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Post by kiyoat on Dec 25, 2023 12:18:41 GMT -6
Week 7 rankings updates done - merry christmas!
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jmgg
Sophomore Member
Posts: 102
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Post by jmgg on Dec 25, 2023 13:05:13 GMT -6
Week 7 rankings updates done - merry christmas! I think it's going to be between the same 2 it's been over MOST of the last decade. SDSU & USD, not necessarily in that order. Before the season started I wouldn't have had USD in there, but they've showed a lot of grit and a lot of players are contributing. Some pretty good depth. There's a lot of kinks to get out ESPECIALLY with the turnovers, but I think they'll overcome that as the year goes. I'm optimistic.
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Post by kiyoat on Dec 26, 2023 8:53:24 GMT -6
Week 7 rankings updates done - merry christmas! I think it's going to be between the same 2 it's been over MOST of the last decade. SDSU & USD, not necessarily in that order. Before the season started I wouldn't have had USD in there, but they've showed a lot of grit and a lot of players are contributing. Some pretty good depth. There's a lot of kinks to get out ESPECIALLY with the turnovers, but I think they'll overcome that as the year goes. I'm optimistic. Yeah, I have to agree. Now, I WILL say that neither SD team is dominant enough this year to feel comfortable going 18-0 or 17-1. I think both teams end up with at least two losses, probably three. I think that both teams (SDSU and USD) have talent that elevates them in most circumstances, but both teams have some critical flaws too. I'm just glad that depth and injuries aren't two of our issues this year. That's a flaw that you can't fix. But overall I think we will get there and should contend for a spot in either the NCAA or WBIT tournaments. Our first conference game in a couple of days will be a doozy (NDSU).
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Post by kiyoat on Dec 26, 2023 9:52:43 GMT -6
The start of conference play is a big story, but I want to look ahead a little to the Summit/Big Sky challenge... Let's see how the Conferences stack up right now (I'll do the same with the men's teams) NET rank comparison: Rnk | Summit | Rnk | B Sky | vs | - | - | 45 | E Wash | UNO, @ UND | 80 | SDSU | - | - |
| 99 | S Dakota | 104 | Montana | USD, @ UNO | - | - | 108 | N Ariz | SDSU, @ NDSU | - | - | 113 | Mont St | NDSU, @ SDSU | 158 | Oral Rob | 159 | Idaho | @ Den | 168 | NDSU | - | - |
| - | - | 217 | Idaho St | UND, @ USD | 233 | St Thom | 222 | N Colo | @ ORU, Den | 248 | KC | 246 | Port St | @ KC, UST | 263 | Denver | 272 | Weber St | KC | 302 | N Dakota | - | - |
| 306 | Omaha | - | - |
| - | - | 337 | Sac State | @ UST, ORU |
All things considered, they did an OK job matching up teams, considering they had to go by last year's records. According to the NET rankings, the Big Sky is a little better than the Summit at all three tiers this year, other than the no good very bad Sac State. Oral Roberts and St Thomas got the most favorable draws, Omaha and UND the reverse. SDSU, USD and NDSU should have some competitive games.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 2, 2024 11:16:37 GMT -6
updated standings and NET rankings on the first post for January 1...
NET rankings moved a little, but the order is the same. USD dropped 15 spots, and ORU and NDSU moved up.
St Thomas seems to be the best of the lower-half teams (although we looked like a lower-half team this week too!). We haven't talked much about the Tommies, but add them to the list of teams that will give the Yotes fits. ORU looks very legit, too. Fast-paced athletic team.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 4, 2024 9:59:36 GMT -6
Rnk | Summit | Rnk | B Sky | vs | - | - | 45 | E Wash | UNO, @ UND | 80 | SDSU | - | - |
| 99 | S Dakota | 104 | Montana | USD, @ UNO | - | - | 108 | N Ariz | SDSU, @ NDSU | - | - | 113 | Mont St | NDSU, @ SDSU | 158 | Oral Rob | 159 | Idaho | @ Den | 168 | NDSU | - | - |
| - | - | 217 | Idaho St | UND, @ USD | 233 | St Thom | 222 | N Colo | @ ORU, Den | 248 | KC | 246 | Port St | @ KC, UST | 263 | Denver | 272 | Weber St | KC | 302 | N Dakota | - | - |
| 306 | Omaha | - | - |
| - | - | 337 | Sac State | @ UST, ORU |
Here's a recap of the first day of the BSC/Summit challenge. I crossed out the losing Summit teams, and enlarged the winners. Summit is winning the series so far, 5-4. The trend is that all the "upper tier" BSC teams won except Arizona State (double OT win for Jacks). And all the "lower tier" BSC teams lost. Maybe there should be a bigger gap between Idaho and Idaho State in the NET rankings? North Dakota beating Idaho State 78-72 was a shocker to me.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 8, 2024 11:23:59 GMT -6
Jan 8 update -
The standings haven't changed because there were no conference games last week. As for the NET rankings, NDSU UND and St Thomas have all moved up somewhat. USD is drifting farther back from SDSU. There is still a gap between the top and bottom halves, but St Thomas is starting to form a middle tier, or starting to drift up into the top half.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 19, 2024 9:23:32 GMT -6
I missed Monday (was out-of-town for a week), so I just updated the first post with a mid-week ranking....
NET: SDSU pulling ahead into their own tier in the NET rankings, USD/NDSU/ORU very close together in a 2nd tier, St Thomas remains in the center of the league. How did we end up in OT vs #317 Omaha?
Standings: Finally some meaningful rankings, although schedules are still unbalanced. SDSU/NDSU unbeaten at the top, with ORU/St Thomas/USD just below that. USD is currently 2-2 in 5th place and 2 games back from the top.
Hopefully we can take care of business against the lower half, and get some revenge games against NDSU and ORU to pull into the 2 or 3 seed by the end of the season. The 4 or 5 seeds would be less desirable, but who knows? As long as we are playing our best basketball by tournament time, anything is possible.
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Post by kiyoat on Jan 19, 2024 10:56:59 GMT -6
Tomorrow has some compelling games on the women's side:
Noon: NDSU @ ORU
2PM: Omaha @ KC
2PM: UND @ Denver
6PM: USD @ SDSU
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yote18
Senior Member
Posts: 535
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Post by yote18 on Jan 22, 2024 13:17:00 GMT -6
If SDSU loses it’ll be at ORU but I really do see them running the table even in their “down” year.
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steelsd
Sophomore Member
Posts: 167
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Post by steelsd on Jan 22, 2024 16:21:06 GMT -6
If SDSU loses it’ll be at ORU but I really do see them running the table even in their “down” year. This has likely been AJ's best coaching job of his career. To lead the SL with essentially an 8 player team is very impressive. We have had a lot of "role players" step up to being solid contributors. He started out playing a bit slower pace due to the lack of bodies but we have seen them pick up the pace towards the start of the conference season. Mathiowetz, Colbeck, and Vlastuin have really started to turn it on with their perimeter shooting to allow us to work inside/out with B. Meyer. Initially we were a two woman show with the Meyers but have added depth of scoring around them as the season has gone on. Byom has added another nice size piece defensively and has been an efficient scorer. The biggest leap has been true Freshman Hopp who has just steadily gotten more used to the college game. AJ has done a nice job managing minutes and setting up situations where each girl has the optimum conditions to succeed. Most of us expected this team to lose 3-4 games and I'm still not sure that won't happen. Have a lot of the best teams in conference to beat on the road. We will see how games in Tulsa, Vermillion, St. Paul, and Fargo go. I could see us dropping a couple there. The key is for us to continue to be strong defensively and continue to improve confidence in roles on the offensive side. As for USD I can only speak about what I witnessed Saturday. You guys came out guns blazing shooting the ball very well. But then SDSU started to lock that down and it became the Grace Larkins show. I really respect how good she is but there really wasn't much else to turn to when she is down. Duffney was able to get downhill a bit better in the 2nd half and Mazurek had a couple good minutes down the stretch. There just wasn't a good offensive flow and too often USD settled for 3's. Someone here can tell me better if this was an anomaly or if this is how your girls have played/looked all season.
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Post by gopheryote on Jan 22, 2024 21:36:15 GMT -6
Stated another way, "The league is really really down this year."
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ndfan
Freshman Member
Posts: 45
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Post by ndfan on Jan 23, 2024 2:41:23 GMT -6
SDSU is the best team in the conference but they are not what they have been last couple of years. They play very intelligent game and they are able. To play that because they have the best point guard in conference if not one top in the nation. The rest teams in conference breakdown with Omaha and Denver I believe are at the bottom. NDSU, ORU, St. Thomas and USD are all about the same and are not fighting for seeding in the conference standings. I think anyone of these teams can beat each other on given night and if they are playing at home would be favored. That leaves Und and KC as it stands right now are behind other teams but both these teams are young and complete new line-ups this year but they both have talent and are playing better and looks to be getting better. Their first half of the season for both was poor showing and I believe once that happens it becomes pretty much given your net ranking will never catch up to other teams I think when we get to conference tournament their will be only one or two game spread between these six teams. The other factor will be anyone of the teams would have injury to key player will shift balance of power. SDSU if it was to have another major injury could mean anyone could win the conference tourney. I don’t think teams are down as much some are saying but we’re seeing leveling of talent in conference because of transfer portal where teams are gaining and losing talent from year to year. SDSU has not had this and they have had benefit of 5 year players. They will have one more year of that because of the injuries this year just extended this for another year. It will be interesting how they handle roster management. I think we’re going to also going to see loss of talent by transfer portal and NIL money available for that talent and how effects various schools in the Summit.
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yote18
Senior Member
Posts: 535
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Post by yote18 on Jan 23, 2024 12:00:04 GMT -6
SDSU is the best team in the conference but they are not what they have been last couple of years. They play very intelligent game and they are able. To play that because they have the best point guard in conference if not one top in the nation. The rest teams in conference breakdown with Omaha and Denver I believe are at the bottom. NDSU, ORU, St. Thomas and USD are all about the same and are not fighting for seeding in the conference standings. I think anyone of these teams can beat each other on given night and if they are playing at home would be favored. That leaves Und and KC as it stands right now are behind other teams but both these teams are young and complete new line-ups this year but they both have talent and are playing better and looks to be getting better. Their first half of the season for both was poor showing and I believe once that happens it becomes pretty much given your net ranking will never catch up to other teams I think when we get to conference tournament their will be only one or two game spread between these six teams. The other factor will be anyone of the teams would have injury to key player will shift balance of power. SDSU if it was to have another major injury could mean anyone could win the conference tourney. I don’t think teams are down as much some are saying but we’re seeing leveling of talent in conference because of transfer portal where teams are gaining and losing talent from year to year. SDSU has not had this and they have had benefit of 5 year players. They will have one more year of that because of the injuries this year just extended this for another year. It will be interesting how they handle roster management. I think we’re going to also going to see loss of talent by transfer portal and NIL money available for that talent and how effects various schools in the Summit. I respect this take but SDSU isn’t built or coached like the other teams in the summit. ORU is hot but the HC will move on to the next job once she establishes some success. NDSU is making great strides but not a yearly contender. UND, is pretty far from being a contender imo I know you have some stellar players but I think you need to overhaul the coaching staff. USD also not likely to be a yearly contender in the short term based on issues noted in other threads. The transfer portal could affect SDSU but it likely won’t. Unlike the rest of the league they’re the only stable program because of their success and that at the moment helps shield them from it for right now. The rest of the league though will be open season is my guess come decision time. I think we’re going to see some interesting transfers out of the conference.
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ndfan
Freshman Member
Posts: 45
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Post by ndfan on Jan 23, 2024 18:58:44 GMT -6
I can agree with you on a lot of your points above, but I think if SDSU continues to have this success against power schools don't these schools won't be calling on these players and offering money and extra's to play at higher level. This change with NIL is so different in what would have been tampering with player is now just considered standard operating procedure to improve their rosters. I only think it's going to get worse. On UND they had complete overhaul of assistant coaches this past season and if you referring to head coach, I believed they hired to have stability in the program and as long as she continues to make improvement in her coaching, I believe she will be here. The other side to this they have only been extending her contract out two years so if she doesn't perform, we could see a change. She has made a lot of mistakes in her first years, but she is improving and getting better at recruiting and this new round of coaches gave her wider area of contacts. I look at Summit conference we have Johnson and Sinn who have been years at their schools with high degree of success and then we have UND, USD, Omaha, NDSU, and Denver with coaches that have been hired in last 5 years that have some success, but no one has made that leap to winning the conference. I would say that some maybe in jeopardy of losing their jobs based on past performance. Then we have KC and ORU with recent coaches to be hired and my guess both on pace to win at all costs and probably will be gone in three years or less one way or another. How would you access your coach performance my observations are she is like our coach having hard time in roster construction and next couple of years will determine if can improve on this. Right now, she is relying on former coach players she recruited to compete with but yet to see her any of her high school recruits make impact. Finally getting back to SDSU I don't think they make to championship game in the tournament this year I think they get upset before that.
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