Before and After: Comparing Kenpom Rankings From Start to Finish For All 14 Big Ten Teams

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Brew:

The biggest movers up? That would be Fred Hoiberg's Nebraska Cornhuskers and Ben Johnson's Minnesota Golden Gophers. Minnesota was the lowest ranked Big Ten team at the start, checking in at No. 112. So, to be fair, they had more room to move, but they've done that, going up 37 spots to No. 75.

Nebraska went from No. 58 to No. 32 and earned a No. 3 seed and double bye in the Big Ten Tournament that starts Wednesday in Minneapolis. That, to me, is probably the best move up, with no disrespect intended to Johnson's Gophers. Illinois' move from No. 19 to No. 10 is also impressive because it's really hard to move a lot at the top of the rankings. They've had a good season.

The biggest loser? That's obvious, and we've seen the horror show play out all year long in Ann Arbor with Michigan. They dropped from No. 44 to No. 127, a whopping 83 spots. Michigan was 8-23 overall and 3-17 in the Big Ten and were a complete disaster.

The other big drops were from Rutgers (39), Indiana (37) and Maryland (36). Here's the complete list.

TeamPreseasonPostseasonMove
Purdue13Minus-2
Michigan State1319Minus-6
Illinois1910Plus-9
Wisconsin2021Minus-1
Maryland2258Minus-36
Ohio State3549Minus-14
Northwestern4042Minus-2
Michigan44127Minus-83
Indiana4986Minus-37
Iowa5052Minus-2
Nebraska5832Plus-26
Rutgers5998Minus-39
Penn State8577Plus-8
Minnesota11275Plus-37

www.si.com

Before and After: Comparing Kenpom Rankings From Start to Finish For All 14 Big Ten Teams

Nebraska and Minnesota both exceeded expectations this season, moving up the most in the Kenpom.com computer rankings among Big Ten teams. Michigan had an epic fall, as did Indiana, Maryland and Rutgers. Here's a comparison of how it all started, and how it ended.
www.si.com www.si.com

Go Gophers!!
 


Duker said:
Why does Michigan St. continue to have such a high ranking. I realize they played a difficult schedule preseason, but I would think they might have to win a few if those games.
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Tough schedule and wins over Baylor and Indiana State help a lot.
 

Holy Man said:
Tough schedule and wins over Baylor and Indiana State help a lot.
Click to expand...
Butler a decent win, as well.

And simply also playing the likes of Duke, Arizona (to close games), and, yes, JMU, does wonders for a non-conference SOS (currently #40) ranking. MSU proves it doesn't necessarily kill a team to play 5 or 6 quality non-conference games, as long as you win some & lose some. Just don't lose all or most of 'em.
 
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SelectionSunday said:
Butler a decent win, as well.

And simply also playing the likes of Duke, Arizona (to close games), and, yes, JMU, does wonders for a non-conference SOS (currently #40) ranking. MSU proves it doesn't necessarily cripple a team to play 5 or 6 quality non-conference games, as long as you win some & lose some. Just don't lose all or most of 'em.
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Nm
 


Computers should be 1 tool to use...taken with a grain of salt...to help determine tiebreaks & seeding-tiebreaks.

They should never override our own brains or common-sense.

But they'll do anything for money & ratings.
They want us watching every game that we normally wouldn't care about.

AND...they want us to fear computers and 'AI'. They want us to think that computers can do things better than we can do ourselves. That's their path to censorship & control of computers.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Computers should be 1 tool to use...taken with a grain of salt...to help determine tiebreaks & seeding-tiebreaks.

They should never override our own brains or common-sense.

But they'll do anything for money & ratings.
They want us watching every game that we normally wouldn't care about.

AND...they want us to fear computers and 'AI'. They want us to think that computers can do things better than we can do ourselves. That's their path to censorship & control of computers.
Click to expand...
Are you OK?
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Brew:


The biggest loser? That's obvious, and we've seen the horror show play out all year long in Ann Arbor with Michigan. They dropped from No. 44 to No. 127, a whopping 83 spots. Michigan was 8-23 overall and 3-17 in the Big Ten and were a complete disaster.
Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Somebody is going to get slapped over there! 😗
 





weenb10fan said:
Another year and no NCAA's, Another year and bottom half of the B10, and another year where we wait til next year..............................wait and wait and wait........................
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Then you should be conditioned to it by now
 

Wow, Michigan fell to a lower rank than Minnesota, a near unanimous last place pick, was given in the preseason. I guess it couldn't be helped. Michigan was left with only 5 RSCI Top 100 players this year. Maybe they can get three or four more and make a big push next season.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Computers should be 1 tool to use...taken with a grain of salt...to help determine tiebreaks & seeding-tiebreaks.

They should never override our own brains or common-sense.

But they'll do anything for money & ratings.
They want us watching every game that we normally wouldn't care about.

AND...they want us to fear computers and 'AI'. They want us to think that computers can do things better than we can do ourselves. That's their path to censorship & control of computers.
Click to expand...

According to your brain and common sense, who do you think are the best teams in the country?
 



Duker said:
Why does Michigan St. continue to have such a high ranking. I realize they played a difficult schedule preseason, but I would think they might have to win a few if those games.
Click to expand...

Maryland's rating seems even weirder to me. They received a Top 25 preseason ranking and they're still at 58 despite going 15-16 overall and 7-13 in conference. They didn't beat anyone particularly good in nonconference and lost to Davidson, UAB, and Villanova (who finished only 17-14 in the regular season after also having a mediocre season last year).
 

Purdue should fire their lousy coach, dropping like they did in the rankings. Hope they don’t come after Ben though, us rising so much.
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Brew:

The biggest movers up? That would be Fred Hoiberg's Nebraska Cornhuskers and Ben Johnson's Minnesota Golden Gophers. Minnesota was the lowest ranked Big Ten team at the start, checking in at No. 112. So, to be fair, they had more room to move, but they've done that, going up 37 spots to No. 75.

Nebraska went from No. 58 to No. 32 and earned a No. 3 seed and double bye in the Big Ten Tournament that starts Wednesday in Minneapolis. That, to me, is probably the best move up, with no disrespect intended to Johnson's Gophers. Illinois' move from No. 19 to No. 10 is also impressive because it's really hard to move a lot at the top of the rankings. They've had a good season.

The biggest loser? That's obvious, and we've seen the horror show play out all year long in Ann Arbor with Michigan. They dropped from No. 44 to No. 127, a whopping 83 spots. Michigan was 8-23 overall and 3-17 in the Big Ten and were a complete disaster.

The other big drops were from Rutgers (39), Indiana (37) and Maryland (36). Here's the complete list.

TeamPreseasonPostseasonMove
Purdue13Minus-2
Michigan State1319Minus-6
Illinois1910Plus-9
Wisconsin2021Minus-1
Maryland2258Minus-36
Ohio State3549Minus-14
Northwestern4042Minus-2
Michigan44127Minus-83
Indiana4986Minus-37
Iowa5052Minus-2
Nebraska5832Plus-26
Rutgers5998Minus-39
Penn State8577Plus-8
Minnesota11275Plus-37

www.si.com

Before and After: Comparing Kenpom Rankings From Start to Finish For All 14 Big Ten Teams

Nebraska and Minnesota both exceeded expectations this season, moving up the most in the Kenpom.com computer rankings among Big Ten teams. Michigan had an epic fall, as did Indiana, Maryland and Rutgers. Here's a comparison of how it all started, and how it ended.
www.si.com www.si.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Can we put this on a banner?
 

Why is Minnesota ranked higher than Indiana postseason? I'm confused.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Maryland's rating seems even weirder to me. They received a Top 25 preseason ranking and they're still at 58 despite going 15-16 overall and 7-13 in conference. They didn't beat anyone particularly good in nonconference and lost to Davidson, UAB, and Villanova (who finished only 17-14 in the regular season after also having a mediocre season last year).
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They're very good defensively(borderline elite), which really helps their overall efficiency metrics. And they have a couple completely outlier performances. Most notably beating Neb by 21, and winning @ Illinois by 9. Plus, they've lost a bunch of close games(10 games by 5 or less). With all that said though, I am surprised they are at 58.
 


One of the most fun aspects of college hoops fandom is following the teams you played during the preseason and hoping they successfully boost your team's resume as the season progresses.

It's brutal when there's not one win on the preseason resume to get excited about. Or even a close, hard-fought loss (in hindsight, Mizz and SFU were bad losses).

I used to love Pitino's scheduling and occasionally checking in on all the teams we played. Formulating the "good wins" before tourney/bubble discussions even began.

I hope Ben emulates Michigan State/Wisconsin's scheduling. It's pretty clear what the computers value in the current era of college hoops.
 

topos said:
One of the most fun aspects of college hoops fandom is following the teams you played during the preseason and hoping they successfully boost your team's resume as the season progresses.

It's brutal when there's not one win on the preseason resume to get excited about. Or even a close, hard-fought loss (in hindsight, Mizz and SFU were bad losses).

I used to love Pitino's scheduling and occasionally checking in on all the teams we played. Formulating the "good wins" before tourney/bubble discussions even began.

I hope Ben emulates Michigan State/Wisconsin's scheduling. It's pretty clear what the computers value in the current era of college hoops.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it really is night and day with how Pitino scheduled and how Johnson has scheduled in every season. Throwing out Pitino's first year, because being in Maui was determined before he was hired, he still scheduled aggressively in year 2. Scheduling Louisville, St John's, and UGA who all made the tournament. And then had the ACC/B1G challenge on top of that. He also scheduled respectable mid majors like WKU and UNC-Wilmington. Unfortunately, Johnson schedules a majority of 250+ competition and backs out of early season tournaments against quality competition. Maybe he'll change his stance next year.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Yeah, it really is night and day with how Pitino scheduled and how Johnson has scheduled in every season. Throwing out Pitino's first year, because being in Maui was determined before he was hired, he still scheduled aggressively in year 2. Scheduling Louisville, St John's, and UGA who all made the tournament. And then had the ACC/B1G challenge on top of that. He also scheduled respectable mid majors like WKU and UNC-Wilmington. Unfortunately, Johnson schedules a majority of 250+ competition and backs out of early season tournaments against quality competition. Maybe he'll change his stance next year.
Click to expand...
I'm not referencing a schedule at the moment, but I also recall a home/home against Arkansas and a true road game against Richmond (maybe Tubby scheduled this one).

He loved those four-team preseason tourneys that fielded pretty good competition (SJU was one year, as you referred to, and then the infamous Bama game).

I even remember being super pumped/nervous about playing UT-Arlington when they were voted champions in their preseason conference poll that year.

I really hope for 5/6 preseason games that have the potential to resume boosters in 2024/2025 and only one or two +250 teams.
 

topos said:
I'm not referencing a schedule at the moment, but I also recall a home/home against Arkansas and a true road game against Richmond (maybe Tubby scheduled this one).

He loved those four-team preseason tourneys that fielded pretty good competition (SJU was one year, as you referred to, and then the infamous Bama game).

I even remember being super pumped/nervous about playing UT-Arlington when they were voted champions in their preseason conference poll that year.

I really hope for 5/6 preseason games that have the potential to resume boosters in 2024/2025 and only one or two +250 teams.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we played Arkansas in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, I believe it was.

And yes, Pitino and the staff were really good about scheduling decent buy games to help our overall SOS. The year Pitino made his first tournament our buy games included UL-Lafayette(21 wins) UT-Arlington(25 wins), Georgia Southern (18 wins) Mt. St. Mary's and LIU-Brooklyn (20 wins). On top of already playing Vanderbilt(at-large team), Arkansas(at-large team), FSU(at-large team) and St. John's. It was the primary reason we received a 5 seed in the tournament.
 

I went looking for an explanation of how KenPom works.
I found an article from the man himself - Ken Pomeroy.
it includes this paragraph:

I would describe the philosophy of the system as this: it looks at who a team has beaten and how they have beaten them. Same thing on the losses, also. Yes, it values a 20 point win more than a 5 point win. It likes a team that loses a lot of close games against strong opposition more than one that wins a lot of close games against weak opposition.

and here is some info from another site discussing KenPom:

Non-conference strength of schedule (NCSOS): KenPom attempts to paint a picture here of the portion of the schedule that a team’s athletic department can control, which obviously rewards a team that schedules tougher opponents as opposed to cupcakes in non-conference play. The AdjEm metric here (the final column of the spreadsheet) measures the point differential by which your opponents would defeat the average Division I school by.

Most non-conference schedules for Power 5 schools are fairly light with some bigger matchups. This is more a measure of how bad the worst teams you play are.

---The Gophers' Non-Conf schedule rating is (-12.84) which is ranked #362. that is the worst in D1 men's basketball.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Yeah, it really is night and day with how Pitino scheduled and how Johnson has scheduled in every season. Throwing out Pitino's first year, because being in Maui was determined before he was hired, he still scheduled aggressively in year 2. Scheduling Louisville, St John's, and UGA who all made the tournament. And then had the ACC/B1G challenge on top of that. He also scheduled respectable mid majors like WKU and UNC-Wilmington. Unfortunately, Johnson schedules a majority of 250+ competition and backs out of early season tournaments against quality competition. Maybe he'll change his stance next year.
Click to expand...
I'd forgotten about backing out of that tournament. That was so lame!
 


EasyThere Pilgrim said:
The computer rankings are ridiculous. Why would you even try to say otherwise??

Don't you like to use your own brain?
Click to expand...

I think Purdue, Uconn and Houston are very good. What do you know, they are #1, #2 and #3 in the computers.
 



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