Hawaii remains unranked, stays at 30 in RPI
Wahine picked up some points, have 44, puts them at 28th in the poll
three teams that were unranked last week moved into the poll: Duke to 21, Utah to 23 and Ohio 24. Amazingly USC still ranked at 14-12, drops to 21.
Despite 2 losses, Washington only dropped to No. 5 from No. 2
Florida State with two losses dropped from 3 to 8.
Stanford now a unanimous No. 1.
http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/poll-11-17-14di/
In the RPI, Hawaii stays at 30
http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/weeklyrpi/2014WVBrpi1.html
COMMENTS
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I wonder if Wahine win out the rest of the regular season, will they climb back into the rankings? I guess it depends on whether other teams fall out of the rankings. Utah will face Stanford and Cal next week and a loss to both teams could drop them out of rankings again. While Stanford remains on top, Cal Berkeley resides at the cellar of the PAC12 with only one conference win altogether.
By the way, Adora Anae won her first PAC12 Freshman of the Week award. If anyone regrets that she didn’t join Hawaii, remember that Kalei Greeley collected her Big West Freshman of the Week award earlier.
We’ll see what happens in the poll. 60 coaches voting. still surprised SC is ranked.
Cal’s lone win was last week in 5 vs. USC.
Are all the recruits signed sealed, delivered?
USC has no business being ranked still, this is ridiculous.
Speaking of recruiting, does anyone know any middles in the 2016 class that UH could be looking at???
Typically, the last 2-3 weeks before the regular season ends produce some of the greatest matches in collegiate women’s volleyball. Not only because league championships are on the line. But also because Seniors are hit full force with the realization that these last few games will be their swan song to college athletics.
Thus, it is somewhat surprising that Stanford, packed with AA Juniors (and the 6’8″ Merete Lutz, likely National Freshmen of the Year if redshirts can claim the title), is the only undefeated team left standing in NCAA D1.
And that leads to Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll and NCAA RPI. But allow me to leave the Polling and RPIing bitching to others. Instead, as Selection Sunday draws near, let me make my early predictions regarding the NCAA Championship Tournament’s top seeds.
IMO, the BCS teams wil claim the top 8 seeds. Let me qualify that statement by adding that not all BCS leagues will meet the wide expectation of at least matching last year’s number of teams earning NCAA Tournament bids. Especially the SEC and Big Ten.
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Pac-12 (12 schools) had a historic season with a league-record 9 teams earning NCAA Tournament bids in 2013. Currently, 6 teams are in the NCAA RPI Top 20, and the 7th, 8th, and 9th have RPIs of 24, 35, and 36. The 10th has a RPI of 40. Result: 8-9 bids to the Pac-12.
Predition: Crown goes to Stanford (26-0, 16-0 conf.) as well as the NCAA’s #1 seed. But Stanford will be sent packing to a region other than Washington (possibly to the Iowa State Regional), as I just can’t see the NCAA Selection Committee placing the top 2 Pac-12 teams in the same region.
Prediction: Runner-up to Washington (25-2, 14-2 conf.), and the runner-up seed or the top seed (should the Dawgs beat Stanford) in the Washington Regional.
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Big Ten (12 schools) had 8 squads earning NCAA Tournament bids in 2013, which tied the Big Ten record of 8 in 1999, 2002, 2012, and 2011. Currently, the Big Ten has 4 teams in the RPI Top 11, a 5th team with a RPI of 33, but the 6th, 7th, and 8th teams (RPI 47, 48, and 51) should have their “bubble” popped. Result: 6 bids to the Big Ten.
Prediction: Title to Wisconsin (24-2, 15-1 conf), and with that the top seed in 1 of the 4 regionals (probably and logically the Minnesota Regional).
Prediction: Runner-up to Penn State (26-3, 14-2 conf), and Joe Paterno’s defending lord of the NCAA Championship rings could be the runner-up seed (possibly Louisville Regional) in an other-than-the-region-Wisconsin-is-holding-court regional.
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Big 12 (9 schools), which had 4 teams at last year’s Big Dance, is on track to break that number as it has an amazing 5 teams in RPI Top 25. Result: 5 bids to the Big 12.
Texas (20-1, 12-1 conf) has won its 4th consecutive Big 12 regular season title. FYI: Coach Jerritt Elliott is the only coach in the country to lead his team to the NCAA Regional Finals in each of the last eight NCAA Championships (2006-13). Logically, the NCAA Selection Committee would send this Big 12 school to the Iowa State Regional, but I think Seattle is calling the Horns name — possibly giving Texas the top seed over Washington.
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ACC (15 schools) had 4 squads in last year’s NCAA tournament, and currently 4 are listed in the RPI Top 22 with the 5th, 6th, and 7th in the 50s RPI. Result: 4 bids to the ACC.
Prediction: Crown to N. Carolina (22-2, 13-1 conf), and Coach Joe Segula (25th year at Carolina, 34th year overall) has made the Tar Heels once again a team of national relevance. Possible top seed or runner-up seed in the ACC’s Louisville Regional. Unless the SEC’s Florida pulls a down-to-the-wire win over Texas, making the top seed for the Louisville Regional a NCAA Selection Committee in-fight.
Prediction: Florida State (24-2, 12-2 conf) should claim the runner-up seed in 1 of the 4 regionals (possibly Minnesota Regional).
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SEC (13 schools) had 8 teams awarded bids in last year’s tournament, but none — zilch! — made it pass Round 2. SEC has 5 teams in the RPI Top 38. Result: 5 bids to the SEC.
Prediction: Florida (21-3, 15-0 conf) has clinched a share of the SEC crown and will claim the league title. Moreover, the Gators could replace one of the 4 top seeds if it can knock off Texas in their non-conference matchup the day before Selection Sunday.
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The long and short of it: Last year the BCS claimed 28 of the 32 at-large bids. Of the 4 remaining at-large bids, 2 went to Big West, 1 to the WCC, and 1 to the Patriot League. This year the non-BCS schools — thanks to the overrated SEC and slightly weaker-than-expected Big Ten — should get more of the 32 at-large bids to Showtime!
usc still ranked on avca and 20 on rpi despite losing massively and losing to a ‘weakling’ cal and washington only drops 3 from losing twice. aint that ridiculous? avca and ncaa has some favoritism it seems no matter how a teams performance.
My thought is that even if UW beats Stanford in the teams only meeting Stanford gets the top seed as Pac 12 champ Only way that changes is if Stanford loses another match Cardinal No. 1 in RPI
Beach sweeps costly, but Gauchos revenge would be even costlier. Wahine gotta put them down. Please.
Also want to blow more pilau over east coast hootenanny. Who did North Carolina & Florida State beat to keep their RPI bubble aloft so long? A young, rebuilding Nebraska way back in August? Tar Heels even worse, but don’t tell that to Giamellaro, who is surely milking THAT win.
heluhelu — florida st and north carolina just have really good RPI schedules. the RPI does not care “who” you beat or what their “rankings” are. what matters for the RPI is playing teams that have good win/loss records. that’s the bottom line.
florida st’s non-conference opponents all have positive win/loss records. and all but 2 of north carolina’s non-conference opponents have positive win/loss records. with RPI’s regional bias, it’s much easier to schedule teams on the east coast (or at least from the midwest on) that have good win/loss records, just for the simple fact that there are more schools out there, and thus a larger pool of teams to schedule from.
that’s why, for hawaii’s RPI — it’s critical to invite schools here from the midwest and east coast, to diversify hawaii’s non-conference schedule. this year, ohio was a great team to schedule. ohio is 23-4 on the season. ohio does more to prop up hawaii’s RPI than does the pac-12 schools, b/c the middle-of-the-pack pac-12 schools all beat up on each and give each other losses.
hawaii played ucla, oregon and arizona st this year. during the preseason, ucla went 9-2, oregon 10-0, and arizona st was 10-2. all great win/loss records for hawaii’s RPI (even though hawaii lost to all 3 of them). BUT since the pac-12 season started, they’ve all suffered losses in a deep/brutal conference. ucla is now 18-9, oregon is 19-7, and arizona st is 17-11. as they rack up losses in the pac-12, hawaii’s RPI gets dragged down too.
of course, it’s not all due to the pac-12. the big west has some stinkers that hawaii has to play as well (like uc riverside, fullerton and cal poly). and at the end of the day, if the pac-12 schools maintain a winning record overall, that will still help hawaii’s RPI. playing pac-12 teams offers a competitive match that will make hawaii better, but unless your playing the teams at the top of the pac-12 standings, they’re not always the best in terms of an RPI boost.
there is an RPI projection on VT that shows hawaii may finish the season with an RPI of 39, which would put them on the bubble to make the tournament. still a strong likelihood they would be in, but an RPI that low is “bubble” territory.
important to win out. put ucsb and davis away in these last 2 weeks. because playing riverside and cal poly will definitely hurt the RPI.
#11 That projection has Hawaii losing another game to finish with an RPI of 39. I believe Rich Kern did another projection that has Hawaii winning out and their RPI will be at 35.
Key word: projection. Hawaii wins out, they will get into the tournament. but their ‘seed’ could be in the lower 30s.
Hawaii can only control what they can control which is winning and losing. how their opponents and opponents’ opponents fair is out of their hands.
We’ve been saying for years that the RPI is biased towards the BCS or Big Five or whatever it’s called nowadays.
10 Yes. That’s why RPI shouldn’t be conflated with “strength of schedule” as I so often hear. It’s strength of record, both yours & your opponents. Maybe someday this millennium NCAA will apply last millennium tools to “adjust winning percentage(s)”.
Since most of the focus is on the Pac-12 squads, it was good to read comments on Ohio by Cubicle (6). Do I agree? Nope, just thought the UH scheduler got lucky with this one. When all is said and done, it is always better to schedule a tried and true, such as a Pac-12 school.
Here’s the list of Hawai’i’s nonconference opponents and their Standings:
MAC/MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE (12 schools):
Ohio (23-4, 16-0 conf) is the #1 seed in this weekend’s MAC CHAMPIONSHIP tournament for the NCAA automatic bid.
Good, Bad, or Ugly scheduling? Good. … Whoever scheduled Ohio vs UH for this year deserves a pat on the back, though it helps to know that Ohio was last year’s regular-conference champion and the #1 seed also.
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BIG EAST (10 schools):
St. John’s (19-12, 8-8 conf) is in 6th position in the Standings. Butler, St. John’s and Xavier are the only 3 teams mathematically alive for the final remaining BIG EAST Championship berth. Whichever squad captures the berth will be next weekend’s tournament’s 4th seed.
Good, Bad, or Ugly? Bad, since it’s a long-shot that St. John’s will even qualify for the Big East Championship tournament, much less the NCAA Championship tournament.
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WCC/WEST COAST CONFERENCE (10 schools):
San Francisco (12-16, 5-11 conf) usually is in the upper half of the WCC but not this year. BYU (22-4, 13-2) earns the NCAA automatic, but at-large bids could go to LMU (22-5. 10-5) and possibly a third [Santa Clara (20-9, 10-6) ] but don’t think a 4th WCC team. San Francisco is second to last in the Standings. Scheduler had the right idea, just chose the wrong team for this year.
Good, Bad, or Ugly? Ugly.
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MWC/MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE (11 schools):
Whose bright idea was it to schedule 3 MWC teams?
New Mexico (18-11, 10-6 conf) is currently 4th in the standings — after Colorado St/26-2, UNLV/24-6, and Wyoming/21-7. Good, Bad, or Ugly? Bad.
San Diego State (13-13, 8-7 conf) is currently tied for 6th. Good, Bad, or Ugly? Ugly
Utah State (12-14, 8-7 conf) is currently tied for 6th. Good, Bad, or Ugly? Ugly.
FYI: Colorado State can clinch at least a share of the Mountain West title on Wednesday. It would mark the program’s 6th-consecutive conference championship, and 12th in the league’s 16-year history. Bet you didn’t know that entering 2014, CSU and UH were the only D1 teams to win (or share) their conference title each of the past five seasons. Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the these 2 schools meet in the subregionals.
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PAC-12 (12 schools):
Oregon (19-7, 9-7 conf) is currently tied for 4th in Pac-12 standings.
Good, Bad, or Ugly? Good. Easily earns an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship.
UCLA (17-9, 8-7 conf) is 6th.
Good, Bad, or Ugly? Good.
Arizona State (17-11, 7-9) is tied for 7th (along with USC and Oregon State).
Good, Bad, or Ugly? In between Good and Bad. If ASU stays at 7th in the conference standings, it can expect an at-large bid to the Really Big Show.