JTRS Week of 12/10

by Jtemplon

This article was also posted by me on A Championship Blog.

Another week, another set of Rankings. My polls tend to have much more liquidity than the Top 25 rankings published by the AP and Coaches. That is why you will see teams like Drake have climbed quickly into the Top 10, and could be a major sleeper. Some other notes on the poll this week:

1. There is only one team not ranked which appears in either the Top 10 in offense or defense in the Pomeroy Ratings. That team is Hampton. The Pirates are 9th overall in defense, but 203rd on offense.
2. Florida and Southern California are mirror images of each other. Florida is a young team that plays great offense (19th in Pomeroy) and terrible defense (111) while USC is a great team that plays excellent defense (5) and struggles on offense (130). If either of these teams figures out the other side of the ball, they could be a dangerous sleeper.
3. Three teams from the Atlantic 10 were considered for the Top 25 this week: Rhode Island, Xavier and Dayton. The A-10 could steal some of the at-large bids that used to go to the Missouri Valley Conference. Other small conferences that might be two-bid leagues include the West Coast Conference (St. Mary's and Gonzaga) and the Horizon League (Valparaiso and Butler).
4. Another conference to watch out for, might be the Southland. While it will almost definitely be a one-bid league come tournament time there are three teams in the RPI Top 100 in the conference. Sam Houston St. (11) and Texas-Arlington (15) are both undefeated, while Stephen F. Austin (98) only has one loss and upset Oklahoma last weekend.
5. Please play somebody memos should be sent to: Kansas, West Virginia, Washington St., Pittsburgh, Arkansas, Georgetown, Clemson, Florida, Minnesota, California and Georgia. All those teams were considered for the Top 25 and all have a Strength of Schedule north of 240 at the moment.

The JTRS Top 25:

1. Texas
2. UCLA
3. Memphis
4. Xavier
5. Duke
6. Marquette
7. Texas A&M
8. Miami (Fl)
9. North Carolina
10. Drake
11. Vanderbilt
12. Miami (OH)
13. Villanova
14. Michigan State
15. Oregon
16. Kansas
17. Washington State
18. Tennessee
19. Louisville
20. Pittsburgh
21. Indiana
22. Gonzaga
23. Providence
24. Butler
25. St. Mary's

Next 10: Notre Dame, Georgetown, Syracuse, Arizona, Virginia, Connecticut, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Clemson and Rhode Island

Also considered: BYU, USC, Florida State, Arkansas, Stanford, Minnesota, Missouri, Dayton, Florida, Kansas St., California, Georgia and Valparaiso

What do you think? Am I being unnecessarily hard against the Big East?

Steel TownDraft Pick

725 days ago

Score 0

You gotta give the Big East teams some slack for easy non-conference schedules in the start of the season. They do have an extremely hard schedule coming up, don't you agree?

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JtemplonSoccer Kid

725 days ago

Score 0

Yes, they might have difficult conference schedules coming up. It just seems like they also back loaded their non-conference schedules. For instance, Georgetown plays Memphis and Pittsburgh plays Duke and Dayton, but not until later this month. Why did they not play anyone earlier in the season.

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