UConn Moves To #1 | Page 4 | The Boneyard

UConn Moves To #1

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I suppose it is a reasonable assumption that the SC #1 voters had to decide where there votes should go and felt UConn was more worthy than ND. It may be as simple as that.
 
(Posted this on ESPN as well)
As many have said, rankings don't mean a whole lot this early in the year. And when the difference between #1 and #2 is only a few points, as it has been for the last few weeks, being #1 vs #2 is really meaningless.
But there is one little oddity - If UConn had received 18 first-place votes and 15 second-place votes, their total would be 810. For their total to be 809, there must have been one voter who ranked them third. Now that's a bit hard to justify.
UPDATE - I just caught up with wbbfan's post. So it is Debbie Antonelli who thinks UConn is #3. Well, she's now on Santa's list!
 
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Kibitzer said:
We are delighted that CTyankee and his wife will join is to view the ND vs. UConn game on Wednesday. That's important! As for the poll, I recall Rhett Butler's farewell comment to Scarlett O'Hara. ;)
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Just to maintain the literary reference, "Tomorrow is another day.....":rolleyes:
 
triaddukefan said:
She's working out great. Seems like she loves it at Duke ..... loves her teammates... and her teammates love her. I'll tell her that you asked about her :rolleyes:

Great that we can pull off a upset win even though she had a terrible game. :cool:
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Congrats Triad, that was a very nice, but surprising win over the Gamecocks. That win elevated your team into the top 25 (#21). Heads are beginning to turn your way, and your program will be taken more seriously (when you defeat the #3 team) the rest of the way. Duke is back on the block, and that's good for WCBB. :)
 
Carnac said:
It's possible. it's still early. Currently the Seminoles are at #7. They would have to jump 3 teams (South Carolina, Mississippi St. & Maryland) to get to #4, and a #1 seed. That's a tall order.
All 3 of those teams would have to collapse, and FSU would almost have to win out the rest of the way. Stranger things have happened.
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FSU does get to play a number of ranked teams during the ACC schedule (ND, Louisville, Syracuse, Miami), so their fate is in their own hands. And does anyone really believe Miss State is the number 5 team in the nation? And why no Pac-12 teams in the top 10?
 
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Carnac said:
Glad to see USF move into the top 25. I've been monitoring games of other AAC teams. They're losing too many games that they should be winning. Each team in the AAC, must be held accountable to increase the appearance and reputation of the league. This means you must win games outside of the conference. The rest of the AAC teams can't leave all of the heavy lifting to UConn and USF. Some of the scores have been embarrassing. Some of them are losing to low mid-majors at home.
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CORRECTION........All five USF wins to open the 2016-17 season have come by double digits. The Bulls have won their games by an average of 28.4 points. The start has not gone unnoticed in the polls, as South Florida is ranked just outside the Top 25 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll. - I was misinformed. :rolleyes:
 
If UCONN spanks ND, which is suspect they will, I suspect that BD will fall a few notches. However, if the game is close I am guess that the rankings will stay pretty much like they are for a while.
 
Carnac said:
Duke is back on the block
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Maybe some block in Hoboken, maybe, but definitely not the same block of real estate with UConn, ND, et. al. They can still catch the PATH and join the party, maybe.

On another note, I think TN has just been poured down the drain at the end of the block.​
 
JavaMan said:

​

This is great news for UConn. Geno has been waiting all year to top off his OOC schedule by also playing the #2 team in the country. :D
​
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Now this makes sense...

How the 4time defending champs dont open the season #1 was odd to me. I chalked it up to more uconn bias, but they certainly deserve the # 1 ranking now. They way they have started this season again speaks to this teams understated toughness. To the naked eye it could go unnoticed but this team is tough as nails and will continue to grow...
 
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Kibitzer said:
We are delighted that CTyankee and his wife will join is to view the ND vs. UConn game on Wednesday. That's important! As for the poll, I recall Rhett Butler's farewell comment to Scarlett O'Hara. ;)
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Can't go wrong, Pizza, Beer, and Kibitizing!!!

And for what it's worth, I don't give a damm about the current polls either...
 
tony yusef said:
Now this makes sense...

How the 4time defending champs dont open the season #1 was odd to me. I chalked it up to more uconn bias, but they certainly deserve the # 1 ranking. They way they have started this season again speaks to this teams understated toughness. To the naked eye it could go unnoticed but this team is tough as nails and will continue to grow...
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UCONN did not open as number one because this group of players had not proven anything to anyone and the expectations were unknown. However, now that they have shown themselves to be who the are, they have moved to the ranking that they deserve. I would think that getting to number 1 that way would be more satisfying to this group instead of being number one "because they are UCONN."

I am not sure what UCONN " biased" you are referring to. From my vantage point, most of the bias is in UCONN's favor. You have one of the best recruiters in WCBB: ESPN.
 
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CBear01 said:

Maybe some block in Hoboken, maybe, but definitely not the same block of real estate with UConn, ND, et. al. They can still catch the PATH and join the party, maybe.

On another note, I think TN has just been poured down the drain at the end of the block. ​
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Things have not gone well for the Vols to begin the season. It's awfully early though to write off them off. True, their schooner is taking on water, but they're still afloat. Three losses in seven games, two of them to unranked teams does not bode well for the Vols. They've got Texas, Stanford and Kentucky in their near future. If these first seven games are an indicator of things to come, look for DeShields to throw in the towel (as I previously predicted) at the end of the season, and head for the WNBA, she'll be eligible after this season.
 
More grief on order for the LV. Over the next month they play Texas, Stanford, Ky. and Miss. St.
 
rvwsleep said:
Confirmation !
Was there any doubt ? ;)
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There was not. However, I had already queued up the tweet, did a quick scan, saw that you had already mentioned it, and rather than toss the tweet, I decided to support my teammate and show the entire world that you were in fact correct and that [B]@rvwsleep[/B] should be celebrated for knowing his stuff. :D
​
 
Whether intentional or not, they gave ND tremendous motivation. Regardless of the quality of teams played, for ND to be moved down to #2, IMHO, makes no logical sense. Even if you think UCOnn should have been ranked #1 from the start (an opinion I can understand, even if I dn't personally agree with it), it's hard for me to see any justification for making the change until AFTER the game is played Wednesday.
 
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Carnac said:
CORRECTION...All five USF wins to open the 2016-17 season have come by double digits. The Bulls have won their games by an average of 28.4 points. The start has not gone unnoticed in the polls, as South Florida is ranked just outside the Top 25 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll. - I was misinformed. :rolleyes:
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South Florida is #22 in today's AP poll.

2017 Women's College Basketball Rankings and Polls for Week 5 - ESPN

This week's coaches poll is not out yet.
 
tomcat said:
Whether intentional or not, they gave ND tremendous motivation. Regardless of the quality of teams played, for ND to be moved down to #2, IMHO, makes no logical sense. Even if you think UCOnn should have been ranked #1 from the start (an opinion I can understand, even if I dn't personally agree with it), it's hard for me to see any justification for making the change until AFTER the game is played Wednesday.
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I have to chuckle, as we seem to expect the AP voters to be in lockstep with one other when they vote, when in fact there are 33 different voters, with 33 different sets of criteria. It amazes me how any two of them come up with the same top 25 teams in the same order.
 
easttexastrash said:
I am not sure what UCONN " biased" you are referring to. From my vantage point, most of the bias is in UCONN's favor. You have one of the best recruiters in WCBB: ESPN.
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Rubbish. If you heard ESPN's Beth Mowins call of the game yesterday, she practically jumped out of her chair at every Texas score, UConn got not so much. ESPN announcers sometimes try to infuse their own excitement to sell us the notion that there is still a game to be won. Other times, they get fixated on a single aspect of the game, as in the graduation of the big three last spring.
 
WiseOne said:
I smell monkey business! Why would they even change their ranking right now???? Although I feel UCONN is the best team in the country, they should've left us at #2. Clearly they're trying to soften the blow to ND provided we (UCONN) win on Wednesday. Just so they can say well #1 is supposed to win! What the crap ever!!!! However, if ND were to somehow win, they'll say it was an "upset"... GET THE ..... OUT OF HERE with the unnecessary roughness! Annnnywhooooo...GO UCONN!
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It may be more to give Notre Dame some locker room fodder and to get them all fired up, as if they wouldn't be fired up already. Doesn't make a lot of sense for voters to change their first place votes with what transpired during the week. UConn looked pretty good but so did Notre Dame.
 
UcMiami said:
The TN drop is HISTORIC - they have been ranked in EVERY AP poll since it all began.
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Actually I was sure that I read that Tennessee was not in the top 25 in the final poll either last year or the year before. That was here on the Boneyard just a few days ago in one of the posts. They obviously don't deserve to be on it though they may have top 25 talent. It's performance that matters and they continually underperform. Duh!
 
HardHatGuy#2 said:
I said in an earlier posting that UConn had done everything it could to move up, but ND hadn't done enough to move down. I STILL don't think that ND did anything to move down, but their early schedule was light, whereas UConn's has been ludicrous. I think this is the voters no longer seeing UConn as an inexperienced team (beating #12/2/15/14), instead considering ND to be the less experienced team (beating #17).

You can line them up any way you want as far as I am concerned. Bottom line is that, barring a 40 point blowout, the winner Wednesday will be #1, the loser #2.
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I don't think you know how this thing works. Anytime a team loses, particularly this early in the season, they will surely drop more than one spot unless the next ten teams under them also lost during the week. I agree that they probably shouldn't drop beyond the number two spot but the reality is they will!
 
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Buzzyboy said:
Doesn't make a lot of sense for voters to change their first place votes with what transpired during the week. UConn looked pretty good but so did Notre Dame.
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Well doesn't it make sense that the voters that had SC at #1 needed to change their votes?

It's been said before that people look at the poll as a unified thought process but in actuality it's 33 independent people with each their own knowledge base, biases and methods/rational for their votes. You state they should have a rule/policy that they should not change their vote now in anticipation of what is going to happen in the week ahead. Maybe some of them actually do have that view but I'm sure many don't.

Fact is there is no single rule or method. So quirky changes in the aggregate should not be too surprising.
 
CajunHusky said:
There is an argument that Maryland could be ranked higher .... they played UConn tougher then anybody last year - 4 points with about a minute left. And UConn is not the same team this year while it could be argued that Maryland only got better.

I would not necessarily agree with that argument but we will have the good fortune to see it decided on the court in short order.
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Why should it be argued that Maryland only got better. I'm pretty sure they lost some starting talent on their team. I don't keep up with them that specifically but would someone please check that?
 
Buzzyboy said:
Why should it be argued that Maryland only got better. I'm pretty sure they lost some starting talent on their team. I don't keep up with them that specifically but would someone please check that?
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MD has senior leadership in Walker-Kimbrough & Brianna Jones who were both starters when MD faced UConn in the national championship a few years back. Beyond that, they have a talented group of underclassmen from what I hear.
 
tony yusef said:
Now this makes sense...

How the 4time defending champs don't open the season #1 was odd to me. I chalked it up to more uconn bias, but they certainly deserve the # 1 ranking now. They way they have started this season again speaks to this teams understated toughness. To the naked eye it could go unnoticed but this team is tough as nails and will continue to grow...
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That's OK. In the third week of the season, (as I like to say) the cream begins to rise to the top. i.e., UConn. By the Christmas break, the contenders will have separated themselves from the pretenders. It happens every year. Just wait for it. The separation process will begin.
 
Biff said:
Well doesn't it make sense that the voters that had SC at #1 needed to change their votes?

It's been said before that people look at the poll as a unified thought process but in actuality it's 33 independent people with each their own knowledge base, biases and methods/rational for their votes. You state they should have a rule/policy that they should not change their vote now in anticipation of what is going to happen in the week ahead. Maybe some of them actually do have that view but I'm sure many don't.

Fact is there is no single rule or method. So quirky changes in the aggregate should not be too surprising.
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That 1995 TN Uconn game is I believe the only time the AP actually 'waited' - literally, they delayed the vote until they saw the outcome of the game that week.
 
I actually think that the #1 ranking is going to intimidate ND (a little).
Here they are, ranked one, a really good chance to knock off UConn as the season starts, returning almost everyone,
undefeated...

UConn with a bunch of role players.

But here's this train rumbling down the track, ranked teams getting kicked aside as this bunch of comparative unknowns comes speeding into the rear-view mirror.

And it's got to be real...the AP says so.

I'm ready to guess, that at some point in the game, they'll fold their tent and go home.
 
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