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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 13, 2020 13:34:21 GMT -5
Welcome to our newest conference member, Robert Morris. Check out the article below from the Youngstown Vindicator. (I thought we needed a thread for Rob Mo like we have for other conference schools. Perhaps the Commissioner will combine this one and the one about the Colonials possibly joining.) www.vindy.com/sports/local-sports/2020/06/neighborhood-rival/
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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 13, 2020 19:52:39 GMT -5
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Post by upbasketballfan on Jun 13, 2020 20:18:31 GMT -5
I like this addition. I think this addition is a plus add for the Horizon and finally gets us another private university. If we can add two more quality university's I might have to take back some of the disparaging comments I have made about LaCrone through the years. I am thinking two more members in the Horizon can get us two seven team divisions with home and home in division and one game with opposite division we get 19 games + the 2 Summit League games we have 21 and an end of the season crossover to establish league Tourney seatings and a regular season champion we would have 22 conference games before the conference tournament.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2020 12:10:54 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 14, 2020 17:27:45 GMT -5
Specifically adding Robert Morris and Fort Wayne won't do much to raise the profile of the conference nationally, but I like bringing the number of teams up to twelve. Keep playing every team twice for 22 conference games. Gives you 9 non- conference games to schedule, so you can work in some buy games and bring in some fan friendly mid major opponents.
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Post by Commissioner on Jun 14, 2020 17:53:44 GMT -5
Specifically adding Robert Morris and Fort Wayne won't do much to raise the profile of the conference nationally, but I like bringing the number of teams up to twelve. Keep playing every team twice for 22 conference games. Gives you 9 non- conference games to schedule, so you can work in some buy games and bring in some fan friendly mid major opponents. I agree, but realize that 9 non-con games assumes an exempt tournament. If you don't host your own--as several of our league rivals have done in recent years--then that's usually 4 road games (or maybe 3 and one home game), with 5 to schedule. So if you do 2-3 buy games, you've got about 2 left to schedule, and if you're going home and home, that means just 1, maybe two, or possibly 3 home games in a good year, non-con. Of course, you're assured 11 home games in conference, and scheduling gets easier.
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Post by nctitan on Jun 15, 2020 9:39:07 GMT -5
Commish -- What is your analysis of RM's basketball program?
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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 15, 2020 9:42:23 GMT -5
Specifically adding Robert Morris and Fort Wayne won't do much to raise the profile of the conference nationally, but I like bringing the number of teams up to twelve. Keep playing every team twice for 22 conference games. Gives you 9 non- conference games to schedule, so you can work in some buy games and bring in some fan friendly mid major opponents. I agree, but realize that 9 non-con games assumes an exempt tournament. If you don't host your own--as several of our league rivals have done in recent years--then that's usually 4 road games (or maybe 3 and one home game), with 5 to schedule. So if you do 2-3 buy games, you've got about 2 left to schedule, and if you're going home and home, that means just 1, maybe two, or possibly 3 home games in a good year, non-con. Of course, you're assured 11 home games in conference, and scheduling gets easier. Yeah, I was thinking of the added home game and ease in scheduling. I think we should continue to schedule buy games as a source of revenue, so I expect relatively few non-con home games in the future.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 12:09:11 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 15, 2020 12:21:54 GMT -5
Just listened to the live stream announcement. It's official.
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Post by Commissioner on Jun 16, 2020 10:31:49 GMT -5
Commish -- What is your analysis of RM's basketball program? Well, I have no special familiarity with the program. They have a new arena that just opened a year ago. It seats just 4000, which is, these days, probably good. Smaller arenas that appear full are good. I have no idea how good it is, but being new, it's probably better than average, at least for a time. RMU has been OK on the court. Year ... RPI ... Pomeroy 2020 ... 181 ... 207 2019 ... 233 ... 269 2018 ... 186 ... 253 2017 ... 240 ... 266 2016 ... 290 ... 303 2015 ... 153 ... 184 2014 ... 119 ... 173 2013 ... 120 ... 142 2012 ... 97 ... 123 2011 ... 99 ... 152 RMU's NET the last two years was 267 in 2019 and 203 in 2020. So, yes, RMU has had some success and turned out some pretty good teams at the start of the decade now ending. But the last few years--not so good. Also note that their NET rank these last two years has been lower than their RPI rank. NET, of course, is the new primary NCAA measure. And as you can see, these first two years of NET has more closely corresponded with their Pomeroy rank, which has been consistently lower by about 40 spots than their RPI. So those past Pomeroy rankings may be a better place to focus. Here are Horizon League NET rankings from last year, with RMU and PFW added in 1. Wright State 127 2. Northern Ky. 150 3. [Bob Morris] 2034. Illinois-Chi 217 5. Green Bay .. 221 6. Oakland .... 222 7. Youngstown . 232 8. Milwaukee .. 262 9. [Fort Wayne] 28210. Cleveland St 304 11. Detroit ... 307 12. IUPUI ..... 327 Sad that Bob Morris's 203 puts it third, but I guess that's good for the immediate analysis--they look competitive and actually improving the league average. RMU doesn't draw well. Last year, with the new arena and a 20-win team, they averaged 1770 home attendance. OTOH, in the HL, that's not all that bad--but it's not good (we averaged 1437 last year). It would have put them 6th in the league, about 550 below the league average. Can they maintain that? In 2019, their average home attendance was just 965, and in 2018 it was just 765. Back in 2014, when they won 22 games and beat St. John's in the NIT, were coming off a 24 win season with an NIT win over Kentucky, and had averaged over 23 wins over the prior 6 years (i.e., when they should have had near max fan interest) they drew an average of just 1486. And the next year, when they again won 20 games and got to the NCAA, the drew just 1106. They are the #3 school in the market (after Pitt and Duquesne), and then of course there is Penn State, and West Virginia, which has big drawing power in the area and is a touch over an hour from the south suburbs. Like everyone else, I wish the league had been more pro-active when we had a lot more to offer. Back around 2010 or 2011, we might have expanded to 12 with additions like Evansville, Belmont, or Murray State. But now, RMU is about the best we can do. They're very close to CSU and YSU for rivalries; get us into an new market without a huge expanse in travel; they've got a new arena; they've had some success in basketball, although that shouldn't be exaggerated--their really nice run of a decade or so is getting old, and their composite record for the last 6 years is below .500. I don't know how good they'll be this year: they lose 2 starters (including their leading scorer) and another rotation player from a 20-14 team, and are coming up from a conference that ranked 5 spots lower than the Horizon last year in NET. It further dilutes our NCAA tournament shares, but that's really not much. From our parochial perspective, I like that they are private, and that they have lacrosse. We ought to schedule them in lacrosse. CSU added the sport a couple years back, so it's not inconceivable that it could become an HL sport at some point--I could envision UIC and Milwaukee adding it, for example. Pittsburgh is a good road trip for Titan fans--not terribly far, and a fun city (although RMU isn't in a particularly interesting part of it). Overall, I think it's a good thing, a better addition than the Indiana schools.
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Post by nctitan on Jun 16, 2020 12:55:56 GMT -5
Thanks, Commish. Very good info, as always. The one thing I would take issue with is saying that it's a good road trip because it's Pittsburgh. The school is in Moon Township, and I used to visit a customer there. Moon Township is basically the locale for the Pittsburgh airport. Saying it's part of Pittsburgh is like saying EMU is in Detroit.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jun 24, 2020 9:19:25 GMT -5
Patrick Suemnick, a 6-8 forward from Wisconsin, verbally committed to Robert Morris in the class of 2020. The young man had mostly D2 offers, but showed D1 offers from Cleveland State and Binghamton. www.verbalcommits.com/players/patrick-suemnick
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2020 10:20:21 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2020 10:35:25 GMT -5
2021 SF Tristian Jeffries (6-6, 185) committed to Robert Morris.
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