Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

[NWHoops]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

The reason that the same schools win over and over in football doesn't have much to do with scholarships. It has to do with the culture.

Basketball is very random. Football is more predictable.

To some degree yes, but look at the disparity in fully funded and partially funded programs. That influences the culture and vice versa.

The amount of money NW puts in football between scholarships and everything else, they better compete for championships every year.

Money influences culture and vice versa.

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

The reason that the same schools win over and over in football doesn't have much to do with scholarships. It has to do with the culture.

Basketball is very random. Football is more predictable.

Exactly....Duluth isn't at max even and they did just fine

[MrMustang]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I am fascinated by folks being down on NW Mo.

They have only 1 loss and have kicked the crap out of teams all year long.

They have been the consensus #1 almost all year in the polls.

They are battle tested in the regional.

They have the region's best player in Pitts and I haven't heard anyone suggest a different player for that title.

They are by all means a big favorite, and deservedly so.

[Brandon]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

To some degree yes, but look at the disparity in fully funded and partially funded programs. That influences the culture and vice versa.

The amount of money NW puts in football between scholarships and everything else, they better compete for championships every year.

Money influences culture and vice versa.

I understand there are differences, but the disparity is overblown. There are 170 football schools but if someone read into your post, they would think only 15 are fully funded. The truth is that a lot are full funded.

I understand it's a lot easier to fund 10 full rides than 36 so you'd think that a greater percentage of basketball playing schools would be fully funded.

I think you'd be surprised to find out that some of the NSIC schools are not fully funded in basketball.

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I understand there are differences, but the disparity is overblown. There are 170 football schools but if someone read into your post, they would think only 15 are fully funded. The truth is that a lot are full funded.

I understand it's a lot easier to fund 10 full rides than 36 so you'd think that a greater percentage of basketball playing schools would be fully funded.

I think you'd be surprised to find out that some of the NSIC schools are not fully funded in basketball.

I believe the max in the NSIC is 28

[Augieholic]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I believe the max in the NSIC is 28

Sources indicate that the self-imposed cap of 28 could be lifted as soon as this summer

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

Sources indicate that the self-imposed cap of 28 could be lifted as soon as this summer

Ugh....can't we wait until our stadium gets built? Haha

[GrifFan]

The gym is a snack pit for teams.

True. Especially avoid the nachos.

[Stanger86]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

November 2014 for the Peacocks. Don't remember SWMS visiting, but probably am wrong.

SMSU (not SWMS) was last there Thanksgiving weekend 2012. The current seniors were redshirting that year.

Interestingly enough, the SMSU guys with the most familiarity of that gym are probably the assistant coaches. Tramel Barnes and Nick Smith were both players on that 2012-13 team, and the third SMSU assistant is the brother of former Bearcat guard Matt Wallace.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

This shadow boxing over NWMSU ability to win in the NCAA regional is absurd. The last two seasons losses to Moorhead and a 2pt loss to Augustana have made the Bearcats battle tough. When the Vikings lost to NW two seasons ago there whole motivation was to beat everybody and especially NW then move on from the regionals. Augustana did that and won a NC. I have to believe that NW feels this is finally their year with the games in their own house it's going to happen. Also, I hope I speak the words of a idiot and AU pulls a rabbit out of the hat and wins it all again.

[Stanger86]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I think you'd be surprised to find out that some of the NSIC schools are not fully funded in basketball.

As recently as two years ago, only half of the NSIC is fully funded. Two of the schools in the current NCAA Tournament discussion were among those not at 10 scholarships. Upper Iowa was at 8.5 scholarships while SMSU was at 6.3 scholarships.

http://www.sctimes.com/story/sports/...ships/8234147/

[Stanger86]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I am fascinated by folks being down on NW Mo.

They have only 1 loss and have kicked the crap out of teams all year long.

They have been the consensus #1 almost all year in the polls.

They are battle tested in the regional.

They have the region's best player in Pitts and I haven't heard anyone suggest a different player for that title.

They are by all means a big favorite, and deservedly so.

I think everyone here knows NWMSU is the heavy favorite. At least in my case, I'm trying to find *****s in the armor. I think others are too.

What fun would this board be if everyone stopped posting because everyone knows what's going to happen? I appreciate that fans are continuing to talk about the tournament even if its a foregone conclusion what will happen. It's part of the beauty of March Madness. There are 8 teams that will be vying for 1 trophy. It's easy to focus on the favorites, but underdog stories are part of what makes March great!

[86Catillac]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I think everyone here knows NWMSU is the heavy favorite. At least in my case, I'm trying to find *****s in the armor. I think others are too.

What fun would this board be if everyone stopped posting because everyone knows what's going to happen? I appreciate that fans are continuing to talk about the tournament even if its a foregone conclusion what will happen. It's part of the beauty of March Madness. There are 8 teams that will be vying for 1 trophy. It's easy to focus on the favorites, but underdog stories are part of what makes March great!

I think "heavy" favorite is too much love. I would feel more comfortable if we had Kurth playing and were operating with our normal 8 man rotation. We seemed to be on a roll and had our substitution pattern down. He's been out 5 games now, so we may be getting used to not having him. But I still hope he can make it back for regionals and provide 8-12 minutes at a minimum. We shall see.

[NWHoops]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

I understand there are differences, but the disparity is overblown. There are 170 football schools but if someone read into your post, they would think only 15 are fully funded. The truth is that a lot are full funded.

I understand it's a lot easier to fund 10 full rides than 36 so you'd think that a greater percentage of basketball playing schools would be fully funded.

I think you'd be surprised to find out that some of the NSIC schools are not fully funded in basketball.

There's more to spending than just scholarships. The last numbers I saw showed said NW spends 50% more than the next team in the MIAA in football.

I realize not all basketball teams are fully funded but the disparity is much greater in football than basketball.

[Brandon]

Re: Men's Central Region Rankings (3/1)

There's more to spending than just scholarships. The last numbers I saw showed said NW spends 50% more than the next team in the MIAA in football.

I realize not all basketball teams are fully funded but the disparity is much greater in football than basketball.

I do believe that football expenditures (the operating budget) at Northwest are higher than any other school, but no two schools account for things the same. For instance, when NW was listed as having a $3 million budget for football, I asked those in the know about it. It was absolutely not correct. Northwest did not spend that much on football, it was just how funds were accounted for that year.

Now back to "easy" versus "hard." I could counter and say it's "easier" to produce a winner at basketball because the rosters are small and the budgets are smaller than football. Even just one player makes such a huge difference (Pitts for example) that landing the right guy makes a team a title contender. Counter that with football, where you need at least 50 good contributors to field a championship and it appears to me that basketball is much easier to luck into a championship than football.