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February 12, 2007

MRI2006: Week 12 - Nine or 10 team race?

It is tough to judge this season. The bubble may be the largest in the history of the MRI. Teams that look definitely out a week before manage to win big over the top teams in the list and jump up into almost lock territory (MRI > 100). But in general, the truth will be that the teams on the bubble, the ones that were out in the MRI and still make it, and the ones that manage to squeak in and make the MRI look genius aren't going to get the title.

That is a fact. The lowest rated team to win the title was Syracuse who was around #16 in 2003 when they won the title. And that was a wide open season where the title could have gone to anyone.

This season isn't that case.

I would venture that this season, the title will end up with one of the top 9 or 10 teams. I still haven't made up my mind on Duke at this point of the season, though they are undersized and underage for taking a title. Of course, you could make the arguement that the MRI #1 team, North Carolina, is as baby-faced as they get, but they have a lot more talent and balance than the Duke team that is currently taking the floor.

So, if this is a nine team race, this March could actually be more interesting than the past. It will be a struggle for those nine to make it to the regional finals, just based on the upsets we have seen this season. And once they are there, the tournament will be wide open. This could rival 2004 as one of the greatest Elite Eights we have ever seen.

Stay tuned fans. Despite the parity after the top 10, we have quite a race shaping up at the top, no matter how far ahead North Carolina might get ahead of the pack.

Check out all the rankings in Week 12 of the MRI.

And Now the Rankings

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
1
North Carolina
22-3
217.25
1
2
Florida
23-2
176.07
2
3
Memphis
21-3
168.92
3
4
Kansas
21-4
167.96
3
5
Texas A&M
21-3
166.12
4
6
Ohio State
22-3
156.00
6
7
Pittsburgh
22-3
154.75
7
8
Wisconsin
24-2
152.45
9
9
UCLA
20-3
148.22
8
10
Duke
18-7
131.58
10
11
Georgetown
18-5
131.09
16
12
Arizona
17-7
129.22
12
13
Clemson
19-5
125.57
13
14
Air Force
20-4
124.18
11
15
Marquette
20-5
120.87
14
16
Villanova
16-7
119.00
NR(26)
17
Notre Dame
18-6
118.91
15
18
Missouri State
18-7
117.49
21
19
Xavier
18-7
116.93
NR(38)
20
Indiana
17-5
116.87
19
21
Kentucky
18-6
116.43
20
22
Virginia Commonwealth
21-5
115.59
18
23
Butler
22-3
113.40
24
24
Connecticut
15-9
113.37
23
25
Michigan State
17-8
113.19
17

Teams Dropped From The Top 25:
Oregon (LW #22, TW #30), Oklahoma (LW #25, TW #26)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
27
Maryland
18-7
112.19
27
29
Georgia Tech
16-8
110.08
33
32
Illinois
18-9
107.81
32
36
Boston College
18-6
104.62
34
39
Florida State
17-8
103.77
31
40
Tennessee
17-8
102.06
50
42
Texas
17-7
99.67
35
45
Michigan
17-8
98.23
36
46
Purdue
16-9
97.46
53
49
Washington
16-8
93.76
58
55
LSU
14-10
90.29
56
67
Drexel
18-6
80.10
75
75
Texas Tech
15-10
73.78
70
79
Vanderbilt
15-8
70.08
71
80
Iowa
14-10
70.04
82
89
Ohio
15-8
62.75
84
92
Pennsylvania
13-8
61.81
105
93
Dayton
16-8
61.68
104
102
Northern Iowa
15-10
57.88
81
106
Auburn
13-12
54.69
95
146
Miami
10-15
38.00
150
199
Ball State
8-16
15.16
183
200
Illinois-Chicago
9-16
14.59
204
291
Wofford
5-16
-28.00
294

Last Place this week: North Florida (0-23) at -94.83. 3rd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Xavier gained 18.27 points (Beat Saint Louis and George Washington)
Biggest Loss this week: Stetson lost 18.32 points (Lost to Campbell and Gardner Webb)

Conference rankings this week: ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, PAC-10, MVC, Mountain West, C-USA, Atlantic 10, WAC

The MRI Rankings are copyright 2007 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com

Posted by bmiraski at February 12, 2007 10:00 PM

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