So, I like doing these all year long, which is why I’m doing one after the first week even though there is no practical reason to be forecasting anything right now. From a personal standpoint, it gets me in the habit of evaluating teams right away, so that is the single biggest benefit of it. The order, or rank, or seed of the teams doesn’t really matter because there is so little to evaluate that they are impossible to rank. But, merely evaluating them keeps me personally up to speed with what each team has done.
This is a CHECKPOINT of CURRENT MERIT, not a prediction of the future or even how good I think the teams currently are. If it were, I’d be crazy. It’s merely ranking what a team has done on the court up to this point. Wagner and Yale are not likely to end up as #1 seeds. I know that. But, they’ve both won on the road against good teams, so they’re currently ahead of everyone who’s done nothing other than win a buy game at home when doing a checkpoint of current merit. That’s all this is.
In a nutshell, any team that won a game that was not a home buy game moved ahead of all the teams that only won a home buy game. No teams that lost a game that was not a buy game were punished for it, and no teams that won a buy game was rewarded for it.
I want to emphasize one more time that this is not a prediction of the future, or even a reflection of how good I think the teams currently are. It is merely a merit ranking up to this point.
- INDIANA – Beat Kansas on a neutral floor
- ARINONA – beat Michigan State on a neutral floor
- WAGNER – won at UConn
- YALE – won at Washington
- NORTH CAROLINA – won at Tulane and at home against Chattanooga
- CLEMSON – won at home against Georgia
- MARQUETTE – blowout win against Vanderbilt
- SAINT MARY’S – convincing win against a pretty good Nevada team
- Virginia – won at UNCG
- CHATTANOOGA – road win at Tennessee
- Oregon – neutral floor win vs Army
- Duke
- KENTUCKY
- KANSAS – lost to Indiana on a neutral floor, which is not damaging
- Villanova
- Xavier
- Wisconsin
- Michigan State – lost to Arizona on a neutral floor, which is not damaging
- Louisville
- Gonzaga
- Purdue
- Syracuse
- West Virginia
- Ucla
- RHODE ISLAND
- Creighton
- Texas
- Maryland
- Pittsburgh – won a buy game against Eastern Michigan, but they move up some because they’re semi-quality
- Stanford – neutral floor win vs Harvard
- Ohio State – won at Navy, so they move up some for the road win
- CINCINNATI
- Dayton
- Iowa State
- Florida State
- California
- Miami FL
- WICHITA STATE – blew out a pretty good Long Beach State team
- Seton Hall
- Texas A&M
- Butler
- Notre Dame
- SAN DIEGO STATE
- Virginia Tech
- Oklahoma
- Usc
- Florida
- Colorado
- Michigan
- Vcu
- NC State
- Connecticut
- MURRAY STATE – home win against a pretty good Illinois State team
- Kansas State
- RICE – won at James Madison
- Smu – blowout win over what we think is a good Eastern Michigan team
- MONMOUTH
- KENT STATE – we really like Ohio and Buffalo in this league as well, but Kent won away from home against Cleveland State
- NICHOLLS – won at Boston College
- WRIGHT STATE – we really like Valpo in this league, but Wright State is the only team that’s won a true road game.
- DELAWARE – two div1 wins, but we still like UNC Wilmington
- OMAHA – won at UCSB, and a close loss at USC
- UC DAVIS – two div1 wins
- JACKSONVILLE – won at Denver
- ALBANY – beat Penn State, but we still like Vermont and New Hampshire
- UT ARLINGTON – preseason favorite that won the opener
- WEBER STATE
- BUCKNELL – only team in the conference that’s won a div1 game, but American and Lehigh both almost knocked off ranked teams
- PRESBYTERIAN – Only Big South team with a div1 win
- TEXAS SOUTHERN – only SWAC team to win a div1 game
- NEW MEXICO STATE – no WAC team has won a div1 game yet, so we’re sticking with the preseason favorite, who didn’t look bad in their loss to Colorado State
- HOWARD – no MEAC team has won a div1 game yet, so we’re sticking with the preseason favorites
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