Top 25 talk

[Gregory Sager]

Benedictine is D3

oops, I must've been thinking of the wrong Benedictine.

Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas is NAIA-2. Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois is D3 ... and has been for decades.

[David Collinge]

HOW THEY FARED, interim edition:

Monday games for current and prospective Top 25 teams:
#5 Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-1) won at Texas-Dallas 63-56
#6 Guilford (4-2) lost at Shenandoah 64-62
#18 Virginia Wesleyan (5-2) won at Averett 68-56
#22 Trinity (TX) (6-1) lost to Carthage 56-49 at Southwestern (Georgetown, TX)
Mississippi College (4-1) def. Hardin-Simmons 92-71

UT-Dallas led the Crusaders 54-49 with 5:44 left in the game, but could only manage two free throws down the stretch as UMHB caught and passed them on a game-ending 14-2 run. 

Guilford played from behind the whole game, finally catching the Hornets inside the final two minutes.  Clutch shooting gave Shenandoah the lead back, and the Quakers missed two game-tying chances in the final fourteen seconds.

Trinity missed their first 11 three-point attempts as the Red Men built a 14-point advantage.  Then the Tigers got hot, specifically B.J. Moon who hit 4 straight treys, but Carthage was able to hold off the Tigers and secure the win.

[ILive4This]

Interesting to note, that again there are low totals and close totals in the week four poll. 1. Rochester 580, 2 Brandeis 577, each work out to an average just over 23 pts (or 3rd place votes). However Rochester has 14 first place votes (over half) and Brandeis has only 2. This means that the majority of voters have Brandeis in the 2-4 range, while Rochester has a few votes outside of the top 5. Even with Brandeis' OT loss at UMD, it seems the victory over Amherst has made them a much more consistent top 3 vote getter than Rochester's undefeated record over a fairly uneventful schedule.

[smedindy]

Oh, we're all 'haters', eh?

Considering that Brandeis was a tournament team last year and Mass Dartmouth was a mid pack team of a decent, but not overpowering, conference, I think it can be chalked up to a 'fluke' or 'one of those things'. Personally, it was a trap game for Brandeis since they played Amherst right after (and beat them).

Congrats on Mass-Dartmouth being undefeated, but the rest of their wins aren't that impressive. (A 7-2 W. Connecticut only beat perennial punching bag Albertus Magnus by 2!)

[smedindy]

Ah, yes, you take it one day at a time, allegedly, but I can almost guarantee that some part of Brandeis' thinking that game was on Amherst, and they paid for it.

And yes, the Little East had a good tourney run, but a .500 team in that conference still doesn't quake the boots of many teams.

[sac]

UMASS-Dartmouth

Preseason--unranked
Week 1--unranked
Week 2--#48 or lower
Week 3-- #31
Week 4-- #27

UMD moved up 4 spots this week with only a win over Johnson and Wales, they're progressing fine for a team that started nowhere on anyone's radar.

[LogShow]

UMASS-Dartmouth

Preseason--unranked
Week 1--unranked
Week 2--#48 or lower
Week 3-- #31
Week 4-- #27

UMD moved up 4 spots this week with only a win over Johnson and Wales, they're progressing fine for a team that started nowhere on anyone's radar.

Is that a super sleeper pick for the national tourney?

[LogShow]

No suprise there wasn't much movement in the top 25 poll.  Pretty much only Augustana.  So was the rest of the poll a cut and paste job from week 3?

[David Collinge]

No suprise there wasn't much movement in the top 25 poll.  Pretty much only Augustana.  So was the rest of the poll a cut and paste job from week 3?

Neither the men's nor women's poll changed much from last week, but they both changed a little.  I humbly suggest you check out my Daily Dose column on the Top 25; it sounds like you might be one of the lucky few to find it interesting. 

[sac]

Defiance 53 #13 UW-Oshkosh 46

[LogShow]

Neither the men's nor women's poll changed much from last week, but they both changed a little.  I humbly suggest you check out my Daily Dose column on the Top 25; it sounds like you might be one of the lucky few to find it interesting. 

I acutally do read/enjoy it, I didn't know you were the author behind it!  I like the idea of pointing out milestones, streakers, ect (which no doubt takes quite a time comittment).  I always look to see Puget Sound makes it on there for milestones

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Defiance 53 #13 UW-Oshkosh 46

Wow, I am really rather surprised by that score.

[ILive4This]

Ok lets look at a few things, going back to that UMD game. Maybe a trap game...actually probably. UMD was missing a good player...I am not so sure he would have caused a smoking, since well UMD had four or 5 players in double figures...doubtful he would have made number 6, would have most likely taken someone else's minutes and points. Now onto another note. UMD had 1300 fans at the game on a thursday night, in what I am sure the Judges had hoped would be a low key game. Also of note Coach Meehan has only won ONCE at UMD with either Salem State or Brandeis, at least I believe that is what he said on hoopsville, or maybe it was never won, either way that says something. AND FINALLY, one of the Judges leading scorers, Joe Coppens suffered injury during that game and played only a fraction of his normal minutes and when he was in, played hurt. I am not making excuses, just putting it out there.

However I did get into an argument today with a friend of mine, who was making a case based on math and logic that UMD should be ahead or Brandeis in the polls. In terms of true math logic, he is correct, but with other things taken into account, he is not exactly on point.

His argument was: UMD is undefeated, and Beat Brandeis, therefore with no other losses to discredit them, they should be ahead of Brandeis, until they lose. Also while he did not bring this up, Brandeis' opponent win/loss is under 500, while UMD's is actually a bit above, even though I am sure the opponent opponent win/loss record should be a bit stronger for the Judges, having played teams such as Babson who have lost to Brandeis, Tufts, Emerson etc. Also the only common opponent so far is Bridgewater State, who the Judges beat by 5, and UMD beat by 8, so not much to take from that.

Still I think most would agree that the rankings reflect not just team A v. team B, but rather each team, vs every other team in the country, and if this is the case, then Brandeis deserves to be ranked where they are, or at the very least, above UMD.

If you do not agree with this, then perhaps you agree that I must get back to studying for my final exam.

[smedindy]

The fact is the UM-D (and Maryville to answer the stray post in this topic area)) will get their due if they keep winning and have a chance to prove it at the end of the year.

[Pat Coleman]

Moved that topic home.