Gary Parrish Thoughts

Gary Parrish doesnt like the fact that we were dropped from the AP top 25. He makes a pretty good case why we should be ranked over Washington, Saint Mary's and Villanova.


AP poll: More than half of the AP voters -- i.e., too many to name -- didn't include Minnesota on their ballots.

That means more than half of the AP voters missed badly on Minnesota.

Seriously, what's the deal?

The Golden Gophers are 17-3 overall with wins against No. 7 Louisville, Wisconsin and Ohio State. Furthermore, none of their losses (to Michigan State, Purdue and at Northwestern) are bad considering all three of the schools that beat Minnesota are ranked in the top 40 at CollegeRPI.com.

Is that body of work not better than No. 21 Villanova's body of work? The Wildcats have one top 50 win (Minnesota has three) and four total losses (Minnesota has three). Is that body of work not better than No. 22 Saint Mary's body of work? The Gaels have no top 50 wins (Minnesota has three) and a loss to a school well outside the top 50 (No. 99 UTEP). Is that body of work not better than No. 23 Washington's body of work? The Huskies have two top 50 wins (Minnesota has three) and four total losses (Minnesota has three), including one to a school well outside the top 50 (No. 125 Portland).

I'd argue Minnesota should be ranked ahead of each of those schools.

Which is why I ranked Minnesota ahead of each of those schools.

Anyway, like I said, there are too many AP voters who didn't rank Minnesota to list them all. But because you guys like it when I single-out voters (or at least you tell me you like it), what I did was click on the very first voter on the alphabetical list who didn't vote for Minnesota and examined his ballot.

Gary Parrish Blog

Some good arguments there. I've watched several UCLA games this year...consider me underwhelmed.

What happens if ND loses tonight to Marquette? Their next game is at Pitt (another loss). That would be 5 straight losses. Their resume could start looking a little thin.

Has a ranked team ever not made the tournament since the field expanded to 64?

From the Barn,

Collegerpi.com has poll info included in final RPI back to '98

The only ranked team in that span that was eligible that didn't get in was Utah State in 2004. That team was ranked between 20 and 25 in both polls.

Georgia self-imposed a ban in '03, but was ranked at the end of the year.

UNLV with Isaiah Rider

I think was ranked at the end of the season but did not make the tournament. Don't remember the year.

I remember that, but weren't they on probation?

Okay, here's my take on the polls: Notre Dame is WAY overrated. They have yet to do anything that impresses me this season. But the AP has a love affair with the Big East that is simply disgusting. And, they were decent last season. This year, not so much. But that doesn't matter to AP voters.

UCLA is also overrated and Georgetown is in the middle of a really bad stretch, but I think they're still pretty decent.

St. Mary's is the "trendy" pick from out west. They really haven't done anything to get ranked, but everybody loves those possible cinderella stories, despite the fact that the Gaels have done nothing to warrant such respect. In this case, the AP is voting based on past performances by previously small schools such as Davidson, George Mason, and even Gonzaga and has decided that St. Mary's deserves the benefit of the doubt. I guess we'll see come March.

Utah State

Overlooked at 19-1. Pretty good team. Not (yet) ranked.

The polls...

The real question is, why would anybody waste ANY time arguing over their positioning in the polls, particularly in late January?

> The polls mean absolutely nothing, outside of perhaps some recognition
> The voters in both AP and Coaches polls have proven to know very little about what they're doing
> It has no bearing on qualification for the postseason.

You're going to argue that the Gophers are better than Tennessee, Cal, West Virginia, Davidson, Baylor, Kansas, Florida, Mizzou, and Gonzaga?

Plain and simple, it's nice to get some national recognition for being ranked in both polls for several weeks now, it sure can't hurt recruiting. Outside of that, it's completely ridiculous.

Arguing about anything in either poll is giving too much credit to the clowns that are involved in the voting.

I hate to keep harping on it but the only credit I give any poll is the oddsmaker's poll, Las Vegas Sports Consultants and they've never had the Gophers ranked in their top 30, which is probably about right. They also never had the Rodent football team ranked higher than 38th, even when they were 17th in the polls and sitting pretty at 7-1. Looks like they had them pegged right.

You've got it about right, OO. We need major 'wins' to realistically rise in various polls, but as you say, at this point, who cares? A win over Ill will be great ( not only for the polls, but for the Gophers condidence level) .. Beat Ill at home. Period. We go on from there.

You guys are quite correct. I usually only look at polls as a matter of curiosity and don't really take them very seriously.

The rankings I'm more interested in are the RPI ratings, since they factor directly into the NCAA selection committee process. Even then, I don't check those ratings every day. Normally, once a week.

But at the end of the day, it all comes back to taking care of your own business and letting the chips fall where they may. If you do that, it's almost a guarantee that as a major D1 program, you'll be happy with where you end up at the end of the season.

No kidding...

freshtrout said:

You've got it about right, OO. We need major 'wins' to realistically rise in various polls, but as you say, at this point, who cares? A win over Ill will be great ( not only for the polls, but for the Gophers condidence level) .. Beat Ill at home. Period. We go on from there.

Click to expand...

No doubt, JD. Somewhere around 20 in a row against Illinois? And with the youth they have and talent coming in, this may be one of our best shots to beat them.

And I still don't like our chances....