UMassHoops.com

It is still amazing to me that some here continue to shit on this when we couldn't even make the NIT in our current league, nor have we sniffed post season play in the last 10 years. Mind blowing.

Inversion, your missing the whole point, we are just talking about the level of play in the conference, we are not talking about how good or bad our team is. We are talking about moving from a conference that had 6 post season teams to a conference with just one .

Look t it this way, do you prefer watching a high school basketball game or a college game.

Can we start planning the 2026 conference tournament in Cleveland? We should come in UMass strong

pk77 wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:01 am Inversion, your missing the whole point, we are just talking about the level of play in the conference, we are not talking about how good or bad our team is.

I think you are the one missing the point. Success of the UMass basketball program (and athletics in general) is really what matters, not how good St Bonaventure, VCU, etc are. Fact of the matter is, UMass has little to show for its A-10 affiliation this century, while there are multiple MAC programs over that time frame that put ours to shame. I would not at all be surprised to see a more successful UMass basketball program following the move to the MAC.

Dem, please let me know which MAC programs have put us to shame in basketball and their overall ranking. Also tell me over the last five years how many A10 vs. MAC teams went to the NCAA or NIT. We may have not had the best talent, but at least we were playing in a league that has talent.

pk77 wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:01 am Inversion, your missing the whole point, we are just talking about the level of play in the conference, we are not talking about how good or bad our team is. We are talking about moving from a conference that had 6 post season teams to a conference with just one .

Look t it this way, do you prefer watching a high school basketball game or a college game.

I'm not missing anything. The conference move, be it the MAC, CUSA, AAC or Big Fucking 10 needed to happen, and it needed to happen years ago. That's what you can't seem to understand.

You should also realize that the only reason the A10 got teams in the NIT is because other programs said no. Let's stop acting like the MAC is D-3. It's still good basketball

...exactly...and stop pretending the A-10 is the ACC.

I'm not a basketball historian, but here are the NCAA tournament appearances for a few of the more successful MAC schools this century:

Ohio: 4x NCAA (second round three times, Sweet 16 in 2012). 1x NIT
Kent St: 6x NCAA (Elite 8 in '02). 6x NIT, two runs to the quarterfinals
Akron: 5x NCAA (second round twice). 5x NIT
Buffalo: 4x NCAA (second round twice). 2x NIT
UMass 1x NCAA (no comment on the result). 5x NIT with a finals and semifinals run.

It's absolutely possible for MAC schools to get to the NCAA tournament and win a game or even make a run to the second weekend. We should position ourselves well among the top of the conference immediately and give ourselves a chance at that same level of success.

pk77 wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:48 am Dem, please let me know which MAC programs have put us to shame in basketball and their overall ranking.

See JuiceStand's post above

I posted this in the other MAC sub, here are the rankings for the A10 and MAC using RPI (last ten years) and NET (last 6 years).

RPI. A10. MAC
14-15. 8. 12
15-16 7 10
16-17 8. 14
17-18. 11. 10
18-19. 11. 9
19-20. 8. 12
20-21 . 13. 18
21-22. 10. 18
22-23. 11. 20
23-24 8. 22

Avg. 9.7. 14.7

NET. A10. MAC
18-19. 10. 9
19-20. 8. 12
20-21. 9. 15
21-22. 9. 20
22-23. 8. 23
23-24. 8. 24

So yes the MAC has had 3 or 4 down years but the MAC used to be comparable to the A10. Curious how these two conferences will look in another 3-4 years. I like we are joining a conference of public schools. I never really understood why we were in a conf with small private schools that for the most part beat us consistently. We have the best facilities and one of the easiest enrollments yet that did not translate to wins. I will miss the A10 but at this point in time with college sports and conferences think moving to the MAC was a good decision for UMass as a whole.

^Let's stop comparing.

We're saying that the MAC has recently not been as good as the A10 but it used to be as good. It used to be as good as the A10? In 2014, the A10 had 6 teams in the NCAA tournament. Has that ever happened in the MAC?

I've been hearing from the MAC supporters that the A10 is a 1 bid league. Duquesne and Dayton is (pulls out the calculator), 2.

If we accept the MAC, we need to do it without comparing and simply realize it is what it is.

inthescoop wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 11:00 am ^Let's stop comparing.

In 2014, the A10 had 6 teams in the NCAA tournament. Has that ever happened in the MAC?

I've been hearing from the MAC supporters that the A10 is a 1 bid league. Duquesne and Dayton is (pulls out the calculator), 2.

If we accept the MAC, we need to do it without comparing and simply realize it is what it is.

Scoop are you comparing? I guess we should throw out all stats other than NCAA bids. It's not how UMass has performed in the A10 the last 25 years it's how good the other teams have played in the A10 to justify the A10. How did we do in that 2014 tourney as favorites?

pk77 wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:40 pm are you people serious, the MAC basketball teams are horrible. They got the auto 1 NCAA bid and zero NIT bids. vs the Atlantic 10 which got 2 NCAA and 4 NIT bids. Our basketball program is going to suffer big time in the talent level they can recruit. Oh yea, our team will still be competitive in the MAC but we are going to be watching sub level basketball. Might as well stay local and go to a good high school game.
Calapari must be pulling his hair out seeing how we are destroying the foundation he set up and making sure we had a competitive schedule to recruit high level players.

if we ever do get a good recruit, they will surely leave our team to go to a better league.

It's going to be so great to hang those MAC Conference Championship banners in the rafters next to the Atlantic 10 Championship Banners !! What a disgrace !!

Calapari must be pulling his hair out seeing how we are destroying the foundation he set up you're kidding right??? Umass hoops has sucked almost from the time he left (30 years ago???)

ZooMass84 wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 3:02 pm

pk77 wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:40 pm are you people serious, the MAC basketball teams are horrible. They got the auto 1 NCAA bid and zero NIT bids. vs the Atlantic 10 which got 2 NCAA and 4 NIT bids. Our basketball program is going to suffer big time in the talent level they can recruit. Oh yea, our team will still be competitive in the MAC but we are going to be watching sub level basketball. Might as well stay local and go to a good high school game.
Calapari must be pulling his hair out seeing how we are destroying the foundation he set up and making sure we had a competitive schedule to recruit high level players.

if we ever do get a good recruit, they will surely leave our team to go to a better league.

It's going to be so great to hang those MAC Conference Championship banners in the rafters next to the Atlantic 10 Championship Banners !! What a disgrace !!

Calapari must be pulling his hair out seeing how we are destroying the foundation he set up you're kidding right??? Umass hoops has sucked almost from the time he left (30 years ago???)

When you eating calamari and watching UMass highlights from the 90s.. that's CALLAAAAPARIIIII