HHS Top 25: A Happy Thanksgiving for Newcomers Drake and Minnesota
Every year, several women’s basketball teams enjoy nontraditional Thanksgiving celebrations as they spend their holiday playing in neutral-site tournaments. These tournaments simulate what’s to come in the postseason and often give fans some marquee early-season matchups. This year, tournaments like the Vancouver Showcase and the Cancun Challenge featured multiple elite teams and scrambled the top-25 rankings.
Here is the ballot that we submitted to the Sport Tours International (STI)/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll for Week 3, which covered games played from Tuesday, November 20 through Monday, November 26. Movement up or down from our Week 2 ballot is denoted in parentheses.
1. Notre Dame
2. UConn
3. Louisville
4. Oregon
5. Mississippi State
6. Baylor
7. Oregon State (↑1)
8. Stanford (↓1)
9. Maryland
10. Tennessee
11. Texas (↑1)
12. Syracuse (↑4)
13. North Carolina State (↑2)
14. South Carolina (↓3)
15. DePaul (↓1)
16. Iowa (↓3)
17. Drake (NR)
18. Missouri (↓1)
19. Marquette (↑1)
20. Texas A&M (↑1)
21. Arizona State (↑1)
22. Minnesota (NR)
23. California (↑2)
24. West Virginia (↓1)
25. Miami (FL) (↓1)
Dropped out: South Florida, Georgia
The Hoopfeed poll had the same top ten teams as we did on our ballot, albeit in a slightly different order. Looking farther down the Hoopfeed poll, though, there were some teams that we seemed to evaluate differently from many of the other voters.
We wrote last week that Drake might move into the top 25 if it had a strong showing in the Vancouver Showcase over Thanksgiving. That’s exactly what happened: Drake beat Rutgers and South Carolina (and lost to Notre Dame, but there’s no shame in that), which improved their record to 6–1 with three wins against Power 5 teams already this season. This week, we ranked Drake No. 17, and the Hoopfeed poll welcomed the Bulldogs at No. 23.
Going from unranked to No. 17 in one week may seem like a huge jump, but when we compared Drake against the teams we ranked below them, we thought that Drake’s results against quality opponents were better than what any of those other teams had so far. Take our No. 20 team, Texas A&M: like the Bulldogs, the Aggies have only one loss against a quality opponent (in the Aggies’ case, that was Syracuse). But Texas A&M has only four wins to Drake’s six, and none are against Power 5 teams.
We also debated how high to rank California and Minnesota, two undefeated teams in the bottom part of our ballot. Cal is 6–0 with one Power 5 win (at Penn State) while Minnesota is 5–0 with no Power 5 wins. Contrast those teams with a team like Arizona State, which is 3–2 with a win over Arkansas and losses to Baylor and Louisville by a combined eight points. Certainly, wins are important, and we gave some credit for being undefeated by including Minnesota in our top 25 for the first time at No. 22 and bumping California up two spots to No. 23. The Hoopfeed poll ranked them Nos. 20 and 15, respectively, and ranked Arizona State No. 19 compared to our ranking of No. 21. We ranked two-loss Arizona State above two undefeated teams because we considered ASU’s close losses to elite teams to be better performances than any of Cal’s or Minnesota’s wins over unranked opponents.
Finally, our top 25 retained two teams that the Hoopfeed poll did not and gave South Carolina a bit more benefit of the doubt, ranking the Gamecocks at No. 14 compared to No. 18 in the Hoopfeed poll. We kept Missouri (No. 18) and West Virginia (No. 24) on our ballot, while the Hoopfeed poll left them both off in favor of Kentucky and Iowa State at Nos. 24 and 25. Last week, Missouri lost to Michigan, but the Tigers also got a pair of solid wins over Quinnipiac, which made the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament, and Duke, which was ranked in the preseason this year. West Virginia and South Carolina also lost last week, but between the two teams, their four losses this season have been to Iowa, Maryland, Oregon State, and Drake — all top 25 teams and all tough matchups for any opponent. We don’t think Tigers, Mountaineers, or Gamecocks fans should panic just yet.
Next week’s rankings should be interesting in the wake of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge earlier this week and three top-25 matchups on Sunday, December 2. The headliner is No. 1 Notre Dame taking on No. 2 UConn on Sunday at 4pm ET — don’t miss that game on ESPN2. Let us know how you think our Week 4 ballot should shake out in the comments section below or on Twitter (@herhoopstats), and keep an eye out for our rankings on the Hoopfeed website throughout the season.
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