Bear Down Wildcats

Latest bracketology: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology" target="_blank

Three seed for us. Eight Pac 12 teams in the field right now. Stanford on the bubble as well. And ASU looking more and more like an NIT team.

And Miller hauling in 5-star recruits. Damn, things can sure change fast in just one short week.

I'd gladly take Nova and WVA. How about a second round matchup with Shaka?

Up to 12 in the AP.

Hope we can make tournament. Gosh.

Gonna be sweating it out on Selection Sunday.

Have this strange feeling that it might be CSM's year to reach the FF. He's been knocking on the door for years, and sometimes it happens when you least expect it. Or at least when you expect it less than in years when we were heavy favorites.

I love that we have so many seniors playing key roles, and I love that CSM is going to his bench more.

I also don't see any teams out there that look unbeatable. Would prefer to avoid Oklahoma, MSU, and UNC.

11 in the coaches. USC(21/25)

84Cat wrote:11 in the coaches. USC(21/25)

In both polls, we're probably going to rise and fall in the 10-20 range this season. I definitely expect some more conference losses but also some good RPI wins over UCLA, USC, Cal, and Oregon. Only way we set up permanent camp in the top 10 this year is if we roll off 5+ wins in a row, and looking at our schedule, not sure that's gonna happen.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... 25-and-one" target="_blank

...and CBS has the Cats way down at #22

UAdevil wrote:http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... 25-and-one

...and CBS has the Cats way down at #22

Well, at least they're giving USC their due.

carolinacat wrote:Latest bracketology: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology" target="_blank

Three seed for us. Eight Pac 12 teams in the field right now. Stanford on the bubble as well. And ASU looking more and more like an NIT team.

And Miller hauling in 5-star recruits. Damn, things can sure change fast in just one short week.

This is my dream bracket. Nova as the 1 seed, WVU as the 2 seed, and Duke as the 4 seed? That would be fantastic

Beachcat97 wrote:Have this strange feeling that it might be CSM's year to reach the FF. He's been knocking on the door for years, and sometimes it happens when you least expect it. Or at least when you expect it less than in years when we were heavy favorites.

I love that we have so many seniors playing key roles, and I love that CSM is going to his bench more.

I also don't see any teams out there that look unbeatable. Would prefer to avoid Oklahoma, MSU, and UNC.

I'm fine seeing MSU. Just don't think they're that good. Valentine is really good, and would be a nightmare matchup for sure, but Oklahoma, UNC, Maryland, and Kansas are all teams I'd be much more worried about.

gumby wrote:Hope we can make tournament. Gosh.

It's looking more and more like we'll be on the outside looking in. I mean, with Trier out we're probably going to lose the next 4 games, then getting him back will disrupt the team and we'll probably lose the next 4 after that. It's what all signs are pointing to, based on what Hater thinks and he is always spot on with his predictions.

On a side note, I have been lobbying hard for Ray to put me in his will. Figured since he's gonna die in the coming weeks I might get a few sweet pairs of kicks outta the whole deal!

dcZONAfan wrote:

Beachcat97 wrote:Have this strange feeling that it might be CSM's year to reach the FF. He's been knocking on the door for years, and sometimes it happens when you least expect it. Or at least when you expect it less than in years when we were heavy favorites.

I love that we have so many seniors playing key roles, and I love that CSM is going to his bench more.

I also don't see any teams out there that look unbeatable. Would prefer to avoid Oklahoma, MSU, and UNC.

I'm fine seeing MSU. Just don't think they're that good. Valentine is really good, and would be a nightmare matchup for sure, but Oklahoma, UNC, Maryland, and Kansas are all teams I'd be much more worried about.

I never wanna see Izzo in the tourney. We got by them in '01, but Izzo's track record in March speaks for itself. It's far better than Roy's or Self's.

Aside from yesterday's win at the Kohl Center of Sparty, anyone else enjoying Wisconsin's fall to mediocrity this season? If they're lucky they'll be an NIT team.

RPI still a mess. Oregon at #8 and CU at #24 while we are at #28. I know things will level out soon but it still seems way high for those 2 teams

dcZONAfan wrote: I'm fine seeing MSU. Just don't think they're that good. Valentine is really good, and would be a nightmare matchup for sure, but Oklahoma, UNC, Maryland, and Kansas are all teams I'd be much more worried about.

How many "they aren't that good" MSU state teams have gone to final fours though? LOL.. I agree, they aren't outstanding, but really, nobody is. Rather take my chances with a few other top 5 teams. On a good night and healthy I will take us on a neutral floor against anybody. This is going to be a wild NCAA tournament.

rgdeuce wrote:

dcZONAfan wrote: I'm fine seeing MSU. Just don't think they're that good. Valentine is really good, and would be a nightmare matchup for sure, but Oklahoma, UNC, Maryland, and Kansas are all teams I'd be much more worried about.

How many "they aren't that good" MSU state teams have gone to final fours though? LOL.. I agree, they aren't outstanding, but really, nobody is. Rather take my chances with a few other top 5 teams. On a good night and healthy I will take us on a neutral floor against anybody. This is going to be a wild NCAA tournament.

Yea, you're definitely right about that. I guess sometimes I forget to think about the coach when analyzing matchups, but that is one of the few where we don't have any advantage

If they're healthy, I'm picking MSU to reach the FF.

UAdevil wrote:http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... 25-and-one

...and CBS has the Cats way down at #22

CBS writers for the most part are a bunch of hacks who aren't good enough for jobs w ESPN and SI, so they try way too hard to be smarter than the next man and go against the grain on purpose. Parrish and Prisco specifically write with their hearts instead of their brains and let personal "dislike" of players or teams affect their work too.

rgdeuce wrote:

UAdevil wrote:http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... 25-and-one

...and CBS has the Cats way down at #22

CBS writers for the most part are a bunch of hacks who aren't good enough for jobs w ESPN and SI, so they try way too hard to be smarter than the next man and go against the grain on purpose. Parrish and Prisco specifically write with their hearts instead of their brains and let personal "dislike" of players or teams affect their work too.

*eyeballs ESPN's "Power Rankings"*

Damning P&P with faint praise I see. . . (The churn at the No. 1 position has caused a lot of inchoate takes from the experts. . . )

I think the majority of them are idiots anyways, some are just idiots without that prestigious ESPN/SI badge.

Kansas loses 2 out 3, one to unranked OK St, and stays at 10, while UA is still out of the top 20 after 2 dominating performances?


Oklahoma (15-2)
North Carolina (16-2)
Villanova (16-2)
West Virginia (15-2)
Iowa (14-3)
Maryland (17-2)
SMU (18-0)
Texas A&M (16-2)
Michigan State (16-3)
Kansas (15-3)
Xavier (16-2)
Virginia (14-4)
Baylor (14-3)
Iowa State (14-4)
Providence (16-3)
Miami (13-3)
Butler (13-5)
Purdue (16-3)
Louisville (14-3)
USC (15-3)
Arizona (15-3)
South Carolina (17-1)
Indiana (16-3)
Notre Dame (12-5)
Wichita State (12-5)
Dayton (15-3)
In: Dayton
Out: Pittsburgh

Two rules about rankings:

1) Your team is always ranked higher in the Coaches USA Today Poll than the AP Poll.
2) Nobody cares about Gary Parrish's poll.

Duke 12th in USAT 20th in AP

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings" target="_blank

Down to 18 in AP, 15 in Coaches.

Jefe wrote:Duke 12th in USAT 20th in AP

Duke still ranked in both polls. Guess the win at 11-9/1-6 NC State on the road was impressive enough to keep them ranked. Have they beaten any teams that will make the tournament? That loss to Utah....yea, Utah has lost to teams that should all make the tournament, minus Stanford on the road. Barely getting any votes in both polls. Arizona with a 1 point loss on the road drops 6 spots in the AP poll. Oh well

Welcome to college basketball rankings where everything's made up and the points dont matter!

SMU is an interesting one. Ranked as high as 8 and as low as 24 all season and not once have they been in the Coaches Top 25

Jefe wrote:SMU is an interesting one. Ranked as high as 8 and as low as 24 all season and not once have they been in the Coaches Top 25

Ineligible? Can't play in the post season.

^ yep. exactly why.

Pollsters are hilarious. Beat a bubble tournament team by double digits on the road, lose by 1 on the road to a projected tournament team, drop six spots in the polls.

Kansas loses again. Probably move up to #2 in the polls because, you know, tough road game!

Polls really are giving the Pac the shaft this year. Probably a holdover from prior recent years when we were weaker and didn't deserve many teams in the Top 25.

And, this is another one of those years where we beat each other up (probably no-one ending up with fewer than 5 conference losses) which interestingly we are seeing happen this year in most of the other Big 5 conferences. Except as usual we're getting "punished" for this while the others are not.

UAtrue wrote:Polls really are giving the Pac the shaft this year. Probably a holdover from prior recent years when we were weaker and didn't deserve many teams in the Top 25.

And, this is another one of those years where we beat each other up (probably no-one ending up with fewer than 5 conference losses) which interestingly we are seeing happen this year in most of the other Big 5 conferences. Except as usual we're getting "punished" for this while the others are not.

You know, UA, I feel you, I really do. But let's face the facts: the Pac has not won a national championship since '97, nearly 20 years ago. Only one team from our league has gotten to the FF in the past decade. I know these polls aren't supposed to be based on history, only the current season, but it's really the only way to explain Duke still being ranked. History matters in the polls.

Not like the Cats are Duke.

Unless we demolish Oregon state and a few teams around us lose, we'll be unranked for the first time since when? 2013?

Oregon is 9-0 against RPI top 50 and a top 25 team themselves. I doubt we drop out of the top 25 for this but we will see

Sweaty Gary Parrish moved us out of his top 26...

ASUHATER! wrote:Unless we demolish Oregon state and a few teams around us lose, we'll be unranked for the first time since when? 2013?

It will be close. Oregon is an underrated team, and I could see us dropping to their slot in the 22-25 range. That presumes we beat OSU by a decent margin.

I don't even care about streaks. Didn't even remotely care about the 49 home winning streak. It's just another target on Arizona's back since the announcers won't shut up about it, and the UA doesn't need any more targets.

However, I will say the 71 home game streak lost to UCLA did hurt.

Chicat wrote:Sweaty Gary Parrish moved us out of his top 26...

At least Duke is out too.

Well we have a chance of being ranked still. Losses this week:

#24 lost @ #15
#4 lost @ #14
#19 lost on the road to an unranked team
#10 lost at home to #7
#5 lost on the road to an unranked team
#3 lost @ #8
#9 lost on the road to an unranked team
#16 lost at home to #11
#14 lost at home to #5
#15 lost on the road to an unranked team
#20 lost @ #4

I don't care about the polls. Just win two games this week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I guess the streak is cool, but if we lose either game this week, I'll be more concerned about our place in the Pac standings than this streak.

#23 is fair. We took Oregon's spot and they jumped.

Both road games are winnable, but unfortunately we haven't been winning the winnable ones lately.

Beachcat97 wrote:I don't care about the polls.

Weird to be in the thread then. Maybe you care just a smidge?

Spaceman Spiff wrote:#23 is fair. We took Oregon's spot and they jumped.

Both road games are winnable, but unfortunately we haven't been winning the winnable ones lately.

Sorta think OR could beat several of the teams ranked ahead of them.

23 is more than fair and where I thought we would be. Beach, if we stay in the top 25 that means we are winning, lol.

Beachcat97 wrote:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:#23 is fair. We took Oregon's spot and they jumped.

Both road games are winnable, but unfortunately we haven't been winning the winnable ones lately.

Sorta think OR could beat several of the teams ranked ahead of them.

Me too. Us staying in the top 25 is a tacit admission that Oregon was probably better than their ranking.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

Beachcat97 wrote:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:#23 is fair. We took Oregon's spot and they jumped.

Both road games are winnable, but unfortunately we haven't been winning the winnable ones lately.

Sorta think OR could beat several of the teams ranked ahead of them.

Me too. Us staying in the top 25 is a tacit admission that Oregon was probably better than their ranking.

I disagree. We fell more spots than Indiana who lost to Wisconsin and barely beat an AWFUL Minnesota team. One loss should not drop a team solidly in the top 25 more than 5 spots. Especially a loss to a good team