College Basketball Team Rankings - February 27, 2012
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| I've always liked Randy Newman's version |
Here are the College Basketball Team Rankings as of February 27, 2012. These rankings use the Vegas point spreads to derive an implied team by team ranking. My original post of the rankings has more detail on the methodology.
Kentucky is back on top again, with a half point lead over Ohio State. Despite Ohio State's drop, the Big Ten overall gets a lot of respect in these rankings, with three of the top ten teams, and 9 of the top 64. Also, the top 4 teams in Strength of Schedule (the SOS column) are all Big Ten teams. It will be interesting to see if this holds come the NCAA tournament. It's impossible to tell at this point as the Big Ten teams have not been playing inter-conference games (at least not ones with betting action).
Of the unranked teams (according to the AP and the Coaches), California (#13) is the strongest according to these rankings. Their current RPI is #39. The Bears may make a good pick to play above their seed in the NCAA tournament.
Here's another view of the differences between the polls and these rankings. The scatter plot below uses Google Visualization API. Hover over each data point for more info. As you can see, the biggest differences are San Diego State and Murray State.
| Other Rankings | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | LstWk | GPF | Conf | SOS | GWP | KenPom | AP | Coaches | ||
| 1 | Kentucky | 2 | 18.5 | SEC | 1 | 3.5 | 57 | 0.96 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Ohio St. | 1 | 18.0 | B10 | 1 | 7.0 | 4 | 0.95 | 2 | 10 | 11 |
| 3 | Syracuse | 3 | 17.0 | BE | 1 | 3.5 | 53 | 0.94 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Kansas | 4 | 17.0 | B12 | 1 | 6.0 | 17 | 0.94 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | North Carolina | 6 | 16.5 | ACC | 1 | 4.0 | 46 | 0.94 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| 6 | Michigan St. | 5 | 16.0 | B10 | 2 | 6.5 | 11 | 0.94 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | Duke | 8 | 13.5 | ACC | 2 | 5.5 | 33 | 0.90 | 10 | 4 | 3 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | 13 | 13.5 | B10 | 3 | 7.0 | 3 | 0.90 | 5 | 14 | 15 |
| 9 | Missouri | 7 | 13.5 | B12 | 2 | 5.5 | 32 | 0.90 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| 10 | Florida | 9 | 12.0 | SEC | 2 | 5.0 | 39 | 0.88 | 17 | 16 | 13 |
| 11 | Wichita St. | 11 | 12.0 | MVC | 1 | 2.5 | 81 | 0.88 | 8 | 15 | 14 |
| 12 | Marquette | 17 | 12.0 | BE | 2 | 5.5 | 28 | 0.88 | 16 | 8 | 7 |
| 13 | California | 15 | 11.5 | P12 | 1 | 2.5 | 77 | 0.87 | 24 | ||
| 14 | Vanderbilt | 16 | 11.5 | SEC | 3 | 5.5 | 24 | 0.87 | 20 | ||
| 15 | Baylor | 12 | 11.0 | B12 | 3 | 7.0 | 5 | 0.87 | 18 | 9 | 10 |
| 16 | Georgetown | 14 | 11.0 | BE | 3 | 5.5 | 26 | 0.86 | 13 | 11 | 12 |
| 17 | Louisville | 18 | 11.0 | BE | 4 | 5.0 | 34 | 0.86 | 27 | 19 | 18 |
| 18 | New Mexico | 10 | 10.5 | MWC | 1 | 1.0 | 106 | 0.86 | 15 | ||
| 19 | Indiana | 19 | 10.5 | B10 | 4 | 7.5 | 1 | 0.85 | 11 | 18 | 20 |
| 20 | Gonzaga | 28 | 10.5 | WCC | 1 | 0.5 | 112 | 0.85 | 33 | ||
| 21 | Saint Louis | 25 | 10.0 | A10 | 1 | 0.5 | 115 | 0.84 | 12 | ||
| 22 | Texas | 23 | 10.0 | B12 | 4 | 6.0 | 13 | 0.84 | 26 | ||
| 23 | UNLV | 20 | 10.0 | MWC | 2 | 2.5 | 74 | 0.84 | 30 | 17 | 17 |
| 24 | Temple | 33 | 10.0 | A10 | 2 | 2.0 | 92 | 0.84 | 34 | 23 | 25 |
| 25 | Kansas St. | 32 | 10.0 | B12 | 5 | 5.5 | 27 | 0.84 | 23 | ||
| 26 | Memphis | 31 | 10.0 | CUSA | 1 | 3.0 | 69 | 0.84 | 14 | ||
| 27 | Michigan | 21 | 9.5 | B10 | 5 | 7.5 | 2 | 0.83 | 25 | 13 | 16 |
| 28 | West Virginia | 22 | 9.0 | BE | 5 | 6.0 | 19 | 0.82 | 45 | ||
| 29 | Notre Dame | 29 | 9.0 | BE | 6 | 6.0 | 12 | 0.81 | 32 | 20 | 19 |
| 30 | Florida St. | 26 | 9.0 | ACC | 3 | 4.5 | 42 | 0.81 | 29 | 22 | 22 |
| 31 | UCLA | 30 | 8.5 | P12 | 2 | 2.5 | 80 | 0.81 | 52 | ||
| 32 | Virginia | 37 | 8.5 | ACC | 4 | 4.0 | 48 | 0.81 | 19 | 24 | |
| 33 | St. Mary's | 60 | 8.5 | WCC | 2 | 0.0 | 123 | 0.81 | 41 | 21 | |
| 34 | Purdue | 40 | 8.5 | B10 | 6 | 5.5 | 23 | 0.81 | 28 | ||
| 35 | BYU | 27 | 8.0 | WCC | 3 | 0.5 | 121 | 0.80 | 38 | ||
| 36 | Connecticut | 24 | 8.0 | BE | 7 | 6.5 | 9 | 0.80 | 36 | ||
| 37 | Cincinnati | 38 | 8.0 | BE | 8 | 4.5 | 41 | 0.79 | 37 | ||
| 38 | Long Beach St. | 34 | 8.0 | BW | 1 | 0.5 | 113 | 0.79 | 42 | ||
| 39 | Arizona | 39 | 7.5 | P12 | 3 | 2.5 | 70 | 0.78 | 44 | ||
| 40 | Northwestern | 41 | 7.5 | B10 | 7 | 6.5 | 8 | 0.78 | 56 | ||
| 41 | Minnesota | 48 | 7.5 | B10 | 8 | 5.0 | 40 | 0.77 | 61 | ||
| 42 | Creighton | 36 | 7.5 | MVC | 2 | 2.5 | 78 | 0.77 | 39 | 25 | 24 |
| 43 | Alabama | 51 | 7.0 | SEC | 4 | 5.5 | 29 | 0.77 | 21 | ||
| 44 | Illinois | 35 | 7.0 | B10 | 9 | 6.5 | 10 | 0.76 | 63 | ||
| 45 | Pittsburgh | 43 | 7.0 | BE | 9 | 6.0 | 15 | 0.76 | 90 | ||
| 46 | VA Commonwealth | 47 | 7.0 | CAA | 1 | -2.5 | 186 | 0.76 | 47 | ||
| 47 | Tennessee | 55 | 7.0 | SEC | 5 | 3.5 | 60 | 0.76 | 65 | ||
| 48 | Washington | 45 | 6.5 | P12 | 4 | 3.5 | 59 | 0.75 | 68 | ||
| 49 | North Carolina St. | 50 | 6.5 | ACC | 5 | 3.5 | 56 | 0.75 | 58 | ||
| 50 | Clemson | 42 | 6.5 | ACC | 6 | 2.0 | 93 | 0.75 | 67 | ||
| 51 | Miami Florida | 65 | 6.5 | ACC | 7 | 3.0 | 66 | 0.75 | 40 | ||
| 52 | Iowa St. | 44 | 6.5 | B12 | 6 | 4.0 | 45 | 0.75 | 31 | ||
| 53 | South Florida | 69 | 6.5 | BE | 10 | 4.0 | 47 | 0.74 | 69 | ||
| 54 | San Diego St. | 54 | 6.5 | MWC | 3 | 2.5 | 75 | 0.74 | 60 | 21 | 23 |
| 55 | Seton Hall | 59 | 6.0 | BE | 11 | 5.0 | 35 | 0.74 | 43 | ||
| 56 | Stanford | 52 | 6.0 | P12 | 5 | 2.5 | 79 | 0.73 | 54 | ||
| 57 | Oregon | 61 | 6.0 | P12 | 6 | 3.5 | 58 | 0.73 | 72 | ||
| 58 | Colorado | 62 | 6.0 | P12 | 7 | 3.0 | 65 | 0.72 | 85 | ||
| 59 | Middle Tenn St. | 70 | 5.5 | SB | 1 | -4.0 | 232 | 0.72 | 50 | ||
| 60 | Harvard | 58 | 5.5 | Ivy | 1 | -3.0 | 212 | 0.71 | 35 | ||
| 61 | Oregon St. | 56 | 5.5 | P12 | 8 | 2.5 | 73 | 0.71 | 91 | ||
| 62 | Iona | 49 | 5.5 | MAAC | 1 | -3.5 | 219 | 0.71 | 49 | ||
| 63 | Southern Miss | 53 | 5.0 | CUSA | 2 | 1.0 | 104 | 0.70 | 66 | ||
| 64 | Oral Roberts | 75 | 5.0 | Sum | 1 | -2.0 | 173 | 0.70 | 89 | ||
| 66 | Murray St. | 57 | 5.0 | OVC | 1 | -4.5 | 239 | 0.69 | 48 | 12 | 9 |
Glossary
- LstWk - The team's ranking from the prior week
- GPF - Stands for "Generic Points Favored". It's what you'd expect the team to be favored by against a Div-I average opponent at a neutral site.
- Conf - The conference the team plays in and their GPF rank within that conference
- SOS - Stands for "Strength of Schedule". It's the average GPF of the teams faced thus far this season (along with the corresponding rank).
- GWP - Stands for "Generic Win Probability". I converted the GPF into a win probability using the following formula: GWP = 1/(1+exp(-GPF/6))
- KenPom - The team's rank according to kenpom.com. The best college basketball stats site you're going to find.
- AP - The team's rank (if it exists) according to the AP Top 25 poll.
- Coaches - The team's rank (if it exists) according to the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll.
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