Valpo in the National Rankings 2015-16 edition

[agibson]

Oregon was #26 in the AP last week, and I guess their moving up to #25 and Wisconsin falling out of the top 25 is our best bet at a top 25 game this season, at least pre-NCAA (hopefully _not_ in the first round!).

http://collegebasketball.ap.org/poll

Oregon's in at #25, with 121 points.  Wisconsin's out.  So, we get our chance to knock off our first ranked team since the Sweet 16 run.

@ValpoBasketball and @MichaelOsipoff have Valpo with 8 points, up from 5 last week.  8 points is good for 37th place this week, up from 42nd.

(Looks like Alexander #25, Couch #23, Strelow #22. So, no new members of the Valpo bandwagon this week.)

[agibson]

Could be a rough day of voting for us.  Strelow pushed Oregon to #18 and dropped us.

[agibson]

We did hang on to two points in the AP poll good for 40th.  They don't seem to have released the ballots yet, but it seems like we were #25 on Alexander and Couch's ballots.

Seth Green did still include us on his (rather long) list of "almost in" teams.

Oregon climbed from 25/27 (AP/Coaches) to 21/23
Baylor fell from 20/21 to 28/25

Iona and Rhode Island are gone.

We're not much changed in Pomeroy's computer rankings.  26th with 10th best defense, 56th best offense.  Oregon 23rd best (maybe they slipped a little? their defense especially? now at 29th?).

Pomeroy's got Oregon State at 35th.  Giving Valpo a 1.9 point edge on defense (per 100 possessions), but Oregon State a 0.7 point edge on offense.  Close enough they could still be favorites on their home court? 

[agibson]

Seth Green did still include us on his (rather long) list of "almost in" teams.

Seth Green, Seth Davis, one of those guys.

Thanks to Paul Oren for pointing out that Oregon State's _also_ on this list.  Perhaps there's a chance he'll rank Tuesday's winner?  At least if it's us, on the road?

[tweet]668625503948046336[/tweet]

[agibson]

We did hang on to two points in the AP poll good for 40th.  They don't seem to have released the ballots yet, but it seems like we were #25 on Alexander and Couch's ballots.

Turns out Couch kept us at #24 and Alexander dropped us.

I notice the NPR maverick Feinstein gave his ceremonial #25 to Chatanooga, and somebody gave them a first place vote in the mid-major coaches' poll on the strength of their win over Illinois (and at Georgia earlier).  They lost to IA state yesterday, I guess that'll calm the surge.

[talksalot]

NCAA Stats page for games through 11/23 - 351 teams ranked...not a lot of teams have played 6 games already.

Record 5-1 - #62
Scoring Offense 75.5 - #175
Scoring Defense 55.3 - #8
Scoring Margin 20.2 - #39
FG % Offense  46.9 - #98
FG % Defense 34.5 - #31
3pt FG / Game:  #229
3pt FG %  #246
Three Pt FG Defense    76   28.7
Free-Throw Percentage   78   72.7
Rebound Margin 70   7.7
Assists Per Game    175   13.5
Assist Turnover Ratio   173   1.05
Blocked Shots Per Game    114   4.2
Steals Per Game 55   8.5
Turnovers Per Game    160   12.8
Turnover Margin    104   2.3
Personal Fouls Per Game    53   17.7
Total Blocks    19   25
Total Assists    20   81
Total Rebounds    2   244
Free Throw Attempts 10   139
Free Throws Made    7   101
3-pt Field Goal Attempts    17   123
Total 3-point FGM    41   38
Total Steals    4   51
Fewest Turnovers    330   77
Fewest Fouls 312   106
Offensive Rebounds Per Game    231   10.33
Defensive Rebounds per Game    51   30.33
Total Rebounds Per Game 103   40.67

and the Player rankings...

Free-Throw Percentage (250 ranked)   Alec Peters    106   88.9

Blocked Shots Per Game (250 ranked)   Vashil Fernandez   15   3

Total Points (250 ranked)   Alec Peters    28   91
   Tevonn Walker   193   66

Total Rebounds (250 ranked)   Alec Peters    139   32
   Vashil Fernandez   165   31

Double Doubles (250 ranked)   Vashil Fernandez    93   1
   Darien Walker    93   1

Total Assists (250 ranked)   Keith Carter   166   16

Total Blocks (250 ranked)   Vashil Fernandez   2   15

Total Field Goals Made (250 ranked)   Alec Peters    44   29
   Tevonn Walker   122   25

Total Minutes (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   60   9660

3-pt Field Goal Attempts (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   200   23

Total 3-point FGM (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   189   9

Total Steals (250 ranked)   Max Joseph    146   7
   Keith Carter    146   7
   Alec Peters    227   6
   Darien Walker   227   6

Total Field Goal Attempts (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   134   53

Free Throws Made (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   44   24

Free Throw Attempts (250 ranked)   Alec Peters   102   27

[agibson]

Here for a moment Warren Nolan reports us as #1 RPI in the country. 0.8129.  #2 SOS to Sam Houston State, who's winless.

Not that it means much. Going to be a lot of RPI pain in league play this season. (And Warren Nolan doesn't recognize our first-to-six wins, naturally.)

[a3uge]

Couple of pollsters tweets:

Seth Davis:
Might have to rank em. That is a high quality road win.  https://t.co/vMykPkBLZl
https://twitter.com/SethDavisHoops/status/669368757622456320

Geoff Grammer:
Valpo is probably a T25 worthy team right now.
https://twitter.com/GeoffGrammer/status/669366447420764160

Brett Strelow:
@GeoffGrammer Took em out after loss to Oregon. Might put em back in next week
https://twitter.com/bretstrelow/status/669367129351823361

Jon Rothstein:
Valpo goes on the road and beats a very good Oregon State team. Crusaders are 6-1. Could be potential at-large candidate in March.
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/669366186979667968

[agibson]

Was great to see them chatting back and forth!

[tweet]669367733729890306[/tweet]

[a3uge]

I don't think you'll see Valpo ranked any time soon. Too many power conference teams playing cupcakes at home that are unproven. Valpo's ceiling ranking is only going to be 23-25, while the current 25th team SMU is ranked 14 in one poll. I could see Valpo being ranked if they won the rest of their OOC games.

[VULB#62]

LATEST RPI As of 11/25
Rank   Team           Rating     HighLow   Last
1   Valparaiso (4-1)   0.813   1   130   3
2   Chattanooga (2-1)   0.782   2   197   4
3   Iowa State (3-0)   0.771   3   303   7
4   Oregon (4-0)   0.763   1   192   5
5   TX-Arlington (3-1)   0.737   5   267   8
6   NC-Wilmgton (2-0)   0.729   6   221   11
7   S Carolina (5-0)   0.721   7   176   12
8   Louisville (4-0)   0.717   2   189   2
9   Washington (3-0)   0.715   9   204   14
10   Fresno St (4-0)   0.706   10   246   10

[agibson]

I could see Valpo being ranked if they won the rest of their OOC games.

We'd be... 14-1 I guess, very optimistically, adding two wins against Belmont, and one win on the road against each of Belmont and Oakland, when it came to a poll.

Maybe we could be ranked then, but not even sure that'll be enough.  I don't know, I suppose it might be. (Surely it'd help if Belmont takes down BYU on the road, and otherwise keeps winning.  Probably too much to ask for Oakland to take down a couple of its usual array of giants, and for Belmont and Oakland to both be picking up some votes in the polls.)

But, it'd be nice to be showing up on a dozen ballots, with some #24's, #23's, maybe a #22 or higher sprinkled in. 

And maybe we can do a _little_ better than Murray State last season who started receiving votes mid-season, and finally got ranked toward the end of the season, having carried a huge unbeaten streak through conference play.  And, maybe, we can still hope for better than the treatment Murray State got come Selection Sunday.  (Knock on wood we don't need it.)

[vu72]

Were #32 in the Sagarin ranking this morning with the 33rd toughest schedule.

[zvillehaze]

Valpo enters Gary Parrish's "Top 25 (And One)" today at #26.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/top25

[bbtds]

Valpo enters Gary Parrish's "Top 25 (And One)" today at #26.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/top25

two behind Butler

[a3uge]

Monmouth might steal some token mid major votes from us... They beat ranked Notre Dame and UCLA already.

[agibson]

Will they be high water marks?

#1 RPI (0.7898 - OK, no way was this going to last.).  #22 KenPom (#7 defense).

No chance to realize the AP votes that would have come from the Oregon trip.

[agibson]

Valpo falls to 28th in KenPom, 11th defensively. Good thing there's more than one game in the season.

[bbtds]

HA............... I say HA............... NATIONAL RANKINGS............. I can't believe we're talking about National Rankings, .............Don't talk about national rankings.........................NATIONAL RANKINGS................HA...........

[agibson]

We're hanging around the RPI at least, #6 or 7 (RPI 0.7124, SOS 4th at 0.6935).  (And the Horizon League is doing better than I'd have thought... 12th or even 10th.  I really thought we were as low as 18th a week ago, but now I wonder if  I was misreading...)

We've fallen.. but not as far as the Shockers!  (9/11 to 20/20 to nada/RV two votes; and down to 10th in the midmajor coaches' poll).  Valpo's fallen only to fifth in the midmajor coaches' poll, passed by BYU and St. Mary's.

Momouth leaps from 23rd to 7th in the midmajor poll, and picks up votes in both national polls.

[bbtds]

Momouth leaps from 23rd to 7th in the midmajor poll, and picks up votes in both national polls.

Momouth, I think that should be Greg Kampe's nickname.

[talksalot]

Egads !   Since NC's domination of Davidson at the Dean Center this afternoon... Valpo has plummeted from 2nd all the way to 3rd! in the WarrenNolan RPI......

[SanityLost17]

Momouth leaps from 23rd to 7th in the midmajor poll, and picks up votes in both national polls.

Momouth, I think that should be Greg Kampe's nickname.

If I remember correctly...  Monmouth is in Iona's conference?  Possibility of them playing each other 2-3 times.  Hopefully Iona beats them every time.   

[talksalot]

Monmouth is in Iona's conference?  Possibility of them playing each other 2-3 times.  Hopefully Iona beats them every time.   

January 15th at Iona
February 19th at Monmouth (ESPN3 game)

[agibson]

I notice Indiana and Notre Dame are still picking up a few points in the AP poll.  So much for leaping on to the stage in Indiana college basketball.  (The Indy Star runs a state round-up ranking.  I think we were as high as third on several ballots at one point.)

Order is restored in the universe, I suppose they would say.