That'll be a good game. Michigan State has been playing very well in its last few games.Seems pretty clear that voters are undervaluing Rutgers. A win at Michigan St on Sunday should change that.
How did you weight them?Using the rankings out there (not equally weighted) I came up with this:
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color coded by conference
I agree. Rutgers seems to be an anomaly. The sixth rated RPI yet down in the polls. The 3 programs that stand out to me are SC, Baylor, and MD. Their RPI numbers are significantly lower than the other teams in the top 15. SC as the defending NC can survive a low RPI but Baylor and MD. can, or should, pay a price at tournament time.
In my humble opinion I think SC being the defending NC gets them some slack with the people deciding the rankings. I'm not saying I agree with it I just think it's human nature to go easier on them.What does being the defending champion have to do with surviving a low RPI?
Their RPIs are currently dragged down by a weak SOS. (This is also the case with Tennessee, Duke, and Oregon State.) But that will change over the course of conference play for each of them.
There are a lot of big games coming up this month. Will be interesting to see how things change by mid-February.
ND plays Louisville, Tennessee and FSU this month, then Duke in early February. So they have a chance to solidify the number 2 ranking, or to drop if they stumble a couple of times. Unless they lose more than one of those games, unless they lost one of them by a sizable margin, they will stay at 2
Louisville plays ND and FSU, both at home, so they certainly have their opportunity to move up. They can lose the ND game and stay where they are, unless blown out. If they were to lose to FSU they would drop a few spots. They have a near-certain loss when the play UCONN in February.
MSU has big match-ups in the near future with Tennessee, Mizzou and South Carolina.
South Carolina has games against Tennessee, Mizzou, UCONN and MSU in the next few weeks. Hard to believe that they won' have at least one loss to UCONN, and probably one more.
Baylor plays ranked teams Texas and OSU. We definitely have the fewest opportunities to drop a game compared to the other teams.
Texas plays UCONN (01/15/2018), Baylor (01/25/2018) and then WVU in early February. It's hard to see them losing to WVU unless Martin can get back on the floor for WVU. It is nearing the point in the season where it would be hard for Martin to return and be able to perform at the same level that she did last season. Is it possible that she will redshirt?
ND's gauntlet got a lot harder with the loss of Lili Thompson on an already thin lineup.
So Carolina has an 8 day stretch of Mizzou rematch, UConn, and @ Miss St. Gonna be tough.
Miss St - with double conference games against Ole Miss, Florida, & Kentucky - may have the easiest remaining schedule, though they've gotta go @ Tenn and @ Mizzou.