NCAA Basketball: TCU’s struggles, Maui breakdown among biggest takeaways
By Joey Loose
9. Why early rankings aren’t very indicative
When the season starts, people get excited by the preseason Top 25 and the other early rankings and metrics that come out. It’s great to see your team in the rankings and it’s fun to get upset if they’re being underrated or not noticed. However, these rankings really don’t matter that much, and we’ve already seen how off-kilter some of them can be early on.
This isn’t a slight at people’s ability to rank teams, we’re just going to look closer at some of the teams ranked or almost ranked early on that haven’t lived up to the expectations. We’ve already talked about TCU; you already know their story, but there are a few other teams that have had their share of issues early on.
Villanova has not looked great this season after starting the year in the preseason polls at #16. Life after Jay Wright hasn’t been easy, with a 68-64 road loss to Temple, a 73-71 road loss to Michigan State, and a 10-point win over Delaware State that was far more competitive than it should have been. The Wildcats are struggling early but aren’t quite dead. They’re getting solid play out of Eric Dixon and Brandon Slater and will certainly appreciate when Justin Moore is back in this lineup.
Dayton is another team that’s fallen out of the early rankings. They dropped a 60-52 road game at UNLV just over a week ago and tumbled out of the polls as a result. Their offense hasn’t played great this last week, though they’ll get a chance to resurrect their resume at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Early on, mid-major darlings like Dayton and Saint Louis just don’t have the benefit of the doubt that other programs may have. Heck, Tennessee had an embarrassing showing against Colorado in Nashville and remain in the polls.
One last thing we want to focus on is the play of Texas A&M. A couple of solid opening week wins got the season started strong for the Aggies, who jumped into the AP Poll at #24. Unfortunately, their performance at the Myrtle Beach Invitational showed that perhaps they should not have been ranked. They had two horrific defensive performances in losses to Murray State and Colorado (by 28!) before shoring things up against Loyola-Chicago on Sunday, finishing in 7th place in the event. They may contend for an NCAA Tournament bid and could make noise in the SEC, but right now this is not a ranked team.