From the insider section of bracketology
The season's halfway point also brings us to the presentation of the annual Rand McNally Award. This award goes -- tongue firmly in cheek -- to the coach and team playing their first true road game at the latest point on the calendar. In other words, who went the longest without experiencing those two four-letter words (r-o-a-d g-a-m-e)?
Multiple prior winners include Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Mike Brey (Notre Dame). However, as members now of the ACC, both are forced at least every other year into an early December road game, courtesy of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Our latest winner benefited from an ACC/Big Ten Challenge home game (which it lost), only to turn around and win its first true road game five weeks later. Even so, by managing to go 58 days into the season without being an AWAY team, the 2015-16 Rand McNally Award goes to:
Jamie Dixon, University of Pittsburgh
Pitt 86, Notre Dame 82 (Jan. 9)
Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana
Another scheduling pet peeve is the extraordinary number of wins piled up by mostly power conference teams in the nonleague portion of the season. Now I understand the practice of "buying" games is almost as old as the sport itself.
However, nothing says that I have to believe win-loss records that are so inflated as to be almost comically misleading. So, for kicks, I like to subtract sub-200 home court victories for schools that load up excessively with "buy" games that are little more than glorified practices.
You know who you are ...
Inflating The Records
TEAM ACTUAL W-L EFFECTIVE DIFF
Marquette 12-6 (.667) 4-6 (.400) .267
Kansas State 11-6 (.647) 5-6 (.455) .198
Syracuse 12-7 (.632) 6-7 (.462) .170
Clemson 12-6 (.667) 6-6 (.500) .167
Connecticut 12-5 (.709) 6-5 (.545) .164
Michigan 13-5 (.722) 7-5 (.583) .139
Boise State 13-5 (.722) 7-5 (.583) .139
Ohio State 12-7 (.632) 7-7 (.500) .132
Utah 12-5 (.709) 7-5 (.583) .126
Northwestern 15-4 (.789) 8-4 (.667) .122
Baylor 14-3 (.824) 7-3 (.700) .124
Evansville 16-3 (.842) 8-3 (.727) .115
Cincinnati 13-6 (.684) 8-6 (.571) .113
Saint Mary's 15-2 (.882) 7-2 (.778) .104
Colorado 13-4 (.765) 8-4 (.667) .098
Seton Hall 13-4 (.765) 8-4 (.667) .098
Gonzaga 14-4 (.778) 9-4 (.692) .086
Texas-Arlington 13-3 (.813) 8-3 (.727) .086
Louisville 14-3 (.824) 9-3 (.750) .074
Maryland 16-2 (.889) 9-2 (.818) .071
Purdue 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064
Southern Cal 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064
Indiana 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064
Davidson 11-5 (.688) 8-5 (.615) .063
Pittsburgh 15-2 (.882) 10-2 (.833) .049
