ESPN Power Rankings: #8

[jkhoya12]

sports.espn.go.com/ncb/powerranking?season=2009&week=7&pollId=1

Amused that Doug Gottlieb puts Ohio State, Michigan State, Syracuse, and Arizona State all ahead of us.....Again, Doug this isn't time to pick 5/12 upsets amigo...stop trying to pick random teams so you look smart and be real. Arizona State is not even the top team in a mediocre Pac-10. Even more preposterous, Vitale has us at 19 and Baylor in the top 15.....hmmm Baylor has beaten whoo??

[grokamok]

Well, our resume isn't the most convincing (yet). Sure we destroyed a few cupcakes and dismantled UMD. But we squeaked by Memphis at home and lost our only other significant game (to Tennessee). Meanwhile, prior to today's games:

- Ohio State, unbeaten, has beaten Miami on the road, Notre Dame at a neutral site and a very good Butler team at home. (They're getting thrashed at home by WVU now but the rankings can't take this into acount.)
- Syracuse, though having choked against Cleveland St at home, beat Florida on a neutral floor, Kansas essentially at Kansas, UVA at home (admittedly, not a great win but a win over a BCS conference team, nonetheless) and Memphis at Memphis more convincingly than we beat Memphis on our own floor and without Devendorf (though that may have helped).
- Arizona St, having lost to a decent Baylor squad, is a bit weak, but has a few modestly good victories (Nebraska, UTEP, San Diego St) and handed BYU its first loss (albeit in a squeaker).

Michigan St, though undeserving after being thoroughly uncompetitive against UMD and UNC, just beat Texas in Houston. This remains a poor choice to put ahead of us; it is unclear that we should be ranked ahead of the others and this set of rankings shows the most sense from Gottlieb thus far. The only other thing to which I really object this time (and this goes for others as well as Gottlieb) is the continued ranking of UCLA -- I hope this wasn't the team to which you were referring, as their only wins over teams with winning records are both essentially at home (Miami-OH & DePaul).

Vitale's rating for Baylor is, indeed, suspect, as is his placing Michigan St over us and ranking UCLA (top 10?!?!) or Louisville at all.

[moe09]

I can't disagree with anyone who is not praising the Hoyas at this point. Not because I don't think they're good, but because Big East play hasn't begun. It'll definitely be what separates the men from the boys this year.

[SFHoya99]

I think Syracuse is pretty good, but keep in mind that Kansas lost to UMass, which has a sub-.500 record and Florida is completely overrated on name. Neither of those wins is much more impressive than Maryland.

At this point, very few teams have a lot of truly good wins.

[FewFAC]

I'm guessing you missed Gottlieb's pick of St. Mary's at 18 following their squeaker over San Diego State on a neutral floor and victory over Oregon on the road.

[grokamok]

Just pointing out that a pick of Syracuse over us is not baseless based upon record to this point; one could easily put us ahead of the Orange because we didn't have a bad loss at home -- it's kind of a tossup. I agree that there aren't enough good wins to judge things well.

Though they've not played a top-50 squad, St. Mary's has an RPI of 10, an SOS of 50 and has played 2/3 of their games (and 80% of their D-I games) away from home. Their one loss was in a game in which their arguably best inside player had limited minutes due to foul trouble and in which they shot a nightmarish 3 of 24 from 3 (.125); not that they would have been guaranteed a win had they shot their season average (.313), but that kind of shooting happens to most teams once or twice a year and it's hard to overcome. It's hard to fault Gottlieb for ranking them, even if they aren't the most obvious choice.

[hoyalove4ever]

SU is good this year- that's the reality. They will have a respectable ranking all year long.

[blueandgray]

I just don't get how at the end of last season Vitale picks us as a pre-season top 5...and now has us down at #19 with only one loss. The only explanation is that he is putting a lot of weight on the Rivers and Macklin transfers. Then again, Wright is playing like a 2nd team all BE performer, Monroe is living up to his expectations, Dajuan has taken his game to the next level, so has Freeman. He's senile.

[mdhoya97]

Remeber Dickie V only watches ACC games so he has no idea of our play until it comes to tournie time or when we play ACC teams.

[lichoya68]

hey and the cuse got devendorferer back after his grueling ONE GAME SUSPENSION