A10 in the Polls

e_parade

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Rankings for Week 3 just came out and here's what we've got:

AP/Coaches

Ranked:
21/19: VCU


Also receiving votes:
1/7: Dayton


It would be great to have more than just the two at this point, but hopefully we can get that going by the end of the OOC slate. Need more consistency out of the top teams though. However, we currently still have half the conference (7/14) being undefeated. The only other conferences that can say they have at least half undefeated are:

Big 12: 7/10
Pac-12: 8/12
SEC: 7/14

Pretty good company to have right there.
 
Agreed. Hoping we can have a few ranked teams in December.... if you want to get sad for the day, just look at the A-10 slate for tonight. Nobody is playing
 
Agreed. Hoping we can have a few ranked teams in December.... if you want to get sad for the day, just look at the A-10 slate for tonight. Nobody is playing
The only other conferences with nobody playing tonight:

Big East
Ivy
WCC

I actually never bothered to look at something like this. Big East has 10 teams, Ivy has 8, and WCC has 10. We're the only large conference with 0 games tonight.
 

Rankings for Week 3 just came out and here's what we've got:

AP/Coaches

Ranked:
21/19: VCU


Also receiving votes:
1/7: Dayton


It would be great to have more than just the two at this point, but hopefully we can get that going by the end of the OOC slate. Need more consistency out of the top teams though. However, we currently still have half the conference (7/14) being undefeated. The only other conferences that can say they have at least half undefeated are:

Big 12: 7/10
Pac-12: 8/12
SEC: 7/14

Pretty good company to have right there.

Pretty crazy there are only 4 leagues with half of the teams undefeated, and we are one of them. That speaks volumes to the league as a whole, even though some teams haven't played tough competition. In particular, American Athletic Conference was really struggling before the UConn win over Florida. Obviously that league is a slight tier above us, but A-10 has wins over LSU, Alabama, Connecticut, and Rutgers. Other than that Connecticut win over Florida, I can't point to any significant wins for the league yet, and they've lost good opportunities against Oregon, BYU, Miami, and Ohio St.
 
Screen Shot 2019-11-18 at 4.11.43 PM.png

This is also an interesting look at league comparison from Kenpom.com. We currently rank 9th, and I think we tend to finish the season around 8th or 9th in our good years; last season we finished 11th.
 
Wondering if Rhode Island has a chance to get some votes in the AP Polls if the Rams can go 2-0 in Jamaica. That would bring them to 5-1 with wins over LSU and Alabama and only a loss on the road to Maryland. I think you have to beat someone in the top 25 to sneak in at this point, but that would be awesome if the Rams started to get some national recognition. Obviously beating LSU is a tall task but not out of the realm of possibility.
 
View attachment 3

This is also an interesting look at league comparison from Kenpom.com. We currently rank 9th, and I think we tend to finish the season around 8th or 9th in our good years; last season we finished 11th.
Over the past 10-12 years, the A10 was pretty much a solid #8 conference, with a couple of years at #7 and one at #9. The last two seasons have been disappointing - #10 in 2018 and #11 in 2019. If our teams keep up the recent non conference success (win the games we are supposed to win and pull off a couple of upsets), then we can get back to our #8 position. Seems like many teams are hitting their stride right now; hope that keeps up over the next 6 weeks.
 
Over the past 10-12 years, the A10 was pretty much a solid #8 conference, with a couple of years at #7 and one at #9. The last two seasons have been disappointing - #10 in 2018 and #11 in 2019. If our teams keep up the recent non conference success (win the games we are supposed to win and pull off a couple of upsets), then we can get back to our #8 position. Seems like many teams are hitting their stride right now; hope that keeps up over the next 6 weeks.

One thing to note about the Kenpom conference rankings is that they can be a bit misleading: I believe the rating is the rating of the team that is predicted to finish .500 in the conference. So you could have a stacked top 4 or 5 but an awful bottom 8 or 9 but still be in great shape to get multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament. Obviously not a perfect measure, but it's good to see the league is doing better top-to-bottom.
 
Hopping onto the RealTimeRPI train for a bit here.

We're currently ranked #6 for conference RPI, behind:

Pac-12
Big-12
SEC
Big East
ACC

And in terms of OOC win% there are some tiers up top:

Top 3 (90%+)
Pac-12
(41-3; 93%)
Big-12 (32-3; 91%)
ACC (46-5; 91%)

Next 2 (80%+)
SEC
(48-10; 83%)
Big East (31-7; 82%)

Next 3 (~75%)
Big 10
(41-14; 75%)
A10 (40-14; 74%)
American (32-11 (74%)


After that you have 2 conferences in the 60s, 3 more in the 50s, and then everyone else is sub .500.


If this keeps up, we're looking at those 8 conferences being the multi-bid ones based on being able to get at least 2 teams in without either of them winning their tournaments, with the next 2-5 conferences potentially having one team be safe if they don't win (and being able to be multi-bid based on that one team not winning).

Of course it won't play out so cleanly as that, but being in both of those groupings is where we want to be. Hopefully we can keep up with that as the year goes on.
 
Hopping onto the RealTimeRPI train for a bit here.

We're currently ranked #6 for conference RPI, behind:

Pac-12
Big-12
SEC
Big East
ACC

And in terms of OOC win% there are some tiers up top:

Top 3 (90%+)
Pac-12
(41-3; 93%)
Big-12 (32-3; 91%)
ACC (46-5; 91%)

Next 2 (80%+)
SEC
(48-10; 83%)
Big East (31-7; 82%)

Next 3 (~75%)
Big 10
(41-14; 75%)
A10 (40-14; 74%)
American (32-11 (74%)


After that you have 2 conferences in the 60s, 3 more in the 50s, and then everyone else is sub .500.


If this keeps up, we're looking at those 8 conferences being the multi-bid ones based on being able to get at least 2 teams in without either of them winning their tournaments, with the next 2-5 conferences potentially having one team be safe if they don't win (and being able to be multi-bid based on that one team not winning).

Of course it won't play out so cleanly as that, but being in both of those groupings is where we want to be. Hopefully we can keep up with that as the year goes on.

Really cool look at the conference in comparison to others. I do fear that Feast Week will be the death of some of these undefeated runs (Duquesne currently in a battle with Indiana St., and that's a game the league needs to win). However, I wouldn't be upset if Dayton is no longer undefeated because it loses to Michigan St. That's pretty much inevitable if those teams face off. The key to staying in a tier with the American and the Big Ten is NOT losing to teams that we shouldn't lose to in any way, shape, or form. The only respectable team that has done that is Davidson losing to Charlotte; other than that, the only bad losses have come from George Washington, which we can live with as fans of the conference.
 
VCU is up to #20 in the AP Poll this week, Dayton still receiving just 1 vote. Hoping a solid trip to the islands of Hawaii gets Dayton a little closer to the T25.
 


I don't know why Jeff Goodman is putting out a Top 25 right now, but 2 A-10 teams in his top 25 thanks to Dayton's run in Maui.
 
Dayton up to 19th this week, which is about what I expected tbh... VCU and Richmond both receiving 2 votes. I'm not sure which voter had UR in its top 25... but I'm not complaining. Spiders have a favorable schedule ahead, so a few more wins might garner some momentum in the AP Polls.
 
Dayton up to #14, Richmond getting 3 points, and VCU and Duquesne one each.

 
Dayton up to #14, Richmond getting 3 points, and VCU and Duquesne one each.


Good for the A-10... definitely arbitrary though (especially Duquesne and Richmond receiving votes at this point. Heck, even VCU). Gary Parrish from CBS Sports does kind of a funny article series where he comes after negligent voters who make inexcusable mistakes in their top 25 ballots. Last week, someone put Texas Tech 7th (up 5 spots) after they lost to 2 unranked teams. I like the hype that AP Polls generate, but there are some damn clueless people filling out rankings. This is no discredit to Duquesne, but I think someone went through all the college basketball records lazily, saw Duquesne was still undefeated, and voted them in at 25. Duquesne is good this year and has been impressive, but I don't know what college basketball voter thinks they are a top 25 team.
 
Good for the A-10... definitely arbitrary though (especially Duquesne and Richmond receiving votes at this point. Heck, even VCU). Gary Parrish from CBS Sports does kind of a funny article series where he comes after negligent voters who make inexcusable mistakes in their top 25 ballots. Last week, someone put Texas Tech 7th (up 5 spots) after they lost to 2 unranked teams. I like the hype that AP Polls generate, but there are some damn clueless people filling out rankings. This is no discredit to Duquesne, but I think someone went through all the college basketball records lazily, saw Duquesne was still undefeated, and voted them in at 25. Duquesne is good this year and has been impressive, but I don't know what college basketball voter thinks they are a top 25 team.
How is Duquesne not a top 25 team? They have the best coach in college basketball who pieced together a roster full of bully big men and strapped up shooters. They are holding their opponents to one of the lowest points per game in college basketball right now. Give me the Dukes over any team!
 
How is Duquesne not a top 25 team? They have the best coach in college basketball who pieced together a roster full of bully big men and strapped up shooters. They are holding their opponents to one of the lowest points per game in college basketball right now. Give me the Dukes over any team!

They COULD be a top 25 team, but it's going to take a long stretch of being undefeated as well as a win over a top 100 opponents (preferably someone ranked in the top 25, like Dayton). Otherwise, you can't really justify them being a T25 team after only playing cupcakes.
 
Also... this is funny, and I hope Duquesne does crack the top 25 just to see the Internet go after this dude.

 
New AP Top 25 is out:

13. Dayton

VCU 21 votes
Richmond 3 votes
Duquesne 1 vote
 
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