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March 5, 2007
MRI2006: Week 15 - Final Week
This is it. One week left, mostly mired in conference tournaments which means, while you may not fall much, the only way you can make a big difference in your fate is to win, and win, and win. And then if you were really on the bubble, win a 4th time so that you can guarantee your bid to the tournament.
I have said it before and I will say it again. This is a soft field. How soft? Davidson is #16 in the MRI. Davidson. Again, Davidson. No offense to Davidson. You have a lovely University. Beautiful grounds outside of North Carolina, and a great running path through your nature preserve. But only in a year like this when it seems like there was so much parity in the major conferences could you be considered the #16 team in the MRI.
This is not the George Mason team from last year, which stood in the rankings all season and finished at #18 before their tournament run. I am not believing that Davidson is Final Four caliber (and I didn't believe that George Mason was either, but GMU was Sweet 16 material at least and proved that and more). Let's wait and see what Davidson's ranking does this week as they are passed by some of the major conference teams in the tournaments. I think they will end somewhere around 20, which should mean that they make it into Saturday and Sunday and win a game for a smaller league.
A couple of thoughts this week. Michigan State is currently riding high, but look at the MRI scores after them. They are way too close to believe that a few big runs by teams like Texas, Villanova, and Marquette (shudder), could end that reign near the top for the Spartans. No, they aren't playing well on the road, but Michigan State has proved they can hang with the big names, and they will be a tough out no matter what.
If you are looking at the bottom of the bubble, take a long hard look at Vandy and Virginia. The Duke-UNC game showed a statistic that despite leading the league, the Cavs played one of the easiest schedules. Vandy meanwhile finished at 10-6. Count two wins against bottom dweller South Carolina. Count one against surprisingly bad LSU. That leaves 7 wins which seem decent (although more questions about the strength of a Georgia or Bama should be warranted), but look at some bad losses. Against Arkansas, against Georgia, against Auburn. They have one of the strangest conference records because they actually have beaten someone like a Florida or a Kentucky, but can't beat really bad teams on the opposite side of the ledger. Count me out on supporting either the Commodores or the Cavs come tourney time.
And with that, you can check out all the rankings in week 15 of the MRI.
| And Now the Rankings | |||||
| Teams Dropped From The Top 25: | |||||
| Old Dominion (LW #20, TW #30), Illinois (LW #23, TW #27), Missouri State (LW #25, TW #34) | |||||
| Other Teams People Might Care About | |||||
| Last Place this week: Winston-Salem State (2-24) at -102.69. 2nd week in a row. | |||||
| Biggest Gain this week: Creighton gained 16.71 points (Won Missouri Valley Tournament, beating Indiana State, Missouri State, and Southern Illinois) | |||||
| Biggest Loss this week: NJIT lost 13.77 points (Lost to Texas Pan-American, North Dakota State (by 52), and South Dakota State) | |||||
| Conference rankings this week: ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, PAC-10, MVC, Mountain West, C-USA, WAC, Atlantic 10 | |||||
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 March 5, 2007 5:00 PM
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