We're currently at #35, up from #39 last week, and #41 two weeks ago. The RPI doesn't much punish you for losing to good teams on the road, and it occasionally rewards you. Both Ole Miss and Florida are considered GOOD RPI teams. The key to having a decent/good RPI is to defend home court at all times and sneak up and win a few good ones on the road.
We are 12-0 against teams ranked worse than #100. No "bad" losses.
Against RPI 51-100, we are 2-2.
Against RPI 1-50, we are 3-3.
All of our "bad losses" are starting to look better and better. Akron is up to RPI #59, and Warren Nolan now projects them to finish at #39. Arkansas is at RPI #51, and is projected to finish at #64. Hopefully, they outperform this prediction by a bit and can get into final the top 50. Baylor is RPI #3, Florida is #15, OM is #39. Ideally, all 5 of these teams finish within the RPI top 50. IF we manage to finish with NO losses outside the top 50, it'll play VERY WELL in our favor when it comes time for seeding.
Of our "good" wins, Arizona and A&M are GREATLY underperforming, with RPIs of #89 and #142 respectively. Ideally, we need AZ in the top 50, and A&M in the top 100. It's looking very questionable of either achieving this goal, although I give A&M a better chance, because they play a ton of quality opponents on their stretch run. At the same time, West Va HAD been overperforming, getting up to #12 in RPI, before losing at home last night to Pitt, dropping them back to #26.
Our logical goal going forward should be to finish ranked in both major polls and in the top 25 in the final RPI rankings, as well as playing deep into the SEC tourney. This gets us NO worse than a 6-seed in the NCAA's, and ideally could get us a #5 slot in Nashville. To accomplish this, we will need to go 11-5 in conference. We can NOT afford to lose either game to Auburn(#141), the road game @South Carolina(#165), or the home game against Georgia(#111). Lose ANY ONE of those 4 games, and this ideal situation goes out the window, and we likely finish with an RPI in the 40s(almost bubble-worthy). Win them all, and we have 8-wins in conference. Then, we have to take 3 of these 5: @LSU, OM, KY, ARK, @Bama. That part will be tough, but is still attainable at this point....
We are 12-0 against teams ranked worse than #100. No "bad" losses.
Against RPI 51-100, we are 2-2.
Against RPI 1-50, we are 3-3.
All of our "bad losses" are starting to look better and better. Akron is up to RPI #59, and Warren Nolan now projects them to finish at #39. Arkansas is at RPI #51, and is projected to finish at #64. Hopefully, they outperform this prediction by a bit and can get into final the top 50. Baylor is RPI #3, Florida is #15, OM is #39. Ideally, all 5 of these teams finish within the RPI top 50. IF we manage to finish with NO losses outside the top 50, it'll play VERY WELL in our favor when it comes time for seeding.
Of our "good" wins, Arizona and A&M are GREATLY underperforming, with RPIs of #89 and #142 respectively. Ideally, we need AZ in the top 50, and A&M in the top 100. It's looking very questionable of either achieving this goal, although I give A&M a better chance, because they play a ton of quality opponents on their stretch run. At the same time, West Va HAD been overperforming, getting up to #12 in RPI, before losing at home last night to Pitt, dropping them back to #26.
Our logical goal going forward should be to finish ranked in both major polls and in the top 25 in the final RPI rankings, as well as playing deep into the SEC tourney. This gets us NO worse than a 6-seed in the NCAA's, and ideally could get us a #5 slot in Nashville. To accomplish this, we will need to go 11-5 in conference. We can NOT afford to lose either game to Auburn(#141), the road game @South Carolina(#165), or the home game against Georgia(#111). Lose ANY ONE of those 4 games, and this ideal situation goes out the window, and we likely finish with an RPI in the 40s(almost bubble-worthy). Win them all, and we have 8-wins in conference. Then, we have to take 3 of these 5: @LSU, OM, KY, ARK, @Bama. That part will be tough, but is still attainable at this point....