Who Meets the Eye Test

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I agree Ohio State is getting much more credit for last year than the Shox are.

As for your 5 teams ShockTalk, I don't know why but the format of the initial post almost gave me a headache trying to make sense of it. Maybe it is just me. Sorry.

[calfan]

In terms of Wichita State, I think we are ranked about right.
There may be one or two teams above us that WSU might beat, Duke and Oklahoma State.

Overall, WSU has not played a strong schedule. WSU has yet to play a ranked team.
Our best wins are over BYU and St. Louis.

That is hardly going to get many voters excited.

Arizona has a win over Duke.
Ohio State has a win over #17 Marquette on the road.
Syracuse has a win over #18 Baylor.
Wisconsin has a win over then #11 Florida.
Duke has a win over then #22 Michigan.

I think we are about where we deserve to be.
That's my eye test

[im4wsu]

ShockTalk, the "eye test" is not normally a blind resume, but an evaluation of a team's ability by simply scouting them and watching them play.

When I first opened this thread I was surprised to see a blind resume because it is basically the opposite of an "eye test".

It depends on what the definition if "is" is....President Clinton

[Cdizzle]

In terms of Wichita State, I think we are ranked about right.
There may be one or two teams above us that WSU might beat, Duke and Oklahoma State.

Overall, WSU has not played a strong schedule. WSU has yet to play a ranked team.
Our best wins are over BYU and St. Louis.

That is hardly going to get many voters excited.

Arizona has a win over Duke.
Ohio State has a win over #17 Marquette on the road.
Syracuse has a win over #18 Baylor.
Wisconsin has a win over then #11 Florida.
Duke has a win over then #22 Michigan.

I think we are about where we deserve to be.
That's my eye test

Only placing value on wins over ranked teams is dangerous. An awful lot of teams have a "great win" over Duke so far this year. Duke, with an RPI 40 points below the non-exciting BYU and one ahead of the non-exciting Saint Louis. Duke's "great win" against a ranked Michigan team was also a "great win" against a team with 0 quality wins, 0 road wins, and an RPI of 140 (WSU has defeated 5 consecutive opponents with RPIs at worst 40 points better than Michigan's).

Like you, I don't have a problem with the Shox ranking. It feels about right. But comparing resume's based on jersey names and voter-based rankings is not a good way to determine which team has had a better start to the season.

[Heinro]

Using the "eye test," I can understand why we're ranked where we are. We have trailed 6 of our 10 games at half, have lacked energy through portions of games, and we have an ever changing front court that has still yet to prove it can adequately replace Carl Hall. Add those to the mid-major bias (Gonzaga, UMass, and SDSU are all in the 20s), and I wouldn't expect anything better than 9 or 11.

Now on the other hand, I watch an obscene amount of college basketball, and while yes, trailing at half 60% of the time is concerning, I strongly believe our best minutes are better than any other team in the country.