All posts by grhoades

SLU 69, Southern Indiana 56: Game Two

This game was not televised — first of three such games this season — so the Eye Test stands obscured by Sycamore Vision.  I could not see the forest for the trees.

Fellow 13er Kentucky buried Kansas last night under their Two Platoon: Coach Cal played between 17 and 21 minutes and forced the ESPN announcers to use the word “reinforcements” instead of “subs”.  SLU Coach Jim Crews stuck with the same starting lineup but continued trying many different combinations.  Always turning, always listening for the click.

Lineups

Starters:

  • McBroom
  • Yacoubou
  • Roby
  • Lancona
  • Manning

The Safecracker went with the same starting lineup for the second straight game.  Since Starting Is For High School (TM), we will monitor Minutes Leaders this season to see if Coach Crews reveals his thinking as the season progresses.

Minutes Leaders:

  1. McBroom (26)
  2. Crawford (24)
  3. Yacoubou (22)
  4. Bartley (20)
  5. Gillmann (18)

We will see going forward if the Safecracker holds his starters constant as he gets a better feel, or instead we start to see the Minutes Leaders migrate into the starting lineup.

SLU Player Stats

(Definitions at the bottom of the post)

Screen Shot 2014-11-19 at 7.34.17 PM

  • Fantastic all-around game from Yarbrough, earning GS beyond his point production with 5 Rebounds, an Assist and a Steal
  • Bartley was perfect from three, perfect from the stripe, and also was an all-court factor
  • Yacoubou took the mantle in this one, shooting often and poorly but getting to the line and converting his freebies (7-9 FT)
  • Jolly got after it and led the team in production (GmSc /Min 0.57), banging his way to 4 Rebounds, 4 Fouls, and shooting 6 FTs.  Just when you thought no one could get in foul trouble with a twelve-man rotation, along came Jolly and his Hack-a-Syc strategy
  • I was wondering how far into the season we would go before McBroom was not the best player, and whether SLU could win without his best game.  A lingering sore wrist led to 1-8 shooting, but the team carried him to its first roadie.

Summary

Always good to get a win when your top scorer is off, when you are on the road with an inexperienced team, and do it while sticking to the mission of getting guys minutes and trying combinations.   Banged-up McBroom, no Glaze, no problem.  2-0 and on we go.

—————————————————————————–

AdjGS:  variation on the Game Score metric created by John Hollinger, detailed here.  Hollinger’s original formula is Adjusted to reallocate the points in the game by ratio of the player’s overall impact.  Credit to the team at Rock M Nation for this improvement.

SLU 62, SIUC 59: Game One

The season is underway.  SLU coach Jim Crews planned on playing all 13 scholarship players, boldly shrugging all parallels to the Last Supper.  But before the game started.

Well, OK.  Injury aside, Grandy captained the Intro line and gave out some impressive handshake combinations and chest bumps, though it looked like the injury dampened his usual enthusiasm.

Lineups

In this space, we will try to get a sense of what Jim “Safecracker” Crews is feeling as he tumbles through all possible combinations.  Who is starting, who is finishing, and how the minutes are allocated should tell us what direction the team will head.

  • Starters: McBroom, Yacoubou, Roby, Lancona, Manning.
  • Second-half:  (same)
  • Crunch Time: McBroom, Yacoubou, Roby, Mike Crawford, Austin Gillmann

Miles Reynolds also logged some Crunch Time minutes.  All 12 available scholarship players saw action, nine scored and everyone played double-digit minutes except Reggie Agbeko, who just missed out with nine.  Interesting that starters Lancona and Manning played minor roles overall, with Crews going small for extended stretches.  Foul trouble was not an issue, but a couple of minor injuries surely messed up the planned rotation.

SLU Player Stats

(Definitions at the bottom of the post)

  •  Career game for McBroom, announcing himself as the primary ball-handler and shooter.  He was the best player on the floor.
  • Ash was tough on the boards and showed driving ability.   Very strong debut for the Villanova transfer.
  • Mike Crawford grabbed some of the minutes vacated by Lancona and Manning, and left his mark with a stat-stuffing performance capped by a clutch tying three.  Last year he was used sparingly to spell Jake Barnett, putting up a couple of threes and mostly staying out of the way.  In this game, he was stable and poised (though one of his turnovers caused my daughter to audibly retch) and looked ready for an expanded role.
  • Gillmann did a few things befitting a fledging Rob Loe, namely “being tall and thin” and “passing pretty well from the top of the arc” and “launching an occasional three”.  He found McBroom through traffic on the kickout for the winning three.
  • Davell Roby was limited by the injury (see below) and the referees.   Home cooking overall was quite delicious — SLU was in the double-bonus most of the game despite a mostly-perimeter attack — but Roby was not allowed to share in the buffet.  I am sure Rammer is in his corner.  He looks like an enthusiastic defender and a second ballhandler.  If we can sketch out McBroom as the designated Shooter, Ash is the designated Driver, I am guessing Roby is a guy who does a bit of both, while guarding the opponent’s best perimeter guy.
  • Yarbrough did a reasonable Glaze impression — 5 boards in 12 mins, hands somewhat honeybaked — and is one sturdy dude.  In fact, among Glaze, Yarbrough and Agbeko,  SLU’s football coach may have found his next all-conference Tight End.

Injuries

We mentioned Glaze’s shoulder above.  While there were certainly enough able bodies around last night, this three-point shooting SLU team will need Grandy’s pick-and-roll skills and kinetic abilities down low to make the geometry work over the long haul.

Roby had a rough night even beyond the unwanted whistles, getting raked across the cheek in the first half and returning with the giant band-aid from my grandma’s mirror cabinet under his left eye.

McBroom suffered a wrist injury on a pile up after grabbing a huge defensive rebound with 2:40 left, drawing yet another two-shot foul.  He winced noticeably and made only one of the free throws.  (McBroom went 7 of 10 overall on the night from the lin; great for most, but three misses usually constitutes a bad month for a 90% FT shooter.)  He somehow shrugged off the pain with 10 seconds and hit a clutch, step-back three pointer that broke the tie and won the game.   All the more impressive after this post-game news:

 

Summary

Contributions in a tight game from just about everyone — including the sold-out crowd — and a couple of big threes to tie, then win it.  The team was disjointed at times but fun to watch.   Time will tell whether a three-point win against SIUC proves cringe-worthy or something to crow about, but undefeated feels pretty good.  Onward!

AdjGS:  variation on the Game Score metric created by John Hollinger, detailed here.  Hollinger’s original formula is Adjusted to reallocate the points in the game by ratio of the player’s overall impact.  Credit to the team at Rock M Nation for this improvement.

SLU and Kentucky Are Basically the Same

SLU and Kentucky are basically the same when it comes to college basketball.  Both wear the royal blue and are undefeated at press time.  Both dwell in the Central time zone.  Both play home games in a sold-out Arena.

However, perplexed reader, I realize there are differences.  To wit:

Sweet Sixteens (since 1985):

  • Kentucky  18
  • SLU 0

McDonald’s All-Americans (2014-15):

  • Kentucky 9
  • SLU 0

Pre-season rank (KenPom.com):

  • Kentucky #3
  • SLU #81

As the season kicks off, let’s not dwell on what divides us.  What unites SLU and Kentucky is both schools are in the unique position of trying to figure out how to play 13 guys.   They approach this problem for different reasons, and are choosing to tackle it different ways.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has the aforementioned 9 McDonald’s All-Americans, adding an incredibly talented freshman class to a group that largely opted to give college another year.  Cal is going with an innovative Two Platoon system, essentially creating two independent units that will swap in wholesale.

SLU coach Jim Crews had five senior starters depart, adding transfers and six freshman to returnees hungry for minutes.  The early word is coach Crews will use a Safecracker’s approach, trying as many different combinations as he can until something clicks.

Coach Crews has proven himself and incredibly skilled tinkerer when it comes to his lineups, inserting an offensively-limited sophomore Grandy Glaze  into the starting lineup two years ago, and tapping senior Jake Barnett last year.  Both moves touched off long winning streaks — Glaze 11 straight, Barney a record 19 in a row — and Crews knew well enough to leave it be when those streaks ended.  Two straight A-10 titles were the result.

I will be interested to see if SLU sticks with Safecracker through the entire non-conference season, or if the buzz around Kentucky’s inevitable success with Two Platoon causes SLU to give it a go.

A Glazey Shade of Winter

On Jan 19 2013, SLU lost at home to Rhode Island 82-80 in overtime.  Second straight loss limping to a 1-2 start in the A-10.  Combined with another early season home dud against Santa Clara and losing potential resume-builders against Kansas and Washington, and the Billikens were booked standby on the CBI Express.

Coach Jim Crews inserted Grandy Glaze into the lineup for the next game, against Duquesne.  The sophomore from Toronto went a perfect 4-4 from the field, snagged 11 rebounds, and 2 steals in a 73-64 win over the Dukes.  He played 27 mins and his Offensive Rating was 136.  He set a few thousand picks and ran up on his toes.  The only negative was a Shaquian 0-4 from the line.

SLU won 11 straight, and have put up 43 wins agains 9 losses since.  They have won two A-10 regular season titles, one A-10 tournament and have gone 2-2 in NCAA Tournament play.   Glaze unquestionably was a catalyst in all this success.

But while his energy and attitude have lifted the program, his production has lain low.  Those 27 minutes against Duquesne a year and a half ago are the most he has played since.  Crews replaced Glaze in the starting lineup seven games into last season, first trying freshman Reggie Agbeko before running with Jake Barnett and the Five Seniors.

Similar to the Glaze Effect the year prior, the Barny Bounce was immediate and lasting as SLU ripped off a 19-game winning streak and moved into the Top 10 for the first time since the 1960’s.  Grandy continued to do Grandy things, but his minutes remained low even when it was clear the seniors were running out of gas.  Glaze played double-digit minutes only once in the last eleven games.  His rebounding rate was up (a stellar 27% Defensive Rebounding rate, per KenPom.com), he shored up his foul shooting (72%), but he played only one minute in the 2nd round loss to Louisville.

What can we expect from Grandy Glaze as a senior?  Well, we know he is going to bring the fun.  Intro line handshake routines should be killer.  He is the biggest personality available, plus the most experienced guy on an inexperienced team.  Coach Crews has been banging the “starting is for high school” drum repeatedly this preseason, so we may see a dozen or more different lineup combos while the roster sorts out, but through all that churn the minutes should be there for Grandy.  What will he do with those minutes?

Fun With Projections

Ken Pomeroy has a fantastic feature where he crawls to find statistically similar players.  Per KenPom.com, these five were the most similar to Grandy as a Junior (Similarity scores in parentheses):

  1. ’10 Marshall Moses, Oklahoma St (877)
  2. ’08 DeAndre Coleman, South Alabama (870)
  3. ’12 Leon Gibson, Houston (859)
  4. ’10 Gabe Blair, Wichita St (858)
  5. ’08 Marquise Gray, Michigan St (858)

All 6’6″ to 6’8″ and around 235 lbs.  All thick-chested rebounders.  All Juniors.  I took the average changes — for better and for worse — these five doppelgrandys produced in their Senior year versus their Junior year, and fed them into the WAB supercomputer.  Then I coated them with a 2014 Glaze to come up with a plausible Senior year composite for our man.  Some highlights below:

Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 9.44.56 PM

 

A modest increase in minutes leading to a substantial jump in Offensive Rtg.  More Grandy, better results.  Marginally more aggressive, using more possessions and using them wisely.   The foul-related metrics are what stand out.  Fouls Committed down nicely, and Fouls Drawn up 40%!  This is a substantial change from fouler to foulee.

Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Commanding the ball AND going from “roundly ignored” to “foul worthy” on offense.  Hmm.  These traits remind me of a similarly-sized Billiken from way back in the early 2010s.  6’6″ 240 lbs.  The Machine from Eugene: Brian Conklin.  You may recall Conk spent his first two years just getting by on adrenaline and enthusiasm, setting picks, treating the ball like a hot potato, and fouling everything that moved.  By Junior year, he started to figure things out and put together a few good runs.  The overall numbers were solid, but the leap as a Senior was remarkable.

Conklin the Senior commanded the ball and scored with clever post moves and bulldog determination, becoming more and more foul-worthy.  His overall rebounding rates declined as he traded weakside boxing out action for posting up and initiating contact.  Even as fellow Senior Kyle Cassity slumped down the stretch, Conk carried the load.

Conclusion

Of the 5 doppelgrandys identified by KenPom.com, only one went to the NCAAs as a Senior.  Marquise Gray and Michigan St went all the way to the final game, losing to North Carolina and Psycho T.  Gray was a role player on that team, sharing minutes with a 6’7″ 230 pound freshman named Draymond Green.

Brian Conklin the Senior led SLU to the NCAA tourney and a first round win over Memphis.  Conk and the Bills were stopped short of the Sweet Sixteen by Draymond Green, also now a Senior, and his Michigan St club.

Will Glaze assert himself like a doppelgrandy?  Will he become full-on and foul-worthy?  I think Crews leans on Glaze more this season, and Grandy responds with a better-than-doppelgrandy performance halfway to Senior Conklin.  November is awash with dubious math and boundless optimism.  Starting Saturday, the puzzle starts to take shape.  See you at Chaifetz.


 

Greatest Names in Billiken Basketball History

If you were spitballing, brainstorming, or as Marketing Professionals prefer “Ideating”, trying to come up with the perfect name for a college basketball player, the conversation might go something like this:

Marketing Pro #1: “Well, for the first name let’s go super-positive.  Just over-the-top.  And make it sound vaguely-British or Australian to give it international appeal.”
Marketing Pro #2: “How about ‘Grandy’?”
MP1: “Perfect.  Gold.  Print and ship a jillion copies.  Any ideas for the last name?”
MP2: “Everyone loves donuts.  ‘Glaze’?”

I have no idea whether Grandy Glaze’s parents are in Marketing or what they are Professionals in.  I suspect they walk around every day just being awesome and seeing what comes of it.  What I know for certain is Grandy Glaze is the best name in the history of SLU Billiken basketball.  Here is the top 16, as compiled by a pot of coffee and the WAB Supercomputer.


Top 16 Names in Billiken Basketball History

1) Grandy Glaze

Jaunty, Vaguely British + Evocative of Donuts = WINNER!

2) Quirk

Not a misprint.  Quirk.  That’s it.  The WAB Supercomputer found two mentions of this man called Quirk: state discuss champ for SLUH in 1943; one free throw made for SLU basketball in 1944-45.   That’s it. Two sports, one name.  And that that name sums up the whole story: Quirk.

3) Daryl “Pee Wee” Lenard

“Pee Wee” used to be a fairly common nickname for an undersized baller.  Pee Wee Reese, Pee Wee Kirkland.  You could be sure without even looking that Pee Wee was under 5’10” and could seriously play.  Then Pee Wee Herman came along and completely dominated the scene and owned the name.   Paul Rubens’ fateful day at the matinee has ruined the nickname for a time.  Perhaps less messy reason for its demise is we cannot agree on one way to spell it:  Pee Wee, Peewee, Pee-wee, PeeWee.  Let’s grab an Icee and use the WiFi at Pei Wei to hash it out.  SLU’s famous Pee Wee gets extra points for the fact that we always knew his first name was Daryl, and for the stripped down spellings of both his first and last (given) names.  His parents were pioneers of offensive efficiency before we even knew what that meant.

4) Jordair Jett

Hard to separate how great the name was from how great the look was.  Dreads flying, face stoic, thick as a brick.  Plotting, lurking, exploding.  Alliteration was hardly needed in this name, but it certainly adds more.

5) Reverend Al Dudenhoffer

I can’t decide whether this name is more or less fun if Al was an actual Reverend or not.  I am going to go with less.  I hope someone from the dorms just decided to call him Reverend Al.  All three parts of this name are terrific.  Each pops on its own.  Bonus points that the initials spell out RAD.  Today, we would have mashed this up to Rad Dude.  I don’t think that is an improvement on the Reverend Al Dudenhoffer.

6) Travis Tadysak

Middling first name gives way to a killer last.  Pro tip: Add to your enjoyment by changing the pronunciation of the middle syllable from “eee” to “yuh”.  Practice this is in the car as you would practice Rosetta Stone prepping for a trip overseas, and you will thank me later.

7) H Waldman

“The H stands for nothing. You got a problem with that?!”   When your point guard has this kind of attitude, you are going to the Tournament.

8) Bruno Krzeminski

Maybe should have been a boxer.  Maybe a Chicago ward boss.  If I am looking at the other team’s roster and see I have to guard Bruno Krzeminski, I am tweaking an ankle in warmups.

9) Abdur Rahim Al Matiim

Four names, all interesting.  Chantable.  Singable.  You could make a terrific starting five just using combinations of all of these names:

  • G – Al Matiim
  • G – Abdur Rahim
  • F – Rahim Matiim
  • F – Matiim Al Abdur
  • C – Al Matiim Rahim

Post-9/11, these guys would have a terrible time getting through airport security, but they would win a ton of games.  If Matiim came along today we would have screwed this up by reducing him to A-RAM.

10) Luther Burden

You have no chance of guarding this man.

11) Junie Jefferies

Fun, alliterative, whimsical.  The WAB supercomputer discovered that his given name was “Lowell”, and gave bonus points that we never knew that before.  Thank you for keeping that on the down low, June Bug.

12) Austin McBroom

Rammer has added the “Hollywood” nickname as a cherry on top, not that this name needs it.   Truth told, Austin would not be my first choice for a basketball player’s first name, but it really sets up the finish perfectly.  Austin is a nice boy who gets everyone else involved; McBroom drops bombs, tells you about it, then steals your girlfriend.  Austin has seven assists and stays in front of his man;  McBroom hits nine threes and has six turnovers.  We are going to need both of these guys this year.

13) Redditt Hudson

His first name became a thing.  That thing was bought by Conde Nast and counts among its investors Snoop Lion nee Snoop Dogg nee Snoop Doggy Dogg nee Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.   So basically, Redditt Hudson invented the Internet and launched a thousand fantastic names by himself.  I would not be surprised to learn he fathered every other player on this list, naming each from atop a golden throne using a scepter.

14) Dick Boushka

I could tell you that Dick Boushka was a tough-minded rebounder in the 1950s, but I don’t have to.  His name already told you that.

15) Justin Love

If you slow it down enough, it could be a rom-com.  Just. In. Love.  Starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum.  Opens Friday.   But that would detract from how cool it is when your team’s best player is named Love.

16) Rashid Shabazz

Rashid Shabazz is born to be a basketball player.  Right now,  I bet Rashid Shabazz could call up Marcus Jones, Rasheed Malik, Sid Mudd, and LaTodd Johnson, whatever their ages, this fivesome would dominate any pickup game in the world on name alone.

RIP Oscar Taveras

Very sad to hear tonight of the passing of Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend today.   He had a bright future ahead of him.  Our condolences to both of their family and friends.

“We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family,” Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a release from the team. “Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight.”

“I simply can’t believe it,” Mozeliak said. “I first met Oscar when he was sixteen years old and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest.”

Good Week For Bad News

While SLU volleyball continues to kill it, this week brought a double-dose of bad news for Billiken basketball.   First came the news that Grandy Glaze suffered a shoulder injury in practice, and will be out a few weeks.  Then the A-10 media decided to pile on, selecting SLU to finish 9th in the A-10.  That is out of 14 teams in this year’s configuration (welcome Davidson Wildcats!)    By my calculations, 9th is not very good.

I would like to write off this poll by saying  the A-10 media hates us,  or maybe we are just misunderstood.   If they would only give us another chance, Kevin Nealon.  Unfortunately, the A-10 preseason poll has been a pretty good predictor of SLU’s finish.

Screen Shot 2014-10-18 at 10.05.34 AM

Solid record, A-10 media.   SLU has out-performed the preseason poll the last few years, but only by one slot.

The highlighted 2009-10 SLU team was among the youngest in the country — 346 out of 347 in Experience per kenpom.com — and overcame low expectations by riding Mitchell, Reed and company to a runner-up in Mark Cuban’s CBI tournament.   They lost to future conference rival VCU in the final series.   That team was both young and inexperienced.  This year’s SLU team will not be young;  they will likely start ALL upperclassmen.   They will, however, be inexperienced.   No one on the roster has been a full-time starter before this year.

Maybe the A-10 media tends to sleep on the lower teams.  After the Top 4 they lose interest and treat the rest as one big soup and it’s just not fair.  Let’s take a look:

Screen Shot 2014-10-18 at 10.27.06 AM

The A-10 media just dropped the mic and strolled off the stage.

 

Presenting the NBK for 2014

ST LOUIS – Today we announce this year’s selections for the Never Been Kissed conference.  In order to be eligible for induction into the NBK, member schools have to meet the following criteria:

  • Must field a Division I basketball team
  • Must have never have made the Sweet Sixteen

This rules out Division III schools (sorry WashU) and online colleges such (apologies Strayer University), as well as notable and surprising Sweet Sixteen party crashers such as Arizona St (1995), Northern Iowa (2010), and Cleveland St (1986).

The Selection Committee consists of myself and my dog Boo.  I handled most of the research and all of the typing;  Boo took sniffing, barking and general jackassery.   In considering this year’s membership, we were looking for basketball programs of some prominence or notoriety that have never pushed through to the second weekend.   We considered (real) conference affiliation, history of tournament appearances, and trajectory.  We groused and grumbled about the first round becoming the second round, and the play-in games becoming the first round.  We paused for snacks.

There was much debate within the Committee as to what we would consider “never”.   The tournament field first expanded to 16 teams in 1951.   By 1975, it had grown to 32 teams so you had to at least win a game to achieve sweetness.    We finally settled on 1985, when the tournament first expanded to 64 teams and the term Sweet Sixteen started to gain traction.   So for purposes of the NBK, never means “since 1985”.

Why form the NBK?  In college basketball discussions, the schools that have never made the Final Four — BYU, Missouri, Xavier — get all the ignominious glory.  The NMFF are fairly well-known, often discussed and are annually revisited.  But no one talks about these long-suffering schools, whose fans have experienced the “We made the tournament!” buzz but not the full sweetness of March Madness, and the glow of the second weekend.  At least the NMFF are much-maligned.  These schools aspire to be much-maligned.

Before we announce this year’s inductees, a reminder that we expect membership to turnover annually via both graduation (NBK school advances to the Sweet Sixteen) or relegation (they stink on ice).   We will revisit the composition of the list annually; rankings will change throughout the year as we learn more.  So if you do not see your school in this list, there is always next year.  The Internet is here to field your complaint.  Al Gore created it for that purpose.

Without Freddy Ado, here is the list (the “Sour Sixteen”?) and their pre-season NBK Ranking, based on the Selection Committee’s projected order of graduation.  Final KenPom ranking from last year in parenthesis:

  1. SMU (30):  The Mustangs have not made the tournament since 1993, but that seems likely to change this year.  They lost in the finals of the NIT last year, and have a highly-touted recruiting class coming in despite Emmanuel Mudiay fleeing for greener pastures and higher-quality Chow Mein.  Their actual conference (AAC) may even be more contrived and thrown together than this virtual conference (NBK).  Impressive.
  2. Colorado (77):  The Buffs have made the tournament three years straight, notching one win.  They seem stuck in that 8-11 seed zone that is not conducive to medium-term advancement.  Maybe they can figure out how to leverage Legal Weed to a greater home court advantage, because pace alone (#178 in Adjusted Tempo) is not doing it: UCLA & Arizona both won at the Coors last year.
  3. Nebraska (44):  I like what Tim Miles has done upgrading the defense (#25 in AdjD) in his two years there, and he made a savvy hire in wooing Australian sensation Chris Harriman away from SLU.  The Huskers pace this group with a spotless .000 winning percentage in the NCAA tournament:  0-7.  B1G membership and a rising program should give them better chances to break through.
  4. Harvard (32):  The Crimson have made the last three tourneys, and have won a game in each of the last two.   They ran away with the Ivy last year, and may get enough national attention this year to upgrade their seed.
  5. Southern Miss (56):  Winless in three trips to the tournament.  Last appearance was in 2012.   But they have improved their KenPom ranking in each of the last six seasons, and we like that.
  6. Georgia St (63):  Solid year for the Panthers in the Sun Belt last year, riding a meticulous offense (#1 in Turnover prevention, #3 in Free Throw Pct) to a 25-9 finish.  On the rise.  Maybe instead of “defense wins championships” they should coin “offense wins pods”.
  7. Creighton (24):  Omaha’s finest would likely have led these rankings last year, had they existed.  The Blue Jays rode POY Doug McDermott to a third straight tournament berth, winning a game for the third straight year.   They were then dismantled by Baylor and sold for parts.  It will be interesting to see where Coach GMc can lead them since star DMc has moved on to the Chicago Bulls.
  8. Saint Louis (35):  The Billikens also have won a game in each of the last three tournaments.  Good for the coffers, but that CBS/Turner money may only serve as a down payment on their future.  Five senior starters have moved on.  SLU’s quest for the Sweet Sixteen was the inspiration behind this blog as well as the formation of the 16×18 Society.
  9. New Mexico (31):  “Lobo Basketball: Torching Brackets Since 2010”.  They will sell a lot of t-shirts with this slogan.  Put a grimacing Steve Alford face on it.  Gold.  The Lobos have been to 4 of the last 5 NCAA tournaments, but lost their top three players from last year.
  10. Manhattan (60):  The Jaspers have something brewing and gave Louisville a decent run in last year’s tournament.  MAAC affiliation is likely to keep them in the bottom four seeds, thus the lower NBK rank.
  11. Murray State (115):   Wouldn’t it be great if Murray stuck around for the second weekend?  It would be like having your old uncle Murray over to watch the games and have a Schlitz.  It is also fun to say Racers.
  12. Indiana St (108):  The Sycamores have been to all the playoff tournaments (NCAA, NIT, CBI, CIT) recently.   They are 1-7 in such tournaments since Larry Bird’s moustache went to Boston in 1979.
  13. Old Dominion (170):  ODU is 3-8 in the tourney since 1985, so they too have had a decent number of chances.  Should consider changing their name to Big Baby Jesus University.
  14. Fordham (204):  The Rams have also improved their KenPom final ranking six straight years.  This has only gotten them to #204, so it may be time for leaps & bounds rather than slow & steady if they wish to avoid relegation.
  15. Montana (233):  The Grizzlies once made the Sweet Sixteen, but it was way back in 1975.   They have attended three of the past five NCAA tournaments and were mauled in two of them (2012 lost 73-49 to Wisconsin; 2013 lost 81-34! to Syracuse).  Perhaps tournament experience is not a valuable metric by itself.  Their coach is Wayne Tinkle and I did not make that name up.
  16. Northwestern (131):   If fellow B1G member Nebraska is trying to get off the schneid, we might say Northwestern is trapped under a steaming pile of schneid.  The Wildcats have never even made the NCAA Tournament.  Oh-fer forever.  With a newish coach and a huge win at Wisconsin last year, perhaps they are on a path to break that dubious tradition.  You could argue they should be rated higher in this list, given their decent KenPom ranking.  But forever is a mightly long time, so for now they sit here: barely in the NBK, poised on the brink of relegation.

This is your Never Been Kissed Conference for 2014.  Let us know if your favorite team did not make it.

In the future we will examine some of the key factors in getting to the Sweet Sixteen, and try to get a better sense of what these teams are missing — or may have finally found — relative to that pursuit.