Top 25 talk

[Titan Q]

Quick reaction - awesome preseason poll!

The only thing I noticed that seems weird to me is the Wheaton votes. 

[Gregory Sager]

I see that Wheaton got 45 points in the preseason poll.

Perhaps Wheaton can oblige Pat by sending him copies of Aston Francis's diploma that he can pass along to those pollsters.

[Gregory Sager]

(Once again, great minds think alike, Bob.)

[Pat Coleman]

Perhaps Wheaton can oblige Pat by sending him copies of Aston Francis's diploma that he can pass along to those pollsters.

Bob can vouch for the fact that I was fairly outspoken with the voters about not voting based on last year's players if they are no longer in uniform.

[Pat Coleman]

Those votes came from just five people.

[Gregory Sager]

Yeah, but that's five pollsters who put Wheaton at an average of #17 on their ballots.

That's really negligent prep on their part, if you ask me.

[Titan Q]

Perhaps Wheaton can oblige Pat by sending him copies of Aston Francis's diploma that he can pass along to those pollsters.

Bob can vouch for the fact that I was fairly outspoken with the voters about not voting based on last year's players if they are no longer in uniform.

For sure...Pat's messaging was very clear.

I don't know who they are obviously, but I'm calling those 5 voters out for lazy voting. 

[Pat Coleman]

Sí.

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, I wasn't casting aspersions on you, Pat. I never doubt that you are annually straightforward with your pollsters this time of year about their responsibility to pay due diligence to this season's rosters as opposed to last season's.

[y_jack_lok]

Quick reaction - awesome preseason poll!

The only thing I noticed that seems weird to me is the Wheaton votes.

I feel the same about Randolph-Macon at #24 although, truthfully, I don't know much at all about the teams who received fewer votes. I guess I almost always expect NESCAC teams like Tufts and Williams to be at least as good as the top ODAC teams. But that just might reflect my lack of knowledge.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Quick reaction - awesome preseason poll!

The only thing I noticed that seems weird to me is the Wheaton votes.

I feel the same about Randolph-Macon at #24 although, truthfully, I don't know much at all about the teams who received fewer votes. I guess I almost always expect NESCAC teams like Tufts and Williams to be at least as good as the top ODAC teams. But that just might reflect my lack of knowledge.

I had RMC at 26 - last team off for me.  They lost a lot of seniors, but the underclassmen are VERY talented.  They'll be consistent and tough.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Finally chiming in ... I've been distracted with other things (including working postseason baseball!). I can explain more soon enough.

I am not blogging my ballot this preseason (for reasons I will explain ... like I said), but here is where I put teams.

1 - Swarthmore
2 - Emory
3 - Wash U
4 - UW-Oshkosh
5 - WPI
6 - Texas-Dallas
7 - North Central
8 - Amherst
9 - St. John's
10 - Middlebury
11 - Wabash
12 - Neb. Wesleyan
13 - Wittenberg
14 - UW-Platteville
15 - Augsburg
16 - Augustana
17 - Marietta
18 - Salem State
19 - Baldwin Wallace
20 - Oswego State
21 - Wooster
22 - Guilford
23 - St. John Fisher
24 - St. Thomas
25 - York (PA)

I am sure I am going to regret a few of those choices. I just didn't feel strongly about some teams. I felt up in the air about others. And some I decided to take a flyer on. We shall see when games begin. I will hopefully be up and running blog-wise by the first in-season ballot.

I did want to make a comment about Street and Smith. I finally had enough of their polls and DMed them on Twitter. They responded. And thanked me for my thoughts. It resulted in chatting with the head of the organization. Let's just say ... things will change, I suspect. I won't go into it now, but when I have coaches contacting me who are both in and out of the poll wondering what in the world is going on ... I think something has to be said. I think you will see a very different S&S preseason poll next year - they already made smart moves in football by having Keith McMillian of D3football.com (and the Washington Post) provide their preseason poll.

I will give S&S credit. I think they realized things had gone sideways with their smaller college coverage and were willing to be open to an "outsider's" point of view. They even admitted to me why they thought things had gone wrong. I look forward to the solution moving forward.

[monsoon]

Thanks, Dave.

[SpringSt7]

As someone who is northeast based, I have to say I don't quite understand all of the love for WPI. I understand they return a top player from injury and the majority of their lineup--but they were the 5 seed in the NEWMAC last season and didn't even make the conference championship game. Can someone please explain this to me?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

As someone who is northeast based, I have to say I don't quite understand all of the love for WPI. I understand they return a top player from injury and the majority of their lineup--but they were the 5 seed in the NEWMAC last season and didn't even make the conference championship game. Can someone please explain this to me?

They return 99% (+/-) of their scoring and usually when WPI has a unit that doesn't lose anyone (especially of note) they come together nicely and are a threat. Sure they didn't make the conference title game, but that conference is a dog fight every year and MIT, Springfield, and Babson were tough. They all might be tough once again, but they also all had larger question marks returning.

That said, I know I put them high and then crossed my fingers. When expectations have been high in the past, they haven't met those expectations. They also have had a habit of peaking early. However, those teams are this team and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt right now.