11-27-2018, 11:09 AM | #11 |
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I'm a huge fan of Silver's. I just finished his book, which is excellent. But I think he has the wrong idea here. The NET rankings are only meant to be definitive at the end of the season. They aren't like Kenpom, which is supposed to be as accurate as possible even right now. So judging rankings in November based on how good teams really are kind of misses the point. Similarly, no one would have used RPI in November as a legitimate ranking.
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11-27-2018, 12:32 PM | #12 |
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I'll add a more philosophical take. Silver and many others are complaining that NET is not as good as power rankings systems like those used in professional sports, or Kenpom and Massey in college basketball. This is true. Those systems will be better at forecasting what teams are better than others at any given moment. But a key difference is power ranking systems are NOT used to determine postseason qualification. So while they may be more accurate, there is nothing to be gained by achieving a better power ranking compared to actual record.
Competitive sports must maintain the idea that winning is the ultimate goal. Power rankings can help us to predict who will win, but the goal should always be winning in itself. Power rankings and Kenpom place no emphasis on actual wins. Winning by 10 points instead of 12 is the same as losing by 1 instead of winning by 1 (assuming pace and opponent are equal). If we're going to maintain the integrity of sports, winning by 1 must be proportionally more important than an extra 1 pt margin. NET is a good compromise of placing emphasis on both winning (like the RPI) and on efficiency (like Kenpom). When people are disparaging the November NET rankings by saying "well Radford isn't that good because they lost to Duquesne", they are using a preconceived notion of how good Duquesne is. And based off of their record in past seasons, they're probably right. But NET only looks at this year's games. Duquesne is 4-1 with their only loss at Notre Dame (who's only loss is to Radford). They will probably end up being around average, but right now they have a strong record. When evaluating NET, it's important to view it as if you've never followed basketball at all - that you didn't have any idea whether Duke should be better than Radford. That's how NET sees the season, which is very different from power rankings. |
11-27-2018, 02:25 PM | #13 | |
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Quote:
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11-27-2018, 03:14 PM | #14 |
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Yes, it should be interesting. They're still using the quadrant system, so our opponents' NET rankings will be more important than our own. I hope to track the games of our potential Quadrant 1 and 2 opponents again later in the season.
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11-27-2018, 04:17 PM | #15 |
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I have a feeling we are going to need some help with the quadrants. I don't see a lot of high end quality but hopefully we can squeak a few teams in quad 1 and 2.
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11-28-2018, 09:11 AM | #16 |
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Here's a preview of our potential Quadrant 1 and 2 games using Kenpom rankings.
Quadrant 1 Ohio St @ Miss St @ Houston @ UCF Quadrant 2 Ole Miss @ UNLV Xavier UCLA @ Tulsa @ Wichita St @ Temple @ Memphis UCF @ UConn @ SMU Houston That's 4 Q1 games and 12 Q2 games. Last year we played 9 Q1 games and 8 Q2 games. Temple, Wichita St, UConn and SMU are all between 80 and 87. If any of them end up in the top 75, it gives us another Quadrant 1 game. |
11-28-2018, 09:29 AM | #17 | |
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Thanks for the breakdown |
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12-03-2018, 10:18 AM | #18 |
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This week's rankings are out. Top 75 teams on our schedule:
20. Ohio St 28. Houston 32. Miss St 41. Cincinnati 42. UCLA 51. UConn 62. Xavier 64. UCF 71. Ole Miss 72. Temple |
12-03-2018, 11:18 AM | #19 |
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Surprised that Temple can be 7-1 with wins against Georgia as well as @St. Joe's and @Mizzou and still be ranked so low.
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12-03-2018, 11:50 AM | #20 |
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Those 3 teams are a combined 12-10. The rest of Temple's wins are over teams with losing records. Hopefully they can stay within 10 at Villanova.
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