VBelo Scouting Report: March 27, 2023
VBelo Scouting Report: March 27, 2023
All the RPI numbers, all at once
At some point today, the NCAA is expected to release their weekly RPI rankings. If you are impatient or you want even more information, then I have good news for you. I went ahead and created a quick table for all of the RPI numbers. It could use some styling, but the info is all there.
As I mentioned last week, there are three parts to the RPI formula. For the chart, I included all three numbers, in addition to the final RPI number. I hope you enjoy digging through the numbers as much (or more) than I do!
Here are some quick takeaways. The top 4 are pretty tightly grouped. If 3 or more of them don’t win their conference tournament, there will be significant disappointment this year…again. Concordia has the strongest Opponents’ Winning Percentage (OWP), which means their schedule has been tough this year. The weakest schedules are from newer teams, but keep in mind these calculations don’t count any D-III or NAIA matches. The clear trend from OWP and OOWP is that the West Coast (Big West and MFSF) have a big advantage. Their schedules are stacked and part of the reason is to hopefully boost their RPI at the end of the year.
I have also mentioned that RPI is a far cry from being a great metric. One problem exists with the level of detail it captures. Yesterday’s Loyola/George Mason match is a good example. For all of the RPI math, the only thing that matters is that Loyola won and George Mason lost. While true, this doesn’t capture the fact that the match went to five sets, that GMU was playing at home, or that the Patriots actually scored more total points than the Ramblers (113-112). RPI just sees that Loyola beat George Mason. This is a good start, but it leaves so much helpful and relevant information on the table.
Shameless plug time: VBelo on the other hand takes into account home courts and how many sets were won. It also doesn’t just award 1 victory point per win. Victories are measured by how strong the opponent is. Should VBelo be used for tournament selection? Probably not yet. It is still young and needs to be refined. But I do think that it addresses some of the serious flaws with RPI. We can do better than RPI and we need to do better.
Match Recaps
SIAC
Edward Waters (75%) def. Fort Valley State (25%)
3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-17)
Non-conference
Lincoln Memorial (76%) def. Emmanuel (24%)
3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-17)
Loyola Chicago (71%) def. George Mason (29%)
3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-21, 27-29, 17-15)
Match Projections
No matches today.
