Hoops 12/15-12/21

[abpk2903]

Sorry crimson, I wasn't trying to start an argument. I just was unsure of how these rankings are compiled. My eyeballs just don't have me believing Pitt is that much better than Penn State.

My guess is at a neutral site Pitt would win by a couple of baskets. These rankings seem to think otherwise.

[El-Moldo]

Jeff Sagarin has been rating college basketball for USA Today since 1985. As of December 14th, he has Pitt ranked at 94th, with a strength of schedule at 175th in the nation. He has Penn state ranked at 101, with a SOS at 287th.

[PLDragons24]

Moldo can you please explain to me how GW is ranked over 50 spots higher than Penn State according Sagarin after Penn State beat them very convincingly? It just doesn't seem very accurate to me.

[El-Moldo]

Michigan beat Syracuse, so why is Syracuse ranked higher??? Should NJIT be ranked higher than Syracuse because they beat Michigan??? Sagarin takes EVERYTHING into consideration when he ranks his teams. It is NOT a win/loss system. Again, PSU has a strength of schedule of 287. The average ranking of Penn State's OOC opponents so far is 202. Not...too...good. Jeff Sagarin is instrumental in helping to formulate the RPI when it comes to years end. He KNOWS what he's talking about. He's been doing this for almost 30 years. I'm sure the sportswriters know more than he does, right?

[PLDragons24]

You can talk about strength of scedule all you want and plug in all the stats in the world, but all you have to do is sit down and watch the game and it will show you who the better team was and it wasn't even close.

[El-Moldo]

Like I said, should NJIT be ranked higher than Michigan? And NJIT even won AT Michigan, whereas PSU played GW at home. Obviously you don't understand how rankings work. I'll guarantee you, if Pitt beats Duke this year, they will NOT be ranked higher than them. Period!!

[konjo78]

Moldo has excellent points. Sagarin rankings are probably the most respected outside of AP and coaches poll

[Crimson's Ghost]

I've never heard of the Sagarin rankings until El Moldo started referencing them.

But either way, college basketball has like 350 teams. There's no way sports writers, coaches, and members of the media know all of them and know what they did on a week to week basis. Nor do they care. They rank the top 25, that's about it. Things like Kenpom and Sagarin help analyze the other 325 teams more accurately.


I have no idea what Sagarin uses in his metrics, I've found Kenpom to be credible and more popular, and it seems it uses a more modern formula.

It's funny, nobody likes the RPI anymore but the selection committee still uses it apparently. Even ESPN came up with their own metric ranking called the "BPI" which is a little different than RPI.

[PLDragons24]

Moldo there is no computer rankings system in the world that take "EVERYTHING" into consideration. There is no way any computer can calculate human characteristics and the human factor. They can not calculate leadership, attitude, composure, and many other things that go into being a good team. All they can calculate is the numbers. A great example is Florida States football team. Sagarin has them ranked 15th simply because they didn't play the strongest schedule out there and that they didn't put up numbers that jump off the page, yet they may very well go undefeated and win the national championship and be crowned the best team in the country. Computers and stats can't calculate everything.

[El-Moldo]

So you trust the opinion of a sportswriter like Paul Zeise, who knows NOTHING about most of the 350 or so NCAA Division I college basketball teams. At least Sagarin has an educated opinion about Penn State playing Morgan State at home.