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jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 09:44 AM
Dear fellow Duke fans:
I am a newbie here as far as posting goes. I think this is my fourth post here this month after a hiatus from posting of nearly nine years. I guess my Duke fan claim-to-fame is meeting Kyle Singler in Memphis during his senior year of high school. I told him we Dukies were very happy to have him come to Cameron to play. He immediately smiled and reached up his huge hand to shake my relatively tiny hand (I was in the stands at FedEx Forum).

Anyway, with that gratuitous introduction out of the way, can someone please point me to the most reliable, free source which provides the Strength of Schedule for every team in Division I Men's Basketball. Thanks in advance. May the sporks be with you!

Best wishes from frigid Harbin, China,
Jason Stockard

CDu
02-02-2015, 09:46 AM
Dear fellow Duke fans:
I am a newbie here as far as posting goes. I think this is my fourth post here this month after a hiatus from posting of nearly nine years. I guess my Duke fan claim-to-fame is meeting Kyle Singler in Memphis during his senior year of high school. I told him we Dukies were very happy to have him come to Cameron to play. He immediately smiled and reached up his huge hand to shake my relatively tiny hand (I was in the stands at FedEx Forum).

Anyway, with that gratuitous introduction out of the way, can someone please point me to the most reliable, free source which provides the Strength of Schedule for every team in Division I Men's Basketball. Thanks in advance. May the sporks be with you!

Best wishes from frigid Harbin, China,
Jason Stockard

Ken Pomeroy (kenpom.com) provides a good listing. The "Pyth" column under the heading of "Strength-of-Schedule" provides what you are looking for.

blazindw
02-02-2015, 10:03 AM
I'm not a person who prides one rating over another, though around here KenPom is probably the runaway favorite. I usually look at KenPom, RPI and ESPN's BPI index (and I think CBS has one too) and basically average them together. Sometimes one of them serves as an outlier, but generally they all are pretty close in what they think of a team's schedule.

Kedsy
02-02-2015, 11:39 AM
I'm not a person who prides one rating over another, though around here KenPom is probably the runaway favorite. I usually look at KenPom, RPI and ESPN's BPI index (and I think CBS has one too) and basically average them together. Sometimes one of them serves as an outlier, but generally they all are pretty close in what they think of a team's schedule.

If you like averaging things out, here's a page listing dozens of ranking systems (http://masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm), including all the biggees. Schedule strength isn't on the linked page, but on the page there are links out to all the systems.

jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 11:40 AM
Ken Pomeroy (kenpom.com) provides a good listing. The "Pyth" column under the heading of "Strength-of-Schedule" provides what you are looking for.

Thanks, CDu. I always appreciate your input, on this occasion and others. You and your family should come to Harbin next January for the International Ice Festival we have every year!

jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 11:42 AM
I'm not a person who prides one rating over another, though around here KenPom is probably the runaway favorite. I usually look at KenPom, RPI and ESPN's BPI index (and I think CBS has one too) and basically average them together. Sometimes one of them serves as an outlier, but generally they all are pretty close in what they think of a team's schedule.

Blazindw, thanks for your input as well. I like the idea of having multiple sources to which I can turn for this information!

jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 11:46 AM
Kedsy, you are one of my five favorite posters on DBR. Do you prefer one source over others or do you use multiple sources to determine SOS? Thanks in advance!

Kedsy
02-02-2015, 11:50 AM
Kedsy, you are one of my five favorite posters on DBR. Do you prefer one source over others or do you use multiple sources to determine SOS? Thanks in advance!

I generally rely on Pomeroy, but I try to at least check out a few others (usually RPI, BPI, and Sagarin) as a sanity check in case Pomeroy overvalues or undervalues a particular team. I include RPI in there, despite its flawed nature, because that's the metric apparently used by the selection committee.

jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 12:11 PM
I generally rely on Pomeroy, but I try to at least check out a few others (usually RPI, BPI, and Sagarin) as a sanity check in case Pomeroy overvalues or undervalues a particular team. I include RPI in there, despite its flawed nature, because that's the metric apparently used by the selection committee.

OK, that's very helpful information. I think I remember reading in the past that Pomeroy did, and maybe still does, go overboard in his valuation of certain victories that teams have. I like that in Pomeroy, blowout home victories are not overvalued like it seems they have been in the past.

FerryFor50
02-02-2015, 12:37 PM
I always prefer long, drawn out threads on message boards to determine strength of schedule. Like this one. :)

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?34579-Check-out-how-not-obsessed-we-are-with-Kentucky

jasoninchina
02-02-2015, 01:38 PM
I always prefer long, drawn out threads on message boards to determine strength of schedule. Like this one. :)

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?34579-Check-out-how-not-obsessed-we-are-with-Kentucky

Obviously Kentucky is a formidable team. Playing in the extraordinarily weak SEC means they very well could finish the regular season undefeated (though I think there is a chance they could lose at LSU or someone else away from Rupp). I think that their relatively weak schedule, especially compared to Duke's recent schedule of Murderer's Row, could result in a loss maybe in the Elite Eight round. I say this because they won't have been nearly as battle-tested as Duke will be come March despite UK's games against UNCCheaters and Louisville. As always, time will tell and I could be eating crow (yum!) come the first Tuesday of April!