Top 144 countdown

[ShockerFever]

College Sports Madness is infamous for their Top 144 countdown but their research and analysis is always underwhelming. They're just a ragtag band of internet geeks looking to collect web hits and get popular for something... their 144 preview.

Now, they can poke fun of the Valley all they want, but not calling WSU a "big time school" is just being ignorant and lazy. And that goes with their starting lineup projections and all of the other jargon of "analysis" they provide.

About the only thing they got right was the ranking. Yawn.

[WSUwatcher]

If Nick Wiggins is our starting four, something has gone terribly wrong.

If the Shocks only get to start four, the Valley has gone too far in trying to even things up.

[Aargh]

If Nick Wiggins is in the starting lineup, I'd have to think he somehow grew 6" over the summer.

Either that or the brothers secretly swapped ID's and switched schools.

[pogo]

College Sports Madness is infamous for their Top 144 countdown but their research and analysis is always underwhelming. They're just a ragtag band of internet geeks looking to collect web hits and get popular for something... their 144 preview.

Now, they can poke fun of the Valley all they want, but not calling WSU a "big time school" is just being ignorant and lazy. And that goes with their starting lineup projections and all of the other jargon of "analysis" they provide.

About the only thing they got right was the ranking. Yawn.

I agree that the remark "big time school" is an ignorant statement but unfortunately it probably comes from the fact that we are not bcs and not a football school. By every other measure WSU is a BIG TIME SCHOOL.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

If "big time school" means blue blood, I can agree with their statement.

[ShockBand]

We are blue collar and proud of it. We EARN what we get.

[SB Shock]

So WSU was on the bubble last year?

No talk about Fred, baker or wessel? Probably the guy doesn't even do enough research to even understand that WSU made the run they did because they got baker back.

What defines a big time school? Big building? Having football? Conference? Idiots?

I dare somebody to call up Marshall and if it is really true he is going to a 4 guard lineup.

Nice ranking, but the "details" really question how they formulate it.

[shockmonster]

So WSU was on the bubble last year?

No talk about Fred, baker or wessel? Probably the guy doesn't even do enough research to even understand that WSU made the run they did because they got baker back.

What defines a big time school? Big building? Having football? Conference? Idiots?


I dare somebody to call up Marshall and if it is really true he is going to a 4 guard lineup.

Nice ranking, but the "details" really question how they formulate it.

Big Time school usually means a biased and ignorant remark. Texas and Alabama are big time schools whose RPIs were in the 70-80 range. We were Top 20-30. TCU and Texas Tech are probably big time too and they are 200 RPI.

[ShockTalk]

So WSU was on the bubble last year?

No talk about Fred, baker or wessel? Probably the guy doesn't even do enough research to even understand that WSU made the run they did because they got baker back.

What defines a big time school? Big building? Having football? Conference? Idiots?

I dare somebody to call up Marshall and if it is really true he is going to a 4 guard lineup.

Nice ranking, but the "details" really question how they formulate it.

Maybe not the bubble, but we did ourselves no favors. It became more about who we lost to than who we beat and finishing the regular season/Valley tourney at 7-6. That finish included a home loss to Evansville and a home thumping by IN St. It also included a road lost to again Evansville and to SIU. Losing twice to CU, once very poorly. The best wins all came in the first 2/3 of the season and were pretty much countered by the bad losses.

Not mentioning FVV and Baker and their value was indeed a big miss on their part.

I think Big Time School should refer to continued high success, making the NCAAs more often than not over more than a few years. Even with Gonzaga and Butler's success, how fast do you think they would be cast aside by the media if their fortunes changed? So, yes, probably conference affiliation does come into play and, too a lesser degree, having football or not.

Totally agree with your last two points. Cle playing full time center? That must have been the thinking.

[proshox]

I wouldn't be surprised to see that line-up get minutes. Cle was unbelievably effective on the low block with his back to the basket while CH was hurt. If Nick has improved his defense I would love to see that line-up against most teams, because the group of players could be lethal.

[1979Shocker]

No talk about Fred, baker or wessel? Probably the guy doesn't even do enough research to even understand that WSU made the run they did because they got baker back.

It's not hard to figure out why they weren't mentioned. They had certain criteria for each team they were going to cover.

The had Who's Out. They can't talk about them there.
They had Who's In. They can't talk about them there.
They had Who to Watch. The main player there is Early.
... and
They had Final Projection. They were only talking about the team in general there. They did talk about VanVleet indirectly in this section but only as Armstead's replacement.

[OxiFreshKS]

I think #15 shows great respect for our program this year! In years past most national pundits would have probably slid us in at #21 or something. Losing Armstead and Hall would have been their defense. They don't know much about our newcomers obviously yet, but they know Marshall can coach, and Baker can shoot, and Early can take over games at times.

[pogo]

I think #15 shows great respect for our program this year! In years past most national pundits would have probably slid us in at #21 or something. Losing Armstead and Hall would have been their defense. They don't know much about our newcomers obviously yet, but they know Marshall can coach, and Baker can shoot, and Early can take over games at times.

Nice first post. Welcome