BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[coachmilburn]

Boyds World's latest D3 Iterative Strength Ratings (ISR)


              D3       Overall
Rank Rating   W   L      W   L    SoS  Team     

  1   133.5   21   3     24   5     4  Texas-Tyler
  2   131.6   19   3     27   3     8  Millsaps
  3   131.3    9   1     10   3    17  Marietta
  4   127.7   11   1     13   2    32  Southern Maine
  5   125.8   11   3     11   5    15  St. Olaf
  6   125.0   11   1     13   1    51  Eastern Connecticut State
  7   124.2    8   3     14   5    12  Illinois Wesleyan
  8   123.8   10   4     13   4    11  Heidelberg
  9   121.9   15   6     17   6    18  Chapman
10   121.6   20   2     20   2    90  Pomona-Pitzer
11   121.2   13   2     16   5    68  George Fox
12   120.9   16   6     18   6    22  Pacific Lutheran
13   120.9   10   3     15   3    29  Wooster
14   120.5   15   5     17   5    24  California Lutheran
15   120.1   10   3     10   3    33  Wisconsin-Stevens Point
16   119.5   11   6     16  12    13  Hardin-Simmons
17   119.3   13   1     13   2   131  Penn State-Erie
18   119.1   16   2     21   4   102  Salisbury
19   118.8   16   3     22   4    85  Shenandoah
20   118.7   10   2     10   2    79  Trinity, CT

For full list go to Boyd's World:

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

Boyd Nation is quoted as follows on the D3 rankings ...

The intent is to include everyone, but there are quite a few flaws in the
data on the NCAA web site.  If you look at the pages for Wheaton and
Scholastica, there are several games with no opponent listed.  St. Thomas
was a victim of an aliasing problem; I've fixed that.  Whitewater only
reported their tenth D3 game today, apparently, which is the threshold
for inclusion.

I'm still torn about publishing these due to the errors in the data, but
I'm hoping that they will get more accurate as the year goes on.

What are the ISR's?

The ISR's are the results of an algorithm designed to measure the quality of a team's season to date by combining their winning percentage with the difficulty of their schedule. The algorithm computes all teams simultaneously and attempts to take advantage of inter-regional games more accurately than other rating systems.

How are the ISR's computed?

The basic idea is an iterative one. Begin with all teams set to an even rating -- 100 in this case. Then, for each game played, give each team the value of their opponent's rating plus or minus a factor for winning or losing the game -- 25 in this case. Total all of a team's results, divide by the number of games played, and that's the end of a cycle. Then use those numbers as the start of the next cycle until you get the same results for each team for two consecutive cycles.

Why are the ISR's needed?

While it's still a great game, college baseball suffers from the lack of an accurate rating system for measuring team quality. The traditional polls suffer from voters running on auto-pilot, and the RPI's used by the selection committee have some serious problems with the method used to determine strength of schedule. Because of the small amount of inter-regional play in the sport, some regions tend to be under-represented in the NCAA tournament, and mid-rank large conference teams tend to be unfairly excluded. Although trying to get the selection committee to acknowledge this may be a hopeless case, the ISR's are an attempt to find a better rating system.

[narch]

not sure about where mu stands in the ISR, given their 2-0 record vs. su , but they got win number 21 today over guilford, 11-10 - the monarchs pounded out 19 hits, and got hr's from lovette and davis (in his first game back...good to see the 9 game layoff hasn't slowed his bat down) - box score

[coachmilburn]

Rank Rating   W   L      W   L    SoS  Team

19   118.8   16   3     22   4    85  Shenandoah

25   117.4   12   4     14   4    46  Christopher Newport

36   114.2   19   7     19   7    72  Methodist

55   110.0   16   9     16  11    66  North Carolina Wesleyan

111    99.1    9   7     10   8   148  Ferrum

149    91.1    6  13     10  15    96  Greensboro

150    90.6    9  18     11  19   111  Averett


For the list, visit :
http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

[A.G.]

I hope you guys destroy them.

Sorry to disappoint...but the rain got us, again.  No game for LC and SU today.

[NCWC]

Rank Rating   W   L      W   L    SoS  Team

19   118.8   16   3     22   4    85  Shenandoah

25   117.4   12   4     14   4    46  Christopher Newport

36   114.2   19   7     19   7    72  Methodist

55   110.0   16   9     16  11    66  North Carolina Wesleyan

111    99.1    9   7     10   8   148  Ferrum

149    91.1    6  13     10  15    96  Greensboro

150    90.6    9  18     11  19   111  Averett


For the list, visit :
http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

Do you know if the SOS is throughout the entire season, or if that has been there SOS up until now.

How the hell do they even rank SOS?

[coachmilburn]

Rank Rating   W   L      W   L    SoS  Team

19   118.8   16   3     22   4    85  Shenandoah

25   117.4   12   4     14   4    46  Christopher Newport

36   114.2   19   7     19   7    72  Methodist

55   110.0   16   9     16  11    66  North Carolina Wesleyan

111    99.1    9   7     10   8   148  Ferrum

149    91.1    6  13     10  15    96  Greensboro

150    90.6    9  18     11  19   111  Averett


For the list, visit :
http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

Do you know if the SOS is throughout the entire season, or if that has been there SOS up until now.

How the hell do they even rank SOS?

Once anyone click's on Boyds link, the following note is displayed:

Note: Strength of schedule rank is for games to date. Only teams who have played at least ten NCAA Division III games are listed. Score data is taken from the official NCAA site, which means that there are quite a few errors in here; corrections are welcomed, although the quickest path is to get the SID to correct the official data. Ratings are updated daily around 8:30 Central Time.

[LTBB1971]

Averett beats NCWC 8-2 in Rocky Mount, NC.  Ben Hildreth threw a beauty.  5 Innings and was barely touched.  Freshman 1B James Carter went 4-4 with 2 RBI's, Junior SS Jake Loye goes 2-4 with 4 RBI.  After playing great the last 3 weeks, NCWC looked pretty flat today against a 11-18 Averett team that came ready to play.  Highlights for the Bishops were solid pitching by junior John Child again and LF Joel Creef and C Justin Batts at the plate.  I think RHP Johnathan Lucas will throw tomorrow, so I am hoping for a split.

[coachmilburn]

I believe there's a lot of parity within the USA-South.  Majority of the games have been close.  Several 1-run games.

SU is leading Ferrum 13 to 3 going into bottom of 7.  SU has banged out 16 hits with 3 HR's from Henry, Van Sickler and VanDusseldorp.  Every starter has a hit in the game.

[coachmilburn]

SU moves to (24-4) with win over Ferrum this evening.

R    H   E
14  20   1 ... Shenandoah
04  09   2 ... Ferrum

[narch]

the monarchs get win #22 in dominant fashion, winning 21-3 over lagrange, while pounding out 20 hits...box score

[coachmilburn]

A scrappy Ferrum squad gets by Shenandoah today.  Ferrum has lost three 1-run games in USA-S to Averett, Greensboro and NCW.  Again, the perception is that there is a lot of parity in the USA-South.  If you don't bring your "A" game, then you'll get clipped.

Ferrum gets 3 runs in the 1st with solo-HR by Crump and 2-run dinger by Fuller.  Henry had 2 hits with a HR and 2 RBI's for SU and VanDusseldorp had 2 hits as well.

Ferrum's Jon Wilson goes 8 innings and limits SU to 8 hits, 4 runs with 1ER and 8 KO's.  Cauley retired the side in the 9th.

The USA-South Tourney will be an exciting atmosphere.

R    H    E
4    8    2 ... SU
6   11   1 ... Ferrum


Talking about parity earlier in the day ...

Averett complete sweep of NCW with 5 to 3 win.   Greensboro gets a split with 15 to 9 win over CNU.    Also an "in-region" game, LaGrange 15 to 8 over Methodist.  All the top teams with over .500 winning % overall, went down in defeat today in the USA-South.


                       
4-2       22-8      Methoidst
5-3      17-14     NCW
4-4       24-5      Shenandoah
4-4      16-6-1    CNU
4-4      13-18-1  Averett
3-5      11-11     Ferrum
2-4      12-17     Greensboro

[LTBB1971]

NCWC - GC DH series tomorrow in Rocky Mount, NC.  Greensboro used M. Manfro and R. Allred vs CNU this past weekend, so I assuming they will throw senior RHP Gregory Allen and sophmore RHP Alex Phetteplace.  As for NCWC, I am expecting to see sophmore LHP Max Knowles and senior RHP Jonathan Shearon...should be a good one.  I hate to miss it, but will follow on the internet and hopr for a Bishop sweep and also hopefully Ferrum can at least split with Methodist at Ferrum.

[coachmilburn]

Thanks for posting the link re: Maine Presque Isle, Coach.  Did you mean to say that Franklin and Marshall will have a 20 win season and a couple guys drafted?  Or was that really SU you were referring to?  If it's F&M I am wondering who they are going to have the 20 wins against.

Franklin and Marshall is currently on top of CC with 7-2 record and is 14-9-1 overall with 14 games left.  They have a shot at another 20 win season.

http://www.centennial.org/baseball/index.html

[Catfishncwc]

Bishops get a Win over greensboro in the 1st game of DH 5-3. 

[LTBB1971]

Soph LHP Max Knowles goes 5-1 in the year with win over Greensboro.  He also had 11 K's for a top notch performance.  This kid needs to be in the weekend rotation!  Bishops holding off Greensboro 6-4 on top 9 so far.  Senior 3B Woodlief hits a grand slam to give Bishops lead.