Top 25 talk

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I think they have proven the exception a number of times LOL

But again... way too high this season.

[nescac1]

I'll agree that Williams is way too high this season ... with Robinson, I'd put them second, but losing the best returning player in the country unexpectedly, not to mention the best center in the country due to graduation, and a nationally-elite coach, is just too much to overcome -- I do think they have top-25 talent, but top 5 talent?  Not for a few years at least, probably, because of the rough off-season. 

In the past, though, hard to say Williams has EVER been over-ranked considering they ended the season in Salem 4 of the past 5 years, including two national championship games, with the only exception being a year when they were absolutely devastated by injuries to almost every key guy on the roster.  Williams in fact tends to generally exceed, not fail to meet, pre-season expectations ... which is why they probably received the (admittedly suspect) benefit of the doubt this season. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I guess it comes down to how one looks at the poll.  I tend to see it as a representation of the current state of affairs; others see it as predictive of the final poll.  Williams almost always improves over the course of the season - thus a final four finish doesn't necessarily negate a lower pre-season ranking.

I did think they were one of the top two teams going into last season.  Even with the loss to Whitewater, I still would have ranked them #1 at the end.

At the same time, most years, they improve over the course of the season.  Which means the high ranking probably means most voters look at the Top 25 different than I would.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Augie got out to a quick start at Bradley and held on at the end to take the exhibition.  Obviously its still an exhibition, but Augie won the battle in the paint against a D1 opponent in a mid-level conference.  Pretty impressive.

[Mr. Ypsi]

That IS impressive.  While it is no longer the case, I well remember when Bradley was a national championship contender.

But I can't help wondering, does this say more about Augie or Bradley?

[sac]

Bradley was picked 8th in the 10 team Missouri Valley.  With 11 upper class players.  The Missouri Valley has produced some pretty good teams that have done damage in the tournament lately, such as Wichita State.

[Gregory Sager]

One thing to keep in mind, though, was that Bradley was missing two starters last night.

It's still a great achievement by Augie, but it's not Chaminade beating Ralph Sampson's Virginia team.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Exhibition is exhibition.  The Bradley guys came in underestimating Augie and had to work to catch up, which they did pretty quickly. From there on out it looked like the coach was experimenting with lineups.  It wasn't a true game, but still one most d3 teams lose by 25.

[smedindy]

Many teams just futz around with combinations in exhibitions. This goes for D-2 and D-3 teams along with D-1 teams.

Still, though.,..good for Augie.

Michigan State beat St. Cloud State 101-46 - yikes!

[Titan Q]

Exhibition is exhibition.  The Bradley guys came in underestimating Augie and had to work to catch up, which they did pretty quickly. From there on out it looked like the coach was experimenting with lineups.  It wasn't a true game, but still one most d3 teams lose by 25.

I agree that the Bradley players probably underestimated Division III Augustana -- that seems pretty natural when DI and DIII meet.  But I don't think your other points are a very accurate depiction of what happened Thursday night.

Regarding catching up quickly, it's not like Augie got out to a huge lead and then Bradley decided to start playing and easily cut into it from that point on. Augustana led by 12 midway through the 1st, and the lead was down to 4 at the half, and then 3 in the opening minutes of the 2nd.  But Augie went on a 7-0 run at that point and Bradley was never closer than 3 until the final seconds of the game.  The final margin of 2 points is fairly misleading, as Augie controlled the final minutes of the game and was never in any real jeopardy of losing.

Regarding experimenting with lineups, if you're suggesting Bradley was just kind of testing combinations out for real games and not necessarily worried about beating Augustana, I'm confident that was not the case.  I listened to the Bradley broadcast, including Geno Ford's postgame interview, and Ford was pushing every button he could to win this game.  He mentioned "struggling to handle Augustana's size" (Bradley had 1 low post FG in the game), "having a hard time with their defensive pressure", and "not able to contain the point guard."  Ford substituted a lot, but he said he was looking for combinations that would work vs the trouble Augie was causing them. 

Finally, regarding the above point, Bradley did not want to lose this game.  It is a huge embarrassment for Geno Ford and the Bradley program to lose to a local Division III team -- it's not like losing to some DII team 7 states away that BU fans have never heard of where you can sort of write it off.  Bradley fans know about CCIW teams like Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana pretty well, and believe their mid-major Braves team should crush these type of DIII teams.  (I am good friends with many Bradley and Illinois State fans and know very well what they think of CCIW teams relative to the Missouri Valley.)  In fact, I was surprised to learn this game was scheduled.  IWU has been trying to schedule Bradley for years now, and they won't play the Titans.  Playing good CCIW teams is considered a "no win" situation for Division I teams like Bradley and Illinois State -- you are expected to win by 25, and a loss is a disaster.  Grey Giovanine was only able to get this scheduled because Bradley assistant Ronald Coleman played for Giovanine at DI Lamar.  I am 100% sure that Geno Ford was doing absolutely everything necessary to win this game -- what happened Thursday is nothing short of an enormous embarrassment for Bradley basketball, and they knew going in that a loss would be.

With Bradley missing two starters, the talent gap between the Division III Vikings (who might be the best team in Division III this year, and who have the size and some other attributes to play with a DI) and Division I Braves is just not very big -- in fact, two Augie players were consistently highlighted by the Bradley radio guys as the "best players on the floor" and "two guys we could use this year" -- crazy long and athletic Tayvian Johnson (a 6-6 F) and PG Hunter Hill.  Also consider Augie is an experienced, veteran team returning their entire 2013-14 rotation, while Bradley is still piecing their 2014-15 together.  In my opinion, that's why Augie was able to win the game...not because Bradley wasn't trying hard to win the game or experimenting with lineups.

[David Collinge]

Also it's not like Geno Ford is a stranger to D3. For two years he was the head coach at Muskingum,  where his father was a superstar player and is the current head coach. Geno scheduled Muskingum (and perhaps other OAC schools) when he was at Kent State, and at Bradley he has played Wooster.

[David Collinge]

#10 Wooster had no problem dispatching #20 Cabrini, 97-80 at Wooster. The two all-Americans were overshadowed by Wooster's Evan Pannell (23 points, 4-4 from deep) and Josh Kipfer (26 points, 15 rebounds). By comparison, Xavier Brown, nursing a sore ankle, was held to 4 points, all on free throws, while Cabrini's Aaron Walton-Moss tallied 16 points (8 per half) before fouling out on a technical. Cabrini's last lead was at 9-8; the Scots led by 14 at the half and held a double-digit lead for the last 26+ minutes.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

We all knew the preseason poll was off.  Day one - Augustana barely escapes Albion at home.  IWU and Williams lose.  It's like there just isn't a Top 10.  Can we rank 11-25 instead?

[John Gleich]

#7 UWSP struggles (trailing at 5 at the half) but pulls out the W for their 20th straight home opener victory, 70-57 over St. Johns

#1 Whitewater falls to NAIA in-state rival Cardinal Stritch 71-66

Cardinal Stritch is (was?) ranked #2 in NAIA, but started off their season 1-3 before topping the Warhawks in Whitewater.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Richard Stockton squeaked by Wilkes.  I'm going to attempt to brave South Jersey for their game against Albertus Magnus (who looked great against weak competition).