MUScoop

With the losses by Kansas to Davidson and Pitt to Wagner, I don't think Marquette falls after the loss to LSU as far as we would have thought. I think we drop 1 spot to 11. Florida moves up, Wisconsin shouldn't move ahead of us, since we beat them, and Georgetown probably ends up behind UW. Pitt and KU fall a couple spots each.

I say 16.

Quote from: 77ncaachamps on December 23, 2011, 10:19:22 PM
I say 16.

I'm just curious, but who moves up that much for MU to fall 6 spots.

#11 or 12

Florida jumps to 10. Kansas, Pitt and Xavier all lost and I doubt Wisco's win over Miss Valley State is going to vault them past MU. Considering they're still undefeated and several teams ahead of them lost this week, it wouldn't surprise me to see Indiana make a big jump, possibly even ahead of MU.

Quote from: Shanunu on December 23, 2011, 10:25:54 PM
I'm just curious, but who moves up that much for MU to fall 6 spots.

Indiana
UNLV
Murray State
Georgetown
Florida
maybe Miss State
maybe Mich State

Fine. #15.

im thinkimg 13-15. So i'll say 14.

As long as MU stays in the top 25 so the scores are always in the ticker on ESPN, that's all that matters until March.

Quote from: 77ncaachamps on December 23, 2011, 10:39:04 PM
Indiana
UNLV
Murray State
Georgetown
Florida
maybe Miss State
maybe Mich State

Fine. #15.

Florida is the only one there I definitely think passes us. Maybe Wisconsin also climbs past us, but #12 Kansas, #14 Xavier, and #15 Pitt all also have a loss. I think other teams climb, but I think that those are the teams that would have passed us. Xavier will probably be out of the top 25 after losing 3 straight.

My guess is that Georgetown, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Indiana group moves in behind us. And no way do UNLV or Murray State move up that far, they're both in the 20s. We lost on the road to a high-major, it's not like we were at home against a mid-major. I'd guess 11, maybe 12 if they want to push Wisconsin up too.

Didn't X lose again last night? And Murray State I think has a ceiling of around 17th, even if they are undefeated.

Quote from: brewcity77 on December 24, 2011, 07:18:25 AM
Florida is the only one there I definitely think passes us. Maybe Wisconsin also climbs past us, but #12 Kansas, #14 Xavier, and #15 Pitt all also have a loss. I think other teams climb, but I think that those are the teams that would have passed us. Xavier will probably be out of the top 25 after losing 3 straight.

My guess is that Georgetown, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Indiana group moves in behind us. And no way do UNLV or Murray State move up that far, they're both in the 20s. We lost on the road to a high-major, it's not like we were at home against a mid-major. I'd guess 11, maybe 12 if they want to push Wisconsin up too.

Agree.  UNLV lost at Wisconsin one week after we won at Wisconsin.  They also have lost at Wichita State.  I can't see them jumping ahead of us.

Lets see where MU is rated after january 16th, after Vandy, Villy, go to GT and Syracuse, home to Louisville and Ptt.  3-3 would be great, I do not see much better.
What do you think?  I see them beating Vandy, Villy and Pitt.

Quote from: BCHoopster on December 24, 2011, 09:16:50 AM
Lets see where MU is rated after january 16th, after Vandy, Villy, go to GT and Syracuse, home to Louisville and Ptt.  3-3 would be great, I do not see much better.
What do you think?  I see them beating Vandy, Villy and Pitt.

Atleast 4 of the 6 in this stretch are at home.  Otule's return during this period would be huge.  Going 4-2 would be amazing with losses to Syracuse and Louisville.  No one would look down upon a loss at Syracuse anyway.

I voted 12, but it could easily be 11. Florida will jump ahead of us, but other than that..I don't see it. MAYBE Indiana..but they definitely are not a top 10 team.

I voted for 12 too.  We lost at LSU, Kansas and Pitt lost at home.  They should get hurst worse than us.

12.  And we all get angry when Bucky is slotted one notch ahead of us.

Quote from: jsglow on December 24, 2011, 01:24:40 PM
12.  And we all get angry when Bucky is slotted one notch ahead of us.

This is why rankings in December are so screwed.  We beat  Bucky in their house (and clearly look like a better team, even without our starting pg), beat UW-M  by 14 (which was the spread) and UW held its breath to hold on against UW-M, and a single loss on the road to LSU will probably vault the badgers ahead of us in the polls.  Absolutely ludicrous.   

I don't think they should have preseason rankings (I hold this for football too) and wait until January 1 to rank teams.

Anyway, in my humble opinion, we have not looked like the 10th best team in the nation the last couple of games so if I were completely and objectively ranking us....I would put us about #15 which exceeded my expectations for pre-conference.  If we an hold on to a top 20 ranking going into March, I would be ecstatic.

Love the direction this program is going!

Quote from: murobrob on December 24, 2011, 03:59:03 PM
This is why rankings in December are so screwed.  We beat  Bucky in their house (and clearly look like a better team, even without our starting pg), beat UW-M  by 14 (which was the spread) and UW held its breath to hold on against UW-M, and a single loss on the road to LSU will probably vault the badgers ahead of us in the polls.  Absolutely ludicrous.   

I don't think they should have preseason rankings (I hold this for football too) and wait until January 1 to rank teams.

Anyway, in my humble opinion, we have not looked like the 10th best team in the nation the last couple of games so if I were completely and objectively ranking us....I would put us about #15 which exceeded my expectations for pre-conference.  If we an hold on to a top 20 ranking going into March, I would be ecstatic.

Love the direction this program is going!

I couldn't agree more with the first part of the bolded sentence. We haven't looked like a top 10 team since parts of the Wisconsin game. There has obviously been parts of games since then that the team has looked great, but other times not so much. DJO has been incredibly streaky, and has slightly disappointed me the past few weeks. In all honesty, DJO has not really tried to take a game over yet, which IMO is clearly something he has the ability to do. I have also been a bit frustrated with Jae's shot selection. He seems to be hucking up way too many threes. I generally love the three, but I think this team is better off with the guards slashing to the hoop and dishing off to Jae or others for an easy layup. I think the team has looked best when they have consistently tried to do that, along with quick transition points. I feel like they have gotten away from doing this quite a bit the past 5 or 6 games.

With that said, others guys have looked great. Mayo looks like he will contribute signicantly in Big East play. Vander has had flashes of greatness and other times where he looked like the Vander of old. I think JWilson will emerge as a go to guy for points as the season continues. This squad has me excited for Big East play. I just think they match up well with the other teams in the conference this season. Either way, I think this is a really good team that has the ability to hang in the top 12 teams in the country for the entire season. We just need everything to mesh together a little better, and try to do what we do best: slashing to the hoop, and dishing out for the wide open three when necessary.

I said #11, because we may have lucked out with 4 of the 5 teams behind us either losing this week as well or having lost the head-to-head to us on their home court. 

I do admit that when you get down to #16, you start to have very impressive teams in Georgetown, Mississippi State and Indiana that certainly could jump that far, and Murray State still being undefeated with a couple of legit wins always leaves open the chance of a huge jump in a week like this.

Bad news is that I looked at every time a ranked team has lost one game in a week (not counting when they lost to a higher ranked team) and the average is 5 spots, and it has been between 2 and 7 spot drops every time except for Vandy's opening week loss to Cleveland State, which dropped them 13 spots.

I am encouraged by the fact that the ESPN Power rankings still had us at #11 so the fall my be broken, but realistically we would be the first team to only drop 1 spot all year:

2 spots - KY after losing to Indiana
3 spots - Bama to Gtown
4 spots (3 times) - Xavier to Oral Roberts, Michigan to UVa, Gonzaga at Ill
5 spots (3 times) - Ill to UNLV, Cal to SD State, Texas A-M to Miss State
6 spots - Bama to Dayton
7 spots (3 times) - Creighton to St. J, Pitt to Long Beach, AZ to Miss State

Quote from: murobrob on December 24, 2011, 03:59:03 PMAnyway, in my humble opinion, we have not looked like the 10th best team in the nation the last couple of games so if I were completely and objectively ranking us....I would put us about #15 which exceeded my expectations for pre-conference.  If we an hold on to a top 20 ranking going into March, I would be ecstatic.

Based on total body of work, I still think we may merit top-10 standing, simply because I'm not sure which 10 teams I'd put clearly ahead of us. Syracuse, Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio State are all definites. Missouri and Baylor by merit of being unbeaten, I guess maybe Indiana too on that basis. Duke on the basis of their only loss being to OSU on the road should be ahead of us, but who else? Are UNC and Florida automatically better? We have fewer losses and our best win is clearly a better win than either of their best wins. Georgetown? They've acquitted themselves well, but our loss was a true road game and again, best win.

If I were a voter, that win at Wisconsin would still hold a lot of weight. That's arguably the toughest place to play in the nation as a visiting team over the past decade. I'm sure we drop, probably 1-3 spots, but I'm not sure there are 10 teams in the nation with a better resume than we have right now.

Seth Davis thinks we are 20th.

Note: Wis 13, Ind 15.


I hope everyone votes this way, as I think our guys play better with a chip on their shoulder. 

20 is a joke.  I don't think we're playing as well as we were early, but our resume is much more impressive than many of the teams ahead of us on his ballot.  That being said, he's been our lowest (or next to it) ranking all season long.

Quote from: jsglow on December 24, 2011, 01:24:40 PM
12.  And we all get angry when Bucky is slotted one notch ahead of us.

#13 in Coaches Poll with Bucky at #11 today.

Without a center, I think we should be ranked in the high teens. We have plenty of time to prove how tough we can play!