Gophers 1 place out of Top 25

Donate To GopherHole
S

Stan

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
4,731
Reaction score
2,721
Points
113
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

What a joke. Obviously this doesn't matter in the grand picture but the disrespect is unbelievable.
 

CBS Sportsline dot com has Minnesota in their Top 25(and one), coming in at 25.

And it is a joke. But the AP and Coaches Polls have been a joke for awhile now. It's sad when teams ranked in the Top 25 aren't even considered locks to get into the NCAA tourney, like Wichita St.
 

I hope this gives the team a chip on their shoulder and they continue their unbelievable run.
 






Just saw this and was surprised...But...good. Always good to feel like the underdog.
 



Gophers13 said:
What a joke. Obviously this doesn't matter in the grand picture but the disrespect is unbelievable.
Click to expand...

Not really disrespect. We get ranked 25th before then promptly lost 5 games in a row. Yea we've won 7 in a row but Maryland was the only ranked team and they were 20 something. Nobody else is a sure tourney team either. So we beat 6 teams that don't have much sway nationally.
 

oleboy41 said:
Not really disrespect. We get ranked 25th before then promptly lost 5 games in a row. Yea we've won 7 in a row but Maryland was the only ranked team and they were 20 something. Nobody else is a sure tourney team either. So we beat 6 teams that don't have much sway nationally.
Click to expand...

Michigan is a sure tourney team
 

burton34 said:
I hope this gives the team a chip on their shoulder and they continue their unbelievable run.
Click to expand...

+1

This actually could end up being the best thing possible for us. Stay hungry so we can take care of business against Nebraska and Wisconsin this week. Then take the top 25 ranking in to the Big Ten tourney.
 




I'm glad the Gophers aren't ranked this week and that the Badgers are still ranked after losing both of their games last week by 10 points each when they were rated #16.

That means the Gophers can get another road victory over a top 25.

F*CK THE BADGERS!
 

I'm fine with it, get a sweep and go into the BTT ranked. Coaches poll as us at 32.
 

The coaches have had no respect for the gophs all season....
 

We're #32 in the coaches poll. This may be the highest we've been in the coaches poll - though I forget how many votes we had when we cracked the AP Top 25. I'm not surprised we aren't ranked, and I certainly don't think it's disrespectful. A buddy asked me if I thought we'd ranked after Michigan, and my knee-jerk reaction was we'd probably have to win out to be ranked. Like someone mentioned above, we lost 5 in a row once we were ranked. So, we are basically 7-5 since being ranked. I'd say we took one of the two paths that would have us ranked this high after being 7-5: either win a bunch in a row to start, and than hit a horrible losing streak; or do the reverse (which we did). If we kept splitting games most weeks, I think we slowly would have faded out of the rankings and from receiving any votes.
 

A ranked matchup against the Badgers to end the regular season would have been pretty sweet. I suppose remaining unranked means the coaches can play the "no respect" card to keep the guys motivated, but I don't think it helps us greatly or anything, just as I don't think our first appearance in the top 25 this year was the cause of our losing streak. I would have liked to see us ranked as I think games with ranked teams are seen as inherently a bigger deal than unranked matchups, and our game scores get shown on ESPN bottom line. We get perceived as nationally relevant, it makes casual college sports fans aware of us. It's basically free publicity, and personally I love watching the rankings fluctuate when the Gophers are in them.
 

hyaluronic said:
We're #32 in the coaches poll. This may be the highest we've been in the coaches poll - though I forget how many votes we had when we cracked the AP Top 25. I'm not surprised we aren't ranked, and I certainly don't think it's disrespectful. A buddy asked me if I thought we'd ranked after Michigan, and my knee-jerk reaction was we'd probably have to win out to be ranked. Like someone mentioned above, we lost 5 in a row once we were ranked. So, we are basically 7-5 since being ranked. I'd say we took one of the two paths that would have us ranked this high after being 7-5: either win a bunch in a row to start, and than hit a horrible losing streak; or do the reverse (which we did). If we kept splitting games most weeks, I think we slowly would have faded out of the rankings and from receiving any votes.
Click to expand...

Huh? So your reasoning is we are going to draw an arbitrary line to around the 1st of 5 losses to judge a team and ignore the rest of the resume? Wisconsin is 1-4 in their last 5, Virginia is 3-6 in their last 9.
 


Jeff Goodman at ESPN has Minnesota at #23 in his power rankings.
 

stocker08 said:
Jeff Goodman at ESPN has Minnesota at #23 in his power rankings.
Click to expand...

Goodman has been a Gopher guy ever since Pitino came in. Kind of replaced Andy Katz (Tubby guy) as our biggest supporter in the national press.
 

hyaluronic said:
We're #32 in the coaches poll. This may be the highest we've been in the coaches poll - though I forget how many votes we had when we cracked the AP Top 25. I'm not surprised we aren't ranked, and I certainly don't think it's disrespectful. A buddy asked me if I thought we'd ranked after Michigan, and my knee-jerk reaction was we'd probably have to win out to be ranked. Like someone mentioned above, we lost 5 in a row once we were ranked. So, we are basically 7-5 since being ranked. I'd say we took one of the two paths that would have us ranked this high after being 7-5: either win a bunch in a row to start, and than hit a horrible losing streak; or do the reverse (which we did). If we kept splitting games most weeks, I think we slowly would have faded out of the rankings and from receiving any votes.
Click to expand...

Not a big deal getting ranked, and I am all for keeping them hungry. However unranked is a bit of a dis. Just because we lost five in a row just after getting ranked should have little bearing on a vote today. Aside from all the close losses, the body of work is ignored. 22-7 and 10-6 in a major conference, the road wins that include a road win over the first place team. Two teams with nine losses ranked ahead of them. A chip on the shoulder is just what they need.
 

macgopher said:
Not a big deal getting ranked, and I am all for keeping them hungry. However unranked is a bit of a dis. Just because we lost five in a row just after getting ranked should have little bearing on a vote today. Aside from all the close losses, the body of work is ignored. 22-7 and 10-6 in a major conference, the road wins that include a road win over the first place team. Two teams with nine losses ranked ahead of them. A chip on the shoulder is just what they need.
Click to expand...

This is a short-term position (i.e. the chip on our shoulder).

The longer-term position is we should be wanting to be ranked preseason, and appear in every poll, every week. More exposure for Minnesota. More name-building for Pitino. More Block Ms in national articles. More of everything.

I can't for the life of me understand the "I don't care about being ranked" position outside of maybe a temporary advantage this week so we can sneak up on Nebraska?
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Huh? So your reasoning is we are going to draw an arbitrary line to around the 1st of 5 losses to judge a team and ignore the rest of the resume? Wisconsin is 1-4 in their last 5, Virginia is 3-6 in their last 9.
Click to expand...

I'm saying we're 7-5 since being ranked - which isn't stellar. Just about any way you shake that, your rank is going to drop. So, if you said to me, Minnesota will be 7-5 in the next 12 games after we cracked the top 25, I would expect to not be ranked. The exception to the rule, where I could see it being close would be two scenarios:

1.) We win a whole bunch of games, get to the top 10, then lose a whole bunch but the equity we built keeps us near the top 25.
2.) We lose a bunch of games, then become a hot team at the end of the year, and our rank, overall, remains near the top 25. This is what happened.

It's the psychology of the people completing the rankings, not what I think is right or wrong. It ignores who you played, how close the games were, etc - which I think is a fair way to anticipate how top 25 voters will react until they have a reason to care. Our win at Maryland, combined with our winning streak gave voters a reason to care. Now they will pay attention to the smaller details of our schedule - but mostly on a forward looking basis.

That said, I think our rankings are fair. If someone thinks we're a top 20 team, based on our entire resume, I disagree. If someone says we are not a top 40 team, or not a tournament team, I disagree. That we are #26 and #32 in the polls feels about right. Can you make an argument to be higher? Sure. However, we have an arbitrary cutoff at the top 25 teams, and we happen to have missed that arbitrary cutoff. If we win both games this week, I expect we'll jump to #20-#22, as people are watching, and a few people still need us to prove it.
 

hyaluronic said:
I'm saying we're 7-5 since being ranked - which isn't stellar. Just about any way you shake that, your rank is going to drop. So, if you said to me, Minnesota will be 7-5 in the next 12 games after we cracked the top 25, I would expect to not be ranked. The exception to the rule, where I could see it being close would be two scenarios:

1.) We win a whole bunch of games, get to the top 10, then lose a whole bunch but the equity we built keeps us near the top 25.
2.) We lose a bunch of games, then become a hot team at the end of the year, and our rank, overall, remains near the top 25. This is what happened.

It's the psychology of the people completing the rankings, not what I think is right or wrong. It ignores who you played, how close the games were, etc - which I think is a fair way to anticipate how top 25 voters will react until they have a reason to care. Our win at Maryland, combined with our winning streak gave voters a reason to care. Now they will pay attention to the smaller details of our schedule - but mostly on a forward looking basis.

That said, I think our rankings are fair. If someone thinks we're a top 20 team, based on our entire resume, I disagree. If someone says we are not a top 40 team, or not a tournament team, I disagree. That we are #26 and #32 in the polls feels about right. Can you make an argument to be higher? Sure. However, we have an arbitrary cutoff at the top 25 teams, and we happen to have missed that arbitrary cutoff. If we win both games this week, I expect we'll jump to #20-#22, as people are watching, and a few people still need us to prove it.
Click to expand...

The top 25 isn't meant to be a season-long resume ranking. It's meant to be the 25 best teams right now. Minnesota is certainly one of them. Wisconsin is not.
 

hyaluronic said:
I'm saying we're 7-5 since being ranked - which isn't stellar. Just about any way you shake that, your rank is going to drop. So, if you said to me, Minnesota will be 7-5 in the next 12 games after we cracked the top 25, I would expect to not be ranked. The exception to the rule, where I could see it being close would be two scenarios:

1.) We win a whole bunch of games, get to the top 10, then lose a whole bunch but the equity we built keeps us near the top 25.
2.) We lose a bunch of games, then become a hot team at the end of the year, and our rank, overall, remains near the top 25. This is what happened.

It's the psychology of the people completing the rankings, not what I think is right or wrong. It ignores who you played, how close the games were, etc - which I think is a fair way to anticipate how top 25 voters will react until they have a reason to care. Our win at Maryland, combined with our winning streak gave voters a reason to care. Now they will pay attention to the smaller details of our schedule - but mostly on a forward looking basis.

That said, I think our rankings are fair. If someone thinks we're a top 20 team, based on our entire resume, I disagree. If someone says we are not a top 40 team, or not a tournament team, I disagree. That we are #26 and #32 in the polls feels about right. Can you make an argument to be higher? Sure. However, we have an arbitrary cutoff at the top 25 teams, and we happen to have missed that arbitrary cutoff. If we win both games this week, I expect we'll jump to #20-#22, as people are watching, and a few people still need us to prove it.
Click to expand...

We are 7-0 since February began. That has (should have) more of a bearing on this weeks rankings than your arbitrary line of "record since last ranking"
 

howeda7 said:
The top 25 isn't meant to be a season-long resume ranking. It's meant to be the 25 best teams right now. Minnesota is certainly one of them. Wisconsin is not.
Click to expand...

And how do you determine right now? 1 game? 2 games? 5 games? The college season is short enough that all games matter to help inform your decision. More recent games matter a little more, but the past games will give you broader context as to what may be a fluke streak versus how good a team actually is. Before Maryland and Penn State, I thought most of our wins were lucky, and most of our losses were unlucky in BIG play. Overall, it has evened out.

Yes, we are hot right now – but Wisconsin has won more games convincingly than we have. They also beat us on the road. They deserve to be ranked higher, imo. Predictive models bear that out, as well – even some where recent games are favored. For example, Sagarin’s ‘Recent’ predictive model has Wisconsin ranked 18th and Minnesota ranked 29th.

Minneosta's RPI is inflated against the rest of the conference because margin of victory, to my knowledge, doesn’t matter. That will also play out if you do a ‘blind resume’ and try to compare records vs Top 25, Top 50, or Top 100. You don’t see how close the games were.

I think one of the best indicators would be to look at the Vegas odds to win the NCAA tourney or BIG tournament. Unfortunately, I can’t go to gambling sites at work. I hypothesize Wisconsin has better odds than we do.

That said – I really like where we are right now. You can argue that we are playing the best in the BIG. If someone puts us ahead of Wisconsin in their rankings, I get it. The last 5 games they are 1-4 and we are 5-0 with signature wins. If you expand to 10 games, we are 7-3 and they are 6-4 – and there’s not much of a difference.
 

Keep winning and the Gophers will get a nice seed in the NCAA Tourney. Nice to be ranked? Sure it is but the Gophers are in a great position regardless.
 

MaroonGold1 said:
We are 7-0 since February began. That has (should have) more of a bearing on this weeks rankings than your arbitrary line of "record since last ranking"
Click to expand...

I'm just trying to explain why, after a 7 game winning streak, we are barely not ranked. Maryland and Michigan State are both 10-6 in conference and not ranked, and so are we. Wisconsin is 11-5 and ranked. Purdue is 12-4 and ranked. Choosing the last seven games, or the last month, to be the sole basis, or even majority of our ranking, is incredibly arbitrary. And I'd argue before the Maryland game, many wins were a bit lucky. During our losing streak, we had unlucky losses. It happens. We're 22-7 in major conference... that's usually a fringe top 25 team, and that's where we are. Beat Penn State and Wisconsin, and you'll see a jump. Win two games in the BIG tournament, and you'll see a jump.

We played ourselves into relevancy. I believe we are good, you believe we are good, we still have to prove to others we are good.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom