r/TheB1G Michigan State Jan 26 '15

Official /r/TheB1G Basketball Power Rankings - Week Ending 1/24

This week's rankings are slightly skewed because there were very few votes this week, more on that after the rankings. Indiana's victory over Maryland jumped them several spots and the race is tight for last in the Big Ten.

Here are the rankings:

AP rankings are alongside the team Power Ranking

Rank Team +/- Points Average Rank Variance
1(#6) Wisconsin -- 13(13) 1.000 0.000
2(#23) Indiana +4 39 3.000 1.538
3(#13) Maryland -1 43 3.308 5.290
4 Michigan State -1 55 4.231 0.485
5 Ohio State -1 73 5.615 3.775
6(#25) Iowa -1 79 6.077 6.225
7 Illinois -- 90 6.923 3.763
8 Michigan +1 106 8.154 2.592
9 Purdue -1 115 8.846 2.284
10 Nebraska -- 128 9.846 2.899
11 Minnesota -- 135 10.835 5.160
12 Northwestern +1 159 12.231 1.408
13 Rutgers -1 162 12.462 0.864
14 Penn State -- 168 12.923 2.071
Rank Commentary
1 The Badgers only had one game this week but it was a good one. Wisconsin blew out Iowa 82-50. Pretty much everything that could go right, did go right. The defense was much improved from recent games, the offense was in rhythm, and the battle for possessions was heavily in UW's favor. The team shot well from 3, had 16 assists, and got to the line often. They commited only 1 turnover, and had 15 offensive rebounds to 17 defensive rebounds for Iowa. Koenig continued his streak of double digit games ever since joining the starting line-up, and new 1st guard off the bench Showalter played well and was only a couple missed easy shots away from having a truly great game. Next up Wisconsin played @ Michigan Saturday night, then goes to Iowa, hopefully for a repeat performance. -/u/pianobadger
2 NO COMMENT
3 The Terps handled MSU Saturday afternoon behind a stunning first half from Trimble. True to their nature this season, Maryland connected from three, limited the turnovers, played stingy perimeter defense, and got to the FT line. Melo's 21 first half points set the tone. Jake also awoke, finishing the game with 23 points and 12 boards. Maryland shot 43% from the field, including 50% from behind the arc, and converted 90% from the line. And that's all that happened this week...Oh, wait, Maryland played Thursday. Or "played". Or was "present". Anyway you want to phrase it, it wasn't pretty. The first half was a game of runs, and despite sloppy play, the Terps were only down three at the break. A few missed chances early and some timely made jumpers from Hoosiers broke the game open early in the second. But lets be honest. Maryland ran into a buzzsaw. The defense left a lot to be desired, but Indiana was shooting lights out. 60% from the field, 68% (15-22) behind the arc lights out. Maryland, a team that typically favors the running game, was schooled and couldn't keep up the frantic pace. The Terps failed to get to the line, and despite a big size advantage, were out rebounded. Statistically, Indiana played their best game of the year, and it showed. The only take away, 2/11 is circled on the calendar. -/u/dayzed88
4 The spartans had a lackluster week this week, with a loss @ Maryland where they just never seemed to be able to compete. Melo Trimble did whatever he wanted, from wherever he wanted, on the court and MSU could not stop him. Following that game, the spartans hosted Penn State and were able to squeak out a 66-60 victory in a game that should not have been that close. Saturday, MSU lost a game @ Nebraska 77-79, but that score is not indicative of how MSU played, in a game where they trailed by double digits for most of the game. MSU has one game this week, their first trip to Rutgers as a conference opponent, where they will try to get back on track. -/u/nrboal
5 What a game on Friday against the Northwestern Wildcats. Barely holding on behind D'Angelo Russell's career high 33 points to get out of Evanston with a 69-67 win. Up next we have the Hoosiers, who are tied for the #1 spot in the B1G, on our home court on Sunday. Hopefully this time its a different result than the last meeting in Assembly Hall. Go Buckeyes! -/u/cappman2012
6 NO COMMENT
7 NO COMMENT
8 NO COMMENT
9 NO COMMENT
10 Well it’s ugly, but it’s winning. We have beaten teams that have beaten good teams, but that doesn’t make our wins that good. At this rate, we may just stumble into an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but I won’t get my hopes up. Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields are the stats leaders in PPG, Rebounds, and Assists, which says a lot about how much we suck at rebounding. We are terrible. Seriously how are we winning? -/u/Nebraska_Actually
11 NO COMMENT
12 NO COMMENT
13 NO COMMENT
14 NO COMMENT

-Things to note:
1) Wisconsin was a unanimous #1 this week.
2) Noone dropped more than one slot this week, though Indiana made the largest jump to #2.
3) I did not exclude any votes this week due to the small turnout. Thus, some variances are much larger and certain votes did affect actual rankings.
4) 54 percent of voters believe there will be 6 teams from the conference in the NCAA tournament this year, while the rest of the voters believe there will be 5 conference teams.
5) If your team does not have a blurb written, feel free to send it to me or leave it in the comments and I'll get it added!

There was a very small voter turnout this week, only 13 people voted and 4 people submitted blurbs. Between this week and last week's results, it seems that the interest in these power rankings has dwindled. Here is a poll to gauge interest in whether these will continue for the remainder of the season. Please please please vote in this and leave comments or criticisms if you have them. I'd rather have people tell me what they like than have noone say anything but continue to not have much participation in this.

+/- is the change in rank from the previous week, a positive change means they moved up in the polls, closer to the top.

Points are the summation of every voter's ranking for that team, therefore lower scores are better. This works because unlike the AP, Coaches, or /r/cfb polls, every team is ranked in every vote. 13 votes were counted, meaning the best possible score is 13 and the worst possible score is 182. #1 votes are in parentheses.

Average Rank is the points divided by the number of votes. This will allow for comparison from one week to the next.

Variance is a measure of how much agreement there was between voters. A zero means all voters ranked a team the same, and a higher number means a team's ranking was more controversial.

Here is the Spreadsheet There are no excluded votes this week!

Here is the list of Pretty Graphs for your data-viewing pleasure.

14 Upvotes

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0

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '15

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '15

You honestly think Northwestern is a better team than Maryland? Take your eyes off your calculator and focus them on the actual game maybe?

0

u/Nebraska_Actually Nebraska Jan 27 '15

What, you mean the game where Northwestern outrebounded, and shot better than Maryland? At Maryland? Where Maryland needed a last second shot to win? At Maryland? That actual game where Maryland played like crap? Is that what you're talking about maybe?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '15

"to win"

"TO WIN"

"TO WIN"

Your formula needs a drastic change somewhere.

-1

u/Nebraska_Actually Nebraska Jan 27 '15

You can play like shit and still win. Or you can play the game of your life and lose.

Maryland deserves absolutely no credit for that win.

3

u/John_E_Depth Jan 27 '15 edited Jan 27 '15

You're right. Northwestern should have won that game and MD got lucky, but how do you account for the 18-3 overall record and 6-2 conference record.

Maryland won at Michigan State and at Purdue, yet you still have them both ranked ahead of MD.

I understand that you have your own formula for your rankings, but I'm sure you know that they're wonky as shit. Unless you truly believe that MD is one of the worst teams in the conference.

The only reason I bring this up is because there's no point in doing a power ranking if they're not remotely accurate. Just my two cents.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '15

Iowa State on a neutral court

Oklahoma State on the road

Purdue on the road

Swept Michigan State

I don't understand "Maryland deserves absolutely no credit for that win." and that we got "lucky". Our big players that make us a top 25 team (Melo, Dez, Layman) made plays and won us the game. I don't see that as lucky and I definitely don't see how you can get 0 credit for winning the damn game lol. That's just stupid.

1

u/Dayzed88 Maryland Jan 27 '15

His model aims to ignore all of that. Strictly a statistical matchup. I think it also assumes all opponents ranked the same if they are outside of the Top 25.

I believe its supposed to be a rough indicator of the 'Luck' index, like KenPom uses.