Mike Howells / The Collegian
A reformatting of the Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament was issued in August at the request of many coaches in the conference in order to preserve their teams’ Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) that gives them a better chance to grab one of the 34 at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament.
RPI is a ratings system based on a mathematical equations that evaluates a team’s strength. To figure out RPI for a team like Fresno State, three factors are taken into consideration: a team’s winning percentage against Division 1 opponents, comprising 25 percent of the formula; the opponents percentage against D-1 opponents, comprising 25 percent of the formula; and the winning percentage of a team’s opponents’ opponents, rounding out the remaining 50 percent of the formula.
In August, WAC Commissioner Karl Benson announced a new format change that was approved by the WAC board of directors this past summer. The new tournament format is based on regular season conference success, giving the top two teams at the end of conference play byes into the semifinal round of the conference tournament.
Basketball coaches throughout the conference pushed for the change because it would add value to regular season standings, and preserve RPI throughout the entire season for the top teams, increasing their chance for an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. Some conferences that do institute the “double-bye” method are the Big East and West Coast Conference. The WAC tournament format change will be identical to that of the WCC because it gives byes to the top two teams, leaving the lower eight teams to play for remaining two spots in the semifinals.
“That was our hope, that it would strengthen our RPI, and our chance for a bid in March,” women’s basketball head coach Adrian Wiggins said. “By keeping our RPI high, and not putting it at risk with those early games in the [WAC] tournament, there’s an opportunity to grab a better seed [in the NCAA Tournament].”
The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a spectacular season, going undefeated in conference play with a record of 16-0, and finishing the season with an overall record of 27-7. But the Bulldogs perfect record against conference opponents came crashing down, losing to Louisiana Tech by a mere two points in the WAC tournament championship game. Fortunately, the team still received an at-large bid into the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, where it was ousted in the first round to Baylor.
Wiggins knows that last season’s heartbreaking loss is sitting in the back of his players minds.
“It was our goal [to win the WAC tournament], and we didn’t achieve that,” said Wiggins. “We have always had a standard of doing better the next year, and this year we are improving to the next level.”
Senior forward Taja Edwards agrees that the new change will benefit the Bulldogs if they continue to have the same success they have had in recent years. She believes her team will need to play in the tournament as if it were every game.
“We will have to be more focused,” said Edwards. “[The team] needs to be understanding that we need to go in there humble.”
On top of maintaining focus, the “double-bye” system will provide more rest for players on the top seeded teams, allowing more time to nurse injuries and decreasing the emotional and physical toll that comes with playing in elimination games four days in a row.
“There’s a huge difference between playing two games and playing three games, and during the tournament you have little time to rest and get ready for the next day,” Wiggins said.
Assuming the women’s basketball team carries that success into next season, Wiggins is excited for the upcoming season, which is right around the corner. The Lady Bulldogs hope to strengthen their RPI against teams like No. 2 Stanford, No. 18 St. John’s, TCU and USC. If they are able to clinch one of the two top spots at the end of the regular season, they can preserve their RPI and perhaps get a chance to go dancing for the second year in a row.