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).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
