re: SEC Bubble Watch

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I'm really sensing a lot of parallels between South Carolina from last year and this Arkansas team.

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Not really.

Arkansas has a 42 RPI and South Carolina finished with an RPI of 73 after an extra win in the NIT.

There is really not much of a comparison. South Carolina in 2016 had an OOC SOS of 247. Thats terrible. Six of their OOC games had an RPI of 200+ and had a non D1 team also mixed in.

Arkansas has an OOC SOS of 51 this season, which is a HUGE reason why Arkansas is likely in while Scar was out last season.

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That's a pretty reductionist look, though.

Arkansas' Top 100 wins:

UTA
Houston
North Dakota State
@Tennessee
@Texas A&M
@Vanderbilt
Alabama

Not impressive.

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Its impressive enough.

Arkansas scheduled smart OOC this season. While you scoff at those, Arkansas also has wins against Sam Houston State and Mount Saint Mary's, both of which will likely be NCAA tourney teams come March, if they play their tourney like they have their conferences regular season.

Arkansas is also 4-4 on the road this season. 6-4 away from home overall. Road wins are cherished in college basketball much more than anything else. Of the 7 games you listed above, 3 of those were won on the road. Impressive.

Of the last 4 teams in Lunardi's bracket that have a first round by(Syracuse, Michigan, Michigan State, & Cal) only one of them is within a single game of being .500 on the road. That team is Cal, and they're 4-5 on the road this season.

So yea, when you consider all factors of how teams have performed in all facets, Arkansas stacks up pretty good against other teams on the bubble, or just in the tourney.

People in this thread think this Arkansas resume is in a vacuum. Not many want to bring into play the other teams that they are battling with for the last spots. Comparing bubble teams across years is not really worth the time. Each year is so different.

As I said earlier, I'm shocked we are still on the bubble but that gets explained fairly quickly if you look at the other bubble teams.

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They're both teams with empty records and nothing truly impressive on the resume. Beating up on the back-end of the Top 100 isn't impressive.

Arkansas isn't "likely in." Beat USC or UF and then we'll talk.

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The same could be said for any team out there that isn't a top seed in the tourney.

You're really nitpicking at this point. Arkansas has played twice the amount of top 50 RPI teams that South Carolina played a season ago and has twice as many wins. Arkansas also has a winning record away from home this season.

South Carolina had 6 of their top 100 wins range from #70-#99 a season ago. Arkansas has 7 top 100 wins right now and only 3 of them are on the back end of the top 100, which is quite the contrast to South Carolina having 6 of those last season. 4 of Arkansas' top 100 wins are inside the top 65. South Carolina only had 3 of those a season ago. Arkansas still has 5 games remaining against teams inside the top 70 RPI to finish the season.

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Most other bubble teams have more impressive wins than Arkansas

Compare Syracuse's wins to Arkansas'; there's really no comparison.

Yeah, most of these bubble teams have other things holding them back (bad losses, mediocre records, etc.). It's just a matter of whether you'd take a team with a solid record over mediocre competition or a team with a slightly worse record over good competition. The committee has usually favored the latter.

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Syracuse is 2-8 away from home this season. Arkansas is 6-4
Michigan is 3-6 away from home this season. Arkansas is 6-4
Michigan State is 4-8 away from home this season. Arkansas is 6-4
Cal is 4-5 away from home this season. Arkansas is 6-4

Syracuse has 3 losses between 100-200 RPI teams

Michigan has 5 wins over teams at RPI 200+

You can nitpick any team you want. Everyone looks like shite outside the top 16 teams.

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South Carolina had 6 of their top 100 wins range from #70-#99 a season ago. Arkansas has 7 top 100 wins right now and only 3 of them are on the back end of the top 100, which is quite the contrast to South Carolina having 6 of those last season. 4 of Arkansas' top 100 wins are inside the top 65. South Carolina only had 3 of those a season ago. Arkansas still has 5 games remaining against teams inside the top 70 RPI to finish the season.

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This is why nitpicking is needed. You can't look at teams as purely numbers.

That win over UTA might be the least impressive Top 50 win of all-time. And Houston, like Arkansas, is a team that hasn't done anything impressive all season yet has solid computer numbers because of "smart scheduling."

Wins over UTA and Houston are about as impressive as wins over Hofstra and Tulsa in 2016.

Again, Arkansas is light on good wins, even by bubble standards. If you think your record will carry you into the tourney, good luck with that.

Why are you so combative over Arkansas possibly making the tournament?

Biggest fair-weather fan on here.

Scar's record last year was inflated by an extremely weak ooc schedule.

Arkansas has a good sos, good rpi, good overall and conference record, good road and neutral site records.

There are far more bubble teams that can be nitpicked other than Arkansas currently.

Houston has one bad loss: a 20 point blowout @ LSU.

I don't know what LSU's RPI is, but it must be getting close to the 200 level.