Big Ten Power Rankings

[LitlBuck]

My rankings this week:
7. Penn State - Started strong and looked like someone who could at least play king maker but in the end it's same old Penn State.

8. Illinois - Not a good team and not a year away either. Sometimes these guys play well and others it looks like a high school team out there.

9. Iowa - Actually improving at this point. They might knock off someone at a crucial moment and cost someone a regular season Big Ten championship.

10. scUM - If they could have beaten Wisconsin they obviously would have moved up. But in reality they were playing so far above their heads that it was amazing they were even in that game.

11. Northworstern - I just wonder if any of their players would be used off of the bench with any of the Big 3 (Indiana, Wisconsin or Michigan State)....my guess is no.

Well, I guess you did not watch the Iowa/PSU game yesterday. Without Claxton, PSU really has nothing. They looked defeated before the tipoff. While I feel sorry for them because of what they have gone through, they are not very good. They are even below the weasels and I'm not sure if they will be able to handle the team from Evanston.

 

[MaxBuck]

7. Penn State
8. Illinois
9. Iowa
10. scUM
11. Northworstern

Trying to rank these teams is like trying to decide which makes a worse stir-fry: asphalt, elephant dung, or pus.

 

[Mike80]

Well, I guess you did not watch the Iowa/PSU game yesterday. Without Claxton, PSU really has nothing. They looked defeated before the tipoff. While I feel sorry for them because of what they have gone through, they are not very good. They are even below the weasels and I'm not sure if they will be able to handle the team from Evanston.

Did you read what I actually put or just look at the ranking??

BTW Penn State has wins over both Illinois AND Northworstern at this point.....until the 2nd game is played, they are where they are.....

After Minny at 6, the rest of the Big Ten sucks.

 

[LitlBuck]

Did you read what I actually put or just look at the ranking??

BTW Penn State has wins over both Illinois AND Northworstern at this point.....until the 2nd game is played, they are where they are.....

After Minny at 6, the rest of the Big Ten sucks.

I guess I did not read the final five:!... those teams aren't worth reading about.

I guess I do my "Power Rankings" wrong, or different, because I don't use their full season but I rank them in as I have seen them lately. Then is the reason I have PSU so low. There two wins with Claxton are no good to them now.

 

[Best Buckeye]

This thread is heating up! I love it. Now we are getting to the meat of the season and there will be some great discussion in here. Can hardly wait to see who is right (besides me) and who is wrong.

 

[Jake]

Are you saying that you expect us to beat Indiana and MSU this year and win the B10?

I'm saying there's no reason to believe we can't beat them and possibly win the Big Ten. We gave Sparty a ball game in their house after a terrible start. We took Tennessee to the wire in their building three days later.

IU's biggest wins are over Illinois State, Georgia Tech, and Kentucky. They just got beat by a five-loss UConn team playing without two suspended guards, at home.

I think our team is capable of beating every team in the Big Ten, especially at home where we've won 18 conference games in a row. That, along with our 5-2 record, makes us contenders.

 

[sandgk]

Attached is a picture showing a default and a weighted ranking of the Big 10 teams.

The "default" ranking uses the total wins of the teams to date.

The weighted ranking assigns points (not always equal in magnitude) for the following categories:

• Wins on the Road - I think this is a vital indicator of likely future success in the remaining Big 10 schedule
• Wins against Ranked teams - either at home or away
• Schedule Toughness - is a team buried under the weight of a brutal schedule, is it facing a tough stretch in the bottom third of it's schedule. This factor largely counts how many ranked opponents a team will face.
• The past Schedule Toughness and Forward Schedule Toughness is shown

The two biggest things about teams not called Ohio State that jump out at me are these:

• Michigan has played a brutal schedule. Their final schedule is free of ranked opponents, but has several other tough Big Ten opponents.
• Indiana has an impressive win tally - it has not come through wins against any ranked opponent. Their schedule toughness going forward includes 4 ranked opponents, 2 at home, 2 away. Still, this means Indiana has arguably played the weakest of the schedules of any Big 10 team. The bottom third could see Indiana fall from their current top 10 ranking.
• Michigan State has played a tough schedule and may play the lead role in unseating Indiana from the top of the Conference.

As for Ohio State:

• Ohio State has played a pretty brutal schedule with a young team and things don't get that much easier going forward.
• The one thing that concerns me the most is the lack of quality wins against ranked opponents.
• There remain 6 highly winnable games
• There is one likely tough contest against a presently unranked Purdue opponent.
• Then there are the 4 remaining contest (3 home, 1 away) against presently ranked opponents - Ohio State needs to win at least one of these. Win 2 of the four and we all will feel a great deal better.

Currently Ohio State sits at 14-6. With 7 more wins and only 4 more losses they get to 21-10 - possibly looking at the NCAA from the outside? Win those two home games against ranked opponents (or better) and then you are looking at 23-8 or better, and pretty much a certainty to go the NCAA (again).

 

[LitlBuck]

Calling 40 or Best Buckeye. I am a little confused about how we should be doing the power rankings. I am ranking them as they are playing today and not based on their overall season record. A good example is PSU. They were playing very well and had 2 nice Big 10 wins and then Claxton was injured and now they are a very poor team. They probably would not have any wins in the Big 10 if Claxton would have injured himself before the beginning of the season. Sooo... how would you would like the teams represented in the rankings?

 

[Mike80]

Calling 40 or Best Buckeye. I am a little confused about how we should be doing the power rankings. I am ranking them as they are playing today and not based on their overall season record. A good example is PSU. They were playing very well and had 2 nice Big 10 wins and then Claxton was injured and now they are a very poor team. They probably would not have any wins in the Big 10 if Claxton would have injured himself before the beginning of the season. Sooo... how would you would like the teams represented in the rankings?

Do them however you wish.

If they wanted us to rank them all the same way and have the same reasoning, what would be the point?

 

[crazybuckfan40]

Calling 40 or Best Buckeye. I am a little confused about how we should be doing the power rankings. I am ranking them as they are playing today and not based on their overall season record. A good example is PSU. They were playing very well and had 2 nice Big 10 wins and then Claxton was injured and now they are a very poor team. They probably would not have any wins in the Big 10 if Claxton would have injured himself before the beginning of the season. Sooo... how would you would like the teams represented in the rankings?

I mean I think you have to factor in both...You look at where Wisky was before last week and they had not lost in the big ten and only had one lose overall and MSU had a lose to Iowa...that was my reasoning for putting them ahead of MSU, but now they have a lose, and I am putting them behind Purdue who beat them, and MSU seems to be playing better than IU with their sad performance against UCONN so I am going to go with MSU over IU...

And very true about PSU I am putting them towards the bottom even tho they have a better record than some, because they are playing poorly witht he injury to claxton...

 

[Best Buckeye]

I just gauge mine at the time I rank them. Just depends on who they beat and who they lose to. If a team beat texas and loses to PSU where do you rank them? Each guy has to figure his own out.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

Ok guys we are increasing the number...We had 13 participants this week...Thanks to everyone fo their rankings...I will try to get everyone rep for doing this at some point this week...

1. MSU - 147 - They overtook the top spot after IU's bad performance against UCONN...They should stay here unless someone posts some impressive wins because they don't have any tough games coming up...

2. IU - 144 - Bad game against UCONN, doesn't hurt them in light of the big ten standings, but man think they are going to struggle to stay on top the big ten, with no inside presence...

3. Wisky - 123 - This one surprised me even tho they lost @ Purdue people kept them above Purdue...

4. Purdue - 112 - The gap ins't as big as it once was, but I think Purdue could struggle once they hit some toughies on the road...Most of their tough games have been at home where they are tough to beat...

5. tOSU - 105 - Not a big gap here, and I think that some of the above teams are going to lose a game or two coming up and tOSU should go unscathed for 3 games...

WHO CARES...

6. Minny - 78 - They are not a bad team and Tubby has them playing tough, I think they have a solid shot at the NIT especially if they can knock someone in the top 5 off...

7. Ill - 64 - Not even sure what to say, they are just playing like crap...

8. Iowa - 54 - I had them ahead of Illinois I think they are stringing some good ball together, just not a huge amount of talent on the team...

9. Mich/PSU - 39 - We have a tie for the ninth spot...But does it really matter...

11. Northwestern - Brining up the rear...

Participants: Best Buckeye, Nastydogg72, bucky katt, nfbuck, bkb, BB73, Cbf40, litlbuck, bucknutt76, buckeyemike80, ohsportsfan9, BUCYRUS, bkochmc, maxbuck...

Hopefully we find out a little more about the teams this week...The big one being IU @ Wisky and then Purdue goes to Ill, might be a tough road test for them...

 

[Best Buckeye]

Right now I think that MS and Ind are the leaders but that might change if Indiana, who is going to have some tough games to play coming up, chokes up more again the Wiscy and tOSU's. I think they had the easy half of their schedule and teams know by now that if you control the scoring of that Freshman they can be beat. Other than that teams like us and wiscy and anyone else has to get tough enough to just about run the table to win the B10.

 

[Mike80]

Well, I guess you did not watch the Iowa/PSU game yesterday. Without Claxton, PSU really has nothing. They looked defeated before the tipoff. While I feel sorry for them because of what they have gone through, they are not very good. They are even below the weasels and I'm not sure if they will be able to handle the team from Evanston.

I wish the "defeated before tipoff" Penn State team would show up......

 

[crazybuckfan40]

i got your pm and have been meaning to respond, with the increased work load of late i cant promise i can do my best. so i am going to opt out. i will however give a "celeb poll" from time to time. hows that?

Still waiting on this poll...