#13 Georgia loses

[HuskyNan]

To Gonzaga, at a neutral site in Las Vegas. Any Stanford fans want to offer an opinion on this year's Gonzaga team?

 

[Vowelguy]

Big win ... for Stanford, as their Gonzaga victory now is definitely a quality win.

 

[triaddukefan]

Cool...any time a SEC school loses (except for Vandy) its a good thing. Unless of course they are playing either UNC or Maryland.

 

[Phil]

Georgia (or tied) for 39 minutes and 59.8 seconds.

Gonzaga was in the lead for only 0.2 seconds, but it was the right 0,2 seconds.

I saw the comeback in progress, but I didn't think they could pull it off.

 

[Phil]

So Georgia now zero wins against ranked teams, unless you count the win against USC, who was ranked at the time, but is now 4–5 and well out of the rankings.

Tell me again why they are ranked so high?

 

[ochoopsfan]

There is a lot you can do with numbers, however, I dont think the people voting in these polls actually watch as many games as I do, or as many games as many of the Boneyarders do.

I guess USC's 57-51 win "at" Gonzaga also becomes a quality win.
USC lost at Georgia 67-60.
Seems like these three teams arent far apart.
Using ESPN Coaches Poll - One is mid top 25 ranked, one is just barely ranked 25, the third isnt ranked.

Georgia is 8-2
Gonzaga is 9-2
USC is 4-5

SOS - using Saragin ratings http://www.rpiratings.com/womrate.php

Georgia - 215
Gonzaga - 145
USC - 4

If you made Georgia and Gonzaga play to the strength of USC's schedule I would be willing to say they arent going to have the same records. Conversely if USC got to play the schedule strength of the other two I would be willing to say they might have a better if not similar record.
I have seen all three this year and in my opinion they are all teams that "at best" should finish in the 20-25 range.

 

[Phil]

The combined record of teams that Georgia has beaten is a stunning 28-47. Only Georgia Tech, among all their wins, has a winning record.

TCU is even at 5 and 5, every other team has a losing record.

Georgia perennially is overranked, and I'm not sure why.

If Georgia had been unranked when the season began, would they even be ranked now?

Is one win over a team with a better than 500 record worthy of a ranking?

 

[ThisJustIn]

East coast bias.

 

[Phil]

USC has two wins over teams with better than 500 records, and it isn't close. They beat Fresmo State at 9-3 and ranked Gonzaga at 9-2. USC has a far better claim to a ranking than Georgia.

Watch them drop two spots, when they should drop 20 spots.

 

[Phil]

East coast bias.

I think the voters like Andy. I can understand that, I like Andy. But I haven't been impressed with how his teams have faired relative to talent and expectations.

 

[huskybill]

How could Georgia lose? They are in the powerful SEC and I've been reading the Summitt. The SEC is so strong this year it's almost mindboggling. I think it's because the rest of the conference is taking the Voluntear's (they cry a lot) tactic of playing rough OOC schedules.

Let's see if I'm right. Here are the first 9 SEC teams and their Strength of Schedule rankings. Utenn #1 ; Arkansaw # 79 ; LSU #27 ; So Carolina # 80 ; Vandy # 199 ; Georgia # 174 ; Florida # 54 ; Kentucky # 242 (not a misprint) ; Miss St. # 228. The teams are listed by their RPI rankings and are all the teams under 100 RPI.

As you may know, the Huskies are always ridiculed for having a schedule designed by the Hostess company. I can see why. UConn's SOS is # 5. Other BigEast teams below 100 RPI, with just their SOS rankings listed include ND # 3 ; Rutgers # 13 ;DePaul # 22 ; Nova # 25 ; Georgetown #115 ; Louisville # 148 ; West Virg # 84 ; syracuse # 128 ; Seton Hall # 34 ; St. John's #26 ; Cincinnati #89.

Is it possible that the SEC seems so strong this year because their SOS is so weak. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Phil]

I've been reading the Summitt. The SEC is so strong this year it's almost mindboggling.

Well for those wondered why Huskybill's mind is so boggled, mystery solved.

 

[cardfan]

To Gonzaga, at a neutral site in Las Vegas. Any Stanford fans want to offer an opinion on this year's Gonzaga team?

Zags are very well coached and play super zone D. For being undersized, they board very well. They also share and pass the ball great, all 5 players can shoot and score. They had 10 threes vs. Stanford and were leading by one at the half. We beat them by 15 only because they couldn't stop Nneka.

 

[Icebear]

So Georgia now zero wins against ranked teams, unless you count the win against USC, who was ranked at the time, but is now 4–5 and well out of the rankings.

Tell me again why they are ranked so high?

It has always been a mystery to me, Phil.

 

[Stray Cat]

Big win ... for Stanford, as their Gonzaga victory now is definitely a quality win.

And why is that definitely a quality win? Because Georgia is from the "mighty" SEC and pollsters overrated them at #13 or else they wound up there because someone had to be ranked 13th? The thing about WCBB is that these days, there are truly very few "quality win opportunities". To me it is not enough to simply record a win against a Top 25 team since since there are really only a handful of true NC contenders that extend to the Elite 8 teams plus one or two more -- and then there is everyone else. There is simply too much disparity in the talent and overall quality after you get past the Top 8-10 teams. To this point, none of the Top 9 teams in the current AP poll have loss to a team outside of the Top 9 (except Tennessee).

I am sure most UT fans consider the LV's to have four quality wins to date (i.e. Miami, FL, Texas, DePaul and Rutgers), but to date, with the exception of Miami, FL beating Duke and the LV's loss to VA, none of UT's opponents have recorded a win against a Top 9 team. By my standards, UT has two quality wins (Miami, FL and Rutgers on the road) and one bad loss (Virginia). And looking forward the LV's only have a handful of quality opponents remaining: Stanford, ND and Kentucky x2 (and most likely x3). The LV's will be heavily favored and expected to win all their other games.

In short, with there being so few "quality win opportunities", it makes everyone you play a huge game. Looking forward to the Tennessee-Stanford game tonight. Put me down for UT to win...the LV's have the front court to match up with Stanford's primary strength...plus I am not sold on Stanford or any team from the Pac 10/12 for that matter. Besides many LV fans think UT is better than UConn and that the home-road game setting isn't all that big of a factor...so if this is the case, UT should win decidedly tonight seeing UConn already defeated Stanford by 10 points.

 

[Phil]

Good points.

Georgia is ranked #59 in RPI. I am very well aware of the imperfections in the RPI formula, and I suspect that Georgia is better than #59, but why on earth are they knocking on the door of the top ten? They shouldn't be knocking on the door of the Top 25.

Ironically, if they hadn't beaten Georgia tech, their "signature win" is a loss. Even considering the win over Georgia Tech, that may still be valid, in the sense that one's signature win is the best argument a team has for a rating. If they weren't originally ranked in the top 25, what game would have prompted any voter to conclude that this is a top 25 team?

Losing to # 25 is their BEST argument, which doesn't cut it.