NCDS: Kyle Smith, Assoc. Head Coach - St. Mary's ("The RPI")

By: Kyle Smith, Assoc. Head Coach - St. Mary's

When you are coaching in a "non-BCS" conference and you have a good to great team, there are three letters that dictate your mood, RPI.  No, I  am not talking about Rensselaer Polytechincal Institute in Troy, N.Y.  (I gave up on them when they didn't hire me as an assistant out of college.)  What I am talking about is the Ratings Percentage Index that is supposed to be a simple objective way to determine who the best teams are in Division I college basketball. 

Not an easy task, when you  consider that there are 340 teams competing for 65 spots.   For those of  you who are not aware, your RPI ranking is determined by your winning  percentage, your opponents winning percentage, and your opponents' opponents winning percentage.  That's right, opponents' opponents winning percentage.  (I actually think that is gramatically correct.)   Hold on, it does not stop there.  In this formula, your winning  percentage is worth 50%, your opponent's winning percentage is worth  25%, and your opponent's opponents percentage is worth another 25%.  Still. it does not stop.  Home wins are worth .6, road wins are worth  1.4, and neutral games are worth 1.0.

I relate all this information so everyone can understand how insane life can be trying to figure out where you stand in the eyes of the NCAA committee.  This disease has seeped into our program at all levels... administrators, coaches, and fans think they actually know how each win and loss affects our RPI.  I thought it was bad when I got home the other day and my wife (that's right, my wife) reports that Northeastern beat George Mason and Howard beat Navy.  I tell her thanks and keep moving trying to prepare for our next game.  Then she hits me with Charleston beat North Carolina.  I was stupid enough to say we didn't play Charleston and I don't see how that effects us.  She replied,  "Hawaii beat Charleston, we beat Hawaii therefore it will pump our RPI  up."  That broke me, there is no more RPI talk in the Smith household.   (Now she slips me post-it-notes that say Binghamton beat LaSalle with a smiley face attached).

The RPI discussion is very difficult to avoid, especially when there are real time web-sites dedicated to following your movement. It is actually something that our team will start to monitor, and we have to squash that noise. When Omar Samhan starts to concern himself with the progress of Western Carolina versus the Citadel, I know we have to do something about it.  Winning the WCC tourney has become a much higher priority in our goals for the team.  It is the only thing that will get us off the bubble talk.  I am certain winning the regular season championship will do that as well, but we do not to fool around with it and we would like to be able to relax during those six days after the conference tournament.  We will see how things go.

Basketball Notes

Our team is playing great.  We are 15-2 and 2-0 in the WCC.  We have not lost a road game this year and we have a showdown with Gonzaga and Portland this weekend at home.  This could have a great impact on how we finish this season.  By the way, Omar Samhan is putting together the unknown All-American campaign that almost no one is talking about and that is okay with this team.  To a man, they will trade the individual accolades for wins any day.  They are a treat to coach.

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