Top 25 talk

[Pat Coleman]

So as I understand it, you are going to the mat over one person voting Middlebury 17th? Over Amherst, which received literally 0.46 percent of the vote?

It's never been a secret how voters are selected: In the eight-region format, they were set up as one coach, one SID and one media member in each region. Obviously some of that shuffles in the 10-region era, so we have to make do.

I look for people who have coached/worked in more than one region whenever possible. Newbies to D-III are not invited. Schools that don't send content to D3hoops.com are not typically rewarded with a slot on the panel. (This is not news either; I've posted that to Twitter in the past.)

Do coaches typically follow the most recent season's results in creating a preseason ballot? Any perusal of a conference preseason poll should garner that answer for you. Yeah. It happens. Occasionally one or two of our coach voters especially might be too heavily reliant on the previous year.

None of that is "a lot of voters mailing it in" or "pretty bad and useless" or "half the panel just wrote down last year's tournament results" as you have variously described it on multiple boards here.

So yes: I reject the premise.

Here's another nugget for you: We solicit information from dozens of schools. Not all of them actually reply, and some of them need to be asked three times before they do. So not everyone -- especially coaches who kind of have their own programs to worry about -- may have at their fingertips all the information you deem that they should. Nonetheless, we are not going to do a poll without coaches, or without SIDs, because just to have our staff and the other people whose ballots you see posted to Twitter would not be a credible poll, either.

[Greek Tragedy]

SpringSt7

If you feel inclined, we ran a Poster's Top 25 Poll a few years ago. In the hay day, we probably had 15 or more posters participating. It was created, not to compete with the site's respected poll, but just to give posters their own opinion.

[SpringSt7]

I'm not interested in being a part of a poll because I don't have the requisite knowledge to participate. I'm also not going to the mat over Middlebury it was merely my example because it was one of instances I felt most comfortable on.

If getting coaches from every region and coaches that also have a wide variety of experience around the country then great, thanks for answering my question. In a perfect world obviously those coaches would be the most knowledgeable and have the most to offer in a poll.

My intention, and I'm sorry if it came across as otherwise, was just to illustrate that it seems like some of these voters take it a lot more seriously and put a lot more time into it than others.

As I type this out however, it would kind of be cool if we had a media and a coach's poll though. Sounds like it would be hard to pull off in the current format.

[Pat Coleman]

Years ago there was a coaches' poll, but the NABC gave up doing it because ours was more accurate. Agreed that I wouldn't mind if there were more than one quality poll, but the old NABC poll had way too many stipulations for voters and required it to be tied to the regional rankings, which was just ... not a good idea.

[Pat Coleman]

... some of these voters take it a lot more seriously and put a lot more time into it than others.

If you had actually said this, I would have agreed with you. Although I think they all take it seriously, some certainly put more time into it than others do.

[SpringSt7]

I kind of figured if we were talking in the Top 25 talk thread we would all have a basic knowledge of how much effort some of the media members put into their poll. Hell, there are people who don't get a vote that put an impressive amount of time in as well/

[Pat Coleman]

I kind of figured if we were talking in the Top 25 talk thread we would all have a basic knowledge of how much effort some of the media members put into their poll.

But again -- what you said was "a lot of voters mailing it in" and that just isn't the case. If you say what you mean next time, I'll object less.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The other thing to remember is that, with 25 voters, no individual ballot makes much difference on its own. Whitworth is 19th with what many believe is an odd and surprising #1 vote. If that voter had left Whitworth off their ballot entirely, Whitworth would still be 19th.

Are there voters who frustrate me with what I perceive to be less informed ballots? Yes. Are there enough of those to make any measurable difference in the poll? Not even close.

Preseason polls are not my favorite, but come December I really appreciate the outliers, because they provide perspective on what can easily become tunnel vision.

[SpringSt7]

Pat I'll be totally honest my brain just skipped over how the votes equate to points. That's my bad. A couple ill-researched teams placed down ballot probably isn't the biggest deal. I still stand by my original point that some of the panelists could make a greater effort if there are only going to be 25 of them.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Pat I'll be totally honest my brain just skipped over how the votes equate to points. That's my bad. A couple ill-researched teams placed down ballot probably isn't the biggest deal. I still stand by my original point that some of the panelists could make a greater effort if there are only going to be 25 of them.

And there are still a few stalwarts who believe you get to keep your ranking until you lose it, giving programs a chance to replace graduates without losing status. You might disagree with that approach, but it's certainly valid.

[jknezek]

SpringSt7

If you feel inclined, we ran a Poster's Top 25 Poll a few years ago. In the hay day, we probably had 15 or more posters participating. It was created, not to compete with the site's respected poll, but just to give posters their own opinion.

If there are posters interested I'll run a fan poll. However, I know almost nothing about basketball, and all I know about D3 basketball is R-MC is usually good and my W&L Generals... well, I'm happy when the headline says they won. So I would not be a voter.

I do, however, run Polls in 2 other spots on this board. So if someone wants to round up some voters, let me know. I don't even know the basketball posters, so I don't know who to approach.

[Titan Q]

My conversation with RMC Head MBB coach Josh Merkel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt62jK0zrao

0:00 Excitement for 2021-22
1:02 Incredible success at RMC
4:14 2019-20 D3 tourney cancellation
7:45 2019-20 Sweet 16 matchup w/ Yeshiva
9:30 2020-21 season
13:12 Trine game
16:42 Feeling more normal heading into 2021-22
18:17 What does the #1-ranking mean?
20:58 Parity in D3 MBB
22:58 Buzz Anthony (All-American)
25:49 Miles Mallory
27:22 Ian Robertson, Josh Talbert, David Funderburg
29:30 Feeling good with this nucleus
30:25 2021-22 schedule, scheduling great competition
34:12 The ODAC
36:58 Final thoughts

[HOPEful]

The other thing to remember is that, with 25 voters, no individual ballot makes much difference on its own. Whitworth is 19th with what many believe is an odd and surprising #1 vote.

TBH, that one's even odder than 3 votes for ETBU and 1 for Amherst on the women's side

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The other thing to remember is that, with 25 voters, no individual ballot makes much difference on its own. Whitworth is 19th with what many believe is an odd and surprising #1 vote.

TBH, that one's even odder than 3 votes for ETBU and 1 for Amherst on the women's side

Or, maybe they know more than the rest of us?

[Titan Q]

My conversation with Raul Placeres, Head MBB Coach at #23-Maryville (TN).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXOrGYsNoY

0:00 Raul's path to Maryville
3:41 Growing up in Miami
6:03 Mariel Boatlift; parents decision to leave Cuba
7:59 Playing professional basketball; becoming a HS head coach
9:56 Joining Coach Lambert's staff at Maryville
11:38 Maryville's D3 tradition
13:33 2020-21 season - winning the conf regular season and tourney
15:19 Loaded 2021-22 roster (including 2 D1 transfers)
18:51 2021-22 schedule
22:41 Scheduling philosophy
25:15 Difference in D3 MBB geographies; impact on recruiting
29:21 USA South conference
31:21 Travel in D3
32:31 Preseason #23 ranking
33:52 Building a culture at Maryville
35:34 Cafecito
36:39 Final thoughts