 7, 1991, during the Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic in Irvine, Calif.

Houston is 7-13 against Bradley and has not played the Braves since a 69-52 win on Dec. 28, 1967, during the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu.

The Cougars have never played South Dakota, Hofstra, Wofford or Vermont.

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George Mason has pretty good recent history as does UVM. Vermont gets autobid every couple years.

Good tournament for us to win! Not sure how George Mason will bounce back from a disappointing season last year. Hofstra loses a couple key players but should still be good. Wish it was South Dakota St instead.

Also another little schedule tidbit, I was told that we play Prairie View A&M. Everybody jump up and down for that!

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I’ll admit my previous post was a bit optimistic. An hour later i’m thinking, what a crappy group of teams.

I’m glad they call it a “Showcase” instead of a “Classic”. :relaxed:

I just hope the games are televised and that we win the thing. That’s all.

SDSU is way better opponent than USD. I live about an hour from both so know a little about the programs.

We better beat George Mason; he’s 291 years old.

Well, that is better than playing them in football as that big SEC school up hwy 6 is doing !!!

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This tournament has never been televised.

Last year’s tournament was shown exclusively online on Youtube, via the event organizer’s official Youtube channel. I’d bet that will be the case again.

What’s the point in playing in a tournament like this? Are we getting paid to be there? Those teams are likely to do nothing but hurt the RPI.

Here are the end-of-season RPIs for the 8 teams in this tournament:

Vermont - 126
Wofford - 202
Hofstra - 57
Bradley - 304
Kent State - 128
South Dakota - 200
Houston - 90
George Mason - 203

In a word, blech.

  1. Nothing builds team chemistry like going on the road early in the year and winning some games. This is like a mini-China trip for this team.

  2. Depends on how you define “hurt.” Is it as good for the RPI as playing Duke 3 times in a row at Cameron? No.

But it’s better than last year’s tournament. I went to RPI wizard and dropped last year’s tournament games and replaced them with these (including a loss to Hofstra to replicate the loss to Grand Canyon). Our RPI improved 8 spots.

And I seriously doubt any of these games are “no win” games, meaning your RPI gets worse even if you win the game. What really hurts your RPI is playing home games against cupcakes. They only count as 0.6 wins in the RPI formula, and they kill your SOS.

Had we simply not played PVAM, Fla A&M, UTRGV and Nicholls State last year, our RPI would have improved 23 spots. In other words, merely playing those home cupcakes (and winning them) hurt us 23 spots.

This tournament won’t hurt our RPI like that. For one thing, wins count 1.0, not 0.6. This tournament should provide three games where if we win, our RPI improves.

If you want to get butt hurt, let’s wait and see the last 5 games on the home schedule. We know Rhode Island, Harvard and North Florida are coming in. The last 5 will be the test. How many cupcakes? If we have any cupcakes, I hope they are against D2 schools that don’t count in the RPI.

RPIs for other games that are either confirmed or at least rumored:

Rhode Island - 122
Harvard - 187
North Florida - 167
Prairie View - 334

@Arkansas - 134

Last year, we played zero OOC games against top 50 RPI opposition, and three games against top 100 RPI opposition (all of which were in the 90s - Louisiana Monroe, LSU and Grand Canyon).

As of now, we have scheduled zero OOC games against top 100 RPI opposition. It’s a fair point to wait and see who the last five opponents are, but the signs to date are certainly less than promising.

PVAM is confirmed?

Don’t forget @ LSU

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/742835395424071680

BTW Harvard has a National Top 10 recruiting class coming in, with 4 National Top 100 HS recruits.

In addition, Rhode Island has made several preseason Top 25 lists, including those of Seth Davis, Gary Parrish and Jon Rothstein.