Top 25 talk

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI - the newest Top 25 is out. Not a lot of movement in the top half, but plenty of changes in the bottom half.

[sac]

Elmhurst loses for the 2nd time this season to unranked Millikin and drops 2 spots.

Augustana loses to Elmhurst and drops 2 spots.


Contrasted with

Capital loses to unranked Muskingum, and drops 6 spots

St. Norbert loses to unranked Monmouth and drops 8 spots.

UT-Dallas loses to Miss College and drops out from #19

Amherst loses to Rhode Island College and drops out from #20

WPI loses to Clark and drops out from #22

Just the facts.

[Greek Tragedy]

Apparently their win against ranked Augustana helped? No clue. 

[Ralph Turner]

Elmhurst loses for the 2nd time this season to unranked Millikin and drops 2 spots.

Augustana loses to Elmhurst and drops 2 spots.


Contrasted with

Capital loses to unranked Muskingum, and drops 6 spots

St. Norbert loses to unranked Monmouth and drops 8 spots.

UT-Dallas loses to Miss College and drops out from #19

Amherst loses to Rhode Island College and drops out from #20

WPI loses to Clark and drops out from #22

Just the facts.

CCIW bias!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

sac - first off, St. Norbert lost TWO games and nearly lost a third - all in a week. One loss was at home against Lawrence and the other two games (which they split) were to subpar teams. That resulted in the loss of 234 points.

Secondly, did you look at the number of points lost by the teams you point at?

Capital lost 122 points - a Top 10 team shouldn't be losing to 9-11 (at the time) team by 12.

UT-Dallas lost 102 points - this team has been on the edge of dropping out for some time - and lost by ten at home to Mississippi College. Obviously enough voters had enough of keeping them in their ballots.

Elmhurst lost 99 points - Millikin has four CCIW wins this season, two thanks to Elmhurst. Hard to gain confidence in a team that not only can't beat another CCIW team that doesn't have a lot of success against other common opponents and can't play any consistent basketball.

Augustana lost 89 points - was going to take a hit for barely losing to a team (Elmhurst) who lost later in the week to a team they should have beaten (see above).

Amherst lost 93 points - I think the voters have given up on the hot start Amherst had and maybe realized this team is still very young and inexperienced compared to Amherst teams of the past. Their point loss is similiar to the two teams above for a conference loss.

WPI lost 73 points - they just got back into the poll last week and then lost. You had to expect the voters who put them on their ballots last week were going to feel burned and would remove them.

Now, we all know you are alluding to the fact that maybe the CCIW teams weren't punished enough. I would say they were punished about the same as other teams that took losses this wwek. However, to point out they slide only two slots versus other teams that dropped out of the poll is not a complete arguement.

The top of the poll is getting most of the Top 25 voters' points. Heck, my ballot has 22 of the 25 teams on it, which tells me a lot of voters are in agreement with the top 10 or 15 teams. The result: when the middle-of-the-poll teams take a hit, there isn't a ton of downward movement; when the bottom-of-the-poll teams take a hit, they will drop out. Just a couple of voters could switch their bottom ten around or move one or two teams out and you would have a different result on the bottom.

Look at the big picture and the entire story than just a narrow version of it.

[Ralph Turner]

...

UT-Dallas loses to Miss College and drops out from #19

WPI loses to Clark and drops out from #22

Mississippi College scares me more than any other ASC team.

WPI lost Concordia-Austin over the break.  I don't doubt that they aren't good.  I just think that the pabegg index at #13 is much too high!  I would like to see a WPI-UNE game to give me a better understanding.  (WPI is "indexed" above Elms and Salem State, both of whom have defeated the Engineers.)

[Titan Q]

Massey is now updated through the weekend's games.  It's top conferences are: #1 WIAC, #2 CCIW, #3 NWC, #4 MIAC, #5 UAA.

WIAC and CCIW teams in the Massey Top 25 are:

CCIW (6)
#7 Wheaton
#8 Elmhurst
#11 Augustana
#16 Carthage
#20 North Central
#25 Millikin

WIAC (5)
#2 UW-Platteville
#3 UW-Stevens Point
#6 UW-Whitewater
#21 UW-Oshkosh
#24 UW-Eau Claire


Carthage head coach Bosko Djurickovic said the following to the Milwaukee Journal Star last week:

"The league, right now, is better than it has ever been in all the years I've been around, and that is close to 40 now as a player and a coach," said Bosko Djurickovic, in his 13th season as Carthage coach. "The league has never been as good top to bottom."

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/statecolleges/39182127.html


It's been a fun league to follow from afar this year...but it would be more fun if my team was not starting 3 sophomores and 2 freshmen.  Not the right year to try to get away with that!  I may try to attend as many CCIW commencements as possible this May, personally seeing to it that the CCIW Class of 2009 takes a hike.

[Ralph Turner]

Good post, D-Mac!

Hmmm...

I had 23 teams on my poster poll that are on the Top 25, including my Top 22 , so I am not that incongruous with the national guys!

[sac]

It's been fun league to follow from afar this year.

I agree Q, I've enjoyed following it and even had all 4 CCIW livestat games up on the monitor Saturday night.


But the 'bigger picture' and Dave puts it is, this is not the first time the CCIW teams have been dealt with differently in the poll this year, nor will it probably be the last.

Like I said, just the facts.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Elmhurst loses for the 2nd time this season to unranked Millikin and drops 2 spots.

Augustana loses to Elmhurst and drops 2 spots.


Contrasted with

Capital loses to unranked Muskingum, and drops 6 spots

St. Norbert loses to unranked Monmouth and drops 8 spots.

UT-Dallas loses to Miss College and drops out from #19

Amherst loses to Rhode Island College and drops out from #20

WPI loses to Clark and drops out from #22

Just the facts.

Since the front page is highlighting the SOS rankings, today might not have been the most opportune time for this post!

While Augie is listed as only the 131st toughest schedule (which will rise with further conference play), Elmhurst is 18th (which puts them SIXTH among CCIW teams).

By contrast, Capital is 46th, WPI 49th, UT-Dallas 139th, Amherst 224th, and St. Norbert is 336th.

[But I'll toss ya a bone - Calvin is 357th! ]

[sac]

[But I'll toss ya a bone - Calvin is 357th! ]

Only because through the second half of the round-robin they've played the bottom 3 teams in the MIAA.

Their next 3 are Hope 8-3, Olivet 6-5, Albion 9-6

[Mr. Ypsi]

[But I'll toss ya a bone - Calvin is 357th! ]

Only because through the second half of the round-robin they've played the bottom 3 teams in the MIAA.

Their next 3 are Hope 8-3, Olivet 6-5, Albion 9-6

True, but I don't think they'll catch Hope's 96th.

[sac]

Probably not, but the only real difference between the two's SOS is going to be Wheaton (for Hope)  and the difference in each others in-region record.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Probably not, but the only real difference between the two's SOS is going to be Wheaton (for Hope)  and the difference in each others in-region record.

True, again.  And while there has to be somewhere an arbitrary cut-off point, it sucks for Calvin to miss by 2 miles (especially since I could definitely drive from Calvin to Wheaton in under 200 miles - I wouldn't, but I could).

[Pat Coleman]

Just (some of) the facts.