RTC Top 25: Week 6
Posted by rtmsf on December 15th, 2009Last weekend’s Villanova loss created the only substantive movement in the RTC Top 25 this week, but we weren’t rating the Wildcats as high as everyone else anyway, so the market on Jay Wright’s team appears to have been corrected. Analysis after the jump…
QnD Analysis.
- Two Tales. The poll has really tightened up among the top sixteen or so teams, as the highest standard deviation among our four pollsters belongs to Michigan State (one pollster still has the Spartans in the top ten). The top ten is even more tightly wound, with the biggest range only four positions different: WVU is ranked betwen #2 and #6, Villanova is between #7 and #11, and UNC is the same. Does this represent a true rendering of the top ten or so teams in America this season, or are we overrating them based on softish early-season schedules?
- In n’ Out. Five new teams ranked this week, with Kansas State riding a big win over Xavier and at UNLV to enter at #15 and New Mexico taking its unbeaten record into the poll at #16. Another unbeaten Big 12 team, Texas Tech, forced our hand and entered at #20, while Xavier re-entered at #21 after winning vs. Cincinnati in the Crosstown Shootout and Ole Miss is back at #23 after a couple of weeks missing. The teams that fell out from last week are UNLV, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Memphis (the first three took losses).
- Variance. As mentioned above, there’s a lot of stasis in the top two-thirds of the poll this week. Things get a little more fun near the bottom, with Gonzaga (#15 to #24), Texas Tech (#15 to #25), Illinois (#19 to NR) and Washington (#14 to NR) all over the place. The Huskies took the biggest hit with their loss vs. Georgetown over the weekend, droping six spots but staying in the poll at #23.
- Conference Call. Big East (6), Big 12 (4), SEC (4), ACC (3), Big 10 (3), A10 (1), Horizon (1), Mountain West (1), Pac-10 (1), WCC (1).
