2016-17 National Rankings

[pie n eye]

Projections indicate a 16-16 record with a first place tie in the Big West. That's not what I would call in the caliber of some of the other teams we're playing in the non-con.

Yeah, we'll see. I'm not saying they're great or anything just that it's tough to say definitively because of their schedule. What's their projected RPI? I guess at this point that's all that really matters since we got the W.

[wichshock65]

Winners and Losers of AP College Basketball Top 25 Poll in Week 3 | Bleacher Report (via http://ble.ac/teamstream-) http://teamstre.am/2gD67fb

Loser: Michigan and Wichita State

Pardon my French, but what the hell do you AP voters want before you'll show more love to Michigan and Wichita State?

The Wolverines dominated the 2K Classic, beating Marquette and SMU by a combined margin of 40 points. Both games were over by halftime, as they temporarily made two potential NCAA tournament teams look like they had never played organized basketball before this week. They were even minus-17 on the glass against SMU, yet they won by a landslide thanks to efficient offense and aggressive defense.

Wichita State's competition has been decidedly less challenging, but what the Shockers are doing to their opponents right now is borderline criminal. Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker are gone, yet this team is 4-0 with a margin of victory of 36.8 points per game. The closest any team has come to beating Wichita State was Tulsa losing by a score of 80-53.

No Shocker is averaging more than 22.0 minutes or 11.5 points per game. This isn't one or two guys destroying teams. It's a swarm of locusts, devouring crop after crop with no resistance.

But the AP doesn't care. Both teams got votes, but hardly any more than Cincinnati got for losing to a Rhode Island team that played most of the game with its starting point guard in the hospital getting evaluated for a head/neck injury. Michigan State still got more votes than the Wolverines and the Shockers combined, even though the Spartans have been nothing but disappointing thus far.

Wichita State can fix this error by making a statement in the Battle 4 Atlantis, but it's kind of pathetic that the 65 people tasked with identifying the nation's best teams whiffed on both of these.

[ShockTalk]

Like this: No Shocker is averaging more than 22.0 minutes or 11.5 points per game. This isn't one or two guys destroying teams. It's a swarm of locusts, devouring crop after crop with no resistance.

[shocksrbest]

Like this: No Shocker is averaging more than 22.0 minutes or 11.5 points per game. This isn't one or two guys destroying teams. It's a swarm of locusts, devouring crop after crop with no resistance.

...the Shocker plague.

[ShockingButTrue]

Absolutely!

I think it's a little early to kvetch about our rankings. What I've seen so far is a very pleasant (and unexpected) surprise, but have we REALLY played anyone who is good yet?

So far, we've played a couple of teams who are middling (South Carolina State and Long Beach State) and a couple of bad teams. We didn't plan the schedule this way, but sometimes this is how the schedule works out. I'm sure everyone is a little surprised that LBS is not having the same type of season as they've had for the last couple of years. The game looked good on paper, but I suspect LBS is a dog.

I think we will have a really good team, but it's a little difficult to tell right now. For instance, LBS was down by 20 to Carolina at half. We only had them down by 12. I'm sure that Cheatin' Roy rested his regulars some in the second half, which allowed them to end up with the same point spread as we had.

That being said, it's very obvious that we have a tremendously deep team, probably deeper than Carolina. I'm just not sure right now that we could stand toe-to-toe with them for 40 minutes. I hope we can get some of those big guys in the B4A so we can really see how good this team is.

Take care of business this week, make it to the championship of the B4A and we'll have something to complain about if we continue to be overlooked.

And no matter what else, outside Northern Iowa, no one in the valley will be able to touch us this year.

We've played about as tough of a schedule as the Cardinals have, and their ranked fairly high.

[shocka khan]

We've played about as tough of a schedule as the Cardinals have, and their ranked fairly high.

Louisville plays in the ACC, they have a better history than we do (championships and final fours), and based on their returners, were ranked in the top 10 or very close to it.

We lost our two best players and four-year starters, we play in the lowly MVC and our returnees were off the radar (except for perhaps Shaq and McDuffie). I wouldn't call Shamet a returnee to base any predictions on, based on the fact that he got a medical redshirt last year and though he has potential, potential doesn't translate into anything until you start actually playing.

Until we play someone of note, these will be the optics that the sportswriters see.

I like the Shockers as much as you do, but I don't wear rose-colored glasses. And since the sportswriters don't see it our way, we'll have to beat a few good teams to have the potential for such a high ranking. I may not like the reality of the optics (comparing us to Louisville), but we are a high-major playing in a mid-major conference and when we have significant losses due to graduation, we will have to work harder to prove ourselves than the Louisville's of the world.

That's reality, perhaps not what either you or I would like it to be, but if someone told me we could be a top 10 team before the season started, I would have probably laughed.

This season's story, so far, has either been we played a bunch of dogs (that we have boatraced) or we have a really good team. I'm thinking really good, but I'm still a little uncertain. We should know how good we may be after this weekend.

[Cdizzle]

This season's story, so far, has either been we played a bunch of dogs (that we have boatraced) or we have a really good team.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

[another shocker]

...the Shocker plague.

that one has some legs to it

[shocka khan]

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Agreed, but until we play our B4A games this week (and hopefully everyone stays healthy and can play) we don't know how good or bad we really are. There is simply not enough data to warrant an objective conclusion.

Therefore, trying to make any rational conclusions at this point is merely an exercise in mutual exclusivity (or forced choice). Which is why I think all these pre-season polls and pre-season NCAA projections are very useless.

[boltforge]

Erik Haslam
@haslametrics:
Haslametrics had Wichita State eighth in the country in its (unpublished, behind-the-scenes) rankings BEFORE the thrashing of LSU today.

https://twitter.com/haslametrics/status/801530876878274560

[Shocker1976]

Erik Haslam
@haslametrics
Haslametrics had Wichita State eighth in the country in its (unpublished, behind-the-scenes) rankings BEFORE the thrashing of LSU today.

https://twitter.com/haslametrics/sta...30876878274560

Shockers win this tourney and Haslametrics will clearly have the Shockers ranked in the Top 10 maybe Top 5!

[Stickboy46]

http://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-michigan-st-out-of-top-25-and-one-florida-in/

Still sitting at 23 in the top 25+1 after the loss yesterday. No movement down at all

[WuShock Reaper]

11/28/16

AP Top 25 Rankings - no votes

Coaches Top 25 Rankings - #40 with 2 points

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

[ShockerFever]

Well, all that build-up is now gone.

It's gonna take a magnificent winning streak to make the polls this year.

[Kel Varnsen]

I would like to apologize in advance to the poor 5/6 seed we will play in the first round in March :).