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Post by Thrill of the 'ville on Oct 23, 2006 20:48:34 GMT -5
True story: the poll doesn't matter.
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Post by vbcrazy on Oct 23, 2006 20:58:10 GMT -5
Cal's only loss that was significant was to Oregon. The others; Stanford, UCLA, USC, WA were all ranked higher...hmmmm seems logical that Cal lost to higher ranked teams. #11 Cal, #12 Minnesota, #14 Wisconsin, #15 Hawaii all have the same records 15-5. 2nd half of the season will be the key for Oregon & Cal. I think Oregon will have more losses than wins and Cal will have more wins than losses. But in any event, Oregon should be ranked somewhere. Only nine matches to go in the Pac10 until everyone starts b*tching about regionals instead of rankings.
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Post by BearClause on Oct 23, 2006 21:06:29 GMT -5
I'm not big on rankings for sports either. But in the NCAA this pole is taken into LARGE consideration. So it means something as far as seedings go. its not taken AT ALL into consideration, FYI. The RPI is generally only a starting point. However - the commitee of SWAs who select the teams aren't going to simply ignore that there's an independent poll out there. I'm pretty sure that every member of the committee checks the poll when it comes out.
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Post by Gelatinous Mass on Oct 23, 2006 21:37:46 GMT -5
BearClause...the dancing Banana is freaking me out, seriously. If you want to measure Penn State and Nebraska what's the best way to do it? Texas. UT has played both and lost to both in 5. Up 2-0 against Penn State and up 2-1 against Nebraska and lost both matches. PSU has 2 great hitters, Fawcett and Hodge, NU has 2 great hitters, Pavan and Larson. PSU has 2 middles that played well, Harmotto and Walbridge and NU has Stalls. Both have freshman setters, although I don't really count Holloway as a Freshman. Both teams can handle adversity and they don't seem to get rattled in crunch time. These 2 teams are 1 and 2 in the country for a good reason, they are the best. Hooker had a great match against NU, Engle had a great match against PSU....if the 2 rookies at Texas have great matches at the same time against either tem, Texas wins in 3 or 4....ahhh freshman. Of all the teams I've seen play this year NU and PSU are the most similar. UCLA has the best defense I've seen, period. Next to Thompson, Spicer is the best setter in the country. For R(uffda) sorry you haven'y been impressed with Engle, she has been carrying the load for Texas all year while Hooker was MIA for 8 matches. In the Nebraska game Larson and Engle has bascially the same numbers....and I felt they both had below average games. The week Larson was Big 12 POW Engle had better stats...without Pavan to help her. 1 game does not make a season and with Destinee ramping up....UT is going to start peaking at the right time.
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Post by BearClause on Oct 23, 2006 21:40:48 GMT -5
BearClause...the dancing Banana is freaking me out, seriously. Better now?
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Post by SaltNPepper on Oct 23, 2006 21:41:19 GMT -5
I'll add my gripe, since the weekly post of the AVCA poll seems to be the place to do it. #1 Nebraska has 1480 total votes, including 43 first-place votes. Those account for 1,075 of their points. The other 17 first-place votes went to Penn State. I assumed that those voters put Nebraska #2, which would give them 408 more points. But 1,075 + 408 = 1483, not 1480. There are between 1-3 coaches who don't have Nebraska in the top 2. TRAVESTY! Take this post with a grain of salt, I'm not really complaining, but come on! Nebraska and Penn State should be a unanimous top 2. Stanford, UCLA, etc. may be better than Nebraska and Penn State right now, who knows, but don't you have to reward them for their undefeated seasons with the top 2 spots. You could take this a bit farther and look at the voting for the top 4 teams like this: Nebraska with 1480 points and 43-1's is only those 3 points short of all 1's and 2's. Penn State with 1457 points and 17-1's means that they had to get the other 43-2's - thus we know that no one voted them below second. Stanford had 1379. 60-3's would have been 1380. So they are only one point short of having the equivalent of all 3's. Probably means that they got the three 2's that Nebraska didn't get but also got the equivalent of four 4's. UCLA had 1321. 60-4's would have been 1320. So they probably got those four missing 3's and got 3- 5's to even it out. Basically, Nebraska and PSU are solidly in first and second. Stanford is a solid third and UCLA is a solid 4th. Since 2000, a Pac-10 team has won the National Championship every year. For now Stanford seems to be the top Pac-10 team. There are Pac-10 voters in this poll and you know they believe that the best Pac-10 team is the best team in the country. So what really surprises me is that we aren't seeing some of those voters already switching a few of their first place votes over to Stanford. If either Stanford or UCLA would win out in the Pac-10, then I'm sure you're going to see a fair amount of first place votes switch by the end of the regular season to the the best Pac-10 team unless they each keep beating each other up. If Nebraska and PSU also win out (and they look good in the process), then it may be pretty tight at the top as we go into the tourney. None of this will make much difference - other than really playing well the 2nd and 3rd weekend in December (I figure the first weekend in December they should be able to get through even if they aren't playing real well unless any of them really get hosed by the selection committee's 1st and 2nd round matches)
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Post by cbrown1709 on Oct 24, 2006 0:27:48 GMT -5
Wisconsin already beat Oklahoma. And, as you can see from cbrown's response, Minnesota is still not getting the respect they deserve (although I too think Texas wins). Ruffda, remember I said at this point. Right now, Wisconsin didn't look that great, and Oklamhoma is really doing well. I wasn't that impressed with Minnesota either. But they are really improving.
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Post by rudepa on Oct 24, 2006 9:43:19 GMT -5
I'm in agreement with most on this poll. Cal seems ranked to high and Oregon should be ranked at least in the top 25. The Big 10 seems pretty fair. I dont believe any of them should be ranked higher than they are....certainly not top 10 (outside of PSU). MN is on a winning streak and Purdue is on a downhill spiral. WI just didnt show up to play against MN, so that is an appropriate placement. I think I would have put USC below UW as well.. Overall though, its a pretty decent poll
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Post by bulldog3 on Oct 24, 2006 9:58:20 GMT -5
Has Wisconsin beaten anybody of significance on the road this year?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2006 10:29:20 GMT -5
San Diego.
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Post by jgrout on Oct 24, 2006 12:35:06 GMT -5
An earlier poster had Stanford as national 3 seed (and presumptive winner of the Pac-10) sent to Washington's regional in Seattle. That's crazy. Unless UW wins the conference outright or the top teams knock each other around in the second half and the winner has 3 (or even 4) conference losses, the reward for the Pac-10 winner should be a number one seed in Honolulu.
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Post by Gorf on Oct 24, 2006 12:46:36 GMT -5
Nah, the top seeds ought to be sent as far from home as possible for regionals.
Kinda like Hawaii -> Green Bay and Penn State -> Seattle for the 2004 tournament as #1 seeds while Washington the #8 seed (*wink, wink*) stays at home for sub-regionals and regionals.
The NCAA committee with fudge seedings and bracket placement to be whatever they want.
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Post by beachman on Oct 24, 2006 13:07:13 GMT -5
An earlier poster had Stanford as national 3 seed (and presumptive winner of the Pac-10) sent to Washington's regional in Seattle. That's crazy. Unless UW wins the conference outright or the top teams knock each other around in the second half and the winner has 3 (or even 4) conference losses, the reward for the Pac-10 winner should be a number one seed in Honolulu. Which is a much more likely scenario!
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Post by wzzy1987 on Oct 24, 2006 13:14:31 GMT -5
What does Ohio need to do to not drop in the rankings?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2006 13:28:43 GMT -5
The Bobcats have a 34 point cushion on NMSU. That won't be enough if NMSU beats Hawaii. Looks like #22 or #23 will end up being their spot unless someone craters above them.
And they can't lose to Bowling Green -- or Louisville/Notre Dame at the end of the year.
It's the double-edged sword of the easy (relatively) schedule.
And then you have Oregon, LBSU, Sac State and St John's all with legitimate Top 25 claims.
So here's a sort-of related question: Who in the Top 20 right now is most likely to fall out of the Top 25? I'm looking at the teams and I don't think any of them will. Missouri and Oklahoma maybe. It'd be a big drop for Missouri.
In short, there's not much room.
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