Top 25 talk

[augie_superfan]

Not really a top 25 question, but does anyone know when the first NCAA regional rankings come out?

[Ralph Turner]

February 8th is the first of 3 NCAA Regional Rankings.

[albionbritfan]

I think Albion's beatdown of Hope and Hope's subsequent drubbing of Calvin will get Albion over the 30-some vote gap between Albion and Woo from last week's poll.

What this perspective ignores is that Albion just barely squeezed by a very average Alma team yesterday.  A 3 point win against a very average Alma team doesn't convince me that Albion should suddenly jump over Wooster in the poll.

Alma got beat by Denison on a neutral court in the last 2 weeks and Denison is in the bottom half of the NCAC.  Albion beating Alma by 3 points is unimpressive to say the least.

Top 5 in my opinion:

#1 Wittenberg
#2 Wooster
#3 Albion
#4 Hope
#5 Lawrence  

WSF-
My perspective also ignored that Albion beat BW on a neutral court and BW beat Woo at home.  I really don't care honestly if Woo is #2 and Albion is #3 or vice versa.  It will be close (less than a dozen points either way, if anyone wants to take the over/under) and it is irrelevant at this point.  Time will tell who should rank at the top.

[sac]

You all should become lobbyists. 

I'm voting

!. Albion
2. Wooster
3. Wittenberg
4. Lawrence
5. Hope

....and I feel comfortable with that.

[hugenerd]

Is it just me, or does Lawrence seem a bit untested.  They have played only one team with a winning record in their last 10 games and only 3 overall (Grinnell, Milwaukee Engineering and UW Oshkosh).  Not to compare them to any other teams, but there were some unbeaten teams earlier this season that were ranked extremely high that have had some interesting results recently.  Also, they don't play anyone other than Carroll and Grinell (who they already beat at home) who have winning records the rest of the season (I guess Carroll will be a test in their next game, but again it will be at home). I guess what I am trying to say is that it is hard to know how good a team is when they don't play more than a couple tough games after November.  Just a thought...

[Ralph Turner]

You all should become lobbyists. 

I'm voting

!. Albion
2. Wooster
3. Wittenberg
4. Lawrence
5. Hope

....and I feel comfortable with that.

Those are my top 5 as well.

[John Gleich]

Week in review:

#1 Wittenberg 14-1, Beat Earlham and Hiram
#2 Hope 14-1, Lost at #4 Albion, beat Calvin
#3 Wooster 14-1, Won at Allegheny and Wabash
#4 Albion 13-1, Beat #2 Hope, won at Alma
#5 IWU 12-2, Won at Milikin, lost at Elmhurst
#6 Lawrence 12-0, Beat Grinnell and Lake Forrest
#7 Puget Sound 12-2, Beat Whitworth and Whitman
#8 Amherst 10-2, Beat Wesleyan, Lost to Trinity
#9 York (PA) 13-1, Beat Marymount and St. Marys (MD)
#10 Augustana 14-1, Beat Wheaton, won at Carthage
#11 Hampden Sydney 12-2, lost at #14 Randolph Macon, lost at Roanoke, beat Washington and Lee
#12 North Central 12-1, Won at North Park, Lost at Millikin
#13 Baldwin Wallace 13-2, Won at John Carroll, beat Marietta
#14 Randolph Macon 13-3, won at Hampden Sydney, Lost to Virginia Wesleyan
#15 WPI 13-1, Beat Fitchburg St., won at Springfield
#16 Carnegie Mellon 13-1, won at Christopher Newport
#17 Wilmington 12-3, Lost to Muskingum, lost at Mount Union
#18 UW Stout 12-4, Lost to UW River Falls, beat #23 UW Whitewater
#19 Wartburg 12-2, Beat Central, won at Simpson, won at Dubuque
#20 St. John Fisher 11-2, Beat Geneseo St. and Brockport St., won at Rochester
#21 Bluffton 13-2, Beat Franklin, lost at #25 Transylvania
#22 Mississippi College 12-1, won at LeTourneau, won at ETBU
#23 UW Whitewater 11-3 , Won at UW Platteville, lost at #18 UW Stout
#24 Occidental 11-1 , Beat La Verne and Cal Lutheran
#25 Transylvania 12-3 , Lost at Mt. St. Joseph, Beat #21 Bluffton

[iwumichigander]

Nevertheless, you can't just dismiss league standings out of hand ... and when a team already has a two-game lead in the standings over another team only four games deep into the conference season, it's almost unavoidable that the pollsters will take that into account as well.

If you dismiss the league standings then you dismiss the how they played.   Gosh, all you would have is ... HISTORY.  And, of course, you could then have a bias

BUt then I could be confused because aren't the league standings and the game played history anyway?!

[Gregory Sager]

If you dismiss the league standings then you dismiss the how they played.   Gosh, all you would have is ... HISTORY.  And, of course, you could then have a bias

BUt then I could be confused because aren't the league standings and the game played history anyway?!

I dunno, IWM, but if it makes you feel any better rest assured that you've confused me pretty thoroughly. 

I'm voting

!. Albion
2. Wooster
3. Wittenberg
4. Lawrence
5. Hope

....and I feel comfortable with that.

Is that a martyr's robe that your wearing underneath your yellow HOF blazer? 

Is it just me, or does Lawrence seem a bit untested. They have played only one team with a winning record in their last 10 games and only 3 overall (Grinnell, Milwaukee Engineering and UW Oshkosh). Not to compare them to any other teams, but there were some unbeaten teams earlier this season that were ranked extremely high that have had some interesting results recently. Also, they don't play anyone other than Carroll and Grinell (who they already beat at home) who have winning records the rest of the season (I guess Carroll will be a test in their next game, but again it will be at home). I guess what I am trying to say is that it is hard to know how good a team is when they don't play more than a couple tough games after November. Just a thought...

Hugenerd, I dare you to post this in the room of the Rodney Dangerfield League, aka the Midwest Conference. They'll come after you with the pitchforks and torches so fast it'll make your head spin. 

[John Gleich]

They'll come after you with the pitchforks and torches so fast it'll make your head spin. 

Or they'll throw a haiku at you...     

[Gregory Sager]

They'll come after you with the pitchforks and torches so fast it'll make your head spin. 

Or they'll throw a haiku at you...     

Even worse.

BTW, PS, you've got Illinois Wesleyan losing to #12 Elmhurst in your Top 25 wrapup, but Elmhurst wasn't ranked last week. And the first OAC school to beat #17 Wilmington last week was Muskingum, not "Muskingham". A nice job overall, though, and a useful aid for those who wish to participate in the Mr. Ypsi posters' poll.

[hugenerd]

Is it just me, or does Lawrence seem a bit untested. They have played only one team with a winning record in their last 10 games and only 3 overall (Grinnell, Milwaukee Engineering and UW Oshkosh). Not to compare them to any other teams, but there were some unbeaten teams earlier this season that were ranked extremely high that have had some interesting results recently. Also, they don't play anyone other than Carroll and Grinell (who they already beat at home) who have winning records the rest of the season (I guess Carroll will be a test in their next game, but again it will be at home). I guess what I am trying to say is that it is hard to know how good a team is when they don't play more than a couple tough games after November. Just a thought...

Hugenerd, I dare you to post this in the room of the Rodney Dangerfield League, aka the Midwest Conference. They'll come after you with the pitchforks and torches so fast it'll make your head spin. 

I am not trying to piss anyone off, but I think it isnt hard to argue that they have had a weaker schedule than the rest of the top 10.  Only playing 1 game against a top 25 team the whole season, and playing them in your first game (Oshkosh was #2 at the time but has since dropped out completely), doesn't really tell you much about how your team stacks up against the other top 25 teams.  I know alot of teams are in this boat because of weaker conferences but only time will tell where someone should be ranked.

[John Gleich]

Thanks GS... I thought I had it right, but I figured I'd probably get a couple wrong (I mean, 25 teams, most played two games, I got two wrong... that's only 4% error, is that acceptable?  )

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Thanks GS... I thought I had it right, but I figured I'd probably get a couple wrong (I mean, 25 teams, most played two games, I got two wrong... that's only 4% error, is that acceptable?  )

The key is to find them yourself and utilize the edit function... that's how I get by each week.

[hugenerd]

I just checked this and I could not pass up the oppurtunity to mention it. The new Wolfe Rankings are out and guess who is #1:

============================================================================
Rank Team                     Div        W  L    PF   PA     Rating    Chg
============================================================================
    1 Carnegie Mellon          NCAA-III  13  1  1244 1071      2.248      2
    2 Wittenberg               NCAA-III  14  1  1045  789      2.118    -16
    3 Lawrence                 NCAA-III  12  0   969  777      2.099     34
    4 Baldwin-Wallace          NCAA-III  13  2  1358 1178      1.847     27
    5 Illinois Wesleyan        NCAA-III  12  2  1091  927      1.767    -84
    6 Wooster                  NCAA-III  14  1  1533 1176      1.754     31
    7 Augustana IL             NCAA-III  14  1  1073  908      1.734      0
    8 North Central IL         NCAA-III  12  1  1067  813      1.728   -138
    9 Albion                   NCAA-III  13  1  1056  924      1.672     57
   10 Hope                     NCAA-III  14  1  1169  919      1.666    -40

(sorry if the formatting sucks because I just copied and pasted the table)

UAA is also the highest ranked conference, followed by the NESCAC, WIAC, CCIW, and NEWMAC.

http://prwolfe.bol.ucla.edu/cbasketball/ratings.htm

Scroll down to rank by division, its easier that way.

The new rankings for Massey aren't out for this week yet, but it will be interesting to see where they have everyone.