2019-20 National Rankings

[Stickboy46]

Up to 8 in the NET this morning

[TheShocktocles]

Duke got beat at home by SFA and don’t take a big hit in polls, Memphis loses in a close one to a good Georgia team without one of their best players and they fall 11 spots. Little bit of overkill. Who ever loses Thursday will probably be out of the top 25, which is too bad. Certain teams and conferences get a lot more leeway

You are totally correct. Its a shame these voters have so much bias. Even the turd announcer last night was saying that Memphis will or probably be out of the rankings with a loss to WSU. That is just garbage. Memphis should have been higher ranked when we played them . And I did not hear any announcers say Ohio State, Virginia, Michigan, Penn State, Texas Tech, Colorado, and Arizona should be out of the rankings. They all have lost this week or on Sunday. Another quality loss for those teams. The more things change the more they stay the same.

[pie n eye]

WSUwatcher Good point. With the Shockers I like to use KenPom as a check on my personal eye test. I guess what I’m saying is I feel like my eye test says we’re better than 31 and I don’t know enough about the KP formula to understand the disparity even if it’s only 10-15 spots different than what I would expect.

Like you said we are ranked higher in some of the KP lookalikes. Wonder if any of our stat heads know why.

[wheathead]

I’m curious to see what Parrish does in his 25 and one poll today.

[ABC]

I’m curious to see what Parrish does in his 25 and one poll today.

WSU up one to 19. Memphis drops to 25. https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...ankings/top25/

[NCAABound]

Only jumped because Memphis dropped in his poll. So he obviously thinks that is kinda our ceiling. What other wins besides roadies at Houston or Memphis would give him a reason to put us higher?

[WstateU]

My eyes say we're currently a top 20 team, however when (IF) we start firing on all cylinders, look out.

[ShockCrazy]

WSUwatcher Good point. With the Shockers I like to use KenPom as a check on my personal eye test. I guess what I’m saying is I feel like my eye test says we’re better than 31 and I don’t know enough about the KP formula to understand the disparity even if it’s only 10-15 spots different than what I would expect.

Like you said we are ranked higher in some of the KP lookalikes. Wonder if any of our stat heads know why.

They key to understanding KP is not not paying attention to rank too much. Look at net efficiency. Also if you are super concerned about rank pay attention to clustering. Right now there is a large cluster of teams from +17-18 EM. If we were to lose a point of EM we would only fall 4 spots, but were we to gain a point we would climb all the way to 20.

[asiseeit]

Memphis should NOT drop but probably will. Losing to us on our home court shouldn't hurt them much.

[TheShocktocles]

Memphis should NOT drop but probably will. Losing to us on our home court shouldn't hurt them much.

Agree. But if they lose to USF I could understand it. But losing to the Shocks on our home floor should not result in them being dropped.

[wheathead]

Just keep winning. Losses by others will naturally move us up.

[T.VuOP]

Just keep winning. Losses by others will naturally move us up.

Yep! If we win on Sunday, we will move up. If not, I think the voters may drop us down.

[ShockerPrez]

We need to win @Uconn. If we drop that one, we will be taking 2 steps back in voters eyes.

[Cdizzle]

WSU now 14-1, 3-1 against Q1.

IMO, there are 6 teams with comparable or better resume's to this point (comparable or better Q1 record, no bad losses). 5 of them are in the Top 7. Ironically, the 6th is WVU, who apparently is held back by beating WSU. They are 17th.

WSU is 23. At some point it doesn't matter if you are/were a believer. Do your job.

[WSUwatcher]

They key to understanding KP is not not paying attention to rank too much. Look at net efficiency. Also if you are super concerned about rank pay attention to clustering. Right now there is a large cluster of teams from +17-18 EM. If we were to lose a point of EM we would only fall 4 spots, but were we to gain a point we would climb all the way to 20.

Very good point about how rank works and teams can cluster in KenPom, SC.

As I started to write this, I looked at Pomeroy's latest rankings and found that the Shocks had actually inched up to 26th (now the AAC's top team), with an overall rating of +17.15, barely ahead of #27 Illinois (+17.12) and #28 Arkansas (+17.07). That's literally a difference in rating that can occur between games while you're not even playing -- as in fact it just did, because I remember seeing the Shocks at +17.04 and 30th last night, which means that their rating improvement and corresponding rise in the rankings isn't based on anything they did Saturday themselves. Yet because of the number of teams in the +17 to +17.5 range (Purdue is 23rd at +17.41 as I type this, for example), their small incidental rating improvement lifted WSU four spots in Pomeroy's rankings.

Meanwhile, Houston, which had been in one of those spots just ahead of WSU, dropped back to 29th at +16.76 because of their low-scoring mishap at Tulsa, and they're now one of eight teams ranked between 29th and 36th that are less than 3/4 point apart in the ratings -- an even bigger cluster. Climbing more is also about to get harder for the Shocks, as moving up another three spots beyond Purdue would require a gain of over two full rating points (which is a lot): Iowa, currently 20th, is sitting way up at +19.50. So in that particular range, there's much less clustering just overhead.

Of course, what really matters at this point isn't esoteric metrics and rankings; it's the AAC standings. Time to just win, baby -- be true Shocker road warriors -- and let the rankings and metrics take care of themselves.

Edit -- one other thought about WSU and Pomeroy: the Shocks' recent rise in overall ratings and rankings has mostly been on the offensive side, which has improved significantly while the defense (while still noteworthy and the team's calling card) has actually slipped just a bit, in part because of some big opposing free throw numbers (e.g., Memphis). That's probably good news, because with Dennis back there's at least a chance the offense may just keep getting better, while the defense is likely to remain pretty stout.