Good morning yarders. Today is going to be a great day!!! The smell of basketball is finally in the air.
I've got a serious question that I really need some clarification on. PRESEASON rankings/polls that are voted on and released to the public BEFORE a single game is played. What does this mean? Is where a team finished the season last year (and who they lost to) given any consideration? - Are the rankings based on where the voters feel the teams will finish the season? - Are the rankings based on where the voters feel the teams rank at the beginning of the season?
Is the criterion for ranking the teams the same across the board and used by all of the voters?, or do the voters use their own individual criterion (which may be skewed or biased in some cases) when making their selections? Everyone looks good on paper at the start of the season. Hope springs eternal. Some teams are ranked in the top 5 that got knocked out of the tournament early last year. Why are they ranked high again to begin the season? Some of them lost key players to graduation. Since no games have been played yet, How do voters say or determine that this team is better than another team this season, even though a highly ranked team lost games they were suppose to win last season to supposedly a lesser team?
Do they throw last season's results out the window, and everyone starts out on a level playing field? It doesn't look that way to me. Except for the 1-2 teams that return their entire roster from last year, most teams are not the team that finished the season last year. Seniors have left, freshmen have come in. Last year's team is not this year's team.
If it is, how can you rank a team in the top 4 that didn't make the final 4 last year? It's for this reason that I don't put much stock in preseason rankings. Are they voting, keeping a team's "reputation" and past history of success in mind when they do??? It seems to me that the same teams are ranked in the top ten every year, regardless of how they finished the prior season, or regardless of player defection(s), injuries, a coaching change, etc., that may have an effect of the team's success this season. Here's my biggest gripe: How can a team be ranked higher right now, than another team that finished the tournament in a higher position than they did? A team that lost to a lower seed, AND..that has not played a game yet, but they're ranked higher than the the team that finished the tournament in a higher place (4th place, 6th place, 2nd place, etc) or finish than they did. What changed between late March or early April and now?, keeping in mind that no games have been played yet??? What gives here???
Somebody talk to me please.
Why do you respond to this poster? What you say is true. What that poster says has little fact to it.
Lost their 2 best scorers? Mabrey and Huffman were not one of the leading scorers. Cable was but Turner Allen .Westbeld ,Ogumbawale and Marina Mabrey are 5 of the top scores all returning. They also added a All American back from injury in Patberg and 2 more All Americans that were 2 of the top 6 players in the country in Young and Boley along with 2 other solid 3 year roll players in Nelson and Johnson. They only lost one game all of last year to U Conn and beat at least 10 ranked teams and were a #1 seed until they got upset by Stanford. If that one loss is all you are judging them by then you are missing a lot. 3 #1 seeds didn't make the Final Four last year. Not just the Irish.
Carnac, you're a smart guy. You already know the answer to all these questions. Pre season and in season polls are meaningless. They are only good for sports bar arguments. The only poll that matters is the one AFTER the NCAA tourney.Good morning yarders. Today is going to be a great day!!! The smell of basketball is finally in the air.
I've got a serious question that I really need some clarification on. PRESEASON rankings/polls that are voted on and released to the public BEFORE a single game is played. What does this mean? Is where a team finished the season last year (and who they lost to) given any consideration? - Are the rankings based on where the voters feel the teams will finish the season? - Are the rankings based on where the voters feel the teams rank at the beginning of the season?
Is the criterion for ranking the teams the same across the board and used by all of the voters?, or do the voters use their own individual criterion (which may be skewed or biased in some cases) when making their selections? Everyone looks good on paper at the start of the season. Hope springs eternal. Some teams are ranked in the top 5 that got knocked out of the tournament early last year. Why are they ranked high again to begin the season? Some of them lost key players to graduation. Since no games have been played yet, How do voters say or determine that this team is better than another team this season, even though a highly ranked team lost games they were suppose to win last season to supposedly a lesser team?
Do they throw last season's results out the window, and everyone starts out on a level playing field? It doesn't look that way to me. Except for the 1-2 teams that return their entire roster from last year, most teams are not the team that finished the season last year. Seniors have left, freshmen have come in. Last year's team is not this year's team.
If it is, how can you rank a team in the top 4 that didn't make the final 4 last year? It's for this reason that I don't put much stock in preseason rankings. Are they voting, keeping a team's "reputation" and past history of success in mind when they do??? It seems to me that the same teams are ranked in the top ten every year, regardless of how they finished the prior season, or regardless of player defection(s), injuries, a coaching change, etc., that may have an effect of the team's success this season. Here's my biggest gripe: How can a team be ranked higher right now, than another team that finished the tournament in a higher position than they did? A team that lost to a lower seed, AND..that has not played a game yet, but they're ranked higher than the the team that finished the tournament in a higher place (4th place, 6th place, 2nd place, etc) or finish than they did. What changed between late March or early April and now?, keeping in mind that no games have been played yet??? What gives here???
Somebody talk to me please.
Very keen gramatical observation.Pretty safe bet on your part. There's no way Notre Dame can go farther than UConn. From South Bend to Dallas is 1,023 miles. Storrs to Dallas is 1,693 miles. UConn will go 640 miles farther.
Who ever goes further ...now that's a different issue.
"I'm Your Huckleberry "
