Big Ten Basketball 2020-21 Discussion (Part 1)

GoBlueScrewOSU7 · January 4, 2021, 2:37pm

Looks like we opened up at 6th in NET

CursedBlue · January 4, 2021, 2:39pm

Oh! Well that’s a nice Monday morning surprise.

steve · January 4, 2021, 2:39pm

Interesting. I could’ve sworn I read that they weren’t going to publish NET this season.

CursedBlue · January 4, 2021, 2:40pm

Michigan State is at 119 for those wondering.

kturnup · January 4, 2021, 2:41pm

…I was wondering…

steve · January 4, 2021, 2:44pm

sadtrombone.mp3

CursedBlue · January 4, 2021, 2:47pm

Welp, looks like we’re gonna need a special 2 hour long pod discussing the rankings. Oh well!

Sgold23 · January 4, 2021, 2:47pm

I agree, think it’s mandatory at this point

buckets12 · January 4, 2021, 2:56pm

Colgate is 1-1 with only 2 games against Army played and they are 16th in NET. What a dumb system.

AC1997 · January 4, 2021, 3:01pm

It is especially dumb when they hide the metrics behind it. At least with the BCS you aggregated a few computer systems and most of them were at least somewhat transparent about how they built their systems.

AC1997 · January 4, 2021, 3:02pm

I thought they changed it to 17 days recently? Or was that just to appease OSU football so they could get all of their players back for the playoff?

kturnup · January 4, 2021, 3:03pm

Patriot League probably just broke the system a bit. No idea how Colgate ended up that high but they likely didn’t create the system intending for a team to have only played 2 games against the same team.

CursedBlue · January 4, 2021, 3:05pm

I’ve been pretty pleased with the system
It seems far superior to RPI from a “does this make even the slightest bit of sense” perspective. Every year, people seem to forget that it’s always weird at the start due to lack of data. Obviously a year like this will just make that issue worse. Every year it has sorted itself out. I don’t like that they hide the formula either, but the results have still been pretty good to me.

DeAngeloVickers · January 4, 2021, 3:06pm

Yes, in a ranking system with no priors, a league that is totally unconnected from the rest of the teams will completely mess with the system

AC1997 · January 4, 2021, 3:07pm

Oh, don’t get me wrong, NET is 1000000% better than RPI. It is definitely a step in the right direction. I just hope that the selection committee doesn’t fall in love with any one system.

CursedBlue · January 4, 2021, 3:10pm

I think they’ve done a decent job not isolating it as a sole factor thus far. They seem to be using it more as a barometer/reference for how good a team’s resume is rather than seeding based on NET itself. Like, “oh this SEC team is 3-7 in Quad 1 NET games, we’re going to put them behind this Big Ten team that is 9-12.”

SteveM · January 4, 2021, 3:14pm

So we have 3 top 50 wins based on NET including 1 top 40, though Northwestern is right on the edge at 50. Gotta like that. Minnesota seems a bit undervalued at #43.

AC1997 · January 4, 2021, 3:20pm

Nice to see Toledo, UCF, and BGSU all in the top-100.

SteveM · January 4, 2021, 3:25pm

Duke at #115 and Notre Dame at #169. Seems like we had a tougher OOC than certain people will give us credit for.

steve · January 4, 2021, 4:18pm

Colgate is likely getting a ton of unintended boost because they beat Army in their first game of season, 101-57. Not sure why they started so late (probably COVID), but with most teams having played 7-10 games and Colgate only having a near double-up and a two-point loss, they’re definitely getting a wonky ranking at this stage.