Poll Watch (2013-14 Edition)

[Dave Stalwart]

This is getting ridiculous. I am amazed by this team. This is so much fun.

Gregg Marshall has our team at a point where we are arguably the best team in the country.

Anyone else catch the sports daily moment this morning where a guy calls in and says he thinks Marshall is the best coach in the country? Lutz basically says "You're telling me that if you were starting a basketball team, you would take Marshall over Bill Self?" ...with an obvious undertone of "don't be ridiculous"

Well the guy basically said heck yeah. I agree by the truckload by the way... Especially in the context of STARTING a program. Bill Self is a great coach who takes 5 stars and gets them to win big. In other words he takes a built program and keeps it there. I don't think ORU was ever top 5 am I right?

Gregg Marshall takes under the radar guys and has them top 5. If you are starting a program, HCGM it is... Hands down... The next question is what can he do with a built program. I think we all know exactly what he can do. He might even do it this season.

[Rlh04d]

I'm really surprised by the poll results. I'm guessing a ton of people flipped us and Florida. I'm guessing they flipped us because they're all sheep and they saw that Florida was 3rd in the AP last week, even though those that had WSU at #3 were the majority.

We gained points. Tons of people flipping us with Florida would have cost us points.

We gained. Florida gained more. Arizona lost a lot. Florida picked up votes on Arizona, as did Syracuse. We're now far closer to #2 in the AP than we were last week.

[shock-it-to-me]

Its interesting what a conundrum we are presenting to pollsters. I went back and looked at the top 4 for week 14 over the last 5 years, and in 4 of those years, the top 4 was exactly the same in both polls, and in one year, 2 and 3 were just flipped, so having a squad 2nd and 4th is definitely out of the ordinary.

[Play Angry]

Teams ahead of us in the AP Poll get a little bit of a respite this week, with all of them playing exclusively home games against unranked opponents.

It's game on after that. Games below are road games remaining vs. top 100 foes and home games against ranked teams.

Syracuse still has games @ Pitt, @ Duke, @ Maryland, @ Virginia, and @ Florida State.

Arizona has @ Arizona State, @ Colorado, @ Oregon State, and @ Oregon.

Florida has @ Tennessee, @ Kentucky, @ Ole Miss, @ Vandy, and vs. Kentucky.

San Diego State (#5, right behind us) has just one road win against Top 125 teams this year. Granted, it was a monster (@ Kansas). They still have @ Boise State, @ Wyoming, @ New Mexico, @ UNLV, and vs. New Mexico. Like WSU, one loss for the Aztecs will do serious damage and drop them a seed line + 5-6 spots in the polls.



Those around us are going to lose. A lot. If we take care of business this week, the sky is the limit. Don't get too hung up on us being stuck in neutral for a week or two in the polls.

[WSUwatcher]

We gained points. Tons of people flipping us with Florida would have cost us points.

We gained. Florida gained more. Arizona lost a lot. Florida picked up votes on Arizona, as did Syracuse. We're now far closer to #2 in the AP than we were last week.

To be exact, last week WSU was one point out of third with AP and 126 out of second. This week, WSU is 35 out of third, but just 70 out of second. If Arizona hits a rough patch and skids -- and WSU survives this week unbeaten -- the path in AP will be clear to rise some more. In the coaches' poll, it's just up the Shocks and the Orange -- who hangs in longer?

[The Cat]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...arrested-again Oklahoma State is falling apart before our eyes. They already lost their starting big man and now a key reserve. Their bench has really shorted up over the last month.

[1972Shocker]

If nothing else the polls results sort of disprove the contention that 3G is not will liked by his colleagues.

[jocoshock]

This is getting ridiculous. I am amazed by this team. This is so much fun.

Gregg Marshall has our team at a point where we are arguably the best team in the country.

Anyone else catch the sports daily moment this morning where a guy calls in and says he thinks Marshall is the best coach in the country? Lutz basically says "You're telling me that if you were starting a basketball team, you would take Marshall over Bill Self?" ...with an obvious undertone of "don't be ridiculous"

Well the guy basically said heck yeah. I agree by the truckload by the way... Especially in the context of STARTING a program. Bill Self is a great coach who takes 5 stars and gets them to win big. In other words he takes a built program and keeps it there. I don't think ORU was ever top 5 am I right?

Gregg Marshall takes under the radar guys and has them top 5. If you are starting a program, HCGM it is... Hands down... The next question is what can he do with a built program. I think we all know exactly what he can do. He might even do it this season.

Haven't researched this for total accuracy, so please set me straight if I mistate, but:

Self:
ORU - winner
Tulsa - follows Tubby Smith, gets to Elite 8
Illinois - bulds a team that competes for NC after he leaves.
Kansas - follows Roy Williams. Final Fours and NC

Not taking anything away from Bill, but he has had a smoother path than Gregg, who has done almost as much at 2 schools as Self has done at four, AND he built Winthrop and had to rebuild our team, if not our program, AND he has done it with (on paper) allegedly lesser talent.

So yes, I would take HCGM in a HEARTBEAT!!

[Shocks2005]

There was an awesome graphic the other day on ESPN, (I think) it compared Coach K, Jim Boehiem and HCGM in their first 15 seasons. I can't remember the exact numbers of wins between all three but they were very close. HCGM had more wins than Coach k and three fewer Final Fours; he had less wins then Boehiem but same number of Final Fours. They also mentioned that the other two also were at Syracuse and Duke for a good portion of their run.

[AndShock]

We gained points. Tons of people flipping us with Florida would have cost us points.

We gained. Florida gained more. Arizona lost a lot. Florida picked up votes on Arizona, as did Syracuse. We're now far closer to #2 in the AP than we were last week.

37 people had us at #3 or higher last week. 14 of those people moved us down. So it didn't cost us our spot this week, but it definitely cost us points. If you take those people and add Ron Morris, then it costed us the #3 spot.

[jocoshock]

There was an awesome graphic the other day on ESPN, (I think) it compared Coach K, Jim Boehiem and HCGM in their first 15 seasons. I can't remember the exact numbers of wins between all three but they were very close. HCGM had more wins than Coach k and three fewer Final Fours; he had less wins then Boehiem but same number of Final Fours. They also mentioned that the other two also were at Syracuse and Duke for a good portion of their run.

Saw that also. Very telling....

[SPEShockAlum]

There was an awesome graphic the other day on ESPN, (I think) it compared Coach K, Jim Boehiem and HCGM in their first 15 seasons. I can't remember the exact numbers of wins between all three but they were very close. HCGM had more wins than Coach k and three fewer Final Fours; he had less wins then Boehiem but same number of Final Fours. They also mentioned that the other two also were at Syracuse and Duke for a good portion of their run.

Jim Boeheim gets a lot of love for not bringing home more hardware than he has. Just wins a ton of games and for what? Some early exits from NCAA tournaments? Oh yeah, and a good looking wife.

[Shock Therapy]

And Ron Morris still has us at 10th. What is his problem?

[Cdizzle]

I'm not worried. Anything in the top 8 garners us a 1 or 2 seed. Just keep grinding Shox. The tournament will be upon us soon, then we can let loose again.

This might be true. But it might only be true because the only way we stay in the Top 8 is to remain undefeated.

[AndShock]

And Ron Morris still has us at 10th. What is his problem?

He thinks teams are supposed to lose to prove they're legit. He moved Duke from #22 on his ballot to #4 this week. I think if we get pasted by Indiana State he might move us up.