Top 25 talk

[David Collinge]

Top 25 News and Notes, Vol. VIII, Issue 111

Two weeks into the season, and we still have 53 teams receiving votes.  This week the top 25 saw a shake-up, including at the top, but the inevitable shake-out is still on the horizon.

Congratulations to the new #1 team, a familiar name to readers of this column: the College of Wooster.  Although Wooster is almost a permanent member of the top 10 (having been ranked there 81 times in 111 polls), it is actually only the 6th week that the Fighting Scots have reached the top step of the ladder.  In the 2000-01 season, they reached the top in Week 12, and lost to arch-rival Wittenberg that weekend.  In the 2004-05 season, the Scots became #1 on two separate occasions (Weeks 7 and 13), and both times lost to Wittenberg that week.  Then last season, when Wittenberg was #1, #2 Wooster knocked them off to take over the top spot.  So who is on the Scots' schedule this week?  I mean, besides Oberlin?  That's right, #6 Wittenberg.  Stay tuned to this channel for further developments. 

Debutantes:

• #8 Whitworth has reached the top 10 for the first time in poll history; and
• #20 Averett broke into the top 25 for the first time ever, in just their second week receiving votes.

Congratulations to the Pirates and Cougars!

Streakers:
In nabbing the poll's top two spots, Wooster and Amherst extended their record streaks:

• #1 Wooster is in the top 10 for the 41st consecutive week, and received votes for the 111th straight time, and
• #2 Amherst is in the top 25 for the 66th consecutive week.

Elsewhere,

• #2 Amherst is in the top 10 for the 10th straight week;
• #4 Virginia Wesleyan and #10 Lincoln are in the the top 25 for the 10th consecutive time each;
• #25 UW-Whitewater received votes for the 80th consecutive week; 
• Baldwin-Wallace received votes for the 20th consecutive week, but had their streak of top 25 appearances snapped at 15 straight.

Congratulations to these great programs!

High-Water Marks:

• #8 Whitworth, #17 Bates, and #20 Averett each set new highest-ever-ranked marks in this poll;
• #3 Ohio Northern, #5 St. Thomas, and #10 Lincoln each tied their highest ranking ever (ONU, Week 14 of 2000-01; UST, 4 weeks in the 2001-02 season; and Lincoln, last year's final poll.)

Congratulations on these achievements!

Milestones:

• #3 Ohio Northern is a top 10 team for the 10th time;
• #5 St. Thomas is a top 25 team for the 40th time;
• #13 Mississippi College received votes for the 60th time;
• #9 Lawrence received votes for the 50th time; and
• Keene St. received votes for the 30th time.

Congratulations to these teams, and to all who continue to make this such a great game! 

[Titan Q]

Another nice win for the CCIW as Elmhurst defeats #14 UW-Oshkosh...

http://athletics.elmhurst.edu/home/news/4837931.html

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  #1 Wooster 95  Oberlin 76

Wooster gets the road win over Oberlin.  Scots had 6 players in double figure points tonight led by Tom Port and James Cooper each with 17 points.  Wooster made 10 three pointers tonight.

Wooster is now 6-0.  Next up is #6 Wittenberg at Springfield on Saturday!

GO SCOTS!

[Greek Tragedy]

Point wins a barnburner at Quandt against Whitewater...3-pter at the buzzer by Brian Beamish wins it 75-73. 

[wooscotsfan]

Final: #1 Wooster 68  #6 Wittenberg 65  

Wooster gets a very nice road win at Witt by hitting two big three point shots in the last 2 minutes of the game.  They also nailed two critical free throws with 7 seconds remaining.

Wooster was led by Brandon Johnson with 18 points, Tom Port with 13 points and James Cooper with 11 points.

Wooster is now 7-0.  Next up is NAIA Cedarville next Saturday.

GO SCOTS!

[David Collinge]

Here's a roundup of this week's top 25 scores (Dec. 4-10):

#1 Wooster (7-0) won at Oberlin 95-76 and won at #6 Wittenberg 68-65
#2 Amherst (7-0) won at MIT 79-47 and def. Brandeis 84-74
#3 Ohio Northern (6-1) won at Heidelberg 75-70 and lost to Baldwin-Wallace 94-77
#4 Virginia Wesleyan (6-1) won at Bridgewater (Va.) 82-57 and won at Hampden-Sydney 78-60
#5 St. Thomas (6-0) won at Hamline 81-66 and def. Macalester 77-72
#6 Wittenberg (6-1) def. Cedarville 66-61 and lost to #1 Wooster 68-65
#7 UW-Stevens Point (7-0) def. #25 UW-Whitewater 75-73 and def. UW-La Crosse 67-64
#8 Whitworth (10-0) won at UC-Santa Cruz 76-52
#9 Lawrence (4-1) was idle
#10 Lincoln (5-2) lost at Ramapo 95-71
#11 Augustana (6-1) def. Clarke 74-56 and def. Coe 70-47
#12 William Paterson (7-1) def. Montclair St. 66-50 and won at Rutgers-Camden 82-35
#13 Mississippi College (4-1) was idle
#14 UW-Oshkosh (3-2) lost at Elmhurst 55-52 and won at UW-Stout 64-50
#15 UW-Platteville (6-1) lost to UW-La Crosse 69-56 and won at UW-River Falls 70-66
#16 Randolph-Macon (4-3) lost at Lynchburg 78-70 and lost at Eastern Mennonite 80-77 (OT)
#17 Bates (8-0) won at Thomas 76-54 and def. Maine-Farmington 76-56
#18 Johns Hopkins (9-0) won at McDaniel 91-66 and de. Dickinson 76-60
#19 North Central (4-2) lost to Harris-Stowe 73-64 (neutral site) and won at Robert Morris-Springfield 85-75
#20 Averett (7-0) def. Rust 79-61 and def. Piedmont 73-67
#21 Puget Sound (6-1) def. Puget Sound Christian 114-56
#22 Hope (4-2) def. Grace Bible 88-63 and def. Goshen 85-72
#23 Aurora (6-0) def. Wisconsin Lutheran 100-91 and won at Maranatha Baptist 110-44
#24 Wheaton (Ill.) (5-2) def. Principia 112-52
#25 UW-Whitewater lost at #7 UW-Stevens Point 75-73 and won at UW-Superion 82-71

[wooscotsfan]

DC - thanks for the work on the Top 25 roundup!  One karma point to you.  

[David Collinge]

Thanks, wsf.  I just have some spare time on my hands while the exterminators are fumigating our usual home! 

[Greek Tragedy]

Nice work DC, I enjoy your informative posts. 

[David Collinge]

Thanks. 

I've updated the scores post above to reflect Sunday wins by Whitworth at UC-Santa Cruz and by Averett vs. Piedmont.

[ILive4This]

What is everyone's take on the Amherst game, is a 10 point margin of loss, small enough to get brandeis some credit, or was the deficit too large. I hope the later is not the case, because it is clear that is was a very evenly matched game, with the exception of a small run late in the first half by amherst. It also seems like someone might have a reputation with the new england officials and that certainly did not help the judges on their opposition's floor.

[Pat Coleman]

It's hard to tell but it raises Brandeis in my estimation.

[David Collinge]

Top 25 News and Notes, Vol. VIII, Issue 112

It looks like the settling process may have begun.  After three weeks of near-record level participation in the top 25 voting, the poll returned to a semblance of normality this week.  About 17% of the teams that received votes last week fell off the table this week.  Four new squads were added to the voting, but they nabbed only a collective 18 votes, about two-tenths of one percent of the available votes.  At the other end of the scale, nine of last week's top ten teams remained in that august group, despite two of them losing games this week.  Seven of those nine teams saw their voting support increased, further consolidating the top of the poll, and helping to establish a mini-break between the #8 (Whitworth, 420) and #9 (Lawrence, 355) positions.

Wooster maintained their hold on the #1 spot in the poll, nabbing one first-place vote from #2 Amherst.  Wooster defeated #6 Wittenberg at Springfield, marking the first time in that rivalry-within-a-rivalry that the team ranked #1 going into the game won the game.  Oddly, each time the #1 team has been involved in that game, the visiting team has come out on top.  Despite the loss, the Tigers maintaind their position as the #6 team in the poll, due in part to the drop of #7 Ohio Northern, 17-point losers at home to unranked Baldwin-Wallace.  Wittenberg and Ohio Northern square off in Ada next Tuesday (12/19.)

Debutantes:
Congratulations to the Guilford College Quakers, who for the first time ever received votes in this week's poll. 

Streakers:
The record streaks are all still intact:

• #1 Wooster, with 112 straight poll appearances and 42 straight weeks in the top 10, and
• #2 Amherst , with 67 consecutive top 25 placements.
• #21 UW-La Crosse attracted voter interest for the 10th straight week.
• Illinois Wesleyan saw their consecutive voting streak snapped at 39 straight weeks.
  

High-Water Marks:
#4 St. Thomas achieved its highest-ever rank this week, as did #15 Averett, #16 Bates, #19 Aurora, and #21 UW-La Crosse.  #8 Whitworth tied their highest-ever mark for the third straight week.  La Crosse re-enters the top 25 for just the second time ever, having been absent since early 2002.  Congratulations to all these teams!

Milestones:

• #4 St. Thomas and #10 Augustana are each in the top 10 for the tenth time;
• This week marks #6 Wittenberg's seventy-fifth appearance in the top 25;
• Calvin received votes for the 80th time;
• #24 DePauw and Occidental are vote-getters for the 40th time each, and North Central attracted the voters' attention for the 20th time.

It bears occasional mention that all of the records in this category are held by #1 Wooster, who has been in the top 10 eighty-two times, in the top twenty-five 104 times, and in the list of vote-getters a perfect 112 times.

Congratulations to all of these outstanding programs! 

[Greek Tragedy]

As usual, very impressive stuff, DC.  And I thought I spent a lot of time on d3hoops! lol 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

As usual, very impressive stuff, DC.  And I thought I spent a lot of time on d3hoops! lol

You might have missed it, but he's been doing this every week for some time now.  It's very impressive.  I have a hard time keeping up my "teams with a win in the NCAA tournament" spreadsheet; and that's easy.