If you recall from last season, I have a friend in the know within the gaming industry and he shares with me his NCAA BB power ratings. These ratings aren't necesarily a prediction of the season ahead, but for gaming purposes only.
Below are the BE ratings, and MU's non-conference opponent ratings.
Louisville 92
UCONN 92
Notre Dame 90
Villanova 88
Marquette 88
Pittsburgh 88
Georgetown 86
Syracuse 85
Providence 84
West Virginia 84
St. John's 80
Cincy 77
Rutgers 76
Seton Hall 74
DePaul 74
S. Florida 72
Tennessee 88
Dayton 78
Northern Iowa 76
Wisconsin 87
UW-Mil 70
Central Mich. 71
NC State 78
W. Carolina 70
All other Non-Conf. teams have no rating.
If you were wondering, Indiana is last in the Big 11 with a 74.
North Carolina is 100 on the high end, and Canisius is the lowest at 56. To put the ratings into perspective, if Carolina and Canisius played on a neutral floor, Tar Heels would be a 44 point favorite.
As a testament to these rankings, check out some fun reading from the initial NCAA tournament ratings last season.
http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=7390.0 (http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=7390.0)
Top 4 teams:
Kansas - 93
Memphis - 92
North Carolina - 91
UCLA - 91
I don;t diagree that these rankings are an excellent indicator of a team's success, having memphis, kansas, UNC and UCLA as the highest ranked a the beginning of teh ncaa tournament isn't really a stretch since they were the 4 number 1 seeds.
Duke appears to have been the fifth-highest ranked team in that NCAA tourney thread. Whoops.