VBelo Scouting Report: April 09, 2023
VBelo Scouting Report: April 09, 2023
The MIVA bracket is set and the latest RPI
As of Saturday night/Sunday morning, the debacle between Substack and Twitter continues. If you want to see all of the petty (on Twitter’s side) drama, The Verge has some great coverage. I am still committed to Substack and appreciate their transparency through all of this.
I am in the process of figuring out if some of the community building and communication tools Substack has are right for this community. Thank you for your patience and I am thrilled for everything to come for VBelo.
We got maximum drama in the MIVA with a 3-way tie atop the conference standings. With the tie-breakers, Ball State was able to get the #1 seed which secured home court advantage for the entire tournament. Below are the rest of the seedings for the MIVA tournament, which starts on Saturday.
Penn State was also able to lock up the top spot in the EIVA which also means they will host the conference tournament again this year and automatically advance to the semifinals. Additionally, UCLA has secured the top spot in the MPSF which includes a trip straight to the semifinals.
RPI Update
We have a break in matches until Thursday, which is the longest break we have had this season. There is a bunch to look at before then, especially with the MIVA bracket being set. Today we will just look at the latest RPI calculations.
With their two wins this weekend, and BYU having the week off, Ohio State moved up to #6 in RPI. UC Irvine drops down to #9 after their two losses at Hawai’i. The Big West, MPSF, and MIVA all have 3 teams in the top 10.
From looking at it, the top 4 spots seem pretty locked in meaning it would be shocking if they don’t end up in the NCAA tournament (by winning their conference or receiving an at-large bid). The problem is that 2 of those 4 teams are in the same conference (Big West). Assuming Penn State and UCLA win their conference tournaments (which is definitely not a sure thing), then 1 at-large spot would go to a Hawai’i or Long Beach (assuming the other wins the conference tournament). This only leaves 1 other at-large bid for the the committee to decide on.
The world in which one of the top 4 teams doesn’t make the national tournament is not one that we want to be in. They all deserve it and fans deserve to see the best teams in May. It’s even worse that an outdated (and unproven) metric, RPI, is factored into this decision.
Match Recaps
Big West
Long Beach (91%) def. CSU Northridge (9%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-16)
Hawai'i (86%) def. UC Irvine (14%)
3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-19)
EIVA
Princeton (43%) def. Charleston (57%)
3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 27-25, 26-24)
Penn State (84%) def. George Mason (16%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-20)
Harvard (41%) def. NJIT (59%)
3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-19, 11-25, 15-13)
MIVA
Ohio State (51%) def. Loyola Chicago (49%)
3-0 (29-27, 28-26, 25-23)
Lewis (79%) def. Quincy (21%)
3-1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-19)
Ball State (72%) def. Purdue Fort Wayne (28%)
3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-22)
Lindenwood (63%) def. McKendree (37%)
3-1 (31-33, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21)
MPSF
Pepperdine (82%) def. Concordia-Irvine (18%)
3-0 (27-25, 25-18, 25-22)
Stanford (41%) def. Grand Canyon (59%)
3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-10)
UCLA (86%) def. Southern California (14%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-20)
NEC
Saint Francis (56%) def. Long Island (44%)
3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-22)
Sacred Heart (41%) def. D'Youville (59%)
3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19)
St. Francis-Brooklyn (57%) def. Fairleigh Dickinson (43%)
3-1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-23)
Daemen (88%) def. Merrimack (12%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-16)
Non-conference
Lincoln Memorial (89%) def. Barton (11%)
3-0 (25-10, 25-17, 25-19)
Mount Olive (69%) def. Tusculum (31%)
3-1 (21-25, 25-13, 25-17, 25-12)
Match Projections
No matches today.
Tweet of the Day
As of Saturday night/Sunday morning, it appears that embedding tweets is allowed again by the powers that be at Twitter. Not holding my breath that it will stay working.
