Official Top 25 Poll Watch

[jocoshock]

Poll Thoughts: Shockers get their due http://es.pn/z95jbz

Better late than never. Last week's Poll Thoughts headline -- "Um, hello? Wichita State?" -- was me being snotty. But I like to think my snottiness was warranted. Wichita State probably deserved to be ranked two weeks ago, but their absence at that point was understandable: They hadn't really gotten that high-profile win to make casual viewers of the sport's national landscape (which at this point is what I assume most of the coaches who fill out ballots are) sit up and take notice. But last week's omission was just downright weird. Wichita State was coming off a 21-point drubbing of Creighton in Omaha, and was 22-4, with three of those losses coming to Creighton, Temple and Alabama and the fourth coming in triple-overtime at Drake in late January. The Shockers were ranked in the top 15 in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings; they were No. 11 in ESPN's new BPI formula. At least one of the teams ranked ahead of them, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, had just lost at home to Georgia. How was this team not in the coaches poll? What the ... what?

A week later, that glaring exclusion has been remedied. Gregg Marshall's team jumps in at No. 19 this week. Frankly, you could probably make the argument that WSU is still underranked, given their season-long body of work and their impressive recent play. But oh well. The important thing is, if you're going to put 25 teams in a poll, Wichita State has to be one of them, and now it is, and the end. Our long national nightmare is over.

[mmm]

http://masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm

Apologies if it has been posted, but an interesting link comparing polls. We sit at #11.

[_kai_]

http://masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm

Apologies if it has been posted, but an interesting link comparing polls. We sit at #11.

Didn't even know that site existed. Good find.

[1972Shocker]

Glad to see Temple move into the Top 25 also. Not just because they beat us in overtime in PR, but because they deserve it as much as the Shocks do.

[WstateU]

Sorry if previously posted elsewhere... Interesting ranking...

http://lrmc.isye.gatech.edu/

[T.VuOP]

Some ranked teams lost today. Hope the Shox stay focus and avoid an upset

[rjl]

Aaaaand for all those who just didn't quite get why it's good to be ranked, this game is case in point.

We're on the front page of the ESPN men's college basketball section. You click on the story and see Davidson game highlights. I only assume that the ISU highlights are forthcoming. Do you all realize that for the bulk of our Valley play, in January to early February, if you opened the recap of the most recent game or even just the WSU page itself, our loss against Creighton would play on the video? Even when it was 4 weeks old? And that's just because Creighton was ranked when they beat us.

Now, so long as we remain ranked, we can look forward to every game having a nice, extensive write-up, and every game having a highlight video on the WSU page, and the results to every game being displayed on the ESPN MBB home page.

Now tell me that's the same as getting written about in a few blogs.

[shox1989]

It was nice seeing highlights of our win over Illinois State tonight on Espn's College Basketball Live.

They included the David Kyle's steal and dunk.

[rjl]

Yeah, my post above doesn't even take into account that now, virtue of being ranked, we'll be talked about in every Sportcenter airing on the night of one of our games.

But yeah. That's the same thing as some tweets and a facebook update.

[WuDrWu]

Umm..RealTime RPI has the Shocks up to #11.

Seeding now becomes a very, VERY important question.

First, to discuss in depth, you have to win out. Not easy, and NOT anywhere near a promise. But for the sake of this discussion....

28-4. 10-0 last 10. Reg and Post Season champs. 10 true road wins. 15 wins not on our home court. RPI probably in the top 10. Ranking probably in the top 15.

Negatives. SOS around 60. 1-1 against the top 25, 2-3 against the top 50 (3 and 3 if we beat CU again). 6-3 (at least) against the top 100 (thanks Missouri State, and if UNI drops their final at SIU they'll drop out too..moving that to 4-3...thanks Valley!).

In fairness and with as much objectivity as I can muster, that screams protected seed.

However, I struggle to put the Shocks ahead of the following teams: Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio State, Syracuse, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisville, Marquette, Michigan & Temple.

That's 17 seeds and you're into #5 seeds. That's kind of where I expect us to land...around 5-6.

[Slalomshocker]

FSU has a couple bad losses...Princeton and Boston College, and are hanging their hats on the Duke and UNC wins, great wins, don't get me wrong, but the bad losses and total number of losses (7 as of now and at least 8 in the end imo) out weigh the couple of wins they have, imo. They do play Duke in Tallahassee tonight though. I think if WSU wins out they are a higher seed than FSU (and I am a FSU fan, except when they are playing WSU). Temple is going to be a close one, it will depend on how much weight they give the head to head. Temple has one more L than WSU and that one extra loss was to an RPI 158 Bowling Green, WSUs worst loss is @Drake, rpi 135. Temple does have the bigger win to go along with the head to head. I would give them the edge. Indiana....make them the 4 and WSU the 5 seed, and match them up 2nd round....thats an easy S16 trip for WSU. Not impressed with IU at all. IU lost at home to Minn, on the road at Nebraska and Iowa.... not too impressive.

Other than FSU and IU I would agree with your assessment. WSU should end up about a 5 seed and I'm fairly confident they can play with any of the 4 seeds in the second round.

[GoShockers89]

If Davidson wins out, they will finish with an RPI in the low 40s. 4-3 (with a win over Creighton in St. Louis) against the RPI top 50 gives our advocates on the committee a lot to work with. There is also an outside shot for Colorado to move into the top 50 if they can win 3 of their last 4 and subsequently make a run to the Pac-12 tournament finals.

The top teams will continue to suffer bad losses over the next two weeks. Remember, just ten days ago there was NO WAY we would be ahead of UNLV and SDSU- now they are clinging to the rankings and will be lucky if either of them receives a protected seed.

If everything falls just right, we still have an outside shot at a 3 seed. I would put the odds of this at around 15%. A 4 seed appears to be the most likely scenario.

[wufan]

@GoShockers89:...You mean a 3 or 4 if we win out. Still 4 games to go...

[Ricardo del Rio]

@GoShockers89...You mean a 3 or 4 if we win out. Still 4 games to go...

If we get a #3 seed, I will be sure that I have died and gone to heaven.

[ABC]

UAB sits at #111 and Tulsa at #103

It is quite possible we have one or two more top 100 wins.