|
|
Post by IdahoBoy on Oct 1, 2007 23:56:20 GMT -5
Mid-season reminder: RichKern.com RULEZ!!!!! Here's a sampling of what RichKern.com offers. Now that I feel I've promoted the best Website volleyball has to offer, I'll talk a little about the latest Pablo rankings and Rich Kern poll. www.richkern.com/vb/rankings/FreePageRankings.asp| School | RichKern | Pablo | AVCA | Conference | | Nebraska | 1 | 1 | 1 | Big 12 | | Stanford | 2 | 2 | 2 | Pac-10 | | Penn State | 3 | 4 | 3 | Big Ten | | Florida | 4 | 9 | 6 | Southeastern | | USC | 5 | 8 | 4 | Pac-10 | | Washington | 6 | 3 | 8 | Pac-10 | | Texas | 7 | 7 | 7 | Big 12 | | UCLA | 8 | 5 | 5 | Pac-10 | | Wisconsin | 9 | 6 | 9 | Big Ten | | California | 10 | 14 | 10 | Pac-10 | | Minnesota | 11 | 11 | 11 | Big Ten | | San Diego | 12 | 13 | 14 | West Coast | | Hawaii | 13 | 26 | 12 | Western Athletic | | Kansas State | 14 | 10 | 17 | Big 12 | | LSU | 15 | 32 | 20 | Southeastern | | Michigan | 16 | 38 | 16 | Big Ten | | Duke | 17 | 19 | 13 | Atlantic Coast | | BYU | 18 | 29 | 23 | Mountain West | | St. Johns | 19 | 15 | 18 | Big East | | Ohio | 20 | 37 | 21 | Mid-American | | Oklahoma | 21 | 20 | 28 | Big 12 | | New Mexico State | 22 | 23 | 22 | Western Athletic | | Dayton | 23 | 34 | 15 | Atlantic 10 | | Cal Poly | 24 | 17 | 24 | Big West | | Middle Tennessee | 25 | 25 | 26 | Sun Belt | | Oregon | 26 | 12 | 19 | Pac-10 | | Long Beach State | 27 | 27 | 30 | Big West | | Colorado State | 28 | 17 | 25 | Mountain West | | Purdue | 29 | 31 | | Big Ten | | Pepperdine | 30 | 24 | 31 | West Coast | | Louisville | 31 | 41 | 32 | Big East | | UNLV | 32 | 20 | 33 | Mountain West | | Illinois | 33 | 36 | | Big Ten | | Santa Clara | 34 | 72 | | West Coast | | Iowa State | 35 | 16 | 34 | Big 12 | | Sacramento State | 36 | 28 | 27 | Big Sky | | Missouri State | 37 | 49 | 29 | Missouri Valley | | Creighton | 38 | 44 | | Missouri Valley |
First, Pablo. I like most of the Pablo scores, but a few of them perplex me. Start with the ones I like first: The top 9 are great, minus Wisconsin at 6. Kansas State at 10 is perplexing. They have losses to #26 Hawaii, #5 UCLA, #20 Oklahoma in 5. But, the AVCA and RK polls think that KSU has something to offer, both in the top 20. Oregon chimes in at #12. I think they will figure out if they are worthy of that ranking this weekend. Iowa State at #16 is interesting. They have losses to Middle Tennessee and Creighton (both at home) to start off the season, a loss to New mexico and to Arizona State. They also lost to Texas, but hey, that's a great loss. LSU chimes in at #32. Both AVCA and Rich Kern have LSU in their top 20. I think part of that has to do with their schedule strength. I don't think this is a significant difference though.  As far as RichKern.com poll goes, I like the placement of LSU and Duke compared to the AVCA polls, both are lower on the RK poll. Dayton is still mired down at 23 in the RK poll while they've risen to 15 in the AVCA poll. Pablo has Dayton at 34. |
|
|
|
Post by isuchip on Oct 2, 2007 1:00:42 GMT -5
Iowa State at #16 is interesting. They have losses to Middle Tennessee and Creighton (both at home) to start off the season, a loss to New mexico and to Arizona State. They also lost to Texas, but hey, that's a great loss. The MTSU and Creighton matches were played without Manns (starting setter). The first four losses you mention were in the first 5 matches (1-4). Since then, ISU is 9-1 (just 2-0 at home) with the lone loss being at Texas. Yeah, #16 seems high. I'd take #23-29, though. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2007 11:00:57 GMT -5
These are the Pablo rankings which have me perplexed:
Iowa State @ 16 (I understand they were without Manns, but if the win over LSU is helping, why is LSU so low?)
Cal Poly @ 17 (which I think is a good ranking, I just don't know how the results get them there)
LMU @ 22
As always, very interesting.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Bofa on the Sofa on Oct 2, 2007 11:15:23 GMT -5
Actually, I think Texas A&M is currently a key factor. Iowa St and Kansas St both pretty high, and the thing they have in common is Texas A&M (and UNI, I should say).
The key to Cal Poly is their schedule, I think. They had the 2nd hardest non-conference schedule I saw (only behind Nebraska)
LMU is a little tougher to understand, I admit, although Pacific is the only result that is really out of whack.
|
|
|
|
Post by OU-OhYeah! on Oct 2, 2007 12:13:26 GMT -5
Mid-season reminder: RichKern.com RULEZ!!!!! Dayton is still mired down at 23 in the RK poll while they've risen to 15 in the AVCA poll. Pablo has Dayton at 34. How about we all agree that Rich Kern rules? Of course, he stole all his early website ideas from me (sorry, Rich, had to get you)! I'm sure he'd fire back and say that's why the current site looks so much different from the early one.  Dayton, in the coaches' poll, is at #15 because they are undefeated. What Pablo, and RK to a lesser extent, does is take strength of schedule into account better. Right now, Dayton is primarily riding a 3-game victory at Purdue. Wins over Illinois, Utah, and Cincy are good, but certainly not enough to push them this high. That said, the Flyers don't have any real threats on the remaining schedule. It will be interesting to where they are placed (when strength of schedule is considered) in the tournament if they finish undefeated. |
|
|
|
Post by redincolorado on Oct 2, 2007 12:15:01 GMT -5
Waaaay to early to do more than give the polls a cursory glance. They are liquid and there will be a lot of movement as the prentendors are separated from the contendors.
Of the three, the AVCA appeared more acurate to me.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2007 12:34:55 GMT -5
AVCA: Duke @ 13 and Dayton @ 15. Case closed.
|
|
|
|
Post by redincolorado on Oct 2, 2007 12:39:59 GMT -5
AVCA: Duke @ 13 and Dayton @ 15. Case closed. I should have qualified that a bit. I'm refering to the top 7-8. Below that, nothing much matters this early. 13 or 17-BFD. |
|
|
|
Post by IdahoBoy on Oct 2, 2007 13:26:36 GMT -5
AVCA: Duke @ 13 and Dayton @ 15. Case closed. I should have qualified that a bit. I'm refering to the top 7-8. Below that, nothing much matters this early. 13 or 17-BFD. Well, hell, the top 7-8 have been the same in all polls/rankings all year long. |
|
|
|
Post by ud69 on Oct 2, 2007 13:52:20 GMT -5
Those of us in Flyerland realize we are newbies to the national vb rankings. Are we a little high at #15 - possibly. Have we been a little lucky - sure. Coming back from down 2-1 four times, facing some match points against us, and winning all of our 5 gamers certainly qualifies as a bit of luck. To keep a clean slate as we have needs some good fortune.
The obviously weak A-10 will certainly continue to drag our Pablo and RKPI rankings, which we fully understand. Shucks, we are just enjoying the ride and taking it match by match. It isn't like we are ducking the competition. Stanford travels across country to play PSU and stops in Cincinnati to play the Bearcats. They could have stopped and played us just as easily. Since we both blew away the Cats, it would have probably been a better match. I know we could have made room on the schedule. Besides, Cincinnati got more points off the Cardinal (65) than they could get off us (56). All that being said, you can only beat the teams you play - and that we have done.
Can we win out? I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. We try not to be so foolish as to think that far ahead. That is how you get your head handed to you. There are some pitfalls ahead. We have another toughie at Saint Louis, they always give us problems. There are still 2 matches against Xavier who took out Cal Poly. We also can't forget Miami who just stuffed the Bobcats.
I will say that I don't think we will be one-hit wonders. As long as we can keep Horsmon around ( i.e away from tosu) we should be able to compete for a national ranking at some level in the foreseeable future.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2007 13:56:10 GMT -5
Hey, I'm all for Dayton being ranked and I love other conferences getting the exposure. I just don't like the AVCA's process of promoting teams who don't lose to teams they have no business losing to. Dayton and Duke could be Top 10 before this is all over, and that's not right.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Bofa on the Sofa on Oct 2, 2007 14:00:08 GMT -5
Those of us in Flyerland realize we are newbies to the national vb rankings. Are we a little high at #15 - possibly. Have we been a little lucky - sure. Coming back from down 2-1 four times, facing some match points against us, and winning all of our 5 gamers certainly qualifies as a bit of luck. This is probably the holdup in Pablo. As Hawaii fans can attest, relying on 5 game wins is not going to get a lot of respect in Pablo, as Pablo recognizes that success (or lack of it) in game 5 is fleeting (see Purdue in 2005, when they couldn't win a 5 game match all season, and 2006, where they almost couldn't lose in game 5). Just hope that the time the game 5 luck runs out is not 21 - 19 in game 5 in the Sweet 16... |
|
|
|
Post by wsufan on Oct 2, 2007 19:04:23 GMT -5
I wish we could have game 5 against Hawaii back again.  p-dub: Going back to a very old VT thread ( volleytalk.proboards88.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1156705863&page=3 ), I wrote: "PS: To the best of my knowledge, the WSU WVB team could play teams on the west coast. The baseball team plays teams in Hawaii every other year and has been doing so for 20 or 30 years." and you wrote: "And the Shocker baseball team has how many college WS appearances? Do you seriously think that the Wichita St volleyball program gets the same support from the administration as the baseball team does?" In view of the VB's 5-1 swing through Colorado and Hawaii (8/31/07-9/8/07), I guess my answer would be that the WSU administration does not support WSU VB to the same extent as WSU baseball but it does support it enough to send it to Hawaii. |
|
|
|
Post by The Bofa on the Sofa on Oct 2, 2007 19:50:33 GMT -5
I wish we could have game 5 against Hawaii back again. p-dub: Going back to a very old VT thread ( volleytalk.proboards88.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1156705863&page=3 ), I wrote: "PS: To the best of my knowledge, the WSU WVB team could play teams on the west coast. The baseball team plays teams in Hawaii every other year and has been doing so for 20 or 30 years." and you wrote: "And the Shocker baseball team has how many college WS appearances? Do you seriously think that the Wichita St volleyball program gets the same support from the administration as the baseball team does?" In view of the VB's 5-1 swing through Colorado and Hawaii (8/31/07-9/8/07), I guess my answer would be that the WSU administration does not support WSU VB to the same extent as WSU baseball but it does support it enough to send it to Hawaii. Actually, I would venture to propose that this whole Hawaii trip is a result of getting the NCAA snub two years ago. Chris made the type of move you need to do to get the recognition from the committee. |
|
|
|
Post by wsufan on Oct 2, 2007 21:43:29 GMT -5
You are probably right. Having Kansas State and Cal Poly visit WSU was nice. Hopefully, someday, Hawaii will make a road trip to Kansas and play KSU, WSU and someone like KU, MU, OU, OSU, UT or TAMU in Wichita. We had 6024 for KSU and I would hope we could get more for Hawaii. Who knows?
|
|
