Top 25 talk

[Mr. Ypsi]

Darryl, if they still don't get any votes this week, another team you might add to the 'watch list' is Cabrini.  Good teams from weak conferences are always a problem for evaluation; in this case the problem is intensified by the addition mid-season of ROY Walton-Moss.  They haven't yet made my PP ballot (largely because, as Hoops Fan noted, their loss to Wesley was WITH Walton-Moss), but they are clearly NOT the same team that quickly dropped from highly ranked to zero votes before his return.

Their biggest problem in getting re-ranked is that, playing in the CSAC, they will have essentially no chance to 'show what they've got' before the tourney.

[smedindy]

Now are you just suggesting these teams so you don't have to look up their results on the intarwebs? 

I've got a few I'm tracking that's not on this list, even someone I voted for in the PP, but I'm not a pesterer. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Darryl,

What are your thoughts on the following 13 teams...

(Is this pestering?) 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

We want to consider Cabrini who barely got past 3-11 Marywood at home Saturday? Most of Cabrini's losses are, granted, not bad... but Immaculata is 5-7 and the Cavs have struggled against others as well. Walton-Moss' return is certainly good for the team, but they don't seem to be in sync thus I wouldn't consider them for the Top 25 at this point. There are a number of 4-loss teams I would consider before Cabrini (Virginia Wesleyan, Transylvania, Wesley to name a few).

[sac]

Wesley lost to York, Pa.   York, Pa lost to Kalamazoo.

this would give me great pause about Wesley.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Well... since that York loss (on 12/8)... Wesley has won 9 straight including against Eastern Mennonite, Virginia Wesleyan, and St. Mary's on Saturday... that at least allowed me to consider Wesley.

[smedindy]

Well, it all revolves around your definition of 'considering'. You really 'consider' all 400+ teams - most of them you consider them not in the Top 25 conversation! 

[AndOne]

I agree with St Thomas as the current #1 team and with Rochester at #2. However, I think Whitworth should be #3 rather than Middlebury, and North Central should be #4. There is no way Middlebury should be ranked above either Whitworth or even North Central.
To date, Middlebury's opponents have a combined record of 78-107
North Central's opponents have a combined record of 124-98, and No. Central has defeated teams that were ranked #7, 10, 8, and 17 at the time they played. Given this, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that Middlebury is ranked above No. Central.
Am I missing something? 

[frank uible]

Middlebury receives its ranking through a mammoth northeast conspiracy.

[smedindy]

I have Middlebury ranked #5 in my poster's poll ballot mainly because their power ratings and SOS aren't that strong. In Massey, they're 30th with a 281 SOS. They're 17th in David Wilson's system. I think they're better than that, but it's hard to gauge, really with that schedule.

[gordonmann]

Cabrini got its stud back, but the Cavs don't have Arron Goodman any more.  The freshman, who was averaging 15.1 ppg and 9.4 rpg, isn't on the roster.  Mailsy on the CSAC board mentioned that Goodman left the school because it wasn't a good fit for him.

I was looking forward to seeing Walton-Moss and Goodman play together this semester.

[smedindy]

It's almost refreshing that an athlete decides to move from a school because he didn't fit there. Wow, it's almost like he was a student first and was looking out for his academics. Oh, wait, this is D3! 

Sad for Cabrini though but these things happen.

[KnightSlappy]

I have Middlebury ranked #5 in my poster's poll ballot mainly because their power ratings and SOS aren't that strong. In Massey, they're 30th with a 281 SOS. They're 17th in David Wilson's system. I think they're better than that, but it's hard to gauge, really with that schedule.

According to Massey, they've not played a Top-100 D3 team. They've won three of their last four games by one possession. A Top-5 team should win nearly all these games by double digits, not merely 50% of them.

[mailsy]

Cabrini got its stud back, but the Cavs don't have Arron Goodman any more.  The freshman, who was averaging 15.1 ppg and 9.4 rpg, isn't on the roster.  Mailsy on the CSAC board mentioned that Goodman left the school because it wasn't a good fit for him.

I was looking forward to seeing Walton-Moss and Goodman play together this semester.

As was I. That would have been fun to watch.

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared (So Far)

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	618	St. Thomas	16-0	won at St. Olaf, 94-64; def. Macalester, 92-53
#2	585	Rochester	14-0	01/18 at Carnegie Mellon; 01/20 at Case Western Reserve
#3	583	Middlebury	14-0	won at Castleton State, 54-38; 01/18 vs. Hamilton
#4	533	Whitworth	14-1	01/18 vs. Willamette; 01/19 vs. Linfield
#5	519	North Central (Ill.)	15-1	def. Millikin, 66-44; 01/19 at North Park
#6	501	WPI	17-0	def. Clark, 57-45; 01/19 vs. #32 MIT
#7	475	UW-Stevens Point	15-2	def. UW-Platteville, 65-60; 01/19 at UW-River Falls
#8	390	Wooster	13-2	def. Allegheny, 92-68; 01/19 at #9 Ohio Wesleyan
#9	379	Ohio Wesleyan	13-2	LOST at Hiram, 65-78; 01/19 vs. #8 Wooster
#10	343	Williams	15-1	won at Lyndon State, 90-59; 01/20 at Hamilton
#11	334	Catholic	14-2	def. Susquehanna, 82-65; 01/19 vs. #42 Scranton
#12	324	Ramapo	15-2	def. York (N.Y.), 78-52; def. New Jersey City, 60-54; 01/19 vs. Rutgers-Camden
#13	283	Washington U.	11-3	01/18 vs. New York University; 01/20 vs. #27 Brandeis
#14	245	St. Mary's (Md.)	15-2	won at Mary Washington, 58-54; 01/19 vs. Salisbury
#15	241	UW-Whitewater	13-3	def. UW-Oshkosh, 68-50; 01/19 vs. T#40 UW-Stout
#16	229	Amherst	13-2	def. Wesleyan, 66-58; 01/18 vs. Bowdoin; 01/19 vs. Colby
#17	224	Christopher Newport	12-2	01/19 vs. Maryville (Tenn.)
#18	221	Illinois Wesleyan	13-3	won at North Park, 86-59; 01/19 at Millikin
#19	183	Albertus Magnus	13-1	def. Suffolk, 95-76; 01/17 at Mount Ida; 01/19 vs. Emerson
#20	180	Wheaton (Ill.)	13-3	won at #23 Augustana, 86-67; 01/19 at Carthage
#21	85	Calvin	14-2	def. Hope, 75-49; 01/19 at Trine
#22	71	Guilford	14-2	def. #30 Randolph, 69-65; 01/19 at Washington and Lee
#23	68	Augustana	12-4	LOST to #20 Wheaton (Ill.), 67-86; 01/19 vs. Elmhurst
#24	67	Stevens	12-1	def. Merchant Marine, 66-56; 01/18 vs. Nazareth; 01/19 vs. Houghton
#25	62	Rhode Island College	13-2	won at Mass-Dartmouth, 70-64; 01/19 at Plymouth State

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	59	Franklin and Marshall	13-3	won at Johns Hopkins, 76-71; 01/19 vs. McDaniel
#27	53	Brandeis	12-2	01/18 at Chicago; 01/20 at #13 Washington U.
#28	46	Hampden-Sydney	14-2	def. Randolph-Macon, 70-60; 01/19 at Eastern Mennonite
#29	42	Rose-Hulman	14-2	won at Franklin, 58-42; 01/19 vs. Bluffton
#30	29	Randolph	13-2	LOST at #22 Guilford, 65-69; 01/19 vs. Bridgewater (Va.)
#31	28	Transylvania	12-4	def. Mount St. Joseph, 53-42; 01/19 vs. Anderson
#32	27	MIT	12-3	01/19 at #6 WPI
#33	25	NYU	12-2	01/18 at #13 Washington U.; 01/20 at Chicago
#34	19	Virginia Wesleyan	11-4	def. Eastern Mennonite, 60-55; 01/19 at Roanoke
#35	13	UW-La Crosse	12-5	LOST at T#40 UW-Stout, 55-63; 01/19 vs. UW-Eau Claire
#36	10	Adrian	13-3	def. Alma, 74-73; 01/19 vs. Kalamazoo
#37	9	Wesley	15-4	won at Salisbury, 70-64
#38	7	St. Norbert	11-3	won at Beloit, 66-56; 01/19 vs. Cornell
#39	5	Carroll	11-4	LOST to Lake Forest, 53-74
T#40	3	Concordia (Texas)	12-3	01/17 at Schreiner; 01/19 at Texas Lutheran
T#40	3	UW-Stout	13-3	def. #35 UW-La Crosse, 63-55; 01/19 at #15 UW-Whitewater
#42	2	Scranton	12-4	LOST to Drew, 69-72; 01/19 at #11 Catholic
T#43	1	Wittenberg	12-4	won at Wabash, 50-45; 01/19 vs. Hiram
T#43	1	Capital	11-5	LOST to Marietta, 68-69; 01/19 at Baldwin-Wallace

Other teams to watch (as suggested by posters on this board)

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
---	---	Cabrini	11-4	won at Gwynedd-Mercy, 93-80; 01/19 at Keystone

Darryl, if they still don't get any votes this week, another team you might add to the 'watch list' is Cabrini.  Good teams from weak conferences are always a problem for evaluation; in this case the problem is intensified by the addition mid-season of ROY Walton-Moss.  They haven't yet made my PP ballot (largely because, as Hoops Fan noted, their loss to Wesley was WITH Walton-Moss), but they are clearly NOT the same team that quickly dropped from highly ranked to zero votes before his return.

Their biggest problem in getting re-ranked is that, playing in the CSAC, they will have essentially no chance to 'show what they've got' before the tourney.

Despite the ensuing discussion about whether Cabrini was worth further consideration, it takes little effort on my part to add a team to the list, so here you go.