There are no great teams in the HL this year. But, the league is very balanced, and the league RPI is 13, one spot below the MAC, but ahead of CUSA(14th). The HL is typically somewhere in the 11-14 or 15 range in the RPI rankings.
The only really bad team is UIC. Detroit has a poor record and lost alot of talent from last years team, but for a down year, they still have an RPI of 204.
There are 349 teams in D1, and and 33 conferences when lumping the Independents together as one conference. So, if the HL is a bad league, what does that say about the 19 conferences ranked below the HL + the Independents when lumped together?
I agree that this YSU team makes alot of little mistakes that cost them to lose games the way they did last night. And, theses little mistakes also result in games they win being much closer. I don;t think many people are expecting a perfect game from YSU, but some of the mistakes they make in most games would not be acceptable for a High School varsity team.
If I could ask one question of Coach Slocum about last nights game, it would be regarding his decision not to pick up Oakland full court on their last possession. Was surprised YSU did not at least pick up full court man-to-man in order to make it more difficult for Oakland to get the ball up court quickly. I'm not saying this decision cost YSU the game, would just be curious why he used the strategy used on that possession.