1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

(12-11-2021 10:37 PM)rileylives Wrote:  1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

(12-11-2021 11:55 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 10:37 PM)rileylives Wrote:  1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

Well, FAU did have two wins this week. Hard to fault them for that.

As for UTSA, it's probably fair on your part. You may be ahead of ODU, but you also have to admit. It's not been a great start.

Also, the Pomeroy rankings have y'all dead last. So it's not really a stretch to have UTSA near the bottom right now.

All things considered.

It’s a closed, relative ranking. When somebody moves up, somebody else moves down, even if they both did well - or did badly.

I'd probably rank Marshall 5th. I think the middle of the conference is interchangeable and any one of those programs could knock off another on any given night. The bottom seems right to me. I'm just glad UNT is finally in the top 5, where I thought they belonged from the start of the season.

(12-12-2021 09:37 AM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'd probably rank Marshall 5th. I think the middle of the conference is interchangeable and any one of those programs could knock off another on any given night. The bottom seems right to me. I'm just glad UNT is finally in the top 5, where I thought they belonged from the start of the season.

These rankings are only about current play, not where you think they will finish at the end of the year.

It will get very interesting when top teams lose to bottom teams.

Specifically about UNT, they got off to a slow start. If they would have beaten a couple teams they should have, they would be closer to the top.

(12-12-2021 08:38 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 11:55 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 10:37 PM)rileylives Wrote:  1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

Well, FAU did have two wins this week. Hard to fault them for that.

As for UTSA, it's probably fair on your part. You may be ahead of ODU, but you also have to admit. It's not been a great start.

Also, the Pomeroy rankings have y'all dead last. So it's not really a stretch to have UTSA near the bottom right now.

All things considered.

Trust me, you'll always get a straight, unbiased response from me on UTSA, and I'll be the first to tell you how bad we are right now in basketball. But FAU's win over the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish aside, their other win this week was against a team ranked even lower than us, in both the NET and the Pomeroy. Doesn't matter so much where you place us, because I know we're bad. It was just incredulous to me to move FAU up 4 places for those two wins, and actually move us down for a win over a team rated higher than us.

(12-12-2021 12:34 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 08:38 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 11:55 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 10:37 PM)rileylives Wrote:  1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

Well, FAU did have two wins this week. Hard to fault them for that.

As for UTSA, it's probably fair on your part. You may be ahead of ODU, but you also have to admit. It's not been a great start.

Also, the Pomeroy rankings have y'all dead last. So it's not really a stretch to have UTSA near the bottom right now.

All things considered.

Trust me, you'll always get a straight, unbiased response from me on UTSA, and I'll be the first to tell you how bad we are right now in basketball. But FAU's win over the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish aside, their other win this week was against a team ranked even lower than us, in both the NET and the Pomeroy. Doesn't matter so much where you place us, because I know we're bad. It was just incredulous to me to move FAU up 4 places for those two wins, and actually move us down for a win over a team rated higher than us.

No, I get it, you make a good case. And you know I'm always a rational straight shooter too.

It's still early in the season for things to kind of flush themself out, but it does seem as if the cement is starting to dry.

Hopefully UTSA can right the ship, what happened? I knew you had a couple good players, is it coaching?

(12-12-2021 12:40 PM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 12:34 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 08:38 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 11:55 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 10:37 PM)rileylives Wrote:  1. La Tech
1. UAB
3. Western +1
4. UNT +1
5. FIU -2
6. Marshall
7. Middle +1
8. Rice +2
9. FAU +4
10. UTEP -3
11. Charlotte
12. ODU -3
13. UTSA -1
14. Southern Miss

Best Week: Western
Worst Week: UTEP

If you need to ask why Western had the best week, check your self.

FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

Well, FAU did have two wins this week. Hard to fault them for that.

As for UTSA, it's probably fair on your part. You may be ahead of ODU, but you also have to admit. It's not been a great start.

Also, the Pomeroy rankings have y'all dead last. So it's not really a stretch to have UTSA near the bottom right now.

All things considered.

Trust me, you'll always get a straight, unbiased response from me on UTSA, and I'll be the first to tell you how bad we are right now in basketball. But FAU's win over the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish aside, their other win this week was against a team ranked even lower than us, in both the NET and the Pomeroy. Doesn't matter so much where you place us, because I know we're bad. It was just incredulous to me to move FAU up 4 places for those two wins, and actually move us down for a win over a team rated higher than us.

No, I get it, you make a good case. And you know I'm always a rational straight shooter too.

It's still early in the season for things to kind of flush themself out, but it does seem as if the cement is starting to dry.

Hopefully UTSA can right the ship, what happened? I knew you had a couple good players, is it coaching?

I could be wrong, but I think it's more a lack of talent than it is coaching. Haven't given up on our coach just yet, but it's really hard drawing good talent to a school with a court as ****** as ours is.

We'll be building a new training facility for basketball and volleyball though before we build a new arena, so that our team will at least have better digs to practice in from day to day. I don't know why we can't just build a better arena and use that to practice in, but it's apparently a thing these days to have a separate training facility for basketball just as it is for football. Go figure. I mean, I can totally understand a football team holding practices in a separate facility because you don't want to tear up the field in the stadium, but it's not the same thing in basketball. What do I know though?

At any rate, I'm at least encouraged by our last two results. We played very well in a narrow 74-71 loss to a solid #125 Grand Canyon University, missing a three as time expired. And that was at their arena, which is arguably one of the toughest environments to win in.

Was fairly pleased with our win over #230 SHSU also. We gave up a huge 42-24 halftime lead and allowed them to come back and tie it at 63 before we won it 78-73, but at least it was a win against a higher ranked opponent. It was on a neutral court btw, as it was actually played at the Toyota Center in Houston (Rockets' home court). I have no idea why it was played there, but those two games gave me at least a bit of hope that we might be improving a little because I sure as heck wasn't a happy camper AT ALL with anything I had seen up until then.

UTSA is definitely improving. They lost more than anyone in the conference with the losses of Wallace and Jackson (sorry if I got those names wrong), but they do have some guys emerging. I see Dheng has 26, 26 and 27 in three of his last four games. Sam has been pretty good the past few years, but they definitely seem to be down this year - losing Zach Nutall as a transfer to SMU probably killed a lot of their momentum.

(12-12-2021 01:04 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 12:40 PM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 12:34 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 08:38 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-11-2021 11:55 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  FAU climbs 4 places by beating the DII Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish, and UTSA falls one place by beating Sam Houston State? I know UTSA basketball sucks, but that requires some explaining. lol

Well, FAU did have two wins this week. Hard to fault them for that.

As for UTSA, it's probably fair on your part. You may be ahead of ODU, but you also have to admit. It's not been a great start.

Also, the Pomeroy rankings have y'all dead last. So it's not really a stretch to have UTSA near the bottom right now.

All things considered.

Trust me, you'll always get a straight, unbiased response from me on UTSA, and I'll be the first to tell you how bad we are right now in basketball. But FAU's win over the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish aside, their other win this week was against a team ranked even lower than us, in both the NET and the Pomeroy. Doesn't matter so much where you place us, because I know we're bad. It was just incredulous to me to move FAU up 4 places for those two wins, and actually move us down for a win over a team rated higher than us.

No, I get it, you make a good case. And you know I'm always a rational straight shooter too.

It's still early in the season for things to kind of flush themself out, but it does seem as if the cement is starting to dry.

Hopefully UTSA can right the ship, what happened? I knew you had a couple good players, is it coaching?

I could be wrong, but I think it's more a lack of talent than it is coaching. Haven't given up on our coach just yet, but it's really hard drawing good talent to a school with a court as ****** as ours is.

We'll be building a new training facility for basketball and volleyball though before we build a new arena, so that our team will at least have better digs to practice in from day to day. I don't know why we can't just build a better arena and use that to practice in, but it's apparently a thing these days to have a separate training facility for basketball just as it is for football. Go figure. I mean, I can totally understand a football team holding practices in a separate facility because you don't want to tear up the field in the stadium, but it's not the same thing in basketball. What do I know though?

At any rate, I'm at least encouraged by our last two results. We played very well in a narrow 74-71 loss to a solid #125 Grand Canyon University, missing a three as time expired. And that was at their arena, which is arguably one of the toughest environments to win in.

Was fairly pleased with our win over #230 SHSU also. We gave up a huge 42-24 halftime lead and allowed them to come back and tie it at 63 before we won it 78-73, but at least it was a win against a higher ranked opponent. It was on a neutral court btw, as it was actually played at the Toyota Center in Houston (Rockets' home court). I have no idea why it was played there, but those two games gave me at least a bit of hope that we might be improving a little because I sure as heck wasn't a happy camper AT ALL with anything I had seen up until then.

Well, maybe you are turning it around then if it's players.

I know Marshall typically have slow starts, as the coaching usually settles in later in the year. Maybe that will happen to y'all.

(12-12-2021 11:09 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(12-12-2021 09:37 AM)Side.Show.Joe Wrote:  I'd probably rank Marshall 5th. I think the middle of the conference is interchangeable and any one of those programs could knock off another on any given night. The bottom seems right to me. I'm just glad UNT is finally in the top 5, where I thought they belonged from the start of the season.

These rankings are only about current play, not where you think they will finish at the end of the year.

It will get very interesting when top teams lose to bottom teams.

Specifically about UNT, they got off to a slow start. If they would have beaten a couple teams they should have, they would be closer to the top.

Although we lost a few games early in the season, I still believe our play was top 5 worthy. Even though our new lineup was learning to play together, we didn't drop a game to any bad teams (a 3 point loss to #85 Buffalo, #7 Kansas, #114 Miami). We have just played a tough schedule. I'm not complaining about a #4 ranking, I'm just saying I think we've been a top 5 team since the season started.

my rankings this week - a lot of key games this upcoming week....

(1) UAB (tough game at West Virginia next weekend)
(2) Louisiana Tech (same - play at LSU also on the 18th)
(3) UNT (up 1 spot - at Wichita State Saturday)
(4) Marshall (up 1 spot)
(5) WKU (up 2 spots - host Louisville Saturday)
(6) FIU (down 3 spots - a 4 OT loss will do that for you though)
(7) MTSU (down 1 spot - at Ole Miss Wednesday)
(8) Rice
(9) UTEP (good win at New Mexico)
(10) Charlotte (at Wake Forest Friday)
(9) UTEP
(10) Charlotte
(11) ODU
(12) FAU
(13) UTSA
(14) USM (had a sure win taken away by Covid)

According to the NET rankings as of 12-13, 5 of the top 8 are staying in CUSA and the bottom 6 teams are all leaving.

New teams

81. New Mexico State
149 Liberty
205. Jacksonville State
297 Sam Houston

(12-13-2021 05:20 AM)Todor Wrote:  According to the NET rankings as of 12-13, 5 of the top 8 are staying in CUSA and the bottom 6 teams are all leaving.

New teams

81. New Mexico State
149 Liberty
205. Jacksonville State
297 Sam Houston

The teams staying in CUSA are currently in the top 8.

Leaving in bold. NET as of 12-13

28 UAB
86 UNT
94 La Tech
98 Middle
146 Marshall
158 Western
168 UTEP
170 FIU
190 Rice
203 Charlotte
212 FAU
237 ODU
300 Southern Miss
310 UTSA

Also, the NET have Marshall and Western criminally under-ranked in this initial run of rankings.

I continue to expect their rankings will shoot up like a rocket to correctly place us near the top 100 soon.

Especially if we take care of business like I expect. This is typically around the time Marshall teams start to come together.

It is so hard to rank teams in Non-Conference because the schools schedule so different. FIU has a great record, but they only have 2 wins over .500+ teams. When you look at who those 2 teams beat, one has 1 win over a .500+ team and the other has 1. Also, removing the team names and putting their rankings in makes it less subjective to P5 bias. Here is the ranking with out of conference SOS according to Warren Nolen and with the win loss minus the team name who they won/loss to.

SOS ()
1. La Tech (200) - 9 point Home win over NET:211/RPI:232 team
1. UAB (10) - 74 point Home win over Non-D1
3. Western +1 (210) - 10 point Home loss to NET:73/RPI:68 team; 23 point Neutral win over NET:173/RPI:255 team
4. UNT +1 (36) - 9 point Neutral(sorta) win over NET:152/RPI:134 team
5. FIU -2 (306) - 4 point (4 OT) Road loss to NET:207/RPI:90 team
6. Marshall (250) - 43 point Home win over Non-D1; 11 point Road win over NET:231/RPI:271 team
7. Middle +1 (260) - 9 point Road win over NET:291/RPI:287 team
8. Rice +2 (267) - 15 point Road win over NET:350/RPI:332 team
9. FAU +4 (316) - 35 point Home win over NET:309/RPI:231 team; 21 point Home win over Non-D1 team
10. UTEP -3 (133) - 25 point Road loss to NET:5/RPI:10 team; 8 point Road win over NET:163/RPI:138 team
11. Charlotte (152) - 20 point Road loss to NET:67/RPI:56 team; 1 point Road win over NET:241/RPI:283 team
12. ODU -3 (179) - 15 point Road win over NET:349/RPI:348 team; 9 point Home loss to NET:74/RPI:70 team
13. UTSA -1 (322) - 5 point Road win over NET:297/RPI:285 team
14. Southern Miss (242) - Non-D1 game was postponed

I think in your rankings UTEP and ODU fell a little too far while FAU and maybe Rice jumped a bit too much. I think come conference play the teams with the 300+ SOS ranks will come down some while the teams with the 100 - 200 SOS will come up.

I think it's still too early to be using RPI as a major gauge of rankings. For Rice, they have played three top-70 teams in RPI (Oakland 21, Houston 54 and Texas State 69, with Texas 61 next week). I think the NET rankings are a much better gauge of the true rankings - in that one, Houston is 4, Texas 23, Oakland 58 and Texas State 78).

I can't figure out why some of the RPI rankings are so high for a team like Morehead State (4-4 with wins over Arkansas State, UMKC, Georgia Southern and Presbyterian, and losses to Auburn, UAB, Mississippi State and East Tennessee State (by an average margin of 16 points). Their RPI is 47, ahead of teams like West Virginia (48), Oklahoma (49), Houston (54) and Arkansas (56). Jackson State is another one - they're 2-7 and have an RPI of 79. Yes, they've played a lot of good teams but their RPI is 100 points ahead of a Marshall team that they lost by 14 points to at their place.

I don't know if it exists, but a NC ranking of teams based on NET rankings would be a superior gauge to look at right now than the RPI ratings. JMHO.

(12-12-2021 04:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  my rankings this week - a lot of key games this upcoming week....

(1) UAB (tough game at West Virginia next weekend)
(2) Louisiana Tech (same - play at LSU also on the 18th)
(3) UNT (up 1 spot - at Wichita State Saturday)
(4) Marshall (up 1 spot)
(5) WKU (up 2 spots - host Louisville Saturday)
(6) FIU (down 3 spots - a 4 OT loss will do that for you though)
(7) MTSU (down 1 spot - at Ole Miss Wednesday)
(8) Rice
(9) UTEP (good win at New Mexico)
(10) Charlotte (at Wake Forest Friday)
(9) UTEP
(10) Charlotte
(11) ODU
(12) FAU
(13) UTSA
(14) USM (had a sure win taken away by Covid)

The UAB-WVU game this Saturday is in Birmingham, at the recently renovated Legacy Arena.

(12-13-2021 09:52 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I think it's still too early to be using RPI as a major gauge of rankings. For Rice, they have played three top-70 teams in RPI (Oakland 21, Houston 54 and Texas State 69, with Texas 61 next week). I think the NET rankings are a much better gauge of the true rankings - in that one, Houston is 4, Texas 23, Oakland 58 and Texas State 78).

I can't figure out why some of the RPI rankings are so high for a team like Morehead State (4-4 with wins over Arkansas State, UMKC, Georgia Southern and Presbyterian, and losses to Auburn, UAB, Mississippi State and East Tennessee State (by an average margin of 16 points). Their RPI is 47, ahead of teams like West Virginia (48), Oklahoma (49), Houston (54) and Arkansas (56). Jackson State is another one - they're 2-7 and have an RPI of 79. Yes, they've played a lot of good teams but their RPI is 100 points ahead of a Marshall team that they lost by 14 points to at their place.

I don't know if it exists, but a NC ranking of teams based on NET rankings would be a superior gauge to look at right now than the RPI ratings. JMHO.

I actually trust the Pomeroy more right now. The NET has 3-2 Wagner at #49, ahead of 7-2 Kentucky. Pomeroy has Wagner at #136 and Kentucky at #21. NET has Chattanooga at #30, while Pomeroy has them at #104. NET also has Monmouth at #47 ahead of Kentucky, while Pomeroy has them at #129.

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