A look back at our non-conference opponents

[Saulbadguy]

William & Mary
RPI Rank: 198
Record: 15-15 vs. division 1
Conference: Colonial Athletic Association (8-10)
The "Kaplan Krazies" have yet another disappointing year.  Keeping it close with Kansas State did nothing but get their hopes up.  They just lost in the CAA tournament to Georgia State.  Game of interest: Monday, January 8th, W&M beat 2006 Final Four participant George Mason..on the road.

Rutgers
RPI Rank: 215
Record: 9-19 vs. division 1
Conference: Big East Conference (8-10)
Pretty bad year for our Texas Bowl opponent.  Best win: Nebraska.  Point of interest: They SWEPT the University of Cincinnati Bearcats.

Tennessee Tech
RPI Rank: 142
Record: 18-13 vs. division 1
Conference: Ohio Valley Conference (13-7)
Just bowed out of the OVC tournament to Eastern Kentucky. Game of interest: TTU 86, Bradley 84

Coppin State
RPI Rank: 248
Record: 11-19 vs. division 1
Conference: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (9-9)
Beat FORMAL NATIONAL CHAMPION La Salle by 1 point at a neutral site.

California
RPI Rank: 91
Record: 14-16 vs. division 1
Conference: Pac 10 Conference (6-12)
Their victory over us capped a 5 game winning streak.  They could not win 3 in a row after that.  We sent their season in to a terrible downward spiral.  Cal!

Colorado State
RPI Rank: 115
Record: 14-12 vs. division 1
Conference: Mountain West Conference (6-10)
They started off MWC play well by winning their first 4 of 6 games, but then lost 5 in a row, and never full recovered.  Best win: BYU..THEN Kansas State.

Cleveland State
RPI Rank: 264
Record: 7-21 vs. division 1
Conference: Horizon League (3-13)
Best win of the year: Miami (FL). They do have some very deceiving Non-Division 1 victories against Notre Dame (OH) and West Virginia Tech.  I'm looking forward to this heated rivalry.

North Dakota State
RPI Rank: 157
Record: 16-8 vs. division 1
Conference: Independents
Only 8 losses.  If they played in a conference tournament, I think they'd be fairly competitive.  We gave them their only loss at home.    "Woody"!!

Kennesaw State
RPI Rank: 277
Record: 12-18 vs. division 1
Conference: Atlantic Sun Conference (9-9)
Nothing of interest here, except they did play Gardner Webb and Lipscomb in the same season. I'd say that is worth of a  .

Maryland Eastern-Shore
RPI Rank: 332
Record: 3-26 vs. division 1
Conference: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (1-17)
Their lone conference win came against Howard.  In case you were interested, there are 336 Division 1 teams.  Only Denver, Northern Colorado (Coached by former Wichita State assistant), Alabama A&M and North Florida finished lower in the RPI.

USC
RPI Rank: 54
Record: 21-10 vs. division 1
Conference: Pac 10 Conference (11-7)
Will only improve once OJ Mayo gets there later this year. 

New Mexico
RPI Rank: 151
Record: 14-16 vs. division 1
Conference: Mountain West Conference (4-12)
Coach McKay (once a candidate for the Kansas State job) is gone.  After defeating them in Vegas, UNM went on to win 6 games.

Xavier
RPI Rank: 32
Record: 23-7 vs. division 1
Conference: Atlantic 10 Conference (13-3)
Easily our best "non-conference loss" of the year.  They did lose to Cincinnati though, so we have that going for us.


Chicago State
RPI Rank: 213
Record: 7-20 vs. division 1
Conference: Independents
They beat Cleveland State on their home floor. This bodes well for us in the future.

[michigancat]

Nice job.

I'm surprised Cal did that horribly the rest of the year.

[sys]

great post.  those underachieving losers are keeping us out of the tourney.

[pissclams]

I remember defending our OOC before the season started 

[cireksu]

Wooly trying to save his job screwed us.

[catfan28]

Wooly......the gift that keeps on givin'.  

[jarrr]

It really sucks we had to go into the PIT when NM was a completely different team. That CSU loss is a killer, I think Cartier makes those free throws now.

[chum1]

We sucked bad at the beginning of the year.  We're probably lucky we had a soft schedule so that we could get a few wins.  If anything, the obvious improvment throughout the season helps make an NCAA case.  In my humblesquached opinion. 

[ksu_FAN]

FWIW, the "Wooly schedule" stuff is a little overblown.  JMHO.  Keep in mind last year's OOC SOS was 141 compared to this year's 230.

This year we had some teams drop off the map (New Mexico) that we didn't anticipate and we were still struggling when we lost to teams like NMU, Cal, and CSU early.  Those 3 losses aren't helping us, the X loss is forgivable.

Wooly games:
@ Rutgers 215
@ New Mexico 151
@ CSU 115
@ NDSU 157
 
Huggins games:
William & Mary 198
Tenn Tech 142
@ Cal 91
Coppin State 248
Cleveland State 264
Kenn State 277
Mary Eastern Shore 332
USC @ Vegas 54
New Mexico @ Vegas 151
@ Xavier 32

[mavrick1821]

Didn't a 7 footer big-timer (project to NBA) from Cal get hurt right after our game with them?  Losing a player like that completely changes a team like Cal.  Doesn't excuse the 30 pt loss, but does greatly effect the rest of the season IMO.

[sonofdaxjones]

KSU's OOC schedules will only get tougher under Huggins.

The two killers are Cal and UNM . . . UNM really killed us by falling apart.  

Would've been nice for USC to get a win at Washington St.

[ksu_FAN]

KSU's OOC schedules will only get tougher under Huggins.

The two killers are Cal and UNM . . . UNM really killed us by falling apart.  

Would've been nice for USC to get a win at Washington St.

Yes, this will be the weakest OOC we'll ever see. 

[michigancat]

FWIW, the "Wooly schedule" stuff is a little overblown.  JMHO.  Keep in mind last year's OOC SOS was 141 compared to this year's 230.

This year we had some teams drop off the map (New Mexico) that we didn't anticipate and we were still struggling when we lost to teams like NMU, Cal, and CSU early.  Those 3 losses aren't helping us, the X loss is forgivable.

Wooly games:
@ Rutgers 215
@ New Mexico 151
@ CSU 115
@ NDSU 157
 
Huggins games:
William & Mary 198
Tenn Tech 142
@ Cal 91
Coppin State 248
Cleveland State 264
Kenn State 277
Mary Eastern Shore 332
USC @ Vegas 54
New Mexico @ Vegas 151
@ Xavier 32

I heard W&M was a Wooly game.  It wouldn't surprise me if Tennessee Tech and Coppin St. were already on the schedule before Huggs signed on, too.