Preseason Expectations for the Hogs

[Adam Stokes]

The coaches at SEC Media Days had us placed at 11th in the conference and there seemed to be a lot of people that disagreed with them.  I decided to look around and see what the rest of the country thought.

Bracketmatrix currently has us at 11 spots under the bubble, with 5 of the 32 brackets have us making the tournament.  That puts us at 7th in the SEC.  It currently only has 4 SEC teams making the tournament, though many are just off the bubble.  http://bracketmatrix.com/

RPIForecast is putting the SEC as the 4th best conference this year, ahead of the Big East and the Pac-12.  Their average simulations have Arkansas slated to finish OOC play at 8-4 and 9-9 in conference play, finishing the season with the 61st highest RPI, and also 7th in the conference.  They also have our OOC SOS expected to finish at #42, I'll be pleasantly surprised if our OOC opponents play that well.  The data is often pretty screwy until the first month or so of games are played.  http://www.rpiforecast.com/index2.html

RPI Tidbit: Our potential RPI has been shooting up with good starts by our future opponents.  Our OOC opponents are currently 9-3, (North Florida had an upset over Illinois,) and the SEC is 15-1.  Obviously too early to worry about RPI considering we still have a long way to even be in the NCAAT conversation, but it is starting out well.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

The coaches at SEC Media Days had us placed at 11th in the conference and there seemed to be a lot of people that disagreed with them.  I decided to look around and see what the rest of the country thought.

Bracketmatrix currently has us at 11 spots under the bubble, with 5 of the 32 brackets have us making the tournament.  That puts us at 7th in the SEC.  It currently only has 4 SEC teams making the tournament, though many are just off the bubble.  http://bracketmatrix.com/

RPIForecast is putting the SEC as the 4th best conference this year, ahead of the Big East and the Pac-12.  Their average simulations have Arkansas slated to finish OOC play at 8-4 and 9-9 in conference play, finishing the season with the 61st highest RPI, and also 7th in the conference.  They also have our OOC SOS expected to finish at #42, I'll be pleasantly surprised if our OOC opponents play that well.  The data is often pretty screwy until the first month or so of games are played.  http://www.rpiforecast.com/index2.html

RPI Tidbit: Our potential RPI has been shooting up with good starts by our future opponents.  Our OOC opponents are currently 9-3, (North Florida had an upset over Illinois,) and the SEC is 15-1.  Obviously too early to worry about RPI considering we still have a long way to even be in the NCAAT conversation, but it is starting out well.

[Dropkick]

I think we will be middle of the pack in the SEC.

[jry04]

FYI, Lunardi was just on the SEC Network discussing the NCAAT outlook for the SEC. He had the Hogs as a bubble team. Last week, we were not mentioned on his bracketology, but with the addition of Beard he thinks we have a shot.


A couple months ago when he released his early pre-season bracketology he had the Hogs as a 12 seed in the play-in game against Oregon State.

Here is the link:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology/_/iteration/36