Big Sky Play Starts This Weekend

[Montana Gym Rat]

I did the same thing for the men, so I figured I would post the RPI's of the women's teams since it's probably the most accurate (between conference and non-conference) right now.

TEAM........................RPI...SOS...Best Win......................Worst Loss
Weber State...............81...129...Delaware(49).................Pacific(166)
Montana.....................83.....46....Florida State(27)............Colorado State(122)
Northern Arizona......125...230...Hartford(109)................UC Riverside(212)
Eastern Washington..179...202...Idaho(110)...................San Diego State(275)
Sacramento State.....207...138...New Mexico State(165)...UC Davis(279)
Idaho State...............256...196...Southern Utah(306).......Utah State(234)
Montana State...........266...282...Texas State(221)...........Utah Valley State(319)
Portland State...........301...267...Utah Valley State(319)....Portland(254)

The Lady Griz look like they put together a pretty good non-conference season. Weber is barely ranked ahead of them, but Montana definitely has the better resume right now. Idaho State is a bit of a suprise this year, I thought they would be a lot better.

So Weber and Montana will duke it out for another title this year. NAU is playing tough though. EWU and ISU will be tough games I'm sure. Maybe Sacramento State will get some wins in the Big Sky this year.

 

[TrueGriz]

I posted this on the UGMB in response to a poster that said the Lady Griz are not that good of a team. Some people just look at wins/losses to judge whether a team is good or not. When a team is playing the 46th toughest schedule in the country, 7 - 6 is an awfully good record when you have to consider, the team is breaking in a new point guard (two freshman and one that is injured and not exactly a point guard), plus, the bench is primarily freshman with two or three exceptions.




.....

contrary to some people's opinion, Lady Griz are a good team.

From the Gonzaga game to the Colorado State game, has been one of the toughest stretches of games the Lady Griz played ever.

Lady Griz have played the 46th toughest schedules in the NCAA. That is better than the strength of schedule of last years team.

The Lady Griz did not lose to any team worse then 122, and beat a team ranked now at 27.

Because of the strength of the schedule, the Lady Griz actually climbed up the RPI rankings despite going only 3 - 4 during this stretch of games starting with the Gonzaga game.

And, they even climbed up the RPI rankings this week after winning 1 out of 3 games. The teams they played were very good teams. Just because Lady Griz lost 2 of them, doesn't mean they not that good.

The Lady Griz are a good team. If they keep the RPI ranking they have now, I would say they would get a 14th seed. But, since the Lady Griz play in the Big Sky Conference, they will likely fall even if they sweep it, because the strength of schedule drops.

But, contrary to what is happening in the Big Sky Conference for the men, The Big Sky Conference is actually ranked higher than it was last season for women, 15th ranked conference.

The Mountain West conference, which the Lady Griz just played 3 teams are ranked 10th.

Contrast this schedule with Last years team that swept the Big Sky Conference. Lady Griz last year were almost about to break the top 30 in RPI just before Conference games started, and fell below 40 at the end of Conference. They did rise a little after the tournament. The Big Sky Conference for women were ranked number 18. So, Big Sky conference this year is up 3.