WBB Ranking Update - Coaches poll #20 - AP #27 - NET #30

[BullyPulpit]

As has been pointed out, USF has little to no room for error at this point in order to get a decent seed in the tournament, and that is a travesty given their OOC performance. The traditional RPI actually likes USF better than the NET (18 vs. 30). I would like to know what exactly factors into the NET rankings and differentiates it from RPI.

Let's compare USF and USC. USC just passed USF to move to #29 in the NET. USC is 15-4. USF is 18-4. USC played an incredibly weak OOC schedule. Their best OOC win was against the #104th ranked team in the NET. The only good team they played in non-conference play was Texas, and they lost to them by 14 points in Dallas, while USF beat Texas by 5 in a true road game. USC has a win over Stanford, who is #4 in NET. Their next best wins are over NET teams ranked #44, #58, and #85. They have no other NET wins in the top 100. They have lost to #11 Texas (who USF beat), #14 Oregon, and twice to #27 UCLA. Meanwhile, USF has wins over NET #11, 21, 38, 71, 73, and 96, with losses to NET #8 (in OT), 12, 15, and 17.  Looking at SOS, USF's is currently ranked #49 and USC's is #63. What about USC's resume would raise them above USF in the NET? You could do a similar breakdown with a team like Arizona and Baylor as well.  I fear that the NET rankings are favoring the Power 6 (including the Big East). Whether that is by design or not, I cannot say, but hopefully they look into it and try to rectify things. 

Here is a great site that breaks it all down. You can click on each team and see their resume. Compare USF to teams like Baylor, Arizona, and USC and you will see how fishy the NET rankings appear to be. To his credit, Charlie Creme has USC seeded as a #10, Baylor and USF #6, and Arizona a #5, so he is definitely seeing through the BS, but I don't have high hopes that the tournament selection committee will as well. USF just has to keep winning and winning big over the lesser competition. 
 

Strength of Schedule (SOS) - Women's College Basketball | WarrenNolan.com

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2023 Women's College Basketball Strength of Schedule (SOS) Updated in REAL-TIME for Every Team at the Completion of Every Game.

 

[bullsfan27]

25 in the coaches poll

2022-23 Women's College Basketball Rankings for Week 12 | ESPN

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Visit ESPN to view the 2022-23 Women's College Basketball...

 

[USFBulls12]

4 hours ago, bullsfan27 said:

25 in the coaches poll

2022-23 Women's College Basketball Rankings for Week 12 | ESPN

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Visit ESPN to view the 2022-23 Women's College Basketball...

 

It doesn't make any sense to me that Arkansas is ranked ahead of us in the Coaches Poll. Not sure when they are required to submit their ballots, but Arkansas only received 2 votes in the AP Top 25 this week and is currently on a 2 game losing streak, with their most recent loss being a 46 pt blow out against #1 South Carolina. We lost to #2 Ohio St by 2 in OVERTIME, a game we should have won. They lost by 46 on the road to the team who is apparently 1 slot better than the #2 team. Is there that much of a disparity between the #1 & #2 teams that they aren't being punished by the voters for such a blowout in their 5th loss of the season? Additionally, we BEAT Arkansas, but they're ranked ahead of us by the coaches, even after considering everything else I mentioned. Perhaps the South Carolina game came after the votes were submitted for this week, but they definitely should not be ranked, especially not ranked above us. Keep winning this week and the Bulls will move up through at least #24 when Arkansas gets bounced out.

[bullsfan27]

1 hour ago, USFBulls12 said:

It doesn't make any sense to me that Arkansas is ranked ahead of us in the Coaches Poll. Not sure when they are required to submit their ballots, but Arkansas only received 2 votes in the AP Top 25 this week and is currently on a 2 game losing streak, with their most recent loss being a 46 pt blow out against #1 South Carolina. We lost to #2 Ohio St by 2 in OVERTIME, a game we should have won. They lost by 46 on the road to the team who is apparently 1 slot better than the #2 team. Is there that much of a disparity between the #1 & #2 teams that they aren't being punished by the voters for such a blowout in their 5th loss of the season? Additionally, we BEAT Arkansas, but they're ranked ahead of us by the coaches, even after considering everything else I mentioned. Perhaps the South Carolina game came after the votes were submitted for this week, but they definitely should not be ranked, especially not ranked above us. Keep winning this week and the Bulls will move up through at least #24 when Arkansas gets bounced out.

I believe ballots for coaches have to be in Monday night as Ohio state did lose to #10 iowa and that is shown in the coaches but not the ap. They have a 2 loss Stanford team ahead of an unbeaten lsu. As far as why they have Arkansas ahead of us the only thing I can think of is since South Carolina is destroying everyone they are viewed as the new uconn so anyone that loses to them won’t be punished as much

[BullyPulpit]

Arkansas's SOS is a little better than ours overall. As for Stanford, they have played a much more difficult schedule than LSU. 9th ranked SOS compared to #105 for LSU. LSU's non-conference SOS was one of the worst in the nation at #286, while Stanford was #25. Stanford is definitely one of the top 5 teams in the country. We will know a lot more about LSU in the next two weeks as they play Tennessee and South Carolina. 

[Bullumni]

Well, our bench played much better against UCF, and we can hope that they continue the trend with each game,  I think they are starting to believe that they are as good as we all (and the coaches) think they are.  In other words, win each game with less turn overs, and more rebounds, and we can let the rankings take care of themselves.  This is where we will see a lot of the wanna-be's dropping a game or 2 or 3 as it gets closer to conference tournaments.  As they drop, we can pick up some rankings!  That's the secret ingredient in this secret ingredient soup of a team.

[BullyPulpit]

In the future, USF needs to avoid scheduling games against teams like New Hampshire, FAMU, and Morehead State. All of those teams have sub-320 NET rankings and they are currently dragging us down. I know it can be hard to do, but if we could limit the terrible teams on the schedule to 1 game and then focus on trying to bring in the teams that will be in the 100 to 200 NET range, we will still win the games and it will protect our potential seeding. 

[BDYZR]

#2 Ohio St., #12 Virginia Tech, #22 Illinois, and #24 FSU all lost games yesterday.

[BullyPulpit]

9 minutes ago, BDYZR said:

#2 Ohio St., #12 Virginia Tech, #22 Illinois, and #24 FSU all lost games yesterday.

The Illinois and FSU losses pave the way for the Bulls to be ranked with a victory at Memphis. The Ohio State loss actually hurts us slightly. They have now lost two in a row. Illinois was over ranked (Creme had them as a #8 seed), but FSU was a 5 seed in Creme's rankings, so that might move USF up to the #5 line in his next projection. 

[Ricky the Bull]

ESPN bracketology that came out today still has us as a 6-seed.