Think overrated…
Does Wichita State really deserve to be ranked 2nd in college basketball?
No way, says sports scribe Craig Glazer of Stanford & Sons fame.
Not with a schedule as soft as the one the Shockers have played this season.
“They don’t play the schedule that Kansas or Michigan State plays,” Glazer says. “I think they’re a pretty good team, but no way they’re the second best team in the nation. I think it would be more fair to put them toward the bottom of the top 10.”
Not that they’re not any good…
“I don’t think they’re so much a poser because they got to the Final Four last year,” Glazer says, “but they haven’t beaten a team this year that you would think has a chance to be in the Elite Eight, let alone the Final Four.
“I mean, there’s no Florida, no Michigan State, no Syracuse, no Duke – not even a Kansas State or Oklahoma State. If Wichita State played in the Big 12 they would have lost five or six games by now and been ranked 17th or 18th probably – 12th at best.”
Given the quirky nature of sports polling, stuff like this can happen.
“A good example is our Kansas City Chiefs,” Glazer says. “They were 9-0 and undefeated and were (power) ranked as the best team in the NFL. That’s what happens when you don’t play anybody.
“Another example is two years ago Notre Dame was undefeated with a really soft schedule and they got to play Alabama and got their asses handed to them.
“Wichita State’s a good team, but nobody really knows how good because they haven’t played anybody. They’re definitely not a Top 5 team, they’re a Cinderella. But I still look for them to win at least three rounds and be in the Elite 8 this year, which is damn good.”
A feat that would put them in the…Top 16.
Pre-tournament rankings in college basketball don’t mean shit anyway besides for bragging purposes as they really don’t even have any impact on seeding so even with an undefeated season and a #2 ranking, WSU is still no lock for a 1-seed. Yes, their schedule has been soft, but they worked their way into this spot by continuing to win while others lost so yes, they do deserve it. Besides, I don’t care what league they’re in, anytime a team can run the table in D-1 basketball, it’s one helluva an accomplishment as you have to bring it every single night. If it wasn’t that big of a deal, more teams in situations similar to WSU would do it and yet there has been only THREE teams in 35 years to get this far w/o a blemish.
WU SHOCK!!!!
Anyone that at least barely follows college basketball knows that rankings are 100% completely meaningless. The committee has said over and over and over again that they do not look at them at all.
glaze…thought you have given up sports…
Wichita state in rpi is like 10th….that takes into account
sos and other things that the paper polls don’t.
have you seen these guys play….they are great!!!!
and made it to final four last year (better than ku/mu/kstate etc)….
just like res said…rankings are secondary….they look at a dozen
factors which glaze doesn’t even know about.
how many people do I need to educated about these things on kcc?
I’m getting tired!!!!!!
Wrong. RPI and strength of schedule are 2 completely different things, H-Man. Yes, WSU has an RPI of around 10 or 11. But, their SOS isn’t even in the top 100. It’s running around 110 or 112. Additionally, their conference RPI isn’t even in the top 10. This is due to the fact that they have only played one team (St Louis) that is even going to make the tournament. I take nothing away from WSU. They are a damn good team and running the table in any D1 conference is a helluva accomplishment!
I dunno. It’s hard to ignore one of last year’s Final Four teams with an undefeated record. Still, I wonder how the Shocks will do when they start playing *boys’* teams.
Teams like Gonzaga and Wichita State rise in the polls due to nostalgia; coaches and journalists remember when teams like this were the rule rather than the (weak sister) exception and vote ’em up. It takes them back to a time before multimillion dollar salaried coaches, NCAA violations-as-the-norm, and players as four year franchise investments that refuse either coaching or discipline.
You know…when it was just a game, not a racket.
Plus…Vegas likes them as they thow the lines out of whack.
Hearne, it’s Chinatown.