New Poll Out UConn Number 1 Baylor 3 Number 1 Votes

[Plumber Luigi]

Now let me try again.

I have no problem with your reasons for thinking Stanford should be ranked higher, not once out of the multiple times you presented them. It's simply not "idiotic" to have a difference in that opinion. Sagarin and other measurements are objective. You could also come up with an objective measure of talent gained and lost and devise a neat little algorithm to use this objective data to adjust poll position based on tournament performance last year by these teams. I'm quite sure that objective exercise would favor Duke, and it's purely a subjective exercise for you to say Sagarin, SOS or some other objective measurement should be superior to that.

However, objectivity is not the end all of empirical evidence, validity and reliability are, and those are what work in your favor. Is being objective about talent lost and gained or using something like Sagarin valid when coaching and so many other variables which escape objective measurement need to be considered? Your position would imply not and I actually agree with that. It's still not idiotic to think otherwise from you and the main reason why, ironically, is because objective criteria can be used that supports Duke at #3.

Fair enough. My use of "idiotic" may have been a little extreme considering we are talking just about a college sport, which could be said to be just another form of entertainment and not something of any consequence. But I just have a hard time rationalizing Duke as a #3 which leads me to question the though process of anyone who does.

And I can't quantify what the loss of talent or coaching staff would affect the next year's team performance except in extreme cases, such as a coach leaves and players follow gutting a team's core. I think we could all agree that something like that would be bad. But who to say that 2nd year player with 10 minutes a game will or will not blossom now that they are out of the shade of some senior? How do you foretell the improvement of skills that a player took on themselves over the summer? For me I have to wait and so and the most valid, reliable and empirical evidence for me is a school's record against good quality teams.

Anyways I've always had a feeling that with the AP poll, that there's a lot of cribbing from the RPI, power rankings and Sagarin's with just position boosts for local teams depending where the reporter is located. None of them have the time to watch all of the games played by the top 25 teams every week so when in doubt, cheat off your neighbor.

 

[easttexastrash]

ouch. Exposed by not shooting well (FG, FT and 3s), not attacking the press when we had 3 on 2?

So does Baylor game mean nada because Sims was out?

Yes. It would be like beating Stanford without Chiney playing.

 

[easttexastrash]

Some people still think Baylor is the best team when Sims is on the floor. I'm not sure why that would puzzle anyone.

 

[EricLA]

Some people still think Baylor is the best team when Sims is on the floor. I'm not sure why that would puzzle anyone.

It will all be settled Feb 18 provided neither team loses by then. I'll be honest - I didn't think this UCONN team could beat Baylor at the start of the season. Now I'm much more confident. Either way gonna be a great game.

UCONN has to play ND, Duke and L'ville before Baylor. Those games will tell us a lot about this UCONN team - are we more like the team that struggled to put away Maryland and PSU, or more like the team that destroyed Stanford? Baylor doesn't play anyone else in the top 10 besides UCONN. Gonna be interesting to see the margin of victory over OK State and Oklahoma.

 

[easttexastrash]

It will all be settled Feb 18 provided neither team loses by then. I'll be honest - I didn't think this UCONN team could beat Baylor at the start of the season. Now I'm much more confident. Either way gonna be a great game.

UCONN has to play ND, Duke and L'ville before Baylor. Those games will tell us a lot about this UCONN team - are we more like the team that struggled to put away Maryland and PSU, or more like the team that destroyed Stanford? Baylor doesn't play anyone else in the top 10 besides UCONN. Gonna be interesting to see the margin of victory over OK State and Oklahoma.

A 50 point win against OU would be great.

 

[easttexastrash]

Duke is a solid 3 in my view.

 

[Tonyc]

Im reading this thread and Ive got to tell you. If we were preseason again UConn and Baylor and everybody else. Isnt that what many said? Now Baylors loses to Stanford which to many fans was a surprise. Then UConn blows out Stanford and that to was a big surprise to many fans. Alot of arguing about Sims out and not much talk about KMLs virus and Hartley just coming back along with a few other UConn players injured or sick.

So here we are judging who is number 3,4,&5. Duke Stanford and ND. ND looks pretty good to me. Can we judge them after Saturdays game againest UConn? Maybe. Dont forget all of you who like to wallo about injures and players being out, UConn will have players out due to injury and viruses againest ND. Should UConn get a pass because of the injuries and viruses? Now Stanford plays Colorado so we will see how they bounce back. Duke has played an easier schedule and has had injuries to key players and many fans argue about Dukes defense in past seasons. The problem here is ND will play UConn twice in the conference and most likely once in the BE conference tourney so they might have 3 losses againest UConn. How does that fair in the polls? Big 12 teams will most likely have 2-3 losses againest Baylor in their conference tourney. Then you have Stanford and Duke who wont have 2-3 losses againest Uconn and Baylor. So how do you measure who are the top teams when SOS and having a top 2 team in your conference dosnt allow you to measure up with other conferences? So which team should be ranked 3,4,and 5? Good question because they all dont play each other enough to get a good idea of who is the best. IMO the top teams are UCOnn Baylor ND Stanford and Duke. This is my opinion based on who they play, and SOS If ND has 5 losses this season and 3 are againest UConn and Baylor does that make them a lower rank then Duke who hasnt played Baylor and UCOnn 3 times? I think because ND played Uconn and Baylor more that should be taken into consideration in the rankings and the NCAA pairings. Duke has alot of talent and so did Tenn the past few years and look at what they did in the NCAAs. You dont rank teams based on all talent you rank them on who theyve played and how they did againest them. Duke has not shown me yet they are a top 3 team because of who theyve played. They do have the talent and we will see in a couple of weeks how they do at UConn. This weekend we will see how good ND is. and on Feb 18 we will see how good UConn and Baylor are. Again if you are a top 5 team you should be playing most of the top 4 teams and the rankings should reflect that. JMO folks.