#4 in RPI

[c2]

With their win, the Cats moved up to #4 onRPI. Here is the top 8 according to both kenpom.com and realtimerpi.com:

UCLA, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, North Carolina, So. Ill, Wisconsin and Memphis.

In other words, the Cats and every team to whom they have lostare ranked in the top 8. Its just a snapshot in time, but 15+ games into the season it's starting to have more and more reliability and validity.

With ESPN, CBS and SI all starting to exhibitsome Cat love,I'd say a win over Vandy and the Cats make a much larger jump than one would expect in the next set of rankings despite the wins coming against USC and Peabody. The mediais a herd and I hear a stampedecoming. Take care of Vandy andthe Cats will have to run for cover because they arenow a bogieon everybody's radar.

[Wildcatcrazy11]

c2 wrote: With their win, the Cats moved up to #4 onRPI. Here is the top 8 according to both kenpom.com and realtimerpi.com:

UCLA, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, North Carolina, So. Ill, Wisconsin and Memphis.

In other words, the Cats and every team to whom they have lostare ranked in the top 8. Its just a snapshot in time, but 15+ games into the season it's starting to have more and more reliability and validity.

With ESPN, CBS and SI all starting to exhibitsome Cat love,I'd say a win over Vandy and the Cats make a much larger jump than one would expect in the next set of rankings despite the wins coming against USC and Peabody. The mediais a herd and I hear a stampedecoming. Take care of Vandy and and the Cats will have to run for cover because they arenow a bogieon everybody's radar.




:thumbupWELL SAID

Vandy is not a bad team at all I anticipate a big jump as well with a win

[Dr. H Lecter]

Its about time.

[Will Lavender]

Also notice the Cats jumped up about 8 spots to #14 in Pomeroy's top 25.

That's a purely statistical ranking, so if you're in the top 15 in his rankings, you're doing a lot of things right.

[c2]

Will Lavender wrote: Also notice the Cats jumped up about 8 spots to #14 in Pomeroy's top 25.

That's a purely statistical ranking, so if you're in the top 15 in his rankings, you're doing a lot of things right.

Excellent point, we had been hovering between 20 and 30.

[I. Melvin]

See how good this feels to be back in the discussion?

See why we handwringers have been in high fret?

If we ever lose our taste for success, we might as well hang it up.

[Caveman Catfan]

No UF in the top 8? That calls the RPI into question, IMO.

[BamaCat86]

Caveman Catfan wrote: No UF in the top 8? That calls the RPI into question, IMO.
Florida's SOS is ranked 100+

They have played a few good teams (Kansas and Ohio State), but the others have been really, really bad.

That's what is hurting their RPI right now.

[My GYAADA]

Caveman Catfan wrote: No UF in the top 8? That calls the RPI into question, IMO.
It merely reflects the fact that 8 of their 16 victories have come against teams ranked 200 or lower. They are rapidly climbingin the RPInow that they are playing SEC caliber competition but their preconference schedule was softer than Ditka before levitra.

[Stoney Fork]

Personally I don't believe the RPI is an accurate measuring stick when it comes to ranking teams. It's probably a better indicator of strength of schedule. I realize that is an important factor, but the RPI takes into account so many other aspects such as the strength of your schedule, the schedule of the team you are playing, plus the teams they are playing and so on and so on.

Jon Scott has an excellent analysis of the RPI at his web site, it's very enlightening.

[LAcat]

I find it odd UK is #4 in RPI and barely cracks the polls at #25. What's going on?

[Stoney Fork]

LAcat wrote: I find it odd UK is #4 in RPI and barely cracks the polls at #25. What's going on?


Check out this detailed explanation of the RPI and you'll began to understand.

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/rpi.html

[c2]

LAcat wrote: I find it odd UK is #4 in RPI and barely cracks the polls at #25. What's going on?

While the writers and coaches are giving Florida credit for the wins they have over sub 200 teams, they are not equating the Cats success again teams 26 to 200 as indicative that they will do it against teams 1 to 25. Frankly,its hard to argue with their logic. UF is a defending NCreturning all 5 starters so its no stretch to assume they will play well against better competition when they face it, whereas the Cats are 1-3 against the top 25 this year. To date, the Cats have faced real goodteamsand lost, i.e. threeteams in the top 10 RPIand onein the top 25,IU and won. While IU was not perceived as a real good teamwhen the Catsplayedthem, they have gotten better and most media and coaches would probably contend that the Cats would lose to them now were the game playedanywhere but Rupp.The Cats will facethree teams in the 25-50 range after Vandy, two of whom are in the top 25. Once they do that, everyone will have a better idea of how significanttheir current RPI andSOS are. To date, their RPI and SOSreflect playingreally good teams and losing (1-3 against top 25), playing good teams and winning (12-0 against 25-200), andplaying few really bad teams (2-0 against 200-336). UF was guilty of the latter because they have 8 wins against 200-336. Their RPIis low for that reason, but it will go up as they play intheSEC and there is no reason to think they won't do well just because they played a bunch of cupcakes early on. Whether the Catswill playto their high RPI remains to be seen. Get past Vandy and win the next three and they are clearly runningwith thebig dogs andthe RPI is legit, twoof three and they probably belong somewhere in the 15-25 range, lose all three and the writers and coaches were right all along, they are a 25-50 team.The next four will reveal much, get through those with winsand they get toplay Florida to find outif theyare a NC contender.

I love the way this team plays defense and works together. Watching it develop over the year has been a real pleasure. But our offense has to become more efficient if this team is to develop in to one of the elites who gets mentioned infinal four discussions. The potential is there, but potential ishardto live up. The good thing is thatit is reasonable to think some of the intergral parts have room to improve and make this team even stronger. They have not achieved maximum capacity nordo you want to in January.

[poodoo]

To date, the Cats have faced real goodteamsand lost, i.e. threeteams in the top 10 RPIand onein the top 25,IU and won.QUOTE by c2

_________

That's why our only being ranked #25 in the AP poll and not at all in the coaches' poll, though, does not seem quite fair (even though we have not yet beaten a team ranked in the AP or coaches' poll).UK's threelosses were to TOP teams, one of thema very narrow loss and no blowout loss, while other teams are in the top 25 with losses to very weak teams and some blowout losses.

Regardless, IF we take care of business this Saturday against Vandy, I would think that we would jump significantly, especially with the losses of teams near the bottom of the rankings. If I were a pollster,UK's blowout victory over Auburn would be looking better after how Auburn has been performing against other SEC teams.Too,a win over Vanderbilt would surely look better after Vandy's having beaten two top25 teams in the past week. GO CATS! BEAT VANDY!

[c2]

It's clearly not fair, Alabama is 9 and 10 in the polls despite having beaten no one in the top 40 and lost embarrassinglyto #28 Arkansas and #39 Notre Dame. Bama's only top 50 wins are against #46 LSU and #47 Xavier, who barely beat UMass last night when playing at home.

No one can legitimatelyargue that UK's ranking is fair in comparison tohow Bama has been ranked the coaches and media. ApparentlyDavidson'sdifficulties have drawn them a little slack. Of course I doubt that will continue given the pasting they got from Vandy after these polls were released. Should the Cats beat Vandy, there is no way you can justify having the tide ranked ahead of the Cats. Florida's rank despite their RPI is totally understandable, Bama's position ahead of the Cats makes no sense if beating other really good teams is the standard. UK's win over Indiana is by far a more impressive win than anything Bama hasand the Cat's losseswere to much better teams as well.