The Athens Banner Herald says the rumored Madison Square Garden match-up with Duke isn't going to materialize.However, the Georgia Basketball team is close to finalizing a deal which will send the Dawgs to Hawai'i to play in the Rainbow Classic Dec. 19-22nd.
Per the ABH, other teams tenatively set to play in the tourney include (2007 RPI from KenPom.com):
Washington State (26) -- see update belowUpdate: Sunday's Honolulu Newspaper says that Washington State will not participate in the Tourney. We're replacing them, and the Hawai'i coach makes it sound like very much a done deal. He also doesn't indicate that it's St. Mary's (Texas). So the natural assumption would be St. Mary's of California (RPI: 154). They still have 1 more slot open for the tourney. Hopefully, they'll get another RPI 150 or better program.
Georgia (63)
Hawaii (98)
Ohio University (105)
St. John's (133)
Northwestern (177)
Louisiana-Lafayette (270)
St. Mary's (Texas) (Div II)
As Harrick learned in his 3rd or 4th season, you want to avoid playing Hawai'i in their home state as long as possible because the refs are pretty heavy handed with the officiating. Actually, he also learned to cut off the long distance service in the hotel rooms, but that's a different story.
As long as St. Mary's (Texas) isn't one of the attendees, it's a solid field. Certainly nothing like the 1997 event where Tubby's boys beat WSU, Memphis and Maryland to win it. We would be favored in every match-up currently listed with the possible exception of Hawai'i on their home court.
This is a good opportunity for the program. Plus, bikini's are always a nice recruiting tool. In five years, this will be Felton's second tropical tourney. He took the team to the Paradise Jam in the Caribbean in Year 2.
PWD
3 comments:
nice to know we are the same caliber as:
Ohio University
St. John's
Northwestern
Louisiana-Lafayette
St. Mary's
I don't think anyone is saying we're their caliber. It's more about playing decent, but not terrible (Except ULL) teams on a neutral court where we get 40% more RPI credit for winning a game than we do at home.
That's why it's a good fit for us. That said, ideally they'd have another Top 50-75 team in the field.
1.0 points for winning/losing on a neutral site
.6 points for winning at home
1.4 points for winning on the road
minus 1.4 points for losing at home
minus .6 points for losing on the road
So beating an RPI 150 team in a neutral site is like beating an RPI 90 team at home. (that's j-school math there so I may have botched it).
In other words, we get equivalent credit for beating nwestern in Hawaii as beating Iowa at home based on last year's RPI. (roughly)
It's all about playing that RPI Math game...
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