Posters' Poll

[Mr. Ypsi]

Whitworth a #2 without a #2 vote. 
St. Marys a #13 without being more than a #14 on any ballot.

Funny and odd.

Not THAT odd with only ten voters.

Note also that Va Wes got no #3 votes, but landed third.  Randy Mac received its LOWEST votes at #11, yet finished 11th.  IWU had 60% of their votes at 16th or above, yet finished 17th.

All sorts of reasons I wish we could get more voters!

(For this week, anyway, the top twelve are pretty solid - they got 119 of the possible 120 votes for the top twelve spots.).

[Ralph Turner]

Whitworth a #2 without a #2 vote. 
St. Marys a #13 without being more than a #14 on any ballot.

Funny and odd.

You gotta start the Consensus Top 12 somewhere...   

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

[Mr. Ypsi]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

Correct.  Since both voters had the Tommies at #3 last week, I can only conclude that they included the Monday loss in their vote.

[Ralph Turner]

I voted for the Top 23 of 25.

I have one orphan (Centre at #25, which isn't much of an orphan) and only 1 real outlier, which is Wheaton IL at #16.  But I have a hard time figuring out a better team to put into the "#24" slot than Wheaton!

I dropped Marietta when they appeared to be falling back into the pack, and 'Deis, buoyed by overwhleming mediocrity, is still falling rapidly!

I hope that we have some teams begin to separate themselves from the pack now that conferrence play has begun.  When I have watched the E8 on webcast, they seem to be so "unstellar".  They look like they might match up as "mid-level" ASC when the games were played.  ASC "athleticism" and speed would stomp them on some nights.  E8 slow-down half court style would dominate the game flow on other nights.  I am just not convinced that Ferrum is Top 25.  Top 50?  And maybe getting the Pool A bid from the USA South?  But, I don't think that they win the first round game as a Top 25 team should (except for the Bracket of Death games to be held in a gym somewhere in Wisconsin or Illinois.)

[John Gleich]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

Correct.  Since both voters had the Tommies at #3 last week, I can only conclude that they included the Monday loss in their vote.

That was part of my issue... I started with last week's ballot and took into account the Tommie's loss... and then realized that it happened on Monday. 

And they were my #1 team last week, so that would have skewed things in both instances.

[Mr. Ypsi]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

Correct.  Since both voters had the Tommies at #3 last week, I can only conclude that they included the Monday loss in their vote.

That was part of my issue... I started with last week's ballot and took into account the Tommie's loss... and then realized that it happened on Monday. 

And they were my #1 team last week, so that would have skewed things in both instances.

Yeah, and since it is virtually impossible to 'unlearn' a Monday result, ideally voters would make all ballots before Monday games.  But since nearly 50% of ballots have been submitted late Monday or on Tuesday, I'm afraid to try to enforce an earlier deadline.

I guess I'll just cross my fingers that only rarely will a Monday game have much impact on the poll.  It seems that Monday games involving ranked teams are relatively rare (and Monday losses by ranked teams are rarer still).

[magicman]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

Correct.  Since both voters had the Tommies at #3 last week, I can only conclude that they included the Monday loss in their vote.

So basically if those voters had voted before Monday's game results were known to them, and kept the Tommies at #3,  St. Thomas would be #3 in this week's poll and possibly could have been #2. St. Mary's was probably not impacted because there is such a big discrepancy between #13 and #12. 

[smedindy]

And it matters not, because it will all come out in the wash next week.

[Mr. Ypsi]

4.  St. Thomas    216 (1,2,2,3,4,4,5,5,9,9) [note: both 9 votes came after Monday]

We're only supposed to consider games through Sunday, correct?

Correct.  Since both voters had the Tommies at #3 last week, I can only conclude that they included the Monday loss in their vote.

So basically if those voters had voted before Monday's game results were known to them, and kept the Tommies at #3,  St. Thomas would be #3 in this week's poll and possibly could have been #2. St. Mary's was probably not impacted because there is such a big discrepancy between #13 and #12. 

No, the Tommies would still have been 4th.  They would perhaps be 12 points higher, but need 13 to tie Va Wes.  Both voters had Va Wes #2 both last week and this week.  They needed 15 points to tie Whitworth, and both voters presumably would have had Whitworth 1 slot lower, so they still would have trailed Whitworth by 1 (though Va Wes might have tied Whitworth for 2nd - Va Wes may have been the victim of the Tommies loss ).

[Gregory Sager]

I knew that the Tommies had lost, and dropped them accordingly, but for some reason I thought that the game had been played on Sunday. I forgot that the MIAC has a Monday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

IWU goes down to North Park and continues to vindicate my not having voted for them at all this season.

[Ralph Turner]

IWU goes down to North Park and continues to vindicate my not having voted for them at all this season.

First, a lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice and now this.

Who knows, da Bears may win the Super Bowl.

In any case, a sign of the end times...

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU goes down to North Park and continues to vindicate my not having voted for them at all this season.

First, a lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice and now this.

Who knows, da Bears may win the Super Bowl.

In any case, a sign of the end times...

While NPU has been reeling lately, I've always considered them a dangerous team.  I was out this evening and didn't see IWU play (if video was even available), but from what I've read (and intuited), NPU played a fantastic game on the same night that the Titans imploded.  They shot horribly from the field and were out-rebounded (by a smaller team) 39-25.  That MAY be Viking defense, or MAY be a horrid game (probably some of each), but the coup-de-grace came during the final desperate attempt at a 'miracle finish': down 10 with under a minute, then down 8 with 35 seconds, Sean Johnson makes the steal, is fouled, and (although an 80% FT shooter) MISSES both shots!   (Maybe the Vikings have come up with a great FT defense! )

I have no explanation for tonite's game, but will continue to have IWU in the lower reaches of the top 25, because I just can't find 25 teams I honestly think are better.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

North Park is good.  I've had them on the radar, despite iffy results.  I've just not seen enough from IWU to vote for them yet.