College Hoops (LSU)
Posted by: Bradley McDonald
Last night I attended the most exciting, ugly basketball game I've ever been to. LSU defeated No. 14 Alabama 61-59 with a tip-in at the buzzer. The Tigers jumped out to a 15-2 lead to open the game and looked like NBA All-Stars doing it. Apparently that run wore them out because they looked like high school bench warmers the rest of the game. The game turned into a defensive battle, but hot three point shooting in the second half sparked runs for each team. Bama tied the game with a lucky, off-the-glass three pointer with 14 seconds left that set up the winning tip-in for the Tigers.
This was a huge win for the 15-8 Tigers with the NCAA tournament right around the corner. LSU is one of the proverbial "bubble" teams, but a win over a ranked team should boost their chances of getting in. They need to finish out the season with a few more wins to be a sure thing.
A lot of attention is given to RPI rankings this time of year. The RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) is a computer based system that is used by the NCAA tournament selection committee to evaluate teams. It's not too different from the BCS calculations used in football. The big difference is that the basketball committee just uses it is a guideline; there's no debating the rankings for football. Oh, yeah. AND basketball uses a tournament format, so any team that has a prayer to win the National Championship has a chance to do it. Novel idea, eh?
Last night I attended the most exciting, ugly basketball game I've ever been to. LSU defeated No. 14 Alabama 61-59 with a tip-in at the buzzer. The Tigers jumped out to a 15-2 lead to open the game and looked like NBA All-Stars doing it. Apparently that run wore them out because they looked like high school bench warmers the rest of the game. The game turned into a defensive battle, but hot three point shooting in the second half sparked runs for each team. Bama tied the game with a lucky, off-the-glass three pointer with 14 seconds left that set up the winning tip-in for the Tigers.
This was a huge win for the 15-8 Tigers with the NCAA tournament right around the corner. LSU is one of the proverbial "bubble" teams, but a win over a ranked team should boost their chances of getting in. They need to finish out the season with a few more wins to be a sure thing.
A lot of attention is given to RPI rankings this time of year. The RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) is a computer based system that is used by the NCAA tournament selection committee to evaluate teams. It's not too different from the BCS calculations used in football. The big difference is that the basketball committee just uses it is a guideline; there's no debating the rankings for football. Oh, yeah. AND basketball uses a tournament format, so any team that has a prayer to win the National Championship has a chance to do it. Novel idea, eh?
