Poll Watch (2013-14 Edition)

[Play Angry]

Jerry Carino keeps us 3rd, Bret Strelow keeps us 5th, Steve Wiseman keeps us 4th, Andrew Greif keeps us 5th. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Play Angry]

The remaining schedules for teams ahead of us (schedules based on current rankings, which will change later this morning):


Syracuse: @ #25 Pittsburgh, vs. NC State, vs. BC, @ #11 Duke, @ Maryland, @ #20 Virginia, vs. Georgia Tech, @ Florida State

Arizona: @ Arizona State, @ Utah, @ Colorado, vs. Cal, vs. Stanford, @ Oregon State, @ Oregon

Florida: @ Tennessee, @ #18 Kentucky, vs. Auburn, @ Mississippi, @ Vanderbilt, vs. LSU, @ South Carolina, vs. # 18 Kentucky


As you can see, Syracuse's home stretch is especially brutal and Florida's is no cakewalk. Arizona's remaining schedule is the easiest but they are struggling without Ashley and still face a lot of road games.

Teams immediately behind us:

San Diego State: @ Wyoming, vs. Air Force, vs. Utah State, @ New Mexico, vs. San Jose State, @ Fresno State, @ UNLV, vs. New Mexico

Villanova: @ DePaul, @ #12 Creighton, @ Providence, vs. St. John's, vs. Butler, vs. Marquette, @ Xavier, vs. Georgetown

Kansas: @ KSU, vs. TCU, @ Texas Tech, vs. Texas, vs. #21 Oklahoma, @ #19 Oklahoma State, vs. Texas Tech, @ West Virginia


Our flank looks pretty well protected. SDSU and Villanova likely drop at least one of their remaining road games, and Kansas would no longer be a threat if they lose just one of their remaining games. A Wildcat win tonight at Bramlage takes them off the radar.

Miscellaneous media darlings with an outside shot at a 1 seed:

Duke: @ UNC, vs. Maryland, @ Georgia Tech, vs. #1 Syracuse, vs. Virginia Tech, @ Wake Forest, vs. UNC

Michigan State: vs. Northwestern, vs. Nebraska, @ Purdue, @ #10 Michigan, vs. Illinois, vs. #17 Iowa, @ #24 Ohio State


MSU could pose a problem if they ran the table due to the strength of the B1G, but, as you can see, that is a monumental task and unlikely. Duke is here because Duke.




Overall, I very much like how the home stretch sets up for us, both for seeding and poll purposes.

[Rlh04d]

I think we'd get a fair treatment from Seth if one of our players was injured. Here's what he had to say last year during all of the injuries.

WICHITA STATE (13-1, NR): BUY-PLUS

I do not give this rating lightly, but the Shockers have earned it for two reasons. First, they have been playing solid basketball all season, with their only loss coming at Tennessee. Second, they are currently missing three starters because of injuries, including 6-8 senior forward Carl Hall, their leading scorer and rebounder. All three of those starters are expected to return at some point (Carl in the next week or so). Not only does that mean the Shockers will get even better, but it also means that Gregg Marshall has been forced to give extended minutes to players who would not have otherwise gotten the chance. To get a sense of this team's potential, consider that when it was at full strength, it won on the road at VCU on Nov. 13.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/col...#ixzz2svNkkBZt

We'd only lost one game at that point, though.

[jocoshock]

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/10/college-basketball-talks-latest-top-25-9/

"Thanks to road wins over the two toughest teams in the Missouri Valley this week, we’ve reached the point in the season where it seems more likely that Wichita State will head into the postseason with a perfect record.

What that means is that over the course of the next five weeks, the biggest topic of discussion is going to be whether or not the Shockers deserve a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and the answer is not as easy and you’d think.

You see, Wichita State’s schedule this season has not been difficult. They’ve beaten three teams with RPIs in the top 50, but only one of those three — Saint Louis — is a surefire NCAA tournament team. That win came in Saint Louis, which is nothing short of impressive, but the Billikens are in a similar situation to the Shockers in that we don’t really know how good they are. The wins that Saint Louis has amassed this season are not all that different from the wins Wichita State has.

Beyond Saint Louis?

Wichita State has beaten BYU, Tennessee, Indiana State twice and … Alabama? DePaul? Missouri State?

Here’s where they will get the benefit of the doubt: they tried to play a tough schedule, and that’s just about all you can ask for from a team in their position. They played at Alabama. They played in the CBE Classic. They played Tennessee. They tried to get into that eight team season kickoff event in Dallas. Gregg Marshall refuses to play buy games, but he has shown that he’ll play anyone that actually has the guts to pay a visit to Koch Arena.

As of today, I’m not sure if the Shockers deserve a No. 1 seed. They’re going to need to hope that some of the top teams in the country — Kansas, Arizona, etc. — lose enough games to open up a spot."

[Dave Stalwart]

"Some of the top teams in the country" need to lose so the not top team Wichita can sneak into a 1 seed that they probably aren't good enough to deserve.

That last line up there says it all

Fair enough. I get it. We'll find out soon enough.

[Play Angry]

Shocks stay #4 in AP. Sorry, no link with vote totals as of yet.

[GO_SHOCKERS]

Shocks stay #4 in AP. Sorry, no link with vote totals as of yet.

WSU 1,445 pts
Florida at 1,477 pts

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings/_/year/2014/poll/1

[Play Angry]

Shockers drop 2 votes from 1447 to 1445, basically treading water. Lead on #5 SDSU is 72 votes, trail #3 Florida by 32 votes. http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/ap

Florida dropped 5 votes this week, SDSU gained 3. Nothing significant for anyone.

[Play Angry]

WSU 1,445 pts
Florida at 1,477 pts

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...ar/2014/poll/1

Too quick for me.

[DJShocker10]

I say we pick up 10 more AP vote points and stay at #4-AP with 1,445 points.

Good call!

[Play Angry]

WSU just barely stays at #2 in the Coaches Poll, with the lead over Arizona shrinking to 744 vs. 742.

Time for Syracuse, AZ and FLA to start piling up some losses.

[AndShock]

http://www.pollspeak.com/component/option,com_psreport/Itemid,3/lang,en/p,56/r,T/s,26/t1,172/v,/w,15/

For as much hate as we give Ron Morris I think we've been giving Matt McCoy a pass. He has Wichita State at 9th. He's from Columbus, Ohio. He has Ohio State 20th.

I think someone is butthurt from last year.

[wushock27]

I saw he's from South Carolina and has OK State at 20...

Edit: Reading Morris, not the other guy... Oops

[Shockadelica]

Win two tough road games and lose points in both polls ... nice!

[im4wsu]

Win two tough road games and lose points in both polls ... nice!

Don't you know it's because we struggled. At Indiana State, we were tied or led all but 2:28 and led or tied the last 16:58 of the game.
At Cedar falls, we were tied or in the lead all but 4:13 and led (or were tied) the last 28:11.

Next thing you know, we'll be faulted for not having the lead from the opening tip until the first time a score is tallied.