Week 4 - All Things Rankings UPDATED 11/26: Gophers Ranked #21 in AP

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UNC dropped a long ways for a loss to Butler. I don't understand how Michigan jumped OSU.
 

afurry91 said:
Ick... Jump from 30 to 26. The coaches hate us. That's about what I predicted though. I figured we would be left out of the coaches poll and the AP Poll will have us between 19-23.

Duke didn't jump Indiana, either.
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The coaches poll is a joke to have UCLA in the top 25 after a loss to Cal Poly. I'll take #21, now we just gotta keep winning and look like we deserve that ranking.
 

UCLA in the coaches poll is an absolute embarrassment. Hopefully this lights a fire under the boys and they crush FSU tomorrow, it would be virtually impossible to leave the Gophers out of the coaches poll with two more wins this week.

The road to the top 10 in the AP is looking pretty good. The opportunity is definitely there with games vs. FSU, and MSU coming up.
 

For Reference, Florida State is 37 in the AP Poll and 31 in the Coaches Poll.
 

GopherHoopsFan said:
UCLA in the coaches poll is an absolute embarrassment. Hopefully this lights a fire under the boys and they crush FSU tomorrow, it would be virtually impossible to leave the Gophers out of the coaches poll with two more wins this week.

The road to the top 10 in the AP is looking pretty good. The opportunity is definitely there with games vs. FSU, and MSU coming up.
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Just saw that the MSU game will be on ESPN and WatchESPN thankfully. I'll be stuck in an airport on my way home during game time. Florida State is a big game for us. It's going to be fun having a number next to our name on ESPN tomorrow. Hopefully, we can take care of business and open up the Big 10 season with a huge win over MSU to crack the Top 10.
 



afurry91 said:
Just saw that the MSU game will be on ESPN and WatchESPN thankfully. I'll be stuck in an airport on my way home during game time. Florida State is a big game for us. It's going to be fun having a number next to our name on ESPN tomorrow. Hopefully, we can take care of business and open up the Big 10 season with a huge win over MSU to crack the Top 10.
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Will they show our ranking on ESPN? Do they show Coaches' or AP poll ranking?

That sucks that you won't be able to see the game, I was afraid I might not be able to either. I play in the pep band for men's basketball, and we have Tuesday night rehearsals, but it seems our director intentionally did not schedule a practice tomorrow, and I don't think it could be for any other reason than that the Gophers are playing. What a cool guy.
 

Even though I do think Duke should have jumped Indiana, I am glad they didn't, and really hope that Indiana can hold that ranking until we play them (probably won't) so we get a shot at the "best team in the country." I am also happy that MSU jumped up, even though they didn't deserve it, but the higher the ranking they are the better our win over them will look. Right now, I am rooting for all the B1G teams(except for Wisconsin), all of us should be rooting for B1G teams, the better the rankings B1G teams get going into conference play, the better we will look when we beat them, and the less worse it looks in the unlikely chance we lose, hoping northwestern can crack the top25 before conference season starts. All in all, for a pure non affiliation basketball follower, B1G will be fun to watch this year, granted people stay healthy
 

If there are no random guesses that make preseason rankings:

Duke is easily #1, IU is probably down to 3 or 4

Gophers are 15

UCLA is no where to be found.

These early season rankings are still so biased, some voters think a team will do good so they stick around in the top 25 for longer than they deserve to
 



Cayman said:
Will they show our ranking on ESPN? Do they show Coaches' or AP poll ranking?
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Does anyone know the answer to this? I assumed AP because I have always been under the impression that that is the more respected poll, but it'd be nice to know for sure.
 

Wouldnt worry about it, coaches poll is always slower to react. Guess they think they have other things to do, like coach.....
 

afurry91 said:
Does anyone know the answer to this? I assumed AP because I have always been under the impression that that is the more respected poll, but it'd be nice to know for sure.
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They show the AP one, so Gophers will have it next to their name
 





@tmbakwe32: Feels good to be back in the Top 25 again. The hard part is staying in now. We're up for the challenge though. #gophernation

Go Gophers!!
 


Yeah, where are you OSU.???.. Come and face your verbal flogging.
 

Let's be happy in the moment. What is the proper metaphor? Go ahead GHers, fire away. The euphoria of a kiss from the girl you weren't certain would kiss you? More imporantly, where does it go from there?
 

BleedGopher said:
@tmbakwe32: Feels good to be back in the Top 25 again. The hard part is staying in now. We're up for the challenge though. #gophernation

Go Gophers!!
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Hit it right on the head. In the Tubby-era, I know we have seen a handful of ranked teams, but I would be curious to know what the latest we have been ranked in the season is. I would love to finish a season ranked this year.
 


westcoastgopher11 said:
Unbelievable, #13 in the nation and only good for 5th in the B1G? The league is going to be a murder's row all season.
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Closing games is going to be VERY important. I can't imagine there will be many blowouts going either way so we need to be able to finish those close games and come out with the W. if the Atlantis tourney was any indication then I think we are on a solid track.
 

So the Gophers got ranked in one poll and are unranked in the other. So doesn't that make everyone half right?

I still don't think the Gophers should be ranked yet. I think the AP voters overestimated Duke, Stanford and Memphis in their rating of the Gophers, and they should not have moved up after losing by 18 to the Blue Devils. I guess we'll find out if Duke is overrated Wednesday night ;) I believe the voters instead should have put teams like Alabama, Wichita State and Ohio U in the poll ahead of the Gophers, but I think the publicity of the Battle 4 Atlantis caught their attention moreso than the events that some of the other teams played in. I think Stanford and Memphis are not particularly good teams, my guess is they will be bubble teams and most likely NIT-bound - decent wins, but not really ones that should vault a team into the rankings after a blowout loss in my view. Honestly, Oregon had a better win (@ UNLV) than any the Gophers have had, and I feel a loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court is about the same as a blowout loss to Duke, so I would have them in ahead of the Gophers as well. But I do think the Gophers should be ranked if they beat FSU.
 

OSUfan said:
So the Gophers got ranked in one poll and are unranked in the other. So doesn't that make everyone half right?

I still don't think the Gophers should be ranked yet. I think the AP voters overestimated Duke, Stanford and Memphis in their rating of the Gophers, and they should not have moved up after losing by 18 to the Blue Devils. I guess we'll find out if Duke is overrated Wednesday night ;) I believe the voters instead should have put teams like Alabama, Wichita State and Ohio U in the poll ahead of the Gophers, but I think the publicity of the Battle 4 Atlantis caught their attention moreso than the events that some of the other teams played in. I think Stanford and Memphis are not particularly good teams, my guess is they will be bubble teams and most likely NIT-bound - decent wins, but not really ones that should vault a team into the rankings after a blowout loss in my view. Honestly, Oregon had a better win (@ UNLV) than any the Gophers have had, and I feel a loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court is about the same as a blowout loss to Duke, so I would have them in ahead of the Gophers as well. But I do think the Gophers should be ranked if they beat FSU.
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Did you watch the game? If you did, you would know it wasn't a blowout. We never really caught up to Duke in the second half, but they never completely ran away with it either. Duke led by about 10 or 11 points for most of the second half, and I think the lead increased at the end after they hit some free throws when we started fouling.
 

OSUfan said:
So the Gophers got ranked in one poll and are unranked in the other. So doesn't that make everyone half right?

I still don't think the Gophers should be ranked yet. I think the AP voters overestimated Duke, Stanford and Memphis in their rating of the Gophers, and they should not have moved up after losing by 18 to the Blue Devils. I guess we'll find out if Duke is overrated Wednesday night ;) I believe the voters instead should have put teams like Alabama, Wichita State and Ohio U in the poll ahead of the Gophers, but I think the publicity of the Battle 4 Atlantis caught their attention moreso than the events that some of the other teams played in. I think Stanford and Memphis are not particularly good teams, my guess is they will be bubble teams and most likely NIT-bound - decent wins, but not really ones that should vault a team into the rankings after a blowout loss in my view. Honestly, Oregon had a better win (@ UNLV) than any the Gophers have had, and I feel a loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court is about the same as a blowout loss to Duke, so I would have them in ahead of the Gophers as well. But I do think the Gophers should be ranked if they beat FSU.
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Memphis isn't a bubble team they will win their conference
 

I think it's safe to say that the coaches poll should not be taken seriously in this discussion. Any poll that still has UCLA in the top 25 should be thrown out.
 

I guess I don't know about anyone else but I was strictly talking about the AP poll when I said that we would be ranked. I thought that it would be very unlikely that we wouldn't move up at least one spot from 26 in the AP poll. The Coaches poll was completely different as we were 30 (or around there) so we would have had to jump up a number of spots to make it into the top 25 in the Coaches poll. Also OSUfan, wasn't your main argument that the way the polls work is if you lose you don't move up? we still jumped 4 spots in the coaches poll so no you really weren't right at all. It seems to me that you are going out of your way to devalue what the Gophers have accomplished so far. The one thing that I think you are not taking into account is that the polls are also partially about how good the voters think the teams are, and not just about how good their resume is so far. Otherwise Duke would no doubt be ahead of Indiana as they have a much more impressive resume so far.
 

Maybe this will help explain coaches poll. Botton line, a cheesehead is partly to blame.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/21144385/the-poll-attacks

UCLA is still in the Top 25?

Really?

Days like today are why I invented the Poll Attacks.



Associated Press Poll: Seventeen writers had UCLA on their ballots even after Sunday's loss to California Polytechnic State University. Their names are Elton Alexander, Michael Hunt, Andrew Carter, Paul Zeise, Randy Rosetta, Scott Mansch, Scott Reid, Terry Hutchens, Jason Franchuk, Kevin Brockway, Tim Pearrell, Chris Dachille, Kelly Hines, John Werner, Fletcher Mackel, Mitch Vingle and Roger Clarkson. Shame on every one of them ... and on the men who actually voted UCLA 24th in the Coaches Poll. I'll have more on that below. But I'm not gonna spend another word in this portion of the Poll Attacks on UCLA because I'd rather highlight other silly things on the ballot that belongs to Michael Hunt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

You ready?

Get a load of this!

Hunt has Duke ranked four spots below Louisville despite the fact that Duke is undefeated with a neutral-court win over Louisville. He has Oklahoma State ranked six spots below North Carolina State despite the fact that Oklahoma State is undefeated with a neutral-court win over North Carolina State. And he has Memphis ranked 18th despite the fact that Memphis spent the Thanksgiving holiday getting exposed in the Bahamas while losing to VCU and Minnesota.

(Yes, Memphis was exposed by VCU and Minnesota. Here's how it played locally.)

So you're probably wondering where Hunt has VCU and Minnesota ranked. Must be in the top 15 or something, right? Actually, he doesn't have VCU or Minnesota ranked at all even though, again, he has the team that VCU and Minnesota just exposed ranked 18th. I guess Hunt thinks Memphis was impressive in its losses to VCU and Minnesota but that VCU and Minnesota weren't impressive in their wins over Memphis. Or something like that. Honestly, I have no idea. I don't try to make sense of these silly AP ballots. I just write about them.

Coaches Poll: I don't expect folks to always (or even usually) agree with our Top 25 (and one) because ranking basketball teams is a subjective exercise. But know this: Jeff Goodman and I spend a decent amount of time each Sunday going through it, and we can always defend or explain why we did what we did. There's a reason behind everything. Dumb as it sounds, we take our rankings seriously.

But not everybody takes their rankings seriously.

And there might be no better example of this in modern history than the fact that UCLA is ranked 24th in this week's Coaches Poll. Not last week's Coaches Poll. The Bruins are 24th in this week's Coaches Poll -- even after Sunday's loss at home to California Polytechnic State University. Clearly, nobody could reasonably rank UCLA after Sunday's loss to California Polytechnic State University, which means the coaches (or sports information directors) who voted for UCLA must've submitted their ballots before Sunday night's game went final, or they didn't bother to wake up Monday morning and check the box score. Either way, it's lazy. And if you're a coach (or SID) who doesn't have the time (or energy) to keep UCLA out of a poll after a loss to California Polytechnic State University, take my advice: Next season, politely decline the opportunity to participate because, as it is, you're embarrassing yourself.
 

ski-u-mah said:
So you're probably wondering where Hunt has VCU and Minnesota ranked. Must be in the top 15 or something, right? Actually, he doesn't have VCU or Minnesota ranked at all even though, again, he has the team that VCU and Minnesota just exposed ranked 18th. I guess Hunt thinks Memphis was impressive in its losses to VCU and Minnesota but that VCU and Minnesota weren't impressive in their wins over Memphis. Or something like that. Honestly, I have no idea. I don't try to make sense of these silly AP ballots. I just write about them.
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Do some of these writers make a joke out of their votes? That's the only logical explanation I can come up with.
 

OSUfan said:
So the Gophers got ranked in one poll and are unranked in the other. So doesn't that make everyone half right?

I still don't think the Gophers should be ranked yet. I think the AP voters overestimated Duke, Stanford and Memphis in their rating of the Gophers, and they should not have moved up after losing by 18 to the Blue Devils. I guess we'll find out if Duke is overrated Wednesday night ;) I believe the voters instead should have put teams like Alabama, Wichita State and Ohio U in the poll ahead of the Gophers, but I think the publicity of the Battle 4 Atlantis caught their attention moreso than the events that some of the other teams played in. I think Stanford and Memphis are not particularly good teams, my guess is they will be bubble teams and most likely NIT-bound - decent wins, but not really ones that should vault a team into the rankings after a blowout loss in my view. Honestly, Oregon had a better win (@ UNLV) than any the Gophers have had, and I feel a loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court is about the same as a blowout loss to Duke, so I would have them in ahead of the Gophers as well. But I do think the Gophers should be ranked if they beat FSU.
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Pretty simple if you take it step by step.
1. Losing to Duke = moving down
2. Beating #19 Memphis = moving up
3. Beating Stanford (who was a top 40ish team) = moving up some more

One step back, two steps forward. Not that hard to understand. Especially when teams ahead of you lose. Also, it was not a blowout loss. The final score looks bad, but the game was within reach until they went into desperation mode and started jacking up forced shots at the end of the game. Anyone who watches a lot of basketball should know that the final score can be misleading as the losing team usually goes into desperation mode at the end.
 

OSUfan said:
So the Gophers got ranked in one poll and are unranked in the other. So doesn't that make everyone half right?

I still don't think the Gophers should be ranked yet. I think the AP voters overestimated Duke, Stanford and Memphis in their rating of the Gophers, and they should not have moved up after losing by 18 to the Blue Devils. I guess we'll find out if Duke is overrated Wednesday night ;) I believe the voters instead should have put teams like Alabama, Wichita State and Ohio U in the poll ahead of the Gophers, but I think the publicity of the Battle 4 Atlantis caught their attention moreso than the events that some of the other teams played in. I think Stanford and Memphis are not particularly good teams, my guess is they will be bubble teams and most likely NIT-bound - decent wins, but not really ones that should vault a team into the rankings after a blowout loss in my view. Honestly, Oregon had a better win (@ UNLV) than any the Gophers have had, and I feel a loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court is about the same as a blowout loss to Duke, so I would have them in ahead of the Gophers as well. But I do think the Gophers should be ranked if they beat FSU.
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Hmmm... So you wanna go strictly based on resume so far in evaluating the Gophers, and you think other teams have better resumes? Fair enough, I guess. But then you say that Duke is overrated when they easily have the best resume in college basketball so far? For a guy so devoted to resume evaluation, it seems kind of weird to say the team with the best resume is overrated.
 

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