MVC calls G. Williams' bluff

[guru]

Great stuff from Doyel's blog today...

www.sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/9275443

Terps coach talks the talk
Gary Williams talks tough. Soon, we'll find out if he is tough.

Williams, Maryland's wonderful if occasionally condescending coach, suggested to the Washington Post on Sunday that teams from the Missouri Valley Conference -- whose hopes for a record five NCAA Tournament bids would come at the expense of larger leagues -- have been ducking schools like Maryland.

"They haven't been banging down anyone's door in the ACC to play," Williams told the Post. "The phone works both ways, last time I checked."

Yes, it does. And sources in the Valley tell me that by the end of this week, Williams will have received calls -- and offers to play a home-and-home series beginning next season -- from every team in the Missouri Valley.

Don't you love that?

Missouri State coach Barry Hinson was so excited by Williams' apparent offer that he had his scheduling director call the Maryland basketball offices first thing Monday morning to schedule a home-and-home series with the Terps beginning next season. And Missouri State is willing to play the first game on the road, even if that means bailing out on a money-making home game already on the schedule for next season.

By 3 p.m., when Maryland hadn't returned the call, Hinson called Maryland himself and left the same message. As of this morning, Williams hadn't returned Hinson's call. He also hasn't yet returned a message left this morning by CBS SportsLine.com to discuss the issue further.

In Williams' defense, he's preparing for this little thing called the ACC tournament. He has a lot on his mind.

But if he's going to talk tough when the Washington Post calls, he better be prepared to back it up when Missouri State and Northern Iowa call.

[FrazierFanatic]

Brilliant -Let's see if Mr. Perspiration has the gumption to follow up, or if he will be sweating it out after he shot off his big mouth.

[hoyalove4ever]

The MVC still sucks. They should get two bids AT MOST.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

Good for them. I think these teams probably don't get enough majors to want to play them because they are solid. They are by no means as good as their RPI which was driven by a couple of early season upsets and then they stayed high because everyone kept beating each other. I would rather see teams like this in the dance then teams like MD, FSU, Indiana, etc. who have underachieved and will be early outs in the tourney anyways.

[hoyalove4ever]

No way. UMD, FSU, and Indiana are better than all the MVC teams and deserve NCAA bids way more than all of those mild-majors.

[FOTP]

This whole thing will go away because of three very key words in this piece...HOME AND AWAY.

Williams REALLY means the MVC teams don't call him to just come to Comcast Center and play a one and done game. He'd be much more receptive to that.

The MVC Commish put that out there on purpose and it makes all the difference in the world.

Teams like G-Town/MD etc. would be more receptive to play teams like those at home, but don't/won't return the favor.

This is why you hear mid-majors whining all the time about the major conferences never playing them. It's not that they won't play them, but they don't want to return the favor.

GW this year decided it was more important for them to just play a crap schedule at home in order to have more home games (read: revenue and better chance to win) than just go on the road in order to test themselves against the better competition with a chance to get a higher seed in teh NCAAs. It was a business decision.

[HealyHoya]

It is a business decision. It's also a PR 101 mistake for Williams to "call out" the MVC teams in such a way. Now he's painted himself in a no-win corner. Should UMCP, FSU, et al get bids over those mid-majors? I don't know. The committee considers things more complex than "Would UMCP beat So. Ill. head-to-head?" That's simply not the criteria. More to the point, if that is the crtieria, you're left to make an educated guess based on objective facts -- to the degree possible. Thus, RPI, SoS, etc.

Williams is an idiot. Now what? He schedules a home-and-home with a mid-major. OK. UMCP wins both games and no one cares. That's what should happen. Lose one game, that hurts the RPI, ranking, etc. Lose both and you're really in a bit of early season trouble that year.

[David Brent]

I think that FOTP makes a few really good points here. I would like to extend his remarks by saying that it makes NO BUSINESS SENSE for major BE and ACC schools to play home and homes with the MVC. First off, if a BE or ACC school wants a home and home, there are plenty of other candidates from major conferences to consider before stepping down to the MVC. I mean, in the past couple of years we've played h/h's with Duke, Illinois, Temple, UCLA, Oregon, Vandy, Penn State. Md has played Florida, Temple, Big 10, etc. Which one of these games should a team give up in order to play Creighton, S Illinois, etc? In a business sense, NONE of these teams draws as much media/fan attention, so why bother? Big schools usually play h/h OOC in order to get nationally televised matchups at different points in the season that will be exciting for non-fans of those teams to watch in order to get ratings and therefore $s. None of the MVC are attractive enough for CBS or ESPN to televise prominently, so unless they offer something else (like a home guarantee game), it's not worth it.

The h/h stance is a dealbreaker, and the MVC commish knows it. He sees it as a way to win points in the media
and curry favor with the committee. If any of their coaches actually WANTED these games, they can have them. Just on the home court of the big conference schools. It can work for a team that has guts (as FSU football did in the 70s and 80s), then once you are in a position of power, you can negotiate on more favorable terms. But they haven't earned that right yet, so stop WHINING and play.

[Gold Hoya]

davidbrent said:

I would like to extend his remarks

You must work for Congress!

[FOTP]

You can extend my comments at any time...

That was perfect. The whole thing is quite comical actually and scheduling is an art.

MD will never play a home and home with a MVC team and neither will G-Town. It makes zero sense.

I love the way our schedule is going, but we need to tweak it a little bit in December...I know it's hard, but we can add a 175 team vs. a 300 RPI team.

[RusskyHoya]

Then again, Gtown did travel to James Madison, and we're doing a home and home with Fairfield...some coaches like having a few road games like that early on to test/challenge/evaluate the team. The smaller schools and their fans really get up for those kinds of games, so it lets you gague your team's mental toughness. As far as that goes, the Hoyas were dangerously close to failing the JMU test this season, but like one of their fans (I think he might have been their mascot actually) told us, that was the most fan support they'd had at a basketball game in years.

[FOTP]

JMU and Navy are good case studies in how the scheduling works. Those road games are low risk in general, but provide a road game for RPI purposes. Unfortunately they both stink this year.

The best part about it is they can bus the team there and not stay overnight. It's cheaper and easier on the team and you get a "road" game on the schedule.

A game at an MVC school includes an expensive trip, lost revenue for not having a home game and a tough game where you have no upside for winning.

[the_way]

MVC!? What weight do they hold again? Its a cupcake conference. Nuff Said. How they get high RPI's with only playing each other show you how messed up the RPI is.

[RusskyHoya]

Would it be that much more expensive in terms of all those factors than, say, a trip to Cleveland State (11/24/96), Georgia State (11/18/98), Bethune-Cookman (11/30/98), The Citadel (12/23/03), or Davidson (11/30/04)?

[Jack]

russkyhoya said:

Would it be that much more expensive in terms of all those factors than, say, a trip to Cleveland State (11/24/96), Georgia State (11/18/98), Bethune-Cookman (11/30/98), The Citadel (12/23/03), or Davidson (11/30/04)?

Aside from Davidson, all of those trips were for reasons other than the challenge of the game- Cleveland St. and GA St. were coached by JT's pals, Rollie Massimino and Lefty Driesell, respectively, Bethune-Cookman was being coached by alum Horace Broadnax, and The Citadel was an opportunity for Courtland Freeman's home folks to see him play.

[Deleted]

theway said:

MVC!? What weight do they hold again? Its a cupcake conference. Nuff Said. How they get high RPI's with only playing each other show you how messed up the RPI is.

Amen. And if any of you have been watching any of these mid-major tourneys, its plain to see (as MANY of the ESPN analysts have pointed out... most recently Digger on PTI) they simply play a lower caliber of ball.

[FOTP]

I'm sick of this mid-major crap. All it has become is a bunch of kiss ass work by announcers and a plea for the "little guy". I'm done with it.

I've watched these teams and let me tell you any one of the teams in the MVC would be bottom tier in the Big East and trying to make it to NYC. Period.

The best teams should make it to the Dance and if that means 11 teams from the Big East then so be it.

ND would dominate the MVC...

[hoyarooter]

Gary Williams = windbag

[Deleted]

buffalohoya said:

theway said:

MVC!? What weight do they hold again? Its a cupcake conference. Nuff Said. How they get high RPI's with only playing each other show you how messed up the RPI is.

Amen. And if any of you have been watching any of these mid-major tourneys, its plain to see (as MANY of the ESPN analysts have pointed out... most recently Digger on PTI) they simply play a lower caliber of ball.

Agreed that the MVC is lower-caliber. But the article in the Wash Post on Sunday (in which Gary Williams is quoted) did a great analysis of how they "beat" the RPI system: have everyone in the conference play a bunch of Top-150 type RPI games. Win most of them, play one or two games at a major (someone played at LSU this year, for example), and suddenly you've got 5-6 teams with Top-40 RPI numbers entering conference season. Beat up on each other, and those are all "quality" wins...pretty brilliant, actually.

What this will do is put the burden on the committee to prove that the RPI is - as they insist - "one of many things we take into consideration". If so, they can leave some of these teams out.

Honestly, good for the MVC. They're ahead of the curve. That said, most of their teams would be bottom-third of the ACC, Big East or Big Ten.

[Joe Hoya]

Don't Creighton and SIU regularly pull off upsets in the NCAAs?

If these teams truly weren't any good, major teams would be banging down the doors of MVC institutions in order get the RPI boost of beating a bad team with a good number. But clearly, they're not, so even if some of you don't think so, America's basketball coaches seem to think the MVC has some pretty tough teams.