Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Feels like the last time we were ranked was 100 years ago but I believe it was actually only 2015. It sucks to watch the dumpster fire that is SJ basketball this season, but if Mullin brings in help i.e. Mike Rice and we start to get healthy, we have a chance to be a top 25 team next year. This would assume Keita/Roberts are solid and Brooks finally gives us that inside scoring/rebounding dimension we've severely lacked. Think we'd also need LoVett and Ponds to stay for next year to have that happen.

Not the AP, but ESPNer Jay Bilas has 4 BE teams in the top 20: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... basketball

New AP Poll: http://collegepolltracker.com/basketball/

1. Villanova
11. Xavier
17. Seton Hall
___________
26. Creighton

Seton Hall got hammered for that loss to Marquette, dropping 6 spots. Need a 2-0 week against Creighton and Xavier or they'll likely drop out at this rate.

Yeah, that was too big a drop for that loss--Marquette is good! Creighton just dropped one spot in the AP to 26 after losing by 22 at X. I was surprised we didn't drop more. I think the credibility of the league is helping in that regard, plus the other leagues are beating each other up too, so that also helps. If SH splits, they will probably stay around where they are. Two losses would put them close to the outside.

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

1. Villanova (no change)
8. Xavier (+3)
______________
31. Seton Hall (-12)
32. Creighton (-6)
37. Providence

What explains a 13-5 Tenn SEC team + 14-5 Florida SEC team being ranked... yet... 15-5 Creighton/Seton Hall get left out.

Hmm... Always selling the Big East short

I stopped updating my predictions for 2 reasons:

1. Once the Big East season starts, these rankings mean less than they do than during OOC play. We just need to make sure we have at least 3+ teams and a top 5-10 team heading into conference play. After that, it's every team for themselves.
2. My team, SJU, has been a massive disappointment.

I am posting now to say how biased the AP is. EVERY YEAR we have the exact same scenario. In the preseason, they underrate us. Then, come midseason after OOC play we're at our peak. Then once conference play starts they start underrating us yet again!

We started conference play with 4 teams. Now there are 2.

1. Villanova (no change)
8. Xavier (+3)
______________
31. Seton Hall (-12)
32. Creighton (-6)
37. Providence

A look at the RPI rankings and the difference in our AP ranking:
2. (+1) Nova
4. (-4) Xavier
19. (-12) Seton Hall
26. (NV) Butler
34. (+2) Creighton
38. (+1) Providence
44. (NV) Marquette

So, overall they overrate us by 4 spots and underrate by 16 spots. There are also TWO teams that should be receiving votes based on RPI rankings.

Obviously some bias there. Fortunately seeding isn't impacted by the AP!

Try looking at BEAST rankings vs. Sagarin or KenPom, both of which are less favorable to us that the RPI, and both of which are included in the data sheets the committee will use in March to pick/seed the field. We are still underrated overall relative to KP and Sag rankings, but much less so.

Today's Sagarins:
RATING W L
2 Villanova = 94.40 18 1
11 Xavier-Ohio = 88.89 18 3
13 Creighton = 87.44 15 5
37 Seton Hall = 84.68 15 5
40 Butler = 84.51 14 7
44 Marquette = 83.41 13 6
48 Providence = 82.66 14 6
75 St. John's = 79.01 9 10
100 Georgetown = 77.30 13
120 DePaul = 75.13 8 11

The Pomeroy Ratings now has Villanova (1), Xavier (11), Butler (22), and Creighton (23) all in the Top 25.