Really....7th....Really....and Long Beach is the slight favor over UCSB...

KIRK!.... your input...

(source)

http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?story_id=13105

With so many new players, being picked low is unsurprising.  I thought we would be picked somewhere around 5 or 6.

I really like this team and I think that we're going to do some damage.

I may be wrong but Titans Basketball have not won any pre-season crown. I really want our MBB to win this...more than anything else.

Pre season polls are like putting six of your players on the floor...it attracts attention to your team. There may be some value to it the curious sort.

looking at the achives the other day and saw we were picked to win it in 2005.

As I have said earlier, I don't care where they pick us. I also think for what others know, it's pretty accurate.

This year's team is so dependent on the new guys that it makes sense to pick us low. No one knows how they'll do. To make it more interesting, this is such an un-Burton type of team. Or at least un-Burton for the time he has been here.

Like everyone else who saw the scrimmage, I'm optimistic. We have height and a lot of potential. I think we have much more potential than last year's team. We sure shouldn't just get killed on the boards any more. And we also may have the conference's best point guard returning.

But to be fair, after Streeter, everything is a question mark. And that's why we get picked low.

As a LB fan, Fullerton makes me nervous, I strongly believe you guys will be improved from last season, none-the-less, if I put together my preseason picks I find myself putting you middle of the pack based on the things noted above- Streeter is a known real deal, but after that it is all parts that look good individually, but how well they will fit together is tough to predict. Add in that so many teams look like they will improve that it is hard to figure where they will all end up. One last note, LB last season was a preseason #8 pick and we came a last second basket by Nunnally at SB from being the 1 seed in the BW tourney. Good luck this season (when not playing LB), and I will be rooting for you to be good quickly and kick some tail out of conference.

From what I'm reading, it seems like the Big West might have a good year in general. We need to root for all the teams to beat everyone up in their nonconference play.

Could we be a closer to being a 2 bid conference?

Two bids.  Not in my lifetime, pro'ly not in YOURS.

Might have to cut down to only five or six Big Ten teams if you did that.

Wrasslin' fans like Greek would be whizzed off.

You don't look to be in that bad a shape, Doc.  So don't be shocked if two bids do occur again your lifetime.

It was a long three and a half years ago (4 seasons ago-2006) the BWC had two bids.  And before that, well, the season before in 2005.

Yeah, things are a little different now, no more Utah State.  And no disputing that the conference has been trending down for years.

But all it takes to have a realistic shot at it is a team to be dominant in conference, win 25 or more overall, have a top 40 or close to that RPI (the most difficult part), and then for them to get knocked off in the BWT championship game.

Getting a team with an RPI that high, from where our teams are now, won't be easy.  But do-able. 

I would agree with RFD. It seems to me (I'm doing this from memory) that there have been teams in the past that have played a tough enough non-conference schedule (never Fullerton) that if they won all or all but one they would be in position to make it to the NCAA as an al large team.

The problem they usually have is that they do poorly in nonconference and thus obviously don't have a high enough RPI.  In looking at Long Beach's schedule with Duke, Kentucky, West Virginia and UCLA it seems to me it might be good enough. However, you need more than a tough schedule. You also have to win the games. If Long Beach can sweep its non-conference schedule I would think it would have a high RPI and certainly a high ranking. But that's a big if.

WTF,,, Running the table playing those teams.????please!!!

Long Beach won't win any of those games and most likely lose the first two in the 76 classic as well.  Pacific a period this decade played a strong schedule and actually won/or was at least competitive in those types of games.  Long Beach is too young this year to pull those kinds of wins off, but maybe next couple years it's possible.  Those games are collecting alot of $ for LB though and a strong schedule is attractive to recruits.

plus, it's extremely useful for that young team to see what a top notch program looks and plays like, that will help them in two years.

TitanMike wrote:

I would agree with RFD. It seems to me (I'm doing this from memory) that there have been teams in the past that have played a tough enough non-conference schedule (never Fullerton) that if they won all or all but one they would be in position to make it to the NCAA as an al large team.

 

The problem they usually have is that they do poorly in nonconference and thus obviously don't have a high enough RPI.  In looking at Long Beach's schedule with Duke, Kentucky, West Virginia and UCLA it seems to me it might be good enough. However, you need more than a tough schedule. You also have to win the games. If Long Beach can sweep its non-conference schedule I would think it would have a high RPI and certainly a high ranking. But that's a big if.

If LB could run the table on their schedule, no way they lose in the BW, further they would be ranked #1 in the country. More chance of 6 supermodels showing up at my house tonight and having a pillow fight over who gets me, and my wife not minding.

I never said that Long Beach can run the table. I said if they could do that, they would be in position to get an at-large spot in the NCAA because they had lost in the conference tournament.

The point was about whether the conference could have two teams in the NCAA. It takes two things. One is you've got to play a tough enough schedule to get the high rating of RPI.  Many teams in the BWC don't even make that requirement. Fullerton never has. Secondly, you've got to win the games. At least LB has taken care of the first hurdle. We'll see about the second. If I was LB, I wouldn't go into this thinking I was going to lose. I would be optimistic. And then if you lose, you've still got league and the tournament.