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Message: [QUOTE="jake0414, post: 4497349, member: 10619"] UCLA jumping from #12 to #8 in the AP Poll following a 1 point win over USC at home does surprise. A lot, as dabears17 explained, has to do with losses by teams ranked ahead of them. At this point in the season I’d put UCLA in the #11-#15 range with several opportunities to move up in the rankings as the season progresses (starting tomorrow at home against Stanford). If you want to question rankings I suggest you take a look at the NET Rankings: [URL='https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2023/net']Warren Nolan Net Rankings[/URL] It places UCLA and Arizona, both 14-2, at #26 and #27 respectively while Oregon (12-4), who lost to both teams, at #10; Texas (12-5) at #13; Tennessee (12-6), who UCLA handily beat by 17, at #15; Alabama (13-4, this isn’t football) at #18; and Baylor, who lost to Arizona by 21, at #21. I also don’t get undefeated Ohio State (17-0) at #9 behind #6 Utah (14-1), #7 Duke (14-1, Sorry Triad), and #8 Notre Dame (12-2). I realize NET takes into account where the games are played (Home, Away, Neutral) and margin of victory among other factors. I believe it grossly overweights MoV. I don’t know if and how it takes strength of competition into account but if not it certainly should. UCLA‘s available roster of 11 includes the 5 freshmen in the highly ranked recruiting class. The coaching staff gave the freshmen substantial meaningful minutes during non-conference play (to date all freshmen average 15+ mpg) to prepare the team for the competitive conference schedule and post season tournaments. Doing so reduced the margins of victory against lower ranked opponents which I believe negatively affected the Bruins’ NET. Thankfully NET is only one factor the NCAA tournament committee uses to select and seed teams as evidenced by Charlie Crème projecting UCLA a #3 seed and Arizona a #4 seed along with Oregon #5 seed, Texas #10 seed, Tennessee #8 seed, Baylor #4 seed and Alabama #10 seed based on the season’s results as of Monday, 9 January. [/QUOTE]

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