Valpo in the National Rankings 2015-16 edition

[valpotx]

I would love to see us ranked in the top 25, especially when Buck Futler is not.

[talksalot]

Valpo's won 22 in a row at home...last I heard, that was tied for 9th in the nation (maybe 8 with Iona losing)...

We are tied with Stephen F Austin.... speaking of NCAA records... get a load of what they did in their last game on Saturday night.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – There have been 2,255 Stephen F. Austin men's basketball games played in the history of the program and in none of them did the Lumberjacks display a shooting touch as sizzling as the one they possessed on Saturday night. ( I love the verb choices this SFA writer choses throughout this article...) 

As a matter of fact, through all of the NCAA Division I men's basketball games so far this season, no team in the country has, either.

Ty Charles established a new career-high with 25 points and his 11-of-12 (91.7-percent) night from the field was a microcosm of the 'Jacks success as a whole as SFA destroyed Abilene Christian 97-62 by way of a program-best 72.2-percent (39-of-54) shooting effort on Saturday night. IPFW matched that 72.2-percent showing from the field, but that came against NAIA Purdue-North Central on Jan. 2, 2016.

SFA's 80-percent night from long range bettered Oral Roberts previous NCAA DI season-high mark of 71.4 (15-of-21) against Detriot on Nov. 28, 2015.

That 72.2-percent shooting effort ranks as the best single-game field goal percentage by any team in the 2015-16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season as does the 'Jacks 80-percent (12-of-15) effort from three-point land.

The previous program high for field goal percentage in a single game was 71.7-percent – accomplished when the 'Jacks bested Ouachita Baptist 70-62 over 30 years ago on Dec. 4, 1984 in WRJ Coliseum.

Charles stood at the head of SFA's scoring line as five 'Jacks would go on to finish with 11 or more points. Thomas Walkup pumped in 19, Jared Johnson had 14 on the strength of 4-of-6 long distance shooting, TJ Holyfield wrapped up his night with 12 and Clide Geffrard submitted 11 to the 'Jacks final tally.

All of those made shots happened as a direct result of the 'Jacks season-high 28 assists. A game-best seven of those helpers belonged to senior Trey Pinkney who upped his nation-leading assist-to-turnover ration to 6.63. The Katy, Texas, product has yet to commit a turnover in a SLC game this season and has amassed 18 assists through four league bouts.

Devoid of any indications of a blowout early on, the game was tightly contested throughout the first half as the Wildcats gunned for a 3-1 start in Southland Conference play. SFA began things with an 8-2 in the initial 2:33 surge that featured the first of TJ Holyfield's career-best three downtown strikes of the night.

That six-point advantage was the largest the 'Jacks could muster against their intrastate rivals in the infancy of the matchup, though. A flurry of Wildcat trifectas, including one each from Jaren Lewis, Parker Wentz and Isaiah Tripp, through a span of 3:11 allowed the visitors to remain neck-and-neck with the SLC's highest scoring team.

Once Tripp's long ball hit pay dirt, the score was knotted at 19-all with 11:10 remaining in the opening stanza. The tally remained the same until Charles tipped in a missed Jared Johnson jumper some 39 seconds later to push that 'Jacks ahead for good.

Still, the Wildcats wouldn't stop gnashing, as ACU's dangerous youngster Jaylen Franklin stood undaunted at the prospect of going blow-for-blow with the three-time defending league champions. Through the final 7:46 of the first half, the freshman served as the lone source of offense for the Wildcats by netting 10 of his team-high 18 through the course of that span.

Franklin's one-man scoring show wasn't near enough, though, to stop the 'Jacks overwhelming deluge of offense. Following a Franklin layup that trimmed SFA's edge to 27-25 with 7:00 left in the first, the 'Jacks belted the Wildcats with a 15-2 scoring haymaker in which Charles scored eight straight.

It upped the 'Jacks advantage to 42-27 with 1:26 to go in the half, and despite Franklin's last two buckets of the frame, ACU wouldn't get within 11 points of the hosts for the rest of the night.

A merciless 28-9 run uncorked by SFA through the first 8:30 of the second half floored the Wildcats for good and from that point on the 'Jacks lead only dipped below 30 points on four occasions.

The margin became a game-high 38 points when Jovan Grujic's layup with 4:00 left made matters 90-52. Simply put, the 'Jacks took on the role of offensive clinicians in the last 20 minutes by sinking 78.6-percent (22-of-28) of their field goals and eight of their nine downtown tries (88.9-percent).

Abilene Christian did shoot 51-percent (25-of-49) from the field, but the Wildcats lacked the requisite amount of firepower to keep up with the 'Jacks. Outside of Franklin, no ACU player concluded the night with more than nine points.

Off to their fourth-straight 4-0 start in Southland Conference play, SFA heads for the Big Easy for a Monday night battle with the New Orleans Privateers. A four-point loser to league-leading Houston Baptist on Saturday night, UNO will host the 'Jacks for the second time in three all-time meetings between the two programs. Tip time is slated for 8 p.m and the game will be broadcast nationally on American Sports Network.

SFA (RPI 205)  next home games:  :
Saturday 1/23 vs Sam Houston State (6-8) RPI 212
Monday 1/25 vs Lamar (6-7) RPI 339
Monday 2/8 vs Northwestern State (0-11) RPI 348
Saturday 2/13 vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi (11-3) RPI 89

[govalpogo]

1st Poll of the day: Mid-Major Power 15 : Valpo maintains the top spot over St. Mary's

Rank              School                                Last Week
1.   Valparaiso Crusaders (15-3, 6 1st Place)   1
2.   St. Mary's Gaels (15-2, 4)   4
3.   Wichita State Shockers (12-5)   5
4.   Dayton Flyers (14-3, 1)   3
5.   Evansville Purple Aces (16-3)   6
6.   VCU Rams (13-5)   14
7.   Gonzaga Bulldogs (14-4, 1)   2
8.   Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (15-1)   8
9.   Monmouth Hawks (13-4)   12
10.   St. Joseph's Hawks (14-3)   9
11.   George Washington Colonials (14-4) 7
12.   Hawaii Warriors (15-2)   t-15
13.   BYU Cougars (13-6)   13
14.   Stony Brook Seawolves (13-4)   NR
15.   UAB Blazers (15-3)   NR
Dropped Out: UT Arlington, St. Bonaventure, Akron

Others Receiving Votes: Grand Canyon, UC Irvine, St. Bonaventure, Chattanooga, Mercer, UT Arlington, Stephen F. Austin, Yale, Southern Illinois, Davidson, James Madison, Pepperdine

Voters: Ben Miraski, Parks Smith, Will Maupin, Jimmy Kelley, John Hooper, Cam Newton, Tyler Bennett (College Court Report), Brandon Hickey (Hustle Belt), Michael James (@ivybball), Jordan Majewski (Staring at the Floorboards), Dan Bogle, Ryan McFarland, Michael Mallory

[agibson]

Valpo's won 22 in a row at home...last I heard, that was tied for 9th in the nation (maybe 8 with Iona losing)...

We are tied with Stephen F Austin.... speaking of NCAA records... get a load of what they did in their last game on Saturday night.

Yeah, three-way tie for 8th also with UAB
http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2016/stats
but this stuff can fluctuate a little just with scheduling.  I'm not sure who might be lurking with 20 or 21...

[agibson]

As usual, Osipoff's first with the news

[tweet]689142202497368064[/tweet]

"only" 16 points, but good for our highest total ever, and our highest AP ranking ever.

So, very splashy to pick up a #20 vote, but we probably only gained entry on a couple of new ballots this week.

Gotta keep winning!

[a3uge]

As usual, Osipoff's first with the news

[tweet]689142202497368064[/tweet]

"only" 16 points, but good for our highest total ever, and our highest AP ranking ever.

So, very splashy to pick up a #20 vote, but we probably only gained entry on a couple of new ballots this week.

Gotta keep winning!

Isn't that the coaches poll?

[agibson]

Argh! Whoops!  Thanks for the fix, was just starting to notice a problem... Doesn't the AP poll usually come out first, in its dribs and drabs?  [Apparently not, Osipoff reminds me.  Off my game this morning.]

Last season I think our high-water in the coaches' poll was also 16 points, but that was good for #29 at the time.

For the coaches poll, the "receiving votes" category is pretty jammed up

Gonzaga 35; Clemson 29; Dayton 29; Oregon 20; Valparaiso 16; Wichita State 16; Connecticut 12; Saint Mary's 10; Michigan 6; California 5; Arkansas-Little Rock 5; Washington 5; LSU 3; Monmouth 3; Seton Hall 2; Alabama at Birmingham 1.

With a big step up to USC's 103 points for #25.  Out of 31 or 32 ballots (I'm seeing 31 first place votes, but other weeks it's ben 32).  A bit less than half the number of AP voters.

Monmouth re-enters the poll with three points.

[agibson]

More individual AP ballots are appearing.  Shannon Ryan for the Chicago Tribune says to keep an eye on us next week.  Kevin Lyttle from Austin (thanks Hank) brings us in at #25.  Jerry Carino... in New Jersey?, who said something similar last week, brings us in at #24.  At least a couple of others leave us off.  Should be a record AP week for us, for sure.

[agibson]

[tweet]689153388882333699[/tweet]

And -that- is our best showing all-time in the AP poll.  Probably at least a dozen voters?  Should be enough to get some momentum going, if we can keep winning.

[agibson]

[tweet]689153848716455936[/tweet]

Reasonably tight after #26.  Gotta keep winning.  Other teams will help by losing.  We're not going to have any big splashy wins to add to the conversation, but if we could keep that string of double digits going it could generate some buzz...

[govalpogo]

Time to just keep winning at this point now that there are more eyes on the program once again.  Polls definitely are more susceptible to peer influence and the eye test than evaluation tools like RPI.  Last time we had pollsters ready to pull the trigger was after the Oregon State game, but before Sunday ended all the talk went mysteriously silent.   

[talksalot]

We have three ROAD games to play before the next poll comes out...

looking at the teams ahead of us... so even though they have RPIs of 236, 150 and 322 respectively, 18-3 will look pretty good if the power-5 can continue beating each other!

Only UA-Little Rock plays 3 road games before the next poll... they are @ Arkansas State (255), Texas State(264) and Texas-Arlington (67)

Here are the teams receiving votes with 2 road games this week...

Oklahoma  is at Iowa State and Baylor
Arizona is at Stanford and California
Butler is at Providence and Creighton
Southern Cal is at Oregon and Oregon State
Purdue is at Rutgers and Iowa (plus home to Ohio State)
South Carolina is at Ole Miss and Tennessee
Dayton is at St Bonaventure (54) and Fordham (178)
Gonzaga is at St Marys (45) and Pacific (266)
Navy (158) is at Lehigh (272) and Army (193)
Utah is at Washington State and Washington

[agibson]

http://collegepolltracker.com/basketball/team/vu/2015
has the AP ballots.

Rothstein joined Davis in placing us at #20 - Rothstein's first vote for us this season, but he's shown some awareness on twitter, etc.

13 voters overall, of 65.  Everyone who's supported us earlier this season is back on the bandwagon except Bret Strelow - and he had us at #22 earlier in the season.  (Couch is in at #24, not quite his earlier level of enthusiasm.)  Doughty, one of our most enthusiastic supporters last year, isn't yet with us this year.

[agibson]

We have three ROAD games to play before the next poll comes out...

Could have a top-10 quality active road win streak going at that point...

[a3uge]

http://collegepolltracker.com/basketball/team/vu/2015
has the AP ballots.

Rothstein joined Davis in placing us at #20 - Rothstein's first vote for us this season, but he's shown some awareness on twitter, etc.

13 voters overall, of 65.  Everyone who's supported us earlier this season is back on the bandwagon except Bret Strelow - and he had us at #22 earlier in the season.  (Couch is in at #24, not quite his earlier level of enthusiasm.)  Doughty, one of our most enthusiastic supporters last year, isn't yet with us this year.

Cecil hurt us this time and left us off, despite having a vote last week.

On
Davis 20 (week 10, 11)
Rothstein 20 *new
Dachile 23 *new
Hines 23 *new
Couch 24 (week 1, 2, 3, 10, 11)
Carino 24 *new
Osterman 24 (week 10, 11)
Alexander 25 (week 1, 2, 11)
Lyttle 25 *new
McCoy 25 (week 10, 11)
Kaufman 25 *new
Richey 25 *new
Palmer 25 *new

Off
Strelow (week 1, 2)
Hurt (week 11)

[talksalot]

Could have a top-10 quality active road win streak going at that point...

That streak would start in 2016... since we lost at Belmont... we would be at 5

1.   Gonzaga   13
2.   Southern Illinois   7
3.   James Madison   6
3.   Providence   6
3.   SMU   6
3.   Stony Brook   6
7.   UAB   5
8.   Cal State Bakersfield   4
8.   Kent State   4
8.   Montana   4
8.   Northwestern   4
8.   Saint Joseph's   4
8.   San Diego State   4

[agibson]

Cecil hurt us this time and left us off, despite having a vote last week.

I see what you did there.  Clever!

I'd missed him.

He was unusual last week in including St. Mary's (#24) and us (#25).  He's now _really_ unusual in sending St. Mary's to #21 (they have the #21, a #23, and nothing else), and he rather inexplicably dropped us.  Interesting.

[talksalot]

and here are the current home streaks...always nice to see your name in print, spelled correctly.

1.   Arizona   49
2.   Wichita State   40
3.   Kansas   35
4.   Villanova   32
5.   Kentucky   30
6.   South Dakota State   24
7.   Maryland   23
8.   Stephen F. Austin   22
8.   UAB   22
8.   Valparaiso   22

UAB's next two home games are against Rice (#301) and North Texas (#300)
Maryland hosts Northwestern Tuesday night; and hosts Iowa on the 28th.
SoDakota State hosts Nebr-Omaha on the 28th and IUPUI on 2/6

and Arizona's next home game is against Oregon on the 28th.  That would be a nice duck win!

[a3uge]

The best thing we can do is keep lobbying for Valpo... but do it on Sunday afternoon! It would be great for the program to be ranked. I think @wright state may be difficult, but if we win that, its smooth sailing for awhile.

One thing that was great seeing - people putting Valpo at #25 no longer registered as an "extreme" pick.

Also, having so many people trust Valpo over Monmouth says a lot about the respect for our program.

[elephtheria47]

1st Poll of the day: Mid-Major Power 15 : Valpo maintains the top spot over St. Mary'sRank              School                                Last Week1.   Valparaiso Crusaders (15-3, 6 1st Place)   12.   St. Mary's Gaels (15-2, 4)   43.   Wichita State Shockers (12-5)   54.   Dayton Flyers (14-3, 1)   35.   Evansville Purple Aces (16-3)   66.   VCU Rams (13-5)   147.   Gonzaga Bulldogs (14-4, 1)   28.   Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (15-1)   89.   Monmouth Hawks (13-4)   1210.   St. Joseph's Hawks (14-3)   911.   George Washington Colonials (14-4) 712.   Hawaii Warriors (15-2)   t-1513.   BYU Cougars (13-6)   1314.   Stony Brook Seawolves (13-4)   NR15.   UAB Blazers (15-3)   NRDropped Out: UT Arlington, St. Bonaventure, AkronOthers Receiving Votes: Grand Canyon, UC Irvine, St. Bonaventure, Chattanooga, Mercer, UT Arlington, Stephen F. Austin, Yale, Southern Illinois, Davidson, James Madison, Pepperdine








HL needs to step up - - not even one other team receiving votes.

[agibson]

HL needs to step up - - not even one other team receiving votes.

Oakland's up to #20 in the coaches poll, which we're doing very well in.  Probably our best week ever there?  Though I assume Butler spent some time at number one...

Gonzaga getting punished for a one point loss at home to a pretty good BYU team.

[SanityLost17]

The best thing we can do is keep lobbying for Valpo... but do it on Sunday afternoon! It would be great for the program to be ranked. I think @wright state may be difficult, but if we win that, its smooth sailing for awhile.

One thing that was great seeing - people putting Valpo at #25 no longer registered as an "extreme" pick.

Also, having so many people trust Valpo over Monmouth says a lot about the respect for our program.

Need to keep reminding voters (or make voters aware) that we had 2 starters injured at the Ball State game.  Also need to remind them that our non-con SOS is strong and that we played 7 true road games. 

Of course, non of this matters if we lose anytime soon. 

[oklahomamick]

The AP Poll picture wasn't very clear but there was a team at the top who received all the 1st place votes.  Who was that???

Oklahoma will be the first school to make the final four in football and basketball.

[wh]

CollegeInsider.com Top 25

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php

•Valpo has gone from 4th to 2nd to 1st in the past 2 weeks 
•Received 20 of 31 1st place votes.

[a3uge]

CollegeInsider.com Top 25

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php

•Valpo has gone from 4th to 2nd to 1st in the past 2 weeks 
•Received 20 of 31 1st place votes.

Don't we only have 3 losses?

Also Arkansas Little Rock just lost on the road to Arkansas State. Only their 2nd loss. Great game. Love their stadium. The ARC could look really nice if they just redid the seating.