For the second year in a row, the Fort Lewis men’s basketball team won’t host its regional tournament after having great seasons to the chagrin of the Skyhawks fan base.
The Skyhawks finished 28-3 overall and 20-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. They won the RMAC tournament title as well.
However, the selection committee awarded the top seed to West Texas A&M for the second straight season, even though the Buffaloes finished 26-4 overall and losing three of its last four games.
To gain more insight, the Durango Herald spoke with Philip Myers, a Division II basketball bracketologist who runs inkblotsports.com. That website posts data on Division II men’s and women’s basketball teams.
In Myers’ final bracket before the selection show, he had West Texas A&M as the South Central region’s top seed.
“When I was looking at it, I did not see any specific reason not to just go with the team that is No. 1 in both of the metrics,” Myers said.
The metrics Myers was referencing were RPI (rating percentage index and PI (performance index). These two metrics are what the committee relies upon the most, he said.
West Texas A&M barely beat out Fort Lewis in RPI with an rating of .621. The Skyhawks have an RPI of .620. In performance index, West Texas A&M was first in the region with a rating of 32.767, and Fort Lewis’ was second with a 32.621.
Both metrics have different calculations, according to Myers, but both are based on the team’s wins and losses, opponents’ wins and losses, among other things.
“Performance indicator tends to end up with more weight on actual wins and losses than RPI,” Myers said. “RPI ends up with more weight on strength of schedule.”
Strength of schedule is an area where the Skyhawks are lacking compared to West Texas A&M. Fort Lewis finished seventh in the South Central region with an SOS of .528, while West Texas A&M finished third in the region with an SOS of .544.
The Lone Star Conference also helped West Texas A&M because in the South Central Region, which features the RMAC and Lone Star Conference, 10 of the top 15 teams in RPI were from the Lone Star Conference. Therefore, West Texas A&M had a chance for more high-quality wins to help its RPI compared to Fort Lewis.
Myers also noted how a team finishes its season does not factor into the selection committee’s process.
“When you've got a program like that, they're going to be near the top every year and it might take almost a perfect season to be able to reach the top spot in front of them,” Myers said about West Texas A&M. “Fort Lewis has come really close these last couple of years, and I think this year, definitely 27-2 would have been good enough.”
Myers also reiterated that if Fort Lewis hadn’t lost against UCCS on Jan. 12, the Skyhawks would be hosting. UCCS is 21st in RPI in the South Central region. West Texas A&M’s worst loss was against St. Edward’s, which is 13th in RPI in the region.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
