Top 25 discussion

[David Collinge]

Women's Top 25 News & Notes, Vol. VIII, Issue 113

The consolidation at the top of the women's poll is astonishing.  The top 12 teams received over 69% of the total votes, nearly every vote available to them.  If the top 12 placings had been unanimous, they'd have amassed 5850 points; this top 12 garnered 5614 points, an efficiency of 96%.  That's a long-winded way of saying that there is nearly complete agreement on who the best dozen women's teams in D3 are.

The top of the poll is not just concentrated, but really an "old-girls network."  The top 10 teams in this week's poll have been in the top 25 for an average of 43.1 straight weeks.  That's about 3 years on average.  Except for #3 Rochester, each of the top 10 teams has been ranked in every poll since week 3 of last season.  Six of the sixteen teams that have ever been ranked #1 are in the top 10 this week. 

I guess cream rises to the top after all. 

Debutantes:
Ohio Northern received a single vote for #25, the first vote the Polar Bears have received in poll history.  Congratulations, and welcome to the club!

High-Water Marks:

• #17 Bridgewater (Va.), #20 Illinois Wesleyan, and #22 Medaille each achieved their highest-ever rankings this week.  (How do you say "Medaille," anyway? )
• #9 McMurry, #12 Howard Payne, #19 Chicago, and #21 Maryville (TN) each matched their all-time highest ranking.

A hearty well-done to each!

Streakers:

• #4 Scranton is in the top 25 for the 80th consecutive week;
• Scranton and their fellow record-holders #14 Hardin-Simmons and Washington U. extended the vote-getting record to 113 straight weeks;
• #1 Bowdoin extended their record of consecutive top 10 appearances to seventy-eight weeks;
• #25 Puget Sound received votes for the 10th straight week; but
• Randolph-Macon's streak of 34 straight weeks with votes was snapped this week.

Brava! to each team!

Milestones:

• #4 Scranton is ranked (i.e., in the top 25) for the 110th time;  for #10 Messiah, this is the 90th top 25 appearance, and for #19 Chicago, its the 10th time to be ranked.
• This week marks the 50th time that #7 Brandeis has received votes;
• Other round-number milestones in receiving votes include #13 Wilmington (90 weeks), #9 McMurry (40 weeks), #18 Mary Washington (30 weeks), #17 Bridgewater (Va.) (20 weeks), and UW-River Falls (10 weeks).

Congratulations to these teams, as well as everyone involved in D3 women's hoops! 

[sac]

Maybe whats impressive to me among the top 8 is that 4 have losses, 3 have occured vs other top 8 teams and the 4th was to another ranked team.

BW lost to Hope 68-66
So. Maine lost to Bowdoin 60-45
Scranton to Rochester 61-59

DePauw to Illinois Wesleyan

[Ralph Turner]

sac, I think you will see quite a bit more tightening.  McMurry and UW-Stout play in the Southwestern Tourney in Georgetown on Dec 28th!

Between Jan 22nd and February 3rd, McMurry hosts HSU, hosts Howard Payne on the 27th and then goes to HPU on Feb 3rd.

HPU has at HSU on the 25th, at McMurry on the 27th, hosting HSU on Feb 1st and hosting McMurry on Feb 3rd.

HSU has those games plus the other games in there are home-and-away (5-hour road trip one way) at Sul Ross State (as does McMurry).

Those will be great games.  The Abilene games will draw at least 1000 fans with the McM-HSU game approaching 2000.

[Rose Basketball]

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology got a school record 38 points from Rebekah Forsyth, as they defeated Marian, 84-70.

RHIT is now 10-1 overall.

[Pat Coleman]

The Top 25 for women's is out.

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/

Scroll down.

[David Collinge]

Women's Top 25 News & Notes, Vol. VIII, Issue 114

The biggest news in the Women's Top 25 Poll this week is that one of the most significant records has changed hands.  #4-ranked Scranton is ranked in the top 25 for the 111th time, snapping the record of 110 weeks previously held by Washington U.  The Royals, one of three programs that have received votes in every women's poll, have been left out of the top 25 just three times in the history of the poll, and have been a top 10 team for the past 79 straight polls.  Congratulations, Scranton! 

The top 10 remained fixed in place, and as a group gobbled up 69 more votes than last week, raising their "efficiency ratio" to 96.5% vs. 95.2% last week.  Bowdoin held on to the top spot, the 20th time that the Polar Bears have been atop the poll, but defending champion Hope is creeping up, stealing 2 points off Bowdoin's margin this week.  Only one team dropped out of the top 25 (Maryville (TN)), and they only dropped to the top spot in the "Others Receiving Votes" category.  All in all, it was a rock-steady week for the top women's teams.

Debutantes:
To the delight of "Rose Basketball," the Engineers of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology received two votes, the first time they have been nominated for the top 25 poll.  Also worthy of mention is UW-Whitewater, who received votes this week for the first time since the very first D3Hoops.com women's top 25 poll, way back in 1999.  Congratulations to both!

High-Water Marks:

• #11 Howard Payne, #16 Bridgewater (Va.), #17 Chicago, #18 Illinois Wesleyan, and #21 Medaille each achieved their highest-ever rankings this week. 
• #9 McMurry matched their all-time highest ranking for the second straight week.

Keep up the good work!

Streakers:

• #5 DePauw is a member of the top 10 for the 25th consecutive poll;
• #2 Hope and #8 Baldwin-Wallace are in the top 25, each for the 20th straight week;
• #2 Hope received votes for the 30th week in a row; for #9 McMurry, #19 Mary Washington, and Williams, this streak stands at 20 straight weeks; and
• #4 Scranton, #13 Hardin-Simmons and Washington U. each extended the vote-getting record to a perfect 114 straight weeks.

Congratulations to each team!

Milestones:

• #3 Rochester is a member of the top 10 for the 25th time, and a member of the top 25 for the 50th time;
• #11 Howard Payne is a top 25 team for the 10th time;
• Trinity (Tx.) received a vote for 25th, marking the 75th week that they have rated mention in the poll.

Congratulations, felicitations, and a hearty Happy Holidays to these great teams, and everyone else!

[Ralph Turner]

Didn't I see this Top 25 Poll someplace else?

8)

[Rose Basketball]

Debutantes:
To the delight of "Rose Basketball," the Engineers of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology received two votes, the first time they have been nominated for the top 25 poll.  Also worthy of mention is UW-Whitewater, who received votes this week for the first time since the very first D3Hoops.com women's top 25 poll, way back in 1999.  Congratulations to both!

Good stuff, David!

[Ralph Turner]

#20 UW-Stout 65 #9 McMurry 60 at Southwestern TX. Live stats

For McMurry 2nd team All-American Tarra Richardson had FG 9-17, FT 10-16, Rebs 5 off + 10 def = 15 total, 5 blocks and 2 steals in 35 minutes.

(IMHO) All-American (pure point) guard Symbri Tuttle had 6 assists and one steal with no turnovers in 40 minutes against Stout  I just have to be a "homer" for Symbri.  If you need someone to selflessly distribute the ball to 4 other talented All-Americans, then she is a logical candidate for All-American honors.

Maigen Sawyer our #3 (wing) was cold tonight...FG 5-19 3FG 3-10 FT 0-3

We do not see such height or depth in the ASC, with the exception of Hardin-Simmons (HSU) and Howard Payne (HPU) which can go 9 deep, but not 11 deep as UW-Stout.  Our outside shooting was way off. (Pat Coleman jumped into my posting of the Gametracker and said that is Stout...defense!)  This is a good game for our very young team:  2Fr, 4Sophs, 2 JR and 1 Sr in the first 9.

For UW-Stout,

1st team All-American Kelsey Duoss had FG 6-9 for 12 points and Rebs 2 off + 7 def = 9 total and fouled out guarding Richardson in 23 minutes.

Lindsey Geissler had Fg 3-11 3Fg 3-7 Ft 1-6 for 10 pts.

Dani Boese had 4 points and 15 boards in 24 minutes.

Julia Hirssig went FG 4-6 and FT 4-6 for 12 pts.

[feces monkey]

If you need someone to selflessly distribute the ball to 4 other talented All-Americans, then she is a logical candidate for All-American honors.

I would think the candidate pool of those who could successfully distribute the ball to four All-Americans would be rather large (Pat Coleman included). Seems like a fairly easy task. The proof would be whether a player could raise four non-AA players above their typical waterline. Hence, I think Bates' Sarah Barton would be a better choice for such praise.

Happy New Year.

[Ralph Turner]

If you need someone to selflessly distribute the ball to 4 other talented All-Americans, then she is a logical candidate for All-American honors.

I would think the candidate pool of those who could successfully distribute the ball to four All-Americans would be rather large (Pat Coleman included). Seems like a fairly easy task. The proof would be whether a player could raise four non-AA players above their typical waterline. Hence, I think Bates' Sarah Barton would be a better choice for such praise.

Happy New Year.

A good point.  I hope that Symbri can be seen deep into the playoffs to justify her inclusion by the way she makes the McMurry offense run.

Sarah Barton is listed as 4th team!

[feces monkey]

I'm not sure how your region typically plays out, but it looks like she has a good shot at doing just that. Best of luck.

[Ralph Turner]

Monkey, the way things are looking this year, the hard part will be just getting out of Texas in the first weekend of the playoffs.

HPU, HSU and McMurry are all strong.  If Trinity makes a run at the SCAC, then we will have the 2006 first round bracket again in 2007.

Happy New Year!

[nescac hoops]

if you need someone to keep you on your toes as a spectator, sarah barton is also a good canidate b/c a lot of her no-look passes end up in the stands. dont get me wrong, she is a GREAT player. but to average 8 assists to go along with 4 turnovers per game along with 28% shooting from the field and 20% from the 3pt. land is not an "all-american point guard". GREAT player but not worthy of aa status.

[David Collinge]

Women's Top 25 News and Notes...

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