There's something wonky with the realtimerpi.com ranking system.

I've been checking out different bracketologies out there. This guy has UC Davis as a #13 seed. Heh.
https://nicktursisbestbracketperiod.weebly.com/

This guy chose UC Davis as a #15 seed:
http://trmdi.blogspot.com/

More likely a sample size problem than a realtimerpi problem. Gauchodan from the Big West forums also has us #22 in RPI.

If we come into the tournament with 3-6 losses I could see a #13 seed; didn't Irvine have that the year they were a bucket away from beating Louisville? More likely though if we make it to the tournament we have closer to 10 losses because of growing pains and get #15 or #16 again.

If we keep losses to maybe 5 or 6, WSU keeps doing well, and if we beat a tough Nevada (who may be ranked by the time we play em), I could see a 13 or 14 assuming we can get through BW.

UCSB has had a strong start this yr w their new coach, Beach just knocked off Stanford and has lots of exposure to high major bball, UCI is always tough, Hawaii, etc. Let’s see what we can do. I definitely think we have a shot. Our defense might be even better than last yr, and that was a darn good gritty D. Big questions are how we’ll perform vs size and if we can improve consistency on offense. TJ Shorts can hopefully help Chima and Siler with that

Guys on big west board were saying that win makes us league favorite. Really? UCSB has some good wins and high RPI (meaningless this early), Irvine should be very good, the beach is always tough in league and poly is much improved (beat cal, right?). I’m just used to seeing us in the 200’s so the 20’s is a nice switch

It’s fun to speculate but I don’t see us as the clear favorite in the Big West at this point. We have shown some exciting potential but we’ve also been very inconsistent especially on offense. Good D emerges before good offense with a team like the Aggies with so many new players. Hopefully, the WSU game was an indication of what’s to come.

i agree completely. i think its going to be a very competitive Big West this year. northridge and riverside look down, but everybody else looks pretty even. always hard this early because the preseason scheduling is so different. i was wrong before -> poly beat santa clara, not cal.

after graduating 4 of our top 6 players, and losing another rotation guy to transfer, its pretty exciting to see us playing this well, this early.

The thing that is exciting about this year is that it shows that Les can continue a winning tradition, even after loosing so many contributors. I was afraid we'd get into a situation where we'd have a good, senior led team, only to have to re-build for a few years until the next large group of seniors comes around. This year's success, so far, shows that there is a winning philosophy that can continue from year to year. Next year, yes we'll lose Chima, but players like Shorts, Siler, Goode, John will be there to continue that philosophy. They'll pass it down to the Jackson/Strom/Underwood/Nelson's of the world, and the winning (hopefully) continues. Exciting times for Aggie basketball!

Bob Williams would have had a better team with all his suspended players back. Tough deal.

Moneke really is a game changer, like Maier and Doss. One player has a bigger impact in BBall.

The two statements that might be fair are that we have some of the best individual talent in the Big West and that this team is has one of the highest peaks, in that on a day the shots are falling the Ags are capable of beating anybody in the conference.

I remember last year there were several games where we struggled on offense but got bailed out by Lemar turning into Steph Curry for five minutes at a time. We'll need those kinds of offensive spurts from the shooters again down the stretch when teams key in on Chima.

Bob Williams would have had a better team with all his suspended players back. Tough deal. — movielover

Is he retired now? I googled his name and he didn't come up at a different school. He is going on 64 years old.

Have not heard.

I think that we have a very new weapon in Shorts. We have not had an effective slasher driver in D1 times. This adds a dimension that cannot be overstated at this point. Chima knows it will only make him better and he gave a big shout out to Shorts about that. Great times for aggie BB; men and woman both of course.

Yes, very impressed with Shorts. Exactly the time of gem that Les needs to keep finding. Too small to get recruited by the power 5 schools, but a great player.

I think you may have forgotten that Corey Hawkins was "an effective slasher driver in the D1 times." The thing I like about TJ is that, not only can he slash and drive to the basket, but he has lighting quick hands and can pick players pockets. He is also an excellent passer and can dish out the assists. He's an exciting player!

It's official. The NCAA released their official RPI rankings yesterday and we are indeed ranked #22. We are sandwiched between a couple of heavy hitters: #21 Kentucky and #23 West Virginia. How's that for some elite company! :-O

For some perspective, the following are some current rankings of teams of interest to Aggie fans:

A few Big West teams:

UCSB #31
UCI #113
LBSU #116

Teams the Ags have played:

Utah Valley #47
Washington State #57
Washington #105
Northern Colorado #152
Pacific #197
Sac State #305

Some upcoming OOC games:

Nevada #7
Lamar #145
Pacific #197
San Francisco #240

Some other west coast teams:

SDSU #35
Boise State #42
USC #48
Gonzaga #60
Montana State #75
Fresno State #81
Portland State #87
St Mary's #92
UCLA #96
Bakersfield #130
Poly #193
Stanford #201
Cal #282
Santa Clara #338

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi

I was curious as to how rpi is actually calculated.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The rating percentage index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. ... Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents' winning percentage and 1/3 its opponents' opponents' winning percentages."

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_percentage_index

So WSU and Washington will pull our RPI up the whole season because we'll get credit for their pac 12 opponents. And the WCC teams we face will bouy us with Gonzaga and St Mary's.

Man does this setup favor power conferences though. If I'm understanding it right then it's better to get blown out by top teams than beat weaker teams.

It does seem that way. SOS is huge. One of the reasons the Aggies' RPI is so high is that many of the power schools play down in the early season and pad their records with wins over mid-major schools. So, even though we have a great RPI at the moment, it's deceptive because many of the big name schools have not played challenging schedules but, in reality, they are very tough teams.

So the BW seems to be doing fairly well this year in terms of rpi.
10th out of 32 conferences

Also while Washington and WSU will naturally help us with their opponents being pretty strong (down yr for the Pac12 though), it can also hurt us if they lose- which is quite possible against a tougher schedule. So I'm their biggest fan now :) Unfortunately Nevada lost to Texas Tech in overtime today.

Washington beat Kansas tonight in Kansas City. That'll help our RPI.

Well alrighty, so Washington beats #2 Kansas on the road by 9 and we only lost to the Huskies by 7 in their house, therefore we would beat Kansas by 2. Nice! 8-)

Buuuuut Wazzu was blown out by Idaho per @SochorField 91-64.

Basketball....it can make you crazy!

Well early updates from the day have our RPI going up to 16-17 so it can't have hurt us too much.

I don't think even in the Hawkins era we had a peak this high. I'm curious if we can finish in the top 100 by the end of the year.

If my vague memory serves me well, I think UC Davis was hovering around 80 RPI during Hawkins era. I was projecting that we would be a #14 seed if we had won the Big West tourney.

RealTimeRPI.com has our RPI at #17 now. Up 5 spots, probably due mostly to U-Dub's victory over Kansas.

Wow... :-O

Sounds about right. I remember getting excited when we had an RPI of 30 or something one week, but then it fell after conference play started.

Looks like we're just about the top mid-major in RPI. #32 SoS will do that I guess.

This better mean we are going to breeze through conference play. Something tells me we aren't.