Top 25 talk

[smedindy]

They don't play in the playoffs. It's 'beneath them' or something or other. 

[KnightSlappy]

Looks like NESCAC football has a 0.00 rating as a conference, which makes them "average" for college foobtall. He's not assuming they are average, there's just nothing by which he can assume they're not average (making them average for the division would be better though).

[smedindy]

I think that's wise mathematically when all is said and done. Who really knows?? That's why I can't vote for any NESCAC team in the football poster's poll. For all we know, the best of the NESCAC could have had either a badillion Stagg Bowls or falter against the UMAC. Or somewhere in between...

Ok, back to hoops.

I personally think UMHB is a sleeping giant this year and probably highly underrated.

Do any observers have insight on the SAA teams besides Centre?

[John Gleich]

Well, I think we can nix Concordia Tx from the list...

[Darryl Nester]

Well, I think we can nix Concordia Tx from the list...

When I saw their result vs. MHB, I almost decided to drop them from the "other teams," but I figured it might be useful for anyone considering a vote for MHB to see that their road win came against a team with a 15-5 record.

I will leave Concordia off of Sunday's final report.

[gordonmann]

I monitored the live stats for Concordia-UMHB on Tuesday night for front page reasons.  The Cru jumped out to a big lead and were up 20 most of the game.  Even at a 12-point margin, the game wasn't that close.

[Ralph Turner]

I monitored the live stats for Concordia-UMHB on Tuesday night for front page reasons.  The Cru jumped out to a big lead and were up 20 most of the game.  Even at a 12-point margin, the game wasn't that close.

Beating CTX on the road is a "statement" game between those 2.  They were paired as travel partners inthe previous decade.

UMHB appears to be coming around.  I will be interested to see where they are paired in the tourney.  (I think that they win the ASC Pool A bid.)

[Gregory Sager]

I'm kind of confused why some people seem to think the CCIW is "down" or "not up to past standards".  This years .648 win % puts it #7 on that 21 year list, making it in the top 1/3 and frankly above avg.

Are we simply comparing the CCIW to its very best seasons, and isn't that always going to be futile?

I think only Greg is in that camp.  I don't recall seeing anyone else suggest that.  I think the CCIW "is who we thought it was" (shout out to Dennis Green).  Typical year really.

I didn't realize that we had established "camps" here, Bob. If there's any camps involved here, they consist of these two: Your opinion and mine.

There is selection bias here at work, which I freely admit. In terms of the post-Carroll CCIW, the '90s were markedly down by comparison, the '00s were markedly up, and this decade seems to be in the middle, more or less. So the selection bias really comes down to how many previous seasons you want to lump in with the current one (or the past two or three) in order to make an evaluation.

The CCIW's current problem - in terms of overall strength - is what's happening at North Park and Elmhurst.  The programs at NPU and EC are not in great shape right now...althouth NPU has a new coach with a strong track record at Anderson, and Elmhurst's Mark Scherer has had a lot of good CCIW seasons in the past.

I painfully agree about NPU and Elmhurst. Can't deny it, as the 'jays have gone 4-7, 6-5, 5-6, and 5-6 in non-con play over the past four years, while NPU's gone 4-7, 5-6, 7-4, and 6-5 over that span.

In North Central, Illinois Wesleyan, Wheaton, and Augustana, the CCIW really has four extremely strong "anchor" programs at the present time - each of these programs is poised to be good year after year.  Carthage is a good, solid 5th program.  Millikin plays 10 freshman this year and seems to have brighter days ahead under Matt Nadelhoffer, who is working his tail off to build the Big Blue.

Carthage has had its struggles over the past couple of years, going 11-11 in non-con play over that time. Since the Red Men will return zero bigs next season, the jury's out as to whether they will be "good, solid" next season, too. And let's not overplay Millikin's success just yet. It's true that the Big Blue are markedly better than they've been (which isn't saying much), and they definitely have a talented freshman class. But it's still a long ways away from being a healthy program, recordwise, and the jury has to remain out until we see just how many of those frosh return to campus in Decatur next fall.

I'm really surprised at you Greg. Aren't you putting quite a few words in Pat's mouth here. The funny thing is, where you end up, if you click on the quotes attributed to Mr. Coleman.   Time to use your super powers and make some corrections.

Argh! Too much work to clear all that up. Oh, well, Pat and Bob know who is who.

[smedindy]

UPSET! Wabash, down 15-2 in the first half, puts on a defensive clinic and defeats Wooster 55-48!

[magicman]

UPSET! Wabash, down 15-2 in the first half, puts on a defensive clinic and defeats Wooster 55-48!

I knew there was more to your REALLY GOOD day than Rose-Hulman beating Transy in the Pick Em League! Now I see what it was.

[magicman]

Carnage in the Top 25 today so far:

#5 Stevens Point loses to UW-La Crosse 67-62

#8 Wooster goes down at Wabash 55-48 as smeds noted

#16 Christopher Newport loses to Greensboro 72-69

#22 Translyvania loses to #23 Rose-Hulman 53-49

T#36 Desales lost at Misericordia  66-55

T#36 Randolph lost to Eastern Mennonite 76-75

T#38 Adrian lost at Trine 64-46

T#41 Lycoming lost to Stevenson 82-76

T#45 Lynchburg lost to Randolph-Macon 91-77

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I really hate carnage as a voter... makes for a very long Monday!

[jaybird44]

Just take a spinner from a Life game, and tape team labels on each of the numbers.  Start from the top or bottom of the poll, and spin until each of the poll slots are filled.

Or use an old See 'n Say, and instead of pulling a string to see which animal makes a noise, cover each animal spot with a potential top-25 team.

You needn't become too stressed about this process...

[Greek Tragedy]

I really hate carnage as a voter... makes for a very long Monday!

Darryl is going to run out of red ink...

[Darryl Nester]

Darryl is going to run out of red ink...

I keep a spare toner cartridge on hand for such occasions.