The State of the Mid-Majors: January 2008 ArchivesThe State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final Four in a simulation of last season. For our purposes here, it gives the world's only hype-free, non-voting, computer poll of teams in the lower 21 conferences. This is the full 245-team chart (updated hourly), and this is a recording. As of 1/22/2008, 1 p.m. ET The Knapp Center hasn't really been a house of horrors for opponents in recent years -- Drake's had three losing season records in home games over the past decade. But they're a perfect 10-0 there, prompting opponents to ask, "is this hell?" Nope, Iowa. Drake takes to the road before a nice two-game Valley homestand. Should the Bulldogs' 15-game win streak (third longest in the nation) survive tonight against No. 5 Creighton, they will have matched their victory total from last year, and it's not even February yet. The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final Four in a simulation of last season. For our purposes here, it gives the world's only hype-free, non-voting, computer poll of teams in the lower 21 conferences. This is the full 245-team chart (updated hourly), and this is a recording. As of 1/16/2008, 11 a.m. ET If it sounds like a duck and runs like a dog, it must be Drake! The Bulldogs assume the top spot in our index this week, and they showed their depth and poise by beating Missouri State without leading scorer Josh Young, who's out with an ankle injury. Though the team's won 13 straight games, the road to the school's first Valley title since 1971 doesn't get any easier: tough game at Bradley tonight, followed by a Saturday date at home versus... The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final Four in a simulation of last season. For our purposes here, it gives the world's only hype-free, non-voting, computer poll of teams in the lower 21 conferences. This is a recording. As of 1/8/2008, 1 p.m. ET Legend: Rank. Team Rating (Conference), Rating, Record (Conf. Record) [Last week] I have not actually seen this team with my own eyes (something we'll fix on Jan. 24), but we're starting to get reports from people who have. Two coaches who have played the Bearkats tell me that it was the toughest game of the year, and the team's only loss remains that one-point OT drop to San Diego State. Last week, they beat former mid-major and current money-conference participant UCF at home in OT. Now the Southland season begins (Wednesday against Southeastern Louisiana), and we'll see what happens. Either way, probably a drop in this index, since SHSU won't play another team in the State's overall top 100 until that JAn. 24 game with Stephen F. Austin. The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final Four in a simulation of last season. For our purposes here, it gives the world's only hype-free, non-voting, computer poll of teams in the lower 21 conferences. This is a recording. As of 1/2/2008, 1 p.m. ET Instead of defending our methodology and pointing out 1-1 California road trips that contain an overtime loss to a Mountain West team, instead of pointing out that you're looking at a list of well-rounded teams that are potential NCAA first-round victory candidates, instead of pointing out that teams not on this list generally have a fatal flaw (or two), we're going to go down the list this week and put the spotlight on each Top 10 team's star player. A big reason for the Bearkats' emergence as a national mid-major threat is the breakout season by a 6-1 senior named Shamir McDaniel. The San Antonio native was an unlikely candidate for breakout anything with deep role-player status for his entire career, but he's more than doubled his output with 13.7 ppg, and is shooting 15 percentage points better than last year (47.6 percent). Nine double-figure scoring games so far this season for a guy who only had 10 in his first three years combined. Not bad. |
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