MRISports.com: MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 3

MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 3

December 15, 2008 | By Benjamin Miraski

Gilbert Brown has helped Pittsburgh overtake the Tar Heels for No. 1 Just when you thought no one could overtake North Carolina, well, here comes Pittsburgh.

The Panthers are off to another undefeated start, and while it won't last come Big East play, is has been very impressive.

Take their dominance on the boards. Pitt is out-rebounding their opponents by an average of 10.2 per game. If you can guarantee second shots like that, and keep your opponents from the same, you can see why no one has yet beat them.

Now, Pittsburgh could be on the edge of a big fall. None of their wins have been true road games. Their best two wins have been neutral site wins against Texas Tech and Washington State.

And the Big East is a huge challenge this season. Just count the teams in the top 25 of the MRI. Outside of Pitt, you have UConn, Louisville, West Virginia, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette and Syracuse.

Eight teams. Almost one-third of the posted rankings. (The ACC is still at the top. It doesn't have the poor bottom that the Big East does, and it takes three of the top four spots.)

So, while UNC might not be the top team this week, it could change after the holidays are over and the real fun starts in January.

Until then, at least Pitt can claim one week where they were better than the Tar Heels.

The MRI correctly predicted 73.40 percent of the games this week. All-time, the MRI has predicted 71.68 percent of the games.

Check out all the rankings in week three of the MRI.

MRI Top 25 Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
1	Pittsburgh	9-0	126.43	2
2	North Carolina	8-0	114.80	1
3	Clemson	10-0	106.39	4
4	Duke	8-1	105.72	3
5	Connecticut	8-0	99.41	5
6	BYU	10-0	98.28	19
7	Oklahoma	10-0	97.33	16
8	Louisville	6-1	92.22	17
9	Wake Forest	9-0	90.44	9
10	West Virginia	7-2	90.41	10
11	Texas	8-1	89.94	13
12	Gonzaga	6-1	89.72	7
13	Villanova	10-1	88.04	6
14	Kansas	7-2	84.72	11
15	Northwestern	6-1	84.63	8
16	Missouri	8-1	84.33	14
17	LSU	7-0	83.93	15
18	Illinois	9-1	81.40	NR(27)
19	Xavier	9-0	80.70	NR(33)
20	Memphis	5-2	80.70	18
21	Georgetown	7-1	80.04	NR(41)
22	Marquette	8-1	78.25	22
23	Cal	7-2	77.03	20
24	Washington	6-3	76.25	24
25	Syracuse	8-0	75.29	NR(29)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: Dayton (LW #12, TW #26), Davidson (LW #23, TW #31), Tennessee (LW #21, TW #33), Utah (LW #25, TW #54)

Other Teams People Might Care About

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
26	Dayton	9-1	74.79	12
37	Maryland	7-2	73.92	32
34	Michigan State	6-2	71.16	39
36	UCLA	6-2	70.89	50
38	Purdue	8-2	70.09	55
41	Iowa	9-2	68.33	65
43	Miami	6-2	68.03	52
47	Kentucky	7-3	65.89	60
51	Boston College	8-2	64.07	51
52	Illinois-Chicago	6-2	63.85	56
57	Wisconsin	7-2	62.45	70
61	Georgia Tech	5-2	61.30	34
72	Arizona	7-2	56.49	86
74	Notre Dame	6-2	55.06	73
80	Florida State	9-1	52.13	74
81	Michigan	6-2	51.26	76
82	Vanderbilt	6-3	50.87	98
87	Texas Tech	6-2	49.85	72
90	Auburn	4-4	49.36	77
144	Wofford	3-3	35.12	131
146	Drexel	2-3	34.64	154
178	Ohio	4-5	28.42	187
184	Northern Iowa	4-5	26.24	148
203	Indiana	4-5	22.12	232
205	Ball State	3-5	21.78	147
274	Pennsylvania	1-6	4.72	276
300	Valparaiso	2-6	-3.43	284

Last Place this week: North Carolina Central (0-11) at -61.33. 2nd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Alabama A&M gained 20.72 points. (Beat Tennessee State (69-67) and lost to Vanderbilt (55-78))

Biggest Loss this week: Gardner Webb lost 18.80 points (Lost to Wichita State (64-76) and Kansas State (48-107))

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

The MRI Rankings are copyright 2008 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski is a reporter for the Medill News Service, edits and writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com

Posted December 15, 2008 5:09 PM

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