Against Ranked Teams (basketball) Week 9

[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 NINE

New Mexico beat #6 Nevada-Reno 85-58 = +47 points
Iowa State beat #5 Kansas 77-60 = +38 points
St. John’s beat #16 Marquette 89-69 = +30 points
Virginia beat #9 Florida State 65-52 = +30 points
Michigan State beat #14 Ohio State 86-77 = +21 points
Purdue beat #25 Iowa 86-70 = +17 points
Michigan beat #21 Indiana 74-63 = +16 points
Alabama beat #13 Kentucky 77-75 = +15 points
Oklahoma lost to #5 Kansas 63-70 = +14 points
Indiana lost to #2 Michigan 63-74 = +13 points
West Virginia lost to #11 Texas Tech 59-62 = +12 points
Iowa beat #24 Nebraska 93-84 = +11 points
Minnesota beat #22 Wisconsin 59-52 = +11 points
Penn State lost to #2 Michigan 55-68 = +11 points
Kansas beat #23 Oklahoma 70-63 = +10 points
Florida State lost to #9 Virginia 52-65 = +9 points
Kansas State lost to #11 Texas Tech 57-63 = +9 points
Ohio State lost to #8 Michigan State 77-86 = +9 points
Clemson lost to #1 Duke 68-87 = +6 points
Winthrop lost to #9 Florida State 76-87 = +6 points
Boston College lost to #10 Virginia Tech 66-77 = +5 points
Maryland beat #24 Nebraska 74-72 = +4 points
U of Miami lost to #18 North Carolina State 82-87 = +3 points
Notre Dame lost to #10 Virginia Tech 66-81 = +1 point
Illinois lost to #21 Indiana 65-73 = -3 points
Utah State lost to #6 Nevada-Reno 49-72 = -3 points
Memphis lost to #19 Houston 77-90 = -6 points
Nebraska lost to #25 Iowa 84-93 = -8 points
Oklahoma State lost to #23 Oklahoma 64-74 = -7 points
Northwestern lost to #8 Michigan State 55-81 = -8 points
Xavier lost to #10 Marquette 52-70 = -8 points
Harvard lost to #15 North Carolina 57-77 = -9 points
Eastern Michigan lost to #20 Buffalo 58-74 = -10 points
Tulsa lost to #19 Houston 56-74 = -11 points
Marshall lost to #4 Virginia 64-100 = -14 points
Pittsburgh lost to #15 North Carolina 60-85 = -14 points
Penn State lost to #22 Wisconsin 52-71 = -15 points
Cal State Bakersfield lost to #7 Gonzaga 54-89 = -16 points
Georgia lost to #3 Tennessee 50-96 = -23 points
Santa Clara lost to #7 Gonzaga 48-91 = -24 points

Comment: Kansas and Nevada-Reno went down hard and produced two of the five highest point totals for a game this season. Duke was +58 vs. Kentucky and Michigan +45 vs. Villanova. But Iowa State and New Mexico aren’t Duke and Michigan so those two results were shockers. The Virginia result didn’t surprise me but the St. John’s score did. I didn’t realize how good a season St. John’s is having (14-1).

Sunday February 24th: Michigan State at Michigan Saturday March 9th: Michigan at Michigan State.

THE TOP 25

Duke +128 points
Michigan +119 points
Michigan State +100 points
Marquette +88 points
North Carolina +62 points

Kansas +64 points
Arizona State +59 points
New Mexico +47 points
Tennessee +46 points
Virginia +45 points

Gonzaga +44 points
Auburn +42 points
Indiana +40 points
Purdue +36 points
Wisconsin +33 points

Iowa State +32 points
St. John’s +30 points
Louisville +28 points
Florida State +27 points
Furman +26 points

North Carolina State +26 points
Oregon +26 points
Connecticut +25 points
Louisiana State +25 points
Vanderbilt +24 points

Syracuse has +18 points

The worst total so far is Tennessee Tech with -104 points