Against Ranked Teams (Basketball) Week 4

[SWC75]

This year I will be again charting how teams have done “against ranked teams”, which is something that always comes up at the end of the year when the arguments over who should be in the NCAA tournament start. As usual, this is not meant to end those arguments, just to give those making them something to look at in forming their opinions. This is just one thing to look at. But I think it’s a big thing.

I’m going to do it a bit differently this year. The old procedure was that I would first grant teams playing ranked teams a certain number of points based on who they are playing. If you played the #1 team, (I use the AP- writer’s poll for continuity), you get 25 points. If you are playing the #2 team, you get 24 points, etc. down to getting 1 point for playing the #25 team. I call these “schedule points”. Here’s a chart to make it simple:
1-25, 2-24, 3-23, 4-22, 5-21, 6-20, 7-19, 8-18, 9-17, 10-16, 11-15, 12-14, 13-13, 14-12, 15-11, 16-10, 17-9, 18-8, 19-7, 20-6, 21-5, 22-4, 23-3, 24-2, 25-1.
(Of course you can always just subtract the ranking from 26. That will work every time.)

Then I look at the point differential in the actual game. If you defeated the ranked team, you add the number of points you won by to the schedule points. If you lost to that team, you subtract the margin you lost by from the schedule points. (I call these ‘game’ points.) The difference between this year and last year if that I didn’t count any deficit: if you got to zero, you got zero. This year I’m going to try to record negative points, too, so a team can get full ‘credit’ for a really bad performance.

WEEK FOUR

Michigan beat #11 North Carolina 84-67 = +32 points
Marquette beat #12 Kansas 83-71 = +26 points
Michigan beat #19 Purdue 76-57 = +26 points
Louisville beat #9 Michigan State 82-78 = +21 points
Syracuse beat #16 Ohio State 72-62 = +20 points
Stanford lost to #2 Kansas 84-90 = +18 points
Wisconsin beat #14 Iowa 72-66 = +18 points
Maryland lost to #4 Virginia 71-76 = +17 points
Creighton lost to #1 Gonzaga 92-103 = +14 points
Penn State beat #13 Virginia Tech 63-62 = +14 points
Texas Southern beat #18 Oregon 89-84 = +13 points
Houston beat #18 Oregon 65-61 = +12 points
Radford beat #17 Texas 62-59 = +12 points
Pittsburgh lost to #14 Iowa 68-69 = +11 points
Purdue lost to #15 Florida State 72-73 = +10 points
Southern California lost to #5 Nevada-Reno = +9 points
Florida State beat #19 Purdue 73-72 = +8 points
Loyola (Chicago) lost to #5 Nevada-Reno 65-79 +7 points
Virginia beat #24 Maryland 76-71 = +7 points
Rutgers lost to #9 Michigan State 67-78 = +6 points
Indiana lost to #3 Duke 69-90 = +2 points
North Carolina lost to #7 Michigan 67-84 = +2 points
San Francisco lost to #21 Buffalo 81-85 = +1 points
North Carolina State lost to #22 Wisconsin 75-79 = 0 points
Purdue lost to #7 Michigan 57-76 = 0 points
UNC Greensboro lost to #10 Kentucky 61-78 = -1 points
Iowa lost to #22 Wisconsin 66-72 = -2 points
LaSalle lost to #23 Villanova 78-85 = -4 points
Memphis lost to #20 Texas Tech 67-78 = -5 points
Penn State lost to #24 Maryland 59-66 = -5 points
Dayton lost to #25 Mississippi State 58-65 = -6 points
Eastern Kentucky #6 Tennessee 67-95 = -8 points
Texas A&M Corpus Christi lost to #6 Tennessee 51-79 = -8 points
Minnesota lost to #16 Ohio State 59-79 = -10 points
Milwaukee lost to #21 Buffalo 77-96 = -14 points
North Dakota State lost to #1 Gonzaga 60-102 = -17 points
Alcorn State lost to #25 Mississippi 65-88 = -22 points
Monmouth lost to #10 Kentucky 44-90 = -30 points
St. Peter’s lost to #8 Auburn 49-99 = -32 points
Central Connecticut lost to #13 Virginia Tech 40-94 = -41 points
Stetson lost to #3 Duke 49-113 = -41 points

Comments: Duke looks awfully good but the team playing the best in ratio to the talent on its roster has to be Michigan. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain this level of performance through the season – and meet Duke in the Final Four, maybe for the title.




THE TOP 25

Duke +103 points
Michigan +103 points
Michigan State +49 points
Kansas +48 points
Auburn +42 points

Marquette +41 points
Wisconsin +33 points
Louisville +31 points
Creighton +29 points
Gonzaga +27 points

Indiana +27 points
North Carolina +27 points
Furman +26 points
Oregon +26 points
Iowa +19 points

Buffalo +18 points
Connecticut +18 points
Florida State +18 points
Syracuse +18 points
Tennessee +18 points

Illinois +17 points
Lipscomb +17 points
Maryland +17 points
Texas +17 points
Arizona State +16 points

The worst total so far is Tennessee Tech with -84 points