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In-Season Polls and Rankings


Old Titan

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Now that the season has started and the preseason forecasts can be put to bed, each Monday affords snapshots of where ORU ranks re: their performance to date.  For example...

 

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Some argument herein re: ORU should even rank above the likes of Western Illinois, St. Thomas, and South Dakota, much less the beloved XDSU's.

Obvious to see/hear that there is some serious "ORU fatigue" among Frost Belt observers in general, and SDSU faithful in particular.  Pretty clear they consider ORU last year as a fluke; and that SDSU is the superior team & program.

To which I have to reply:  get out of the first couple of rounds in Sioux Falls for a change, and then wax eloquent.  #MarchIsWhatMatters

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  • Old Titan changed the title to In-Season Polls and Rankings

This one's a little silly at this stage of the season, but still fun.

And there's a chance the ranking - and even the average - could go up next Monday, with Haskell and Central Arkansas this week.

Screenshot 2021-11-15 163339.jpg

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ORU could score 150 if we wanted vs. Haskell......I think the ORU record is about 155 or so vs. Union TN. back in like 1970 or 1971?.....😮

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  • 1 month later...

After dropping out of this poll following the opening game at Colorado State, ORU has returned to the "Major Madness Small Conference Top 25" poll, checking in at either #20 or #21; can't tell if it's a tie with Jacksonville, or a typo.  South Dakota State has been a fixture in the top five of this poll all season:

 

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Exciting time to be an ORU fan!  They continue to improve and move up in the polls.  Best conference start at 6-1 since maybe the last time they won the Summit League at 17-1 in Do Mo's senior year. Just hope the Eagles have not peaked too early.

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51 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

Exciting time to be an ORU fan!  They continue to improve and move up in the polls.  Best conference start at 6-1 since maybe the last time they won the Summit League at 17-1 in Do Mo's senior year. Just hope the Eagles have not peaked too early.

"Peaked too early"?

They haven't come close to a complete game yet.

And that's a good thing:  picture Francis, Carlos and Kareem hitting on all cylinders, like last March.  Picture Elijah and Sir Issac (where was SIH on Saturday, by the way?) both contributing with their size off the bench.  Picture Issac McBride and Trey Phipps taking turns hitting threes like they did in Kansas City.  Picture DJ playing with energy and confidence on both ends of the floor.  And picture Max...being Max.

Now, picture ALL of that, in the SAME GAME.

This team has a 60+ point half, and/or a 110+ point game in them; just waiting to see it happen.  Maybe during this homestand...

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Now you are talking, OT........ORU 111   UND  58.......😜....and frankly, ORU should be in the TOP 10 of that Mid Major List above.....Good Guys better than a lot of those teams in the Top 20......:shield-logo:

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1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

Computer rankings 1/16/22 (click for links):

NCAA NET Rankings -- 109

Sagarin USA Today -- 122

Ken Pomeroy -- 116

ESPN Power Rankings -- 93

Sonny Moore Power Ratings -- 44  (not a typo!)

...any others I didn't think of?

Massey Rating: 108

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Eleven of us vote league-wide; here was my ballot for this week:

  1. SDSU
  2. ORU
  3. WIU
  4. NDSU
  5. UMKC
  6. UST
  7. USD
  8. DU
  9. UNO
  10. UND
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Looks pretty accurate to me.

The Summit is in a sad state when a team can make the jump from D-3) and are still a middle-tier program. I understand they were a top tier team at their level, but there's no spin you can put on it to make it any more palatable. I guess I didn't realize just how poor of a basketball league the Summit is. Sigh. 

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20 minutes ago, EagleManiac said:

Looks pretty accurate to me.

The Summit is in a sad state when a team can make the jump from D-3) and are still a middle-tier program. I understand they were a top tier team at their level, but there's no spin you can put on it to make it any more palatable. I guess I didn't realize just how poor of a basketball league the Summit is. Sigh. 

St. Thomas is a senior-laden team that enjoyed all kinds of succes in DIII; they're simply overmatched physically at the D1 level.  They're very experienced and very well coached.

They will likely take a step back for the next season or two, then come back even stronger, as they rebuild with D1 talent.

I think the conference is appropriately strong in the upper tier of SDSU, ORU, WIU, NDSU and UMKC.  And I'm convinced that SDSU and ORU both are capable of doing damage for the league again if they get the right draw in the big dance.  

And note that USD took a double body shot this past spring when they lost their best two returning players to a portal transfer (Umude, to Arkansas) and a horrific knee injury (A.J. Plitzuweit).  They would have been better.

But, I agree that the lower tier of UND, UNO and DU appear very weak; at least so far.

FWIW, the NCAA NET rankings have the Summit League at #22 out of 32 leagues in D1.  While this is lower than previous seasons when I think the league may have been as high or 12th or 13th, it's still not too bad.  In comparison, the Horizon League (which features so many former SL teams) is 28th so far this season, and ORU's previous home, the Southland, is #30.  I just don't see any other leagues that would be a better fit for ORU, all things considered.

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49 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

St. Thomas is a senior-laden team that enjoyed all kinds of succes in DIII; they're simply overmatched physically at the D1 level.  They're very experienced and very well coached.

They will likely take a step back for the next season or two, then come back even stronger, as they rebuild with D1 talent.

I think the conference is appropriately strong in the upper tier of SDSU, ORU, WIU, NDSU and UMKC.  And I'm convinced that SDSU and ORU both are capable of doing damage for the league again if they get the right draw in the big dance.  

And note that USD took a double body shot this past spring when they lost their best two returning players to a portal transfer (Umude, to Arkansas) and a horrific knee injury (A.J. Plitzuweit).  They would have been better.

But, I agree that the lower tier of UND, UNO and DU appear very weak; at least so far.

FWIW, the NCAA NET rankings have the Summit League at #22 out of 32 leagues in D1.  While this is lower than previous seasons when I think the league may have been as high or 12th or 13th, it's still not too bad.  In comparison, the Horizon League (which features so many former SL teams) is 28th so far this season, and ORU's previous home, the Southland, is #30.  I just don't see any other leagues that would be a better fit for ORU, all things considered.

You win. You proved me wrong and made it a bit more palatable. I overreacted. 

I guess I am just holding out hope that the Dakotas are going to pull the Summit up a good ways before this whole thing blows up. I really think that SDSU may be good enough to earn an at-large if their conference schedule wasn't full of games against 300+ NET opponents. Denver, UND, Omaha have not produced wins like I thought they might.

If membership stayed exactly as it is today, Is it unreasonable to hope that the Summit turns into a perennial top-15 league in the next 10 years? 

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59 minutes ago, EagleManiac said:

If membership stayed exactly as it is today, Is it unreasonable to hope that the Summit turns into a perennial top-15 league in the next 10 years? 

Sadly, the transfer portal and NIL means all bets are off for predicting the future for low-majors like the Summit League.

I fear that smaller conferences are going to (have already?) become de facto farm leagues for the Power 5 conferences, with stars spinning out of the SL orbit just as they start to shine brightest.  For every Max Abmas and Baylor Schiermann that stays put, you'll have a Kevin Obanor and a Stanley Umude leave, thus diluting the product.

I would love to say the Summit League is headed toward becoming more powerful on the court, but I think true success for leagues their size will lie in (to carry the analogy further) developing a college version of the minor league baseball model:  focusing on providing fun, wholesome, and affordable family entertainment, featuring genuine student-athletes, and bereft of the crass commercialism and academic hypocrisy running rampant right now at the so-called higher levels.

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