Cardinal Basketball 2024 - 2025 Predictions & Updates

[spidersal]

You have a good point, however basketball committees are not favorable to the SLC. They simply do not think that the teams that are not the winners are worthy of an invitation 

[AggiesAreWe]

On 3/12/2025 at 10:00 PM, spidersal said:

McNeese has a decent team, however they will be 1 and done in the tournament due to an extremely weak conference

One and done huh.

I guess ACC is a weak conference.

[spidersal]

You are correct. Great win for MC Neese. They tried their best to blow it at the end, however I was wrong on 1 and done. Some teams from the ACC are not very strong. Face it, today Clemson had shooters about like A&M, not very good , but you are correct, I blew the call on this game. I am glad they won, however the SLC is still a very weak conference and why only the winner will get a bid for March Madness

[spidersal]

Remember that Lamar had a pretty good record and a good 2nd place finish in the SLC and didn’t even get a sniff to one of the Rinky Dink tournaments. The committee members do not like the SLC and you can rest assured they are not happy with this upset, I just hope Clemson doesn’t fire their coach over this loss like Texas is about to do to Terry!

[spidersal]

Good news is that McNeese made it to the 2nd round, bat news is they got beat pretty bad by Purdue!

[TxHoops]

On 3/22/2025 at 2:44 PM, spidersal said:

Good news is that McNeese made it to the 2nd round, bat news is they got beat pretty bad by Purdue!

So you’re saying the Southland Conference is one of only nine conferences with a team in the second round of the NCAA tournament?  Cool!

[Separation Scientist]

I am flipping channels on TV and see UIW playing Illinois St. in the CBI tourney. I don't get it, why wouldn't Lamar be in this? Lamar was clearly the #2 team in the SLC, I think Lamar should have been in the NIT. Why would the CBI pick the 7th place UIW team from the SLC?     

[snakehead26]

29 minutes ago, Separation Scientist said:

I am flipping channels on TV and see UIW playing Illinois St. in the CBI tourney. I don't get it, why wouldn't Lamar be in this? Lamar was clearly the #2 team in the SLC, I think Lamar should have been in the NIT. Why would the CBI pick the 7th place UIW team from the SLC?     

You actually have to pay money to enter the CBI tournament so other than the little bit of exposure you get maybe it is not financially practicable. 

[TxHoops]

15 hours ago, snakehead26 said:

You actually have to pay money to enter the CBI tournament so other than the little bit of exposure you get maybe it is not financially practicable. 

This

[TxHoops]

On 3/26/2025 at 5:05 AM, Separation Scientist said:

I am flipping channels on TV and see UIW playing Illinois St. in the CBI tourney. I don't get it, why wouldn't Lamar be in this? Lamar was clearly the #2 team in the SLC, I think Lamar should have been in the NIT. Why would the CBI pick the 7th place UIW team from the SLC?     

NIT at least used to give automatic bids to regular season conference champions (who obviously didn’t win their conference tournament and get an NCAA bid).  They did away with that rule before last year’s tournament and this year added some automatic bids for power 5 conference non-NCAA qualifiers.  In short, it has now just become a secondary top-tier conference tournament.  If McNeese had lost in the SLC tournament, they MIGHT have gotten a bid (honestly as much to do with Will Wade, and maybe even more so, that manager who has gone viral) but the NIT will mostly be filled with very average to bad big conference schools.  
 

And as snakehead correctly stated, the other post-season tournaments are just money grabs.  It is my understanding both the men’s and women’s teams turned down postseason bids this year, the women to the inaugural WNIT (which has the old men’s rule about regular season champs).  My guess is the deciding factor on both was $$. 

[Separation Scientist]

I get it now, it just ticked me off to see Lamar not playing somewhere. Yeah the UIW game attendance was real bad, the gym was almost empty.   

[TxHoops]

19 hours ago, Separation Scientist said:

I get it now, it just ticked me off to see Lamar not playing somewhere. Yeah the UIW game attendance was real bad, the gym was almost empty.   

I would have loved to have seen Lamar play in post season as well.  The entry fee for the CBI is apparently a little under $30k but I’m guessing it’s probably at least that much in travel expenses per game.  That team was playing really well at the end of the year though and would have been fun to see continue to play.  

[bullets13]

5 hours ago, TxHoops said:

I would have loved to have seen Lamar play in post season as well.  The entry fee for the CBI is apparently a little under $30k but I’m guessing it’s probably at least that much in travel expenses per game.  That team was playing really well at the end of the year though and would have been fun to see continue to play.  

maybe i'm wrong, but it just seems like a $100k investment into post season play doesn't sound like much when you're talking about a university the size of lamar. Both teams are trending up, and even a little extra exposure could go a long way.