2016-17 Rankings

[wh]

I thought we should have a thread devoted to our appearances in national and mid-major polls across the season. Hopefully, it will be a hot topic.

USA Today Men's Basketball Coaches Poll
Week 1

Valparaiso 2 points; tied for 53rd

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/basketball-men/polls/coaches-poll/2016/20

[wh]

https://www.twitter.com/SethDavisHoops/status/808122274536488960

[agibson]

Up a spot on his ballot as, perhaps among other events, St. Mary's loses at home to UT Arlington.

It's hard to see us _entering_ many ballots this week. Unless there really is a significant bandwagon effect - "A couple of other people voted for Valpo, maybe I should take a look, and I guess it's 'OK' to vote for them." But, we could of course shift around as per the usual escalator rules when others have "unexpected" wins and losses.

No great surprise that a 20 point loss at Kentucky is not disqualifying.

[talksalot]

AP (the Associate Press, not the Alec Peters) Poll is out...  #30 !

Others receiving votes: Florida 44, Wichita St 33, Virginia Tech 32, Maryland 31, Valparaiso 9, TCU 8, Middle Tennessee 7, Miami 6, Minnesota 6, Kansas State 4, UCF 2, Syracuse 2, Ohio State 2, Pittsburgh 2, Michigan State 2, Iowa State 1, Clemson 1, Loyola (CHI) 1

[valpo64]

Anything on the CBI Mid-Major poll?

[talksalot]

not yet... here's the link to whatever is current:

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

[talksalot]

Coach's Poll is out...

Others receiving votes: Florida 48, Wichita St 29, Maryland 23, Syracuse 16, Virginia Tech 14, Miami 13, Michigan State 9, Arkansas 7, California 7, Oklahoma State 7, Colorado 5, Iowa State 4, Michigan 3, Middle Tennessee 3, TCU 2, Texas A&M 2, UT-Arlington 1, Minnesota 1

[agibson]

7 points good for #34. And a single #25 vote in the coaches poll to boot.

The AP votes were from familiar faces. #23 from Seth Davis as advertised, #24 from Elton Alexander, #25 from Graham Couch and Matt McCoy.

The first three maybe our most loyal voters last year, and we'd heard from McCoy as well.

Still waiting for the full results to be processed but it looks like Couch (Lansing) went with Davis (CBS/SI) and took us all the way to #22. While Alexander (Cleveland) and McCoy (Columbus) both dropped us. Meaning someone else brought us in at #25.

[agibson]

Anything on the CBI Mid-Major poll?

You do wonder if we can pass St. Mary's for #2.

[talksalot]

Anything on the CBI Mid-Major poll?

You do wonder if we can pass St. Mary's for #2.

you may have to look behind us...On Saturday, #4 Wichita State went to Norman and beat the Sooners on ESPN2... and #5 NC-Wilmington went to #89 St Bonaventure and beat them

[agibson]

you may have to look behind us...On Saturday, #4 Wichita State went to Norman and beat the Sooners on ESPN2..

Good call. They've already leap frogged us in the AP. 27/27 nationally.

[talksalot]

you may have to look behind us...On Saturday, #4 Wichita State went to Norman and beat the Sooners on ESPN2..

Good call. They've already leap frogged us in the AP. 27/27 nationally.

Shocking.

[wh]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

[agibson]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

At least above the Summit. They've got _two_ teams that haven't yet recorded a D1 win.

[wh]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

At least above the Summit. They've got _two_ teams that haven't yet recorded a D1 win.

A D- is always better than an F. 

[vu72]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

At least above the Summit. They've got _two_ teams that haven't yet recorded a D1 win.

Perhaps in rpi but not in the Sagarin's where the Summit is ranked 18th and the Horizon 20th.  Not sure how that happens at only 2 teams in the Summit have a winning record while 4 teams in the Horizon have winning records.  Part of it is strength of schedule as a team like ORU has a 0-8 record but is playing the 10th toughest schedule in the country.

Oakland is ranked 78th while we are at 79th while Oakland sure can't be accused of playing a hard schedule--currently ranked 348th while ours is 42nd.

[a3uge]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

Conference forecasts to 16th though, which is actually ahead of the WAC. We've digressed for sure since Butler left, and the league never really took advantage of their title game runs.

We had a span of 4-5 years where there were the same coaches spiraling their teams into mediocrity, and the league ran dry on talent. A 3 star recruit was an aberration, and a 2 star was even rare in the league. Teams in the Horizon were able to sell recruits on NCAA appearance, at large bids, record in the tournament, etc. McCallum, Jeter, Donlon lived through this and were able to do nothing with this, yet when, Donlon and Jeter were fired, everyone still loses their minds. The entire league seemed content with mediocrity, and we held teams to a standard that making the CIT or CBI once every few years constituted a great season.

Even the awards ceremonies ignored true success. Coaches that were responsible for recruiting poor talent and making them average at best were rewarded, while first and second teams were littered with players from teams that couldn't crack the top 100. Fans around the league were totally content with this too, arguing against giving defensive player of the year to the nation's best shot block on a top 5 defensive team in the country.

While there was some growing pains last year, and there's going to be pains again this year, I applaud teams that have hired promising coaches, and it seems like the league is finally getting some talent. The all freshman teams the past two years were bad. There's finally some decent freshman again - Trevor Anderson, Marcus Ottey, Goodwin Boahen, Carson Williams to name a few that were rated out of high school. It remains to be seen if these new coaches will be better than the old ones, but I think some of these schools are finally headed on the right direction.

[a3uge]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

At least above the Summit. They've got _two_ teams that haven't yet recorded a D1 win.

We don't really have to worry about the Summit. If a team gets too good, we'll just take them, or at least, take their coach.

[vufan75]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

Could not agree more wh. The HL leadership is lacking in so many ways, from decisiveness, to well thought out planning, to vision to improve for ALL members, etc. Sad state. Mid-Con all over again. I'm envious of Loyola and hate to say it Butler. They got out at the right time.

[a3uge]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

Could not agree more wh. The HL leadership is lacking in so many ways, from decisiveness, to well thought out planning, to vision to improve for ALL members, etc. Sad state. Mid-Con all over again. I'm envious of Loyola and hate to say it Butler. They got out at the right time.

Loyola had decades of incompetence - they were gift wrapped a better conference because their main campus is in Chicago. They didn't get out at the right time. They were accidentally let out, while blindfolded and lost.

[talksalot]

Mid Major poll is out... and I was right... you needed to watch out from below... BUT I missed one!

       RECORD   POINTS   PREVIOUS   
1.   Gonzaga (31)   10-0   775   1   West Coast
2.   Wichita State   9-2   731   4   Missouri Valley
3.   UT Arlington   8-3   665   7   Sun Belt
4.   Valparaiso   8-2   651   3   Horizon
5.   UNCW   8-1   650   5   Colonial
6.   Saint Mary's   7-1   635   2   West Coast
7.   Fort Wayne   8-3   562   6   Summit
8.   Chattanooga   7-2   530   8   Southern
9.   Monmouth   8-2   507   10   Metro Atlantic
10.   Oakland   9-1   451   12   Horizon
11.   ETSU   7-2   435   9   Southern
12.   BYU   7-3   393   15   West Coast
13.   Ohio   5-2   370   11   Mid-American
14.   Belmont   4-3   301   14   Ohio Valley
15.   New Mexico State   8-2   299   18   Western Athletic
16.   Florida Gulf Coast   7-3   297   16   Atlantic Sun
17.   Loyola (Chicago)   9-2   249   19   Missouri Valley
18.   Illinois State   5-3   224   13   Missouri Valley
19.   UL Lafayette   8-2   212   20   Sun Belt
20.   Tennessee State   7-2   175   17   Ohio Valley
21.   Arkansas State   7-2   164   21   Sun Belt
22.   Little Rock   8-2   113   NR   Sun Belt
23.   Iona   6-3   90   NR   Metro Atlantic
24.   Akron   7-3   76   22   Mid-American
25.   Charleston   7-3   73   NR   Colonial


OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Northern Iowa 54, Vermont 48, Princeton 44, Grand Canyon 28, Yale 26, Eastern Michigan 25, Stephen F Austin 24, North Dakota State 17, San Francisco 18, Sam Houston State 17, CSU Bakersfield 13, UC Irvine 13, Winthrop 13, Elon 12, Albany 11, South Dakota 11, Eastern Washington 10, South Alabama 10, Northern Kentucky 10, Buffalo 8, Texas A&M Corpus Christi 7, UT Martin 6, Harvard 4, Lehigh 4, UNC Asheville 4, Bucknell 3, Evansville 3, Central Michigan 2, Utah Valley 2, UMBC 1.

[vufan75]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

Could not agree more wh. The HL leadership is lacking in so many ways, from decisiveness, to well thought out planning, to vision to improve for ALL members, etc. Sad state. Mid-Con all over again. I'm envious of Loyola and hate to say it Butler. They got out at the right time.

Loyola had decades of incompetence - they were gift wrapped a better conference because their main campus is in Chicago. They didn't get out at the right time. They were accidentally let out, while blindfolded and lost.

They may have been incompetent, BUT, they are located in Chicago not 50 miles outside the city (dumb luck maybe). And they had the donors and wisdom to improve athletic facilities b4 the conference shakeup that happened. We took almost a decade just to fully fund and build a track, let alone renovate the ARC for our showcase sport. Maybe we will get another opportunity someday, but for now we appear to be long term HL members.

[vu72]

The HL has fallen to 20th in conference RPI. There are 26 conferences outside of the Big 5 plus the Big East. Of those 26, the HL is in the bottom half (14th). We are now in Low Major territory.

Congrats to our commissioner and the 7 failing "old guard" conference member organizations.

Could not agree more wh. The HL leadership is lacking in so many ways, from decisiveness, to well thought out planning, to vision to improve for ALL members, etc. Sad state. Mid-Con all over again. I'm envious of Loyola and hate to say it Butler. They got out at the right time.

Loyola had decades of incompetence - they were gift wrapped a better conference because their main campus is in Chicago. They didn't get out at the right time. They were accidentally let out, while blindfolded and lost.

They may have been incompetent, BUT, they are located in Chicago not 50 miles outside the city (dumb luck maybe). And they had the donors and wisdom to improve athletic facilities b4 the conference shakeup that happened. We took almost a decade just to fully fund and build a track, let alone renovate the ARC for our showcase sport. Maybe we will get another opportunity someday, but for now we appear to be long term HL members.

Well if the Gentile Center is an "improvement" I'd rather wait another 10 years.  Look at that place!  The ARC holds as many and has a much better atmosphere because nobody goes to their games.  And as for the track, ours is much better because Loyola hasn't gotten around to building one yet!!

http://www.loyolaramblers.com/facilities/loyc-facilities.html

[vufan75]

Ok. Our facilities are top notch. I give. Maybe Loyola decided to put their dollars 1st toward their indoor gym and not a track.

[crusaderjoe]

Maybe some of you math guys can figure this out.

If New Mexico State was in the HL this year as member #11, what would our conference RPI be today?  Asking out of morbid curiosity.