Uconn to #1 Watch

[MilfordHusky]

What I find strange is that Oregon dropped 2 spots by losing to a top-10 team, and Baylor dropped 5 spots by losing to a top-10 team--but Baylor played without their best player, Lauren Cox. Oregon was at full strength (if you ignore the younger Sabally, who is out for the season).

 

[cferraro04]

Assuming both Louisville and UConn win until UConn plays Oregon and then if UConn beats Oregon...what will the they do then...they will be between a rock and a hard place. Seeing as though in their early polls they had Louisville at 8 and UConn at 4...how could they not move UConn ahead of Louisville if UConn beats Oregon and both teams win through the Oregon game. They would be in effect admitting that they had it wrong from the beginning.

 

[Dokey]

I would like to know who in the heck voted for ND to be ranked in the top 25? They must graduates of the Golden Domers.

Look ND got a measly 5 and undefeated Colorado, predicted to finish last in PAC-12, (but actually a young, decent team) got one vote. The others receiving votes category doesn’t mean much after 26-30.

 

[Dokey]

What I find strange is that Oregon dropped 2 spots by losing to a top-10 team, and Baylor dropped 5 spots by losing to a top-10 team--but Baylor played without their best player, Lauren Cox. Oregon was at full strength (if you ignore the younger Sabally, who is out for the season).

Baylor dropping five positions is odd.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Whatever you think about OSU's schedule strength, it doesn't answer my question about how you have UCONN at #2 given the opponents UCONN has played up to this point?

That is the easiest question since I had to answer the Terrible question: What is your name??
The most complete and serious answer is: ]\]
This is a UCONN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SITE and most are Uconn fans. We are not idiots. Why would we rate them less---oh yea--the guy who accepted the 2 rating is in trouble. Who has such a low opinion of OUR TEAM. On the Boneyard UConn Women are always rated number ONE.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

The current poll looks about right to me. Louisville's lofty rank is deserved at this time as it rewards their impressive win over the former consensus #1 and possibly corrects for a under-valued ranking. I didn't think Oregon would drop below 3 or 4 with the loss. So Carolina was #5 in the last pole, but we forget they also lost their first game just prior to taking down Baylor, so that would stymie any rise in the new poll. If they were still unbeaten, I would expect them to be 3 or 4. Oregon State has been playing some of the best ball of late and should rise as they have. UConn stands pat as they should.

I think I'd go with

1. louisville
2. Stanford
3. Oregon State
4. UConn
5. Oregon
6. South Carolina
7. Baylor

If I was trying to stay within poll logic.

 

[ReadR00ster]

UConn at 4 yet they got 2 first place votes and Oregon stays ahead of them and has no first place votes? That is kind of weird. But whatever it's a weird week so I guess it makes sense. Other than 2-4 being a bit shuffled. I agree with these rankings.

 

[ReadR00ster]

Okay, so according to you, teams like Pitt and Wake Forest who can barely win a game in their "power 5" conference are actually better than teams like South Dakota and Missouri State just by the mere fact that they're in a conference with better competition.

You still don't understand what I am saying. It's not the few best mid major-teams vs the medium power 5 teams that are in question, its that the medium power 5 teams are better than the next tier of mid major teams and no one is talking about the worst of the worst in the power 5 either.

 

[LoTrader]

That is the easiest question since I had to answer the Terrible question: What is your name??
The most complete and serious answer is: ]\]
This is a UCONN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SITE and most are Uconn fans. We are not idiots. Why would we rate them less---oh yea--the guy who accepted the 2 rating is in trouble. Who has such a low opinion of OUR TEAM. On the Boneyard UConn Women are always rated number ONE.

Whew! Didn't want my words to be felt as an insult. I am a UCONN fan, but don't hold the title of a UCONN loyalist. Hope I didn't ruin your day.

 

[ReadR00ster]

These things never make sense to me...
Why Does Baylor drop 5 positions after losing to a relatively evenly ranked team, but Oregon only drops 2 positions after losing to a team ranked even lower than all of them? Where is the logic?
And don't tell me it's because Cox is injured. Because if Baylor won the game against SC they would have been moved to #1 even with Cox being injured... And if you can move Louiville up to 2 from 8 after beating the number 1 team, why not move SC to 3 after beating the #2 team?

I feel like the Oregon loss was more flukey. We know how good a shooting team they are usually and just were cold for a game. Baylor on the other hand was exposed in my opinion. They lack depth and shooting. I think they have to be behind South Carolina for this loss and Oregeon any undefeated teams they pass on the way.

The current poll looks about right to me. Louisville's lofty rank is deserved at this time as it rewards their impressive win over the former consensus #1 and possibly corrects for a under-valued ranking. I didn't think Oregon would drop below 3 or 4 with the loss. So Carolina was #5 in the last pole, but we forget they also lost their first game just prior to taking down Baylor, so that would stymie any rise in the new poll. If they were still unbeaten, I would expect them to be 3 or 4. Oregon State has been playing some of the best ball of late and should rise as they have. UConn stands pat as they should.

You'd pretty much would have to put South Carolina number #1 if they would have not lost to Indiana.

 

[Alydar]

Assuming both Louisville and UConn win until UConn plays Oregon and then if UConn beats Oregon...what will the they do then...they will be between a rock and a hard place. Seeing as though in their early polls they had Louisville at 8 and UConn at 4...how could they not move UConn ahead of Louisville if UConn beats Oregon and both teams win through the Oregon game. They would be in effect admitting that they had it wrong from the beginning.

LOL Of course all that assumes rationality on the part of the voters.

 

[Alydar]

I feel like the Oregon loss was more flukey. We know how good a shooting team they are usually and just were cold for a game.

If rankings were to be based on reputation instead of actual performance UConn would have a couple more titles. After all Taurasi and Montgomery were better shooters than they showed in the FF semis of 01 & 08.
Or UConn doesn't foul, so the loss at Stanford in the 12/13 season where Tuck & Nurse fouled out should be expunged.
Yeah, I know it's a poll and that's different from a tournament but I'd rather see voters base things on performance rather than reputation.

 

[MSGRET]

Look ND got a measly 5 and undefeated Colorado, predicted to finish last in PAC-12, (but actually a young, decent team) got one vote. The others receiving votes category doesn’t mean much after 26-30.

But do you really believe that ND is one of the Top 30 teams in the Nation? Top 50 maybe, but not Top 30, at least not now.

 

[Tonyc]

Hey preseason polls are based on roster and those on the roster and how they played in the prior season. When the season starts then we can look at who beat who and how got injured sick and is not playing. Based on UConns core 4 there arent to many teams that have better and not by much. One other point UConns schedule is pretty tuff for the rest of the season. Oregon Baylor Tenn South Carolina Depaul ND and USF twice.

 

[ReadR00ster]

If rankings were to be based on reputation instead of actual performance UConn would have a couple more titles. After all Taurasi and Montgomery were better shooters than they showed in the FF semis of 01 & 08.
Or UConn doesn't foul, so the loss at Stanford in the 12/13 season where Tuck & Nurse fouled out should be expunged.
Yeah, I know it's a poll and that's different from a tournament but I'd rather see voters base things on performance rather than reputation.

It's got nothing to do with Reputation. I know Oregon are a better team then in that game because they have shown it already this year. And also in that game Louisville showed their worth so that is why I think their stock shoots up and Oregon goes down only a few spots. Now look at Baylor and South Carolina (my team). SC losing to a team that just lost to Indiana (not a terrible loss) but Indiana is not Louisville level. My Gamecocks have looked good this year as young team finding itself, but it's not been very pretty. So I do think Baylor losing to 1 loss SC is worse than Oregon losing to an undefeated Louisville that is now 2nd in the country.

 

[jsloanjr]

Time will sort out all the imposters by mid to late January...…..Stay tuned and have faith in Geno and his coaching staff...…...

 

[Alydar]

It's got nothing to do with Reputation. I know Oregon are a better team then in that game because they have shown it already this year. And also in that game Louisville showed their worth so that is why I think their stock shoots up and Oregon goes down only a few spots. Now look at Baylor and South Carolina (my team). SC losing to a team that just lost to Indiana (not a terrible loss) but Indiana is not Louisville level. My Gamecocks have looked good this year as young team finding itself, but it's not been very pretty. So I do think Baylor losing to 1 loss SC is worse than Oregon losing to an undefeated Louisville that is now 2nd in the country.

Fans, for the most part, measure their own team on their best while they measure other teams by their worst. (except some UConn fans who measure their team against perfection ). IMO there is a great deal of subjectivity in polls while the RPI is far too focused on W's & L's to be of much use in ranking relative performance.

I understand what you are saying but look at the bolded sentence. You are right that a team is better than their worst game but they are worse than their best game. All we can say is that their true value lies between the two extremes.
Most poll voters don't see many actual games and it's likely they base their opinions on wins and losses with some adjustment based on who they beat or lost to. But there are bad wins and good losses and neither the majority of pollsters nor the RPI makes any allowance for that. Now UConn is my team so I'll use them. In the 2014 season UConn was the preseason No 1 and lost to Stanford in their 2nd game on 11-17. They lost at Maples, by 2 pts, in OT. As of that date S Car had one game, a 9 pt win at home to U of S Cal. (USC vs USC) . Given the perceived strength of the 2 opponents and your argument many would say that an OT loss at Stanford was better than a 9 pt home win over USC and yet the voters made your team No 1, and the RPI penalized UConn for their loss. Your team beat Duke by 1 pt in December while UConn beat Duke by 31 in the same month but the voters only saw that UConn lost a game and RPI saw no difference in the 2 wins over Duke. I don't remember how S Car fans saw the rankings but I'll guess they thought they deserved their No 1. A couple of them posted here that year and vigorously supported their ranking and predicted a Gamecock win in January. We all found out the truth of the better team in that game and it proved itself in the NCAA's.

In my perfect world of wcbb the top teams would play a dozen games among each other in the regular season and we the fans would have many days of great basketball like we had yesterday.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Whew! Didn't want my words to be felt as an insult. I am a UCONN fan, but don't hold the title of a UCONN loyalist. Hope I didn't ruin your day.

 

[BroadwayVa]

When I am discussing Uconn women my day is great. I don't see how anyone would think being told on a UConn Women's Basketball site that " here Uconn Women are always number one". I would think you'd accept that as FACT not an insult. On the Oregon St site are THEY not number 1? Or on the U Tenn the Vols aren't considered numbber ONE? How can anyone construe that as an insult?? Thin skin I would guess.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Whew! Didn't want my words to be felt as an insult. I am a UCONN fan, but don't hold the title of a UCONN loyalist. Hope I didn't ruin your day.

I felt no insult : I was stating a FACT. Did you actually intend to insult Uconn fans? You missed that mark.

 

[LoTrader]

I felt no insult : I was stating a FACT. Did you actually intend to insult Uconn fans? You missed that mark.

Of course I did not intend to insult Uconn fans. Why are you twisting my words? Your fact is your fact, not my fact. And no, I don't see Oregon State as #1 today--I also made that very clear. I operate in reality not in an imaginary world.

 

[ReadR00ster]

If the complaining is about subjectivity I think this entire discussion a bit ridiculous. Of course polls are subjective. That is their point. It's not easy to gauge teams right now because of so many teams being untested. Which means comparing good wins and good losses and strong schedules and weak schedules are iffy. That doesn't mean the games so far get discounted. As the season goes on resume matters more. But as of yet factors such as how good are the players, how good is the coach, which teams have momentum, how to they look overall, how well do we GUESS they would match up against the of the field is more important. The current resume is just one factor. Some teams just get the benefit of the doubt when they pass the eye test on those other things, and some don't quite do so and need to prove themselves first.

The reason I think Baylor really should drop so far is that they don't pass the eye test without Cox. This was their first major challenge they have had and they have failed. Only scoring 59, points being dominated on the glass like they were. They looked flat out bad. They honestly didn't look that good against USF either. I think is kind of silly people think Baylor should get credit for Cox right now as she sits on the bench in a boot. Right now she is nothing more than a cheerleader, she isn't actually part of the team and may not be for several more games. That is something that is a selection committee consideration for the end of the year not a weekly poll.

 

[Grad1990]

Assuming both Louisville and UConn win until UConn plays Oregon and then if UConn beats Oregon...what will the they do then?

Interesting construct. What if they both go undefeated through season-end? What then?

Admittedly, while unlikely in UConn's case, it is entirely possible for Louisville which is playing in a demonstrably weaker ACC this year. Could this be Louisville's year?

And what if OSU manages to beat Oregon and Stanford (twice!!!), and go undefeated. What then?

OK....that's too many what ifs!

But, wouldn't those be great what ifs? Boneyarders would have an endless supply of reasons to jump online.

 

[eebmg]

Interesting construct. What if they both go undefeated through season-end? What then?

Admittedly, while unlikely in UConn's case, it is entirely possible for Louisville which is playing in a demonstrably weaker ACC this year. Could this be Louisville's year?

And what if OSU manages to beat Oregon and Stanford (twice!!!), and go undefeated. What then?

OK....that's too many what ifs!

But, wouldn't those be great what ifs? Boneyarders would have an endless supply of reasons to jump online.

as Geno said, it is not easy to be perfect in the #1 position. No unbeaten's this year imho

 

[Grad1990]

Based on many of the comments posted by the "in the know" (so, you don't) Boneyarders in this thread, I suspect it is with much anxiety that it is beginning to very much look like UConn's #1 ranking is all but guaranteed in the near future.

To be revealed soon enough Stanford is not a number #1 team. They are not a final four team.

Will the consensus of Boneyard Nation continue to be repulsed at a #1 ranking for Uconn?

I'm not in the know, so, I don't know.