HHS Top 25: Starting From Scratch
In last week’s HHS Top 25, I may or may not have said that things were “quiet… too quiet…” in the upper half of our rankings, and that we were bound for some sort of shakeup. I never would have predicted that Feast Week would get this chaotic.
Given all the craziness this week, and the fact that teams are beginning to separate themselves, I have decided to start from scratch with an entirely new ranking. This is to move past any preseason expectations that may have been affecting how I viewed each team to focus on each team’s resume.
Here’s the rundown after last week — №1 Oregon and №2 Baylor lost, each dropping four spots … five new teams joined the ranking, including three mid-majors … just one team, №7 Maryland, remained in the same spot … 21 of the 25 teams moved two or more spots in the ranking.
Below is the ballot that we submitted to the Sport Tours International/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll for Week 4, which included games played from Tuesday, November 26 through Monday, December 2. Movement up or down from our Week 3 ballot is denoted in parentheses.
1. Stanford (↑2)
2. Louisville (↑3)
3. Oregon State (↑1)
4. South Carolina (↑2)
5. Oregon (↓4)
6. Baylor (↓4)
7. Maryland
8. Florida State (↑5)
9. UConn (↓1)
10. Texas A&M (↓1)
11. Indiana (↑13)
12. Mississippi State (↓2)
13. UCLA (↓2)
14. Tennessee (↑3)
15. Michigan State (↑4)
16. N.C. State (↓4)
17. Missouri State (↑3)
18. Kentucky (↓4)
19. Arizona (↑6)
20. DePaul (↓5)
21. Gonzaga (NR)
22. South Dakota (NR)
23. Purdue (NR)
24. FGCU (NR)
25. LSU (NR)
Dropped Out: Arizona State (16), Miami (18), Minnesota (21), Drake (22), Notre Dame (23)
Also Considered: Arizona State, Michigan, Minnesota
Oregon and Baylor both losing complicated this week’s ranking, because it meant the top half of the ranking had to be significantly rearranged for the first time all season. As Mechelle Voepel put it, “It was a bit like trying to untangle a string of lights.” Instead of working out how to untangle the string, I simply bought a new one.
Five teams dropped out, including Arizona State and Miami (FL) who fell from Nos. 16 and 18, respectively. These two teams dropped out due to a reassessment of their resumes when I started the ranking from scratch. As the season has progressed I have started to look for quality wins, and neither Arizona State nor Miami has one. There are too many one and two-loss teams with far better wins to keep teams like the Sun Devils or Hurricanes in the ranking.
With five teams dropping out of the ranking, this opened up five spots for new teams to jump in. A trio of mid-major powers — Gonzaga, South Dakota, and Florida Gulf Coast — make their debuts after very strong performances in their Thanksgiving tournaments. Gonzaga won a very good Gulf Coast Showcase that included a win over newly-ranked Purdue in the championship game, and FGCU knocked off a trio of very good teams in the Cancun Challenge which was capped off with a last-second game-winner against South Dakota State.
Purdue and LSU also joined the ranking after strong weekends of their own. LSU went 2–0 with a win over №15 Michigan State, while Purdue finished as the runner-up to Gonzaga in the Gulf Coast Showcase after dominating performances over Drake and Arizona State.
How do you think we did with our ballot? Who did we miss? Who’s too high? Too low? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@herhoopstats), and keep an eye out for our rankings on the Hoopfeed website throughout the season.
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