Women's Basketball!

[Wick250]

This is great and we should be very proud of these women.  But we must also keep things in perspective, just as Barnes does.  We simply haven't played anybody yet.  Fortunately, we get to play at Pittsburgh and home against Akron before conference play starts.  Then we must open conference play at UIC and at Green Bay, two of the three toughest road games in the conference.  Again, this team is ridiculously young and there will be tough stretches ahead.  I just state these things because I don't want to see anybody turning on this team if troubles develop.

[guinpen]

I think that most understand that we are young and will not go undefeated. Most also know that next years class, on paper, looks promising.

Let the excitement grow, enjoy the moment

[ysufan0505]

Best part about this is that the freshman are getting good experience early and hopefully will be ready to go for conference play!

[Lets_Talk]

Nice to team off to undefeated start. YSU is 49th in RPI, but SOS is 244. Only played 1 team in the top 100, that being Bucknell(RPI 70). Only 1 opponent with RPI of 101-200(Nicholls State 105)... then 5 D1 teams with RPI's of 201+, and 1 non D1 opponents. Canisius entered the game 4-3, but they have an RPI of 251 and SOS of 283. Not sure why they would have been considered a test for a YSU team with RPI of 49?

RMU could provide a test, as game is on the road. RMU is only 2-5, but they have played all D1 teams... Their SOS is 114 and RPI is 152... they have played @Iowa(8-2.. RPI 15), @Illinois(8-3..RPI 34), @Xavier(6-3... RPI 133) and @Hofstra(6-3..RPI 127)... RMU has played only ONE home game, a 75-61 loss to LaSalle(6-2..RPI 158)... Still a game I expect YSU to win.

First true tests will come when playing at PITT(5-3..RPI 55) and then Akron(7-0, all wins over D1 teams and RPI of 69)..... Akron is ranked 15th in the most recent Women's Mid Major Top 25. ..... YSU is 26th with 39 votes...Green Bay is 2nd... Wright State is 16th
http://www.collegeinsider.com/womens-mid-major-top-25.php

Green Bay looks to once again be the best of the HL..... UIC, CSU, WSU and YSU likely form the next group... Valpo and Detroit could be teams to watch, as both have losing records, but have played multiple teams in the Top 100

GB 8-2... RPI 6th... SOS 11th....Has played ALL D1 teams, including UCONN, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Purdue, and South Dakota State, all of which are in top 60 RPI.... also played and beat Duquesne(RPI 85)... losses are to UCONN and 68-64 at Vanderbilt(RPI 33)

UIC 5-1 against D1 teams... RPI 94...SOS is only 258
CSU 4-3 against D1 teams... RPI 97...SOS 123...always well coached and team that tends to improve as season continues...Have beaten Toledo(RPI 43) and East Carolina(RPI 65)
WSU 4-2... all games against D1 teams... RPI 196 .... SOS only 296...Best win is over SIU(RPI 89)....lost 79-76 to Dayton(RPI 31)

Detroit could be team to watch.... record is 3-5, but only 1-5 against D1 teams... SOS is 99th...

Valpo is only 3-7, but have played all D1 teams... some quality opponents... @ Indiana(8-1..RPI 90), at Akron, Louisville(8-1...RPI 27), @ South Dakota(7-2.. RPI 92), Illinois(8-3.. RPI 34)

Side note.... The HC at Akron is Jodi Kest. in her 9th season. She was the leading candidate for the YSU job back in 2003, then decided to withdraw her name and remain at UT-Pan American.... Akron made the NCAA Tournament in 2014, and WNIT in 2013 and won 23 games each of the past 2 years.... Took her awhile to get things turned around at Akron, as she inherited a program that had won only 24 games in the previous 6 seasons... Now Akron is one of the top Mid-Major women's programs in the country...

[Spiderlegs]

Canisius entered the game 4-3, but they have an RPI of 251 and SOS of 283. Not sure why they would have been considered a test for a YSU team with RPI of 49?

Canisus won its previous four games by double digit margins. Looked like they had turned things around after a bad start. The RPIs are fun right now, but they don't mean anything. Same RPI system has South Carolina at No. 9 and Stanford at No. 26 this week. Middle Tenn. St. is 14th. YSU made them look like a D-II school.

[Spiderlegs]

And I will add that I was obviously wrong about Canisus being ready for yesterday's game. I'm not going to take anything away from our women, though. 

[Petey]

Spider I might be wrong, but think we beat Tenn State not Mid Tenn State??

GOOOOO GUINS!!!!

[Spiderlegs]

Yes, you are right about playing Tenn. St.  I was using MTSU as an example of why the RPI isn't a reliable indicator at this point in the season and justifying why I ignored it after I saw that Canisus had four straight, solid wins. Sometimes it takes a team a while to get its act together, like last year's women's team. I expected the women to be challenged more last night. Either I missed how poor Canisus was, the women's team used the week well to improve itself, or both.

By the way, in today's RPI, MTSU is #12 with a 4-3 record. Green Bay is #6--Green Bay is playing extremely well right now, but not yet worthy of #6. YSU has actually fallen some. 

[Lets_Talk]

How did I take anything away from YSU? To me, yesterday was a game YSU should have won, and they did win. RPI's do matter, though not as much as later in the year. Strength of Schedule is important.

Canisius had won 4 in a row entering yesterdays game. Here were the wins(records are for D1 games only):
@ St. Francis(PA)... 0-7
Manhattan... 1-7
Saint Peters... 0-7
Binghamton... 1-9
Combined record: 2-30

How are those 4 solid wins? Manhattan beat Holy Cross(2-8) for their only win. Binghamton beat Delaware State(0-9) for their only win.

Canisius beat 4 very bad teams, then lost to YSU, a team that may well be in the next Mid Major Top 25 rankings, as YSU was 26th in last weeks poll. I'm not sure why anyone would have felt Canisius would be a challenge for YSU, provided YSU did not take Canisius lightly?

RMU could pose a challenge, and the first 2 games in which YSU will be playing teams as good or better than YSU will be at PITT and then Akron. That is a compliment to YSU. It's not taking anything away from YSU to say yesterday was a game in which YSU was clearly the better team entering the game, and then proved it in the game.

AS far as MTSU, they are 4-3, and have played the strongest schedule to date in D1. Their wins are @ Miami(FL) 8-2, @ Ole Miss(7-3), Clemson(5-5) and Xavier(139).... Losses are @ Arizona State(7-1), Arkansas(8-2) and @Kentucky(9-1)..... 3 games vs SEC teams.... 2 games vs ACC teams, 1 game vs Pac 12 and 1 game vs Big East. Not sure if MTSU is 14th best team in D1, but that is a difficult schedule to start the season.

GB is 8-2, and has played ALL D1 teams: UCONN(6-1), Arizona State(7-1), and Georgia Tech(6-4) at neutral sites.... @Vanderbilt(7-2), @Purdue(4-4), @South Dakota State(6-3), @Marquette(2-6), WMU(3-3), Wisconsin(3-6), Duquesne(6-4), ... losses are to UCONN and 68-64 at Vanderbilt

[guinpen]

Just enjoy the ride

[ysufan0505]

Just enjoy the ride

Amen. Come along way since a winless season!

[Spiderlegs]

How did I take anything away from YSU?

Calm down, Lets Talk. We're all on the same side here. I just explained why I thought it should have been a better game, that's all. You disagree with me. That's fine. No big deal. That's the fun of a discussion board. Not sure why you are so defensive about this. I happen to be a big fan of our women's program.

[Lets_Talk]

Spiderlegs,

Not defensive. Sorry if it came across that way. Just took the earlier post you made as me somehow trying to take something away from how the team has started the season. They have not played a great schedule to date, but they are undefeated. YSU has had several teams in the past 13-14 seasons that would be 3-4, 2-5 even 1-6 in the 7 games to date against D1 opponents. And, anything 4-3 or better would be deemed "great starts". It is a tribute to Boldon, Barnes and all of the players recruited by Martin who stuck around and helped turn a program that had No winning seasons from 00-01 through 11-12, rebuild to once again being among the top mid major programs in the country. And, it was just 09-10, when YSU went 0-30.

The program sure has come a long way, and I think it is important that the players who endured that 09-10 season, but stayed get credit for helping the program get to where it is today. Not that you have said anything to slight those players. Just not sure if people realize that the 10-11 and 11-12 teams started the turn around, even though it did not result in winning records in either season.

[Spiderlegs]

We're good.  If anything, I could be accused of being overly optimistic about this team's potential over the next few years.

[ysufan0505]

Interested to see how tonight's game goes. Good luck ladies!