AP 18-19 Top 25 Poll

Big East tends not to get early respect in AP & Coaches polls historically if I am recalling correctly.
 
The fan in me says this AP poll is disrespectful with the talent on board.

The realist says this program hasn’t done anything in the past 20 years to earn anyone’s respect. It’s high time this changes.
 
Technically it's Top 22 and others receiving votes. Weird...but we got a few. Marquette is essentially in the top 25 there, since they only go up to 22 and they were the 2nd most receiving votes so 24th. IMO coaching and recent finishes are the only thing separating us from Marquette's ranking. Many pundits saying "show me first" before buying lots of our stock. That's fair...if we can beat Rutgers, GT, and Cal while taking care of the cupcakes, we will show pundits that we passed some major conference tests we should pass. If we do this we might even be top 15-20 by the Holiday Festival and boy would that be a nice Christmas gift. Even if we get ranked though we will obviously fall out after conference play begins as it's just too difficult to maintain it. To remain you really have to dominate your league or beat some blue bloods to get breathing room. Rutgers games always seem to be ugly gut check games. Better be ready for that one. Of course the real important thing is making the tourney ranked or not, but I think any decent coach would have this team ranked at least early on. From a conference perspective, I'm sick of being seen as Villanova and everyone else. This year teams like PC, SJ, and Marquette really need to step up.
 
As excited as we are for this upcoming season you know the pundits don't think much of your staff when in New YorK they rank Buffalo higher than St. John's. Auburn, which lost Heron to St. John's is ranked as a top 20 team.
Needless to say Mullin will be under the media microscope this year.
 
Poor showing for the Big East, as expected. Surprised SJU only got 3 votes...

Anyways, Big East has outperformed the pre-season AP in all 5 years. I've been tracking every year over at HLOP.
 
[quote="Mike Zaun" post=298724]Technically it's Top 22 and others receiving votes. Weird...but we got a few. Marquette is essentially in the top 25 there, since they only go up to 22 and they were the 2nd most receiving votes so 24th. IMO coaching and recent finishes are the only thing separating us from Marquette's ranking. Many pundits saying "show me first" before buying lots of our stock. That's fair...if we can beat Rutgers, GT, and Cal while taking care of the cupcakes, we will show pundits that we passed some major conference tests we should pass. If we do this we might even be top 15-20 by the Holiday Festival and boy would that be a nice Christmas gift. Even if we get ranked though we will obviously fall out after conference play begins as it's just too difficult to maintain it. To remain you really have to dominate your league or beat some blue bloods to get breathing room. Rutgers games always seem to be ugly gut check games. Better be ready for that one. Of course the real important thing is making the tourney ranked or not, but I think any decent coach would have this team ranked at least early on. From a conference perspective, I'm sick of being seen as Villanova and everyone else. This year teams like PC, SJ, and Marquette really need to step up.[/quote]

When it was first posted, only the top 22 were listed, but now it's up 1-25.

Marquette is 27th.
 
Totally agree. Looking good on paper for a program that hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game in 20 years is worthless. We've got to prove it on the court.
Auburn is ranked #11--after losing Mustapha. Marquette and Butler are ranked ahead of us, with Providence and Xavier, just after St. John's.
Let's do it.
 
Gotta say, it's rough looking at our schedule and seeing only 3 ranked games on it (Nova 2X, Duke), especially with those being really tough games and 2/3 on the road. Last year we played 8 ranked teams.

I certainly don't expect the results to stay this way, though. I think by the time BE play starts, there will be 2 or 3 ranked teams (hopefully one of them being us).
 
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True,and then the 1st scrimmage loss.we need to prove we are a very good team and that’s done only on the court. Top 50 seems right now let’s prove we are a top 25 by winning and not losing the games we are suppose towin
 
Now that KenPom is updated with 2019 projections, here is what our OOC schedule looks like:

I'll also include the 2018 final totals in (). (These were the numbers I was looking at previously)

Loyola MD: #298 (323) -25
Bowling Green: #188 (232) -44
@ Rutgers: #149 (130) +19
Cal: #157 (244) -87
Temple/VCU: #82/126 (86/144) -4/-18
Maryland Eastern Shore: #339 (349) -10
Georgia Tech: #92 (119) -27
Mt. St. Mary's: #324 (238) +86
Princeton: #148 (190) -42
Wagner: #200 (180) +20
St. Francis: #328 (313) +15
Sacred Heart: #327 (305) +22
@Duke: #2 (3) -1

=-85

Being - is being than being + here.

The top looks like it should be slightly stronger than last year. The bottom is still atrocious, with 5 projected teams at #298 or worse. GSJ should've limited us to one or two 300+ teams like we had last year. That's always been the biggest issue with the schedule.

That said, good news overall. The schedule blows, but projections are saying on average these teams will be better than last year. We have a shot at 3 top 100 teams...
 
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[quote="Adam" post=298728]Poor showing for the Big East, as expected. Surprised SJU only got 3 votes...

Anyways, Big East has outperformed the pre-season AP in all 5 years. I've been tracking every year over at HLOP.[/quote]

As I stated earlier, seeing Buffalo get 14 votes to our 3 is very telling. Nate Oats, the Buffalo head coach, has gone to 3 NCAA tournaments in his 4 years. He previously was a successful high school coach no one ever heard of. He recruited diamonds in the rough and coaches them up. His experienced associate head coach is a guy named Jim Whitesell.
Not an easy task in the tundra of the north country.
On the other hand we are located near the warm bright lights of Broadway. We have two hall of famers. Yet we have 3 losing seasons and still question marks regarding future talent.
Think what you want but Mullin needs to win big this year or he won't want to be around in 2019 to answer his critics.
 
[quote="Class of 72" post=298771][quote="Adam" post=298728]Poor showing for the Big East, as expected. Surprised SJU only got 3 votes...

Anyways, Big East has outperformed the pre-season AP in all 5 years. I've been tracking every year over at HLOP.[/quote]

As I stated earlier, seeing Buffalo get 14 votes to our 3 is very telling. Nate Oats, the Buffalo head coach, has gone to 3 NCAA tournaments in his 4 years. He previously was a successful high school coach no one ever heard of. He recruited diamonds in the rough and coaches them up. His experienced associate head coach is a guy named Jim Whitesell.
Not an easy task in the tundra of the north country.
On the other hand we are located near the warm bright lights of Broadway. We have two hall of famers. Yet we have 3 losing seasons and still question marks regarding future talent.
Think what you want but Mullin needs to win big this year or he won't want to be around in 2019 to answer his critics.[/quote]
Spot on re Oats, a very solid coach on the rise.
 
[quote="Paultzman" post=298773]
Spot on re Oats, a very solid coach on the rise.[/quote]

Could have used him this season, since he knows how to completely shut down a top big man.
 
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