Top 25 News and Notes–Week 9
Jan
2007
Unbeaten Amherst becomes the fourth team to top the men’s poll this season, moving to the #1 spot for just the second time in D3Hoops.com poll history. Despite being the lone undefeated team in D3, Amherst still hasn’t convinced seven of the voters, as #1 votes were spread among four teams, including last week’s top team, UW-Stevens Point. Amherst puts their top ranking on the line Tuesday as they face 16-2 Rhode Island College in Providence.
The women’s poll also has a new #1 team, as Messiah advances to the top rung of the ladder for the first time since early (week 1) in the 2001-02 season. The Falcons leapfrogged the #2 Polar Bears, an action almost as rare in polling as it is in nature. Messiah grabbed 10 first-place votes to Bowdoin’s 9, helping them to a slim 4-point advantage atop the chart.
The members of University Athletic Association are well-accustomed to receiving the respect of their peers, as they are eight of the most highly-regarded research universities in the world. However, the well-worn adage “all work and no play makes Jack a dull Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist” certainly applies on the UAA campuses, where this week you’ll find eight top-25 basketball teams and two others in the “receiving votes” category. In St. Louis, both sleuths of Bears received first-place votes in this week’s polls. The Washington U. men’s team moved up to #7 this week, while the women’s team rejoined the top 25 at #11, putting an end to an 8-week streak of being unranked, something the Bears had never experienced before this season. Conference rivals Chicago (women #13, men #19) and NYU (women #18, men #25) also have both programs ranked this week, while the basketball teams at Rochester and Brandeis feature rankings for the women (#7 and #19, respectively) and voting support for the men.
Debutantes:
Women: #25 Norwich enters the top 25 for the first time ever this week. The Cadets are 16-1, with their only loss at the hands of #2 Bowdoin, and are tied (in the loss column) atop the GNAC standings with #20 Emmanuel.
Men: The Hood College Blazers, winners of nine straight games, received votes for the first time in this week’s poll. The Blazers are 16-3 and hold a hearty three-game lead in the CAC.
Congratulations to the Cadets and Blazers!
Streakers:
Being the 10th poll of the season (preseason included), this is a big category this week.
Women: #8 DePauw is in the top 10 for the 20th straight week. Ninth-ranked Hope and #22 Baldwin-Wallace are each ranked for the 25th consecutive week; for #3 Calvin, this is the 10th straight ranked week. #19 Brandeis has now received votes in 50 consecutive polls. For #4 Southern Maine, the voting streak stands at 90 weeks, and Williams has been mentioned 25 weeks in a row. Among those receiving votes in 10 straight polls are #13 Chicago, #15 Wilmington, #18 NYU, #20 Emmanuel, and UW-Stevens Point.
Men: Sixth-ranked St. Thomas is a top 10 team for the tenth straight week. #4 Mississippi College is ranked for the 20th consecutive week; for #3 UW-Stevens Point and #14 Ohio Northern, the consecutive ranking streak stands at 10 weeks. #21 Puget Sound received voting support for the 50th consecutive week. #9 Hope and #10 Augustana each have been among the vote-getters for 25 straight polls. Teams that have appeared in ten consecutive voting lists include #3 UW-Stevens Point, #5 UW-Oshkosh, #11 Wash. U., #16 Aurora, #19 Chicago, #20 Johns Hopkins, #23 Bates, and unranked teams Rhode Island College, Wheaton (IL), and Rochester.
Milestones:
Women: Williams received votes in the poll, marking their 50th appearance on the voting list. UW-Stevens Point has received votes 90 times, Capital 80 times, and Hendrix 40 times. Seventh-ranked Rochester is a top 10 team for the 30th week. #16 Hardin-Simmons is ranked for the 110th time; #2 Bowdoin and #8 DePauw are ranked for the 90th time each; and #12 McMurry is in the top 25 for the 30th time.
Men: Second-ranked Wooster is in the top 25 for the 110th time, a record for the men’s poll. #19 Chicago is to be found in their 30th poll, and #20 Johns Hopkins is a ranked team for the 20th time. #14 Ohio Northern received votes for the 60th time. Lincoln and North Central are vote-getters for the 25th time, and Rhode Island College is in the voting for the 10th time.
High-Water Marks:
Women: Third-ranked Calvin, #14 Illinois Wesleyan, and debutante #25 Norwich are all at their highest-ever ranking this week. #6 Howard Payne tied their highest-ever ranking, set last week, snapping an eight-week string of new highs. #13 Chicago fell nine spots in the poll, ending their string of highest-ever rankings at seven consecutive weeks.
Men: #4 Mississippi College cracked the top 5 this week for the first time ever, and was joined in the high-water mark category by #16 Aurora.
Movers and Shakers:
Women: The biggest splash by far was made by Washington U., which beat two top-15 teams and soared from out of the poll to #11, gaining 326 points. This is the largest regular season single-week jump in the history of the poll, besting Muhlenberg’s 263-point gain in Week 6 of the 2001-02 season. #13 Chicago was defeated at home by both Wash U. and #18 NYU and tumbled 219 points and nine placements, the week’s largest drop.
Men: #21 Puget Sound also dropped two conference games, and as a consequence dropped eight places and 221 points. NWC rival #13 Whitworth also lost a conference game and shed 123 points and six places. The largest upward moves were made by Chicago, gaining 110 points and leaping into the poll at #19, eleventh-ranked Wittenberg (+99 points and 5 places), and #5 UW-Oshkosh (+94 points and 3 places.)
January 29th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Nice work as always.
Good analysis and little kernels of humor for the careful reader.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Chris Brooks, the Mississippi College SID, and I believe that the #4 ranking by the Choctaws ties the highest-ever ranking by an ASC Men’s team. In week #13 of 2000, McMurry also rose to #4. They finished #6, having made the Elite 8.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
That’s correct, Ralph and Chris. McMurry was #4 for two weeks in that first year of the men’s poll (weeks 12 and 13), and Mississippi College has now matched that conference high-water mark. The not-Indians and still-Choctaws are the only ASC teams to appear in the top 10 in the 8 years of the D3Hoops.com men’s poll.
Gordon: “little kernels?” Harumph!
January 29th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
From the “Tales of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing” category, women’s #5 Scranton had 469 vote-points this week, making the Royals the third D3 team to top the lifetime 50,000 point mark (now at 50,221.) The others each hold significant (albeit trivial and meaningless) distinctions:
* Wash. U.’s women have 59,679 points. Add to that the men’s total of 24,470 (9th among the men), and you get 84,149, far and away the highest point total for a school.
* Wooster’s men have 52,143. Add to that the women’s total and, well, you still have 52,143. Wooster therefore has D3’s biggest point disparity between the men’s and women’s teams.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I don’t know how many of those who vote in the polls have seen Wash U’s women play. They are getting better as the season progresses, and may now merit a spot in the top 25, but I’d have to say that Rochester and NYU, whom Wash U recently defeated, were both overrated at their prior rankings and Wash U’s huge leap to #11 is too much, too soon. If they can run the table the rest of the way in the UAA, and some of the others in the polls falter, then such a lofty ranking might be in order.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
A 20 point defeat of the #1 team in the country doesn’t mean a thing to at least ONE voter in the Top 25 poll? Legitimate? I don’t think so…
January 29th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I guess Scranton women get alot of respect, lose to an unranked team by 20 points and only slip to fifth? maybe to much respect.
January 30th, 2007 at 12:37 am
I was going to vote for MSM but I couldn’t find room for King’s and Manhattanville on my ballot too.
January 30th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Pat, thats a good one, but I didn’t mention anything about a vote for MSM. I wondered how Scranton only sliped to fifth and even received a first place vote?
January 30th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Someone asked on the WIAC board if the WIAC had ever had two top 5 teams at the same time before. Can you help us Dave?
January 30th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I am that someone! … I didn’t think of posting that here!! As far as I can remember, there haven’t been… Other conferences have had two top 5 teams to my recollection… Williams and Amherst, Wittenberg and Wooster… but the WIAC?
January 30th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Two men’s conference rivals in the top 5 is not as rare a feat as you might think. This is the fifth time the WIAC has accomplished the feat, the others being in the 1999-2000 season (Platteville and Eau Claire in weeks 4-6, and EC and Stevens Point in the final poll.) Other conferences that have done this include:
* NCAC: 17 times in 2000-01 (3), 2004-05 (3), 2005-06 (11)–always Wooster and Wittenberg
* ODAC: 15 times in 2002-03 (13) and 2003-04 (2)–always Hampden-Sydney and Randolph-Macon
* UAA: 12 times in 2000-01 (4), 2002-03 (7), and 2002-03 (1)–Washington, Chicago, and Rochester
* NESCAC 8 times in 2003-04–Williams and Amherst
* MIAA 3 times in 2004-05 (1) and 2005-06 (2)–Albion, Calvin, and Hope
* CCIW 3 times in 2000-01 (1) and 2001-02 (2)–Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan, and Wheaton
* NJAC 1 time in 1999-2000–Rowan and William Paterson
January 30th, 2007 at 11:24 am
There has also been a week where there were two WIAC women’s teams in the top 5: 2000-01 week 6 (Eau Claire 3, Oshkosh 5). Other women’s conferences:
* UAA: 36 times, every year except this year (so far), including every week of the 2000-01 season, involving Washington, NYU, Rochester, and Brandeis
* NESCAC: 6 times in the 2004-05 season, Bowdoin and Bates
* OAC: twice in the 2000-01 season, Baldwin-Wallace and Capital
* MACF: once in 2002-03, King’s and Scranton
January 30th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Geez Dave, it took all of 50 minutes to pull that data, type it and respond? You’re slipping.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Scranton also lost to Rochester, who happens to have just as good a record (minus one additional win). Rochester beat Scranton by 18 and yet they are ranked 2 spots BELOW Scranton. I would love to know whose hat the Top 25 gets pulled out of and just how much clout our Editor & Publisher has when it comes to those voters…
I also never knew Pat Coleman was a comedian on the side!
January 30th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
“I also never knew Pat Coleman was a comedian on the side!”
Read the posting site’s terms of service… I think they’re pretty funny…
January 30th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
hey capital beats two top fifteen teams they dont get in the top twenty five what did washington do that capital did not plus on a eight game win streak that should be nine after wedsday.
January 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Randolph Macon wins again! Thats 10 in a row. (15-3 overall) With a win over Va. Wesleyan this weekend , will they show up on the radar?
February 1st, 2007 at 7:13 am
capital wins its ninth game in a row last night
February 1st, 2007 at 11:43 pm
bball4life:
I don’t tell the voters who they should vote for. I simply provide them with a boatload of information and let them decide.
I tend to think that November games carry less and less weight as the season goes on. That was a loooooooong time ago.
Never said you did. You’re not the only commenter on the post.