Penn state basketball is ranked for the first time since 1996
- Thread starter Monorojo
- Start date
Among power conference schools, Rutgers has the longest top 25 drought. 1979 was the last year they were ranked. They're actually halfway decent this year - and young. I could see them possibly being ranked next year.
The kiddie didlers will come back to earth, once the Big 10 gets rolling.
The couple of PSU alum I know could care less and still don't watch. What a weird fanbase...
Correct. It's been 70 years.
The current Yale team is solid, though. 9-3 on the season with three close road losses to San Francisco (overtime), Oklahoma State (7 point loss), and Penn State (2 point loss). They defeated a good Vermont team. Have Clemson and North Carolina road games to close out the year.
^ And If Cole Anthony misses the Yale game, I fully expect Yale to beat North Carolina. Would be cool to see Harvard and Yale both get into the NCAA Tournament.
Question is, would beating a Cole Anthony-less UNC actually help their resume?
Don't think the committee can really discredit a victory if the other team is missing a key player. As fans we can do that, sure. But the committee will/should give them full credit.
I have no idea how long Anthony will be out. If UNC is in the top 75, that's considered a Quad 1 game for Yale. I will concede this UNC team could fall below that mark. If the CA injury turns out to be minor, then I expect them to turn the corner eventually.
Yale is currently 60th in the NET rankings. So I do think an at-large bid is a distinct possibility if they're able to finish strong in their remaining OOC games.
Last year the committee seemed to do exactly what you’re saying: they seemed to give more or less credit to wins over fully healthy or less than full strength teams. For example, wins over Duke without Zion. At least this was a discussion point. Who knows how much they actually did it.
Regarding the NET, from what I read/heard the committee seemed to care about for tier categorization (the quadrant wins) but not for the actual individual rank itself. It was weird.
Being 35th didn’t mean much. But having four Quad 1 wins did.
Yep. UNC got full credit for the two wins over a Zion-less Duke team. And I'm okay with that, because we can't assume Duke would have won anyway.
So this current Duke team has 4 Quad 1 wins to start the season, which is more than any other school. I realize the loss to SFA is not good, but surprised that we fell all the way to 13th. SF Austin, FWIW, was actually ranked 74th. So, not a terrible, terrible loss. Just seems like that loss cancelled out two, maybe even three, Quad 1 victories. I'm okay with Duke being ranked outside of the top 10 for AP voters, since I don't think we're an especially dominant team. But if the standard for a high NET Ranking is Quad 1 wins, I'm a little surprised that we fell all the way down to #13.
The NET ranking just isn't that simple. It's not like you lose to #55 you drop by X amount, you lose to #75 you drop by Y amount. Home losses hurt MUCH more than road losses. High margin of victory helps boost you up. And who knows how they are calculating SOS, they won't even release that.
FSU has 3 Quad 1 wins and isn't even top 25. It's all a moving target.
Eh. Home losses are the worst, apparently. Guess that explains why Kentucky is only ranked 66th. Certainly things will become more clear as the season goes on and most every team has 1 or 2 home losses.
Gotta say, I'm a little disappointed with our conference. I mean, we're on par with the Atlantic 10. Here are the rankings of schools in the top 75 (Quad 1 wins on the road).
ACC:
8. Louisville
13. Duke
26. Florida State
36. Virginia
51. NC State
61. Virginia Tech
73. Syracuse
A-10:
10. Dayton
20. Duquense
22. Richmond
52. VCU
64. George Mason
68. Saint Louis
71. Rhode Island
Both conferences have 7 schools in the top 75. Looks like we might only get 5 in the tournament this year. Opportunities for quality wins in the ACC are as scarce as they've ever been.
While it’s less of a problem with NET than the RPI, it’s still able to be manipulated fairly easily. I’ve written extensively about the old MVC doing this with the RPI back in the mid-2000s and it seems like other conferences are figuring out the NET.
The ACC has always taken a passive approach to this things, assuming their general strength will win out. This year that might not be the case.
And yes, home losses are brutal. Home losses count as 1.4 of a loss. Road losses count as just 0.6. For wins it’s reversed. Home wins are 0.6 and road wins are 1.4.
So if you win 3 home games game, the NET treats your record as 1.8-0. If you win 2 road games and lose a neutral site game, your record is seen as 2.8-1.
