So who gets ranked this week?

[Fairfield Fan]

Forida loses. Tennessee loses. Oklahoma gets beat.

So who deserves to be ranked now?

I go for South Florida, K-State, and Miami?

We know that ND and UConn will be neck and neck for #1, and that the voters will probably wait until Wednesday night to offer the top spot to Connecticut.

Will Tennessee disappear from the rankings for the remainder of the season?

How far will Texas fall, having lost to all four ranked teams they've played?

 

[Vowelguy]

#25 Texas A&M, #23 Auburn, #22 Tennessee will likely fall out

Duke will enter for sure
Probably South Florida and Arizona St who were 26 & 28 last week

 

[huskeynut]

I think Texas falls to 21. They did loose today to a higher ranked team.

As for SC, loosing to an unranked team could drop them to #10 or maybe lower.

Tennessee should be gone from both polls.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Does Kansas State deserve to go in? Undefeated and ranked in the Top 25 on RPI.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

#25 Texas A&M, #23 Auburn, #22 Tennessee will likely fall out

Duke will enter for sure
Probably South Florida and Arizona St who were 26 & 28 last week

So it's possible, should K-State go in, that UConn will have not eight ranked teams on its regular season schedule, but 11 teams, or more than a third of its entire schedule.

Tough. Real tough.

 

[Vowelguy]

Does Kansas State deserve to go in? Undefeated and ranked in the Top 25 on RPI.

RPI is meaningless this early in the season.

 

[StephStorrs]

South Florida, Duke, and AZ State are my bets for entering. The Lady Vols are definitely falling out - if they keep playing like they have been, I can't see the season getting any better and only getting progressively worse.

Texas falls to 20 or 21, with my more confident bet going on 21. They've had quite the rough start for a team that's so talented.

 

[Tonyc]

SC will drop 2-4 spots. Uconn and ND will be almost tied and UConn will win at ND on Wednesday. I agree Duke enters the top 25 and Tenn is out of the top 25. They were blown out at home.

My top 4

ND/UConn
Baylor
MD

 

[Fairfield Fan]

RPI is meaningless this early in the season.

I agree with you that it's usually useless this early. But it strikes me that the top teams are playing a lot of other top teams, and near top teams this year. So there seems to be more heft to it now. Of course, Buffalo is ranked in the RPI Top 25, so......

 

[bags27]

I agree with your ranking, Tonyc. Wish I had your confidence about Wednesday's outcome. No question to my mind that UConn has the most pure talent in their starting 5 in WCBB. But they have so little margin of error with such a thin bench....

 

[Fairfield Fan]

SC will drop 2-4 spots. Uconn and ND will be almost tied and UConn will win at ND on Wednesday. I agree Duke enters the top 25 and Tenn is out of the top 25. They were blown out at home.

My top 4

ND/UConn
Baylor
MD

Have to agree with your top four. Despite its soft early schedule, Maryland is for real.

If USC comes in, it will partly be due to the contributions of former Husky Sadie Edwards. Nice to see her getting a lot of minutes there, and making a major contribution. She left us, but you have to wish her well!

 

[Vowelguy]

I agree with you that it's usually useless this early. But it strikes me that the top teams are playing a lot of other top teams, and near top teams this year. So there seems to be more heft to it now. Of course, Buffalo is ranked in the RPI Top 25, so.

The RPI needs volume of games more than anything else.
It's also not a power ranking, so not the best guide.

 

[SCspur]

Have to agree with your top four. Despite its soft early schedule, Maryland is for real.

If USC comes in, it will partly be due to the contributions of former Husky Sadie Edwards. Nice to see her getting a lot of minutes there, and making a major contribution. She left us, but you have to wish her well!

Maryland is for real due to what exactly? Just curious... they only beat Louisville by 6 and everyone else won't help their RPI.

 

[chuck.r]

Not a good week for the SEC. With the exception of Miss St, every one of their ranked teams took a hit in their most recent game. SC faces the prospect of looking up at Miss St in the next polls.

Will be interesting to see where Duke enters the rankings - they were 42nd (AP) and 37th (Coaches), getting points in the single digits.

We'll have to wait a week for the results of Wednesday's game to impact the polls. As it is, its yet another installment of 1 vs 2!

 

[chuck.r]

Maryland is for real due to what exactly? Just curious... they only beat Louisville by 6 and everyone else won't help their RPI.

Other than today's cupcake du'jour, Maryland has had some validating results of late. The 3 prior wins were at home against ASU and WashSt, and the quality win on the road at Louisville.

 

[SCGamecock]

I think Texas falls to 21. They did loose today to a higher ranked team.

As for SC, loosing to an unranked team could drop them to #10 or maybe lower.

Tennessee should be gone from both polls.

Highly unlikely SC falls beyond #10.

It's more likely Duke was underrated than anything... Duke played like a top 15 team today.. SC didn't play like a top 5 team, ... they belong in the 6-10 range.

 

[triaddukefan]

Highly unlikely SC falls beyond #10.

It's more likely Duke was underrated than anything... Duke played like a top 15 team today.. SC didn't play like a top 5 team, ... they belong in the 6-10 range.

Agreed (though Im a bit biased). I felt all offseason that we would be a darkhorse. I think we will be tough at home......games on the road will give us trouble though.

 

[UcMiami]

Agreed (though Im a bit biased). I felt all offseason that we would be a darkhorse. I think we will be tough at home.games on the road will give us trouble though.

With the zone defense, you are going to do well against a number of teams like SC that don't have really consistent three point shooting, but teams like ND will likely expose the refusal to ever play man to man.

 

[Plebe]

Agreed (though Im a bit biased). I felt all offseason that we would be a darkhorse. I think we will be tough at home.games on the road will give us trouble though.

No doubt Duke has been playing like an improved team from last year's edition, notwithstanding the loss at Vanderbilt. Still, I'm gobsmacked that they were able to defend SC's bigs as well as they did. This was after SC looked so impressive beating Ohio State on the road, Louisville on a neutral court, and Texas on the road.

I predict South Carolina will fall to #7 after this loss. But this is still a top-5 team in my book. Good teams sometimes have bad games.

 

[HuskyNan]

South Florida, Duke, and AZ State are my bets for entering. The Lady Vols are definitely falling out - if they keep playing like they have been, I can't see the season getting any better and only getting progressively worse.

Texas falls to 20 or 21, with my more confident bet going on 21. They've had quite the rough start for a team that's so talented.

I wouldn't think Texas falls that much. They lost to a higher ranked team on the road, not an unexpected result. Maybe the Longhorns fall a spot or two, depending on other teams' results.

 

[EricLA]

I think Texas falls to 21. They did loose today to a higher ranked team.

As for SC, loosing to an unranked team could drop them to #10 or maybe lower.

Tennessee should be gone from both polls.

How do you justify SC dropping 7 spots from a loss to Duke? Tenn lost to unranked Penn State AND unranked VA Tech and only dropped about 5 spots after each loss. I would put SC no lower than 6 or 7. In theory I don't disagree with you, but, voters never seem to drop a team more than 4-5 spots, even after a loss to an unranked team. And Duke is 9-1 so it's not like SC lost to a 2-6 Rutgers team...

 

[StephStorrs]

I wouldn't think Texas falls that much. They lost to a higher ranked team on the road, not an unexpected result. Maybe the Longhorns fall a spot or two, depending on other teams' results.

I was thinking due to their overall record and slew of losses to ranked opponents, but you brought up something I hadn't initially factored in as much as I should have: the fact that they did lose to #2 UConn on the road, in a game in which they weren't the favorite to win. They'd be the only 2-4 team in the rankings, though all of those losses came to teams ranked higher than them. Rankings will be interesting. But they have a chance to improve their record, after their break the rest of this week, next week with games against Tenn., UT Rio Grande, and UTSA - all at home, and after Tenn. likely falls out of the rankings, all unranked.

 

[DefenseBB]

I see the top 10 as ND, UConn, Baylor, Maryland, SC, Miss St, Fla St, UCLA, Louisville, Stanford. I see Tenn and Auburn dropping and USF (speaking of teams who have played a soft schedule) and Oregon join the top 25.

 

[triaddukefan]

No doubt Duke has been playing like an improved team from last year's edition, notwithstanding the loss at Vanderbilt. Still, I'm gobsmacked that they were able to defend SC's bigs as well as they did. This was after SC looked so impressive beating Ohio State on the road, Louisville on a neutral court, and Texas on the road.

I predict South Carolina will fall to #7 after this loss. But this is still a top-5 team in my book. Good teams sometimes have bad games.

I knew we would be much improved over last year simply because of improved guard play. In terms of interior defense... Duke can throw height and strength both in the starting lineup as well as coming off the bench. Chidom is 6'4 quick and supple.... Cooper is 6'4 with strength and power.... Mathias is 6'4..... Belton is 6'3 with strength and bulk.... and Odom is 6'2 with long arms and leaping ability.

 

[UcMiami]

How do you justify SC dropping 7 spots from a loss to Duke? Tenn lost to unranked Penn State AND unranked VA Tech and only dropped about 5 spots after each loss. I would put SC no lower than 6 or 7. In theory I don't disagree with you, but, voters never seem to drop a team more than 4-5 spots, even after a loss to an unranked team. And Duke is 9-1 so it's not like SC lost to a 2-6 Rutgers team...

Teams in the top five losing to unranked teams typically fall further than those in the mid teens because the teams immediately below them in the ranking all have better records without suspect losses. All the teams in the teens and twenties are already a bit suspect, and so adding one more loss isn't as significant.
For SC now at 6-1 with a loss to Duke teams that might move ahead of them are: Maryland 8-0, Mississippi State 8-0, Baylor 9-1 (Loss to #2), FSU 8-1 (Loss to #2) and you could make an argument for a few other teams as well. I suspect they will stay at 7 or 8, and they might be #6 - but from a team that many people thought might be the real #1 today was a startling reminder that they are still vulnerable in a way that before today people didn't really believe. This is a team that replaced graduates with highly touted transfers and was supposed to be a better team than the one that went through the regular and conference tournament last year with one loss to an overwhelmingly good Uconn team. And they lost to DUKE! A team that nobody thought was any good. That is not what you expect from a top ten team - a lot of voters aren't going to believe their lying eyes and keep them high in the top 10, but a lot are going to drop them out or down to 8 or 9.