I agree with everything that's been said so far, keeping everyone healthy is the key. This team has everything we have wished for in the past. We have height, sharp shooters, hustlers, bench play and basketball IQ. On any given night anyone on this team can get hot and wear you out, you double and triple team one and the others will kill you. Teams have to choose their poison with this bunch. We just need to set back and enjoy this ride because it could turn into a dream season.
LADY RAIDER BB NET Rankings
- Thread starter MTOleBlue
- Start date
Wanted to make a correction to an above statement. Should have been defensive specialist "Whittington". Apologies Alexis!
Looking at Net Rankings a lot of P5 teams are playing very well & have excellent records. Then again it's easy to have a great record when 75% of your games are at home prior to conference play. Take the school in Knoxville for example, they're only 11-6. Imagine their record without home court advantage. Conference play is kicking in, & those same teams will have to leave the security of their 15,000 seat stadium. Outside of a half dozen teams many of those only have friends & family to show up. This is where the Lady Raiders can make a move. Many of those 13-2 teams will soon become 15-7. Keep winning the way you're currently doing ladies, a top 25 ranking with a 5-7 bracket seeding will soon be within reach.
If we win out there is the POTENTIAL of a top 16 seed given our NET ranking and beat down of Louisville, that would mean home games. But we have to take it a game at a time, CUSA is a powerful league and we are going to get every team’s best shot
One game this week against Rice at home on Wednesday. Need everyone in attendance!
After Rice, I forgot we don't play again until next Monday. Looking at the top 25, there are a couple of teams in the 20's who have some tough games this week - particularly Kansas. Hopefully a couple of L's for them, one at the least. Obviously, we just need to worry about ourselves and keep winning but a few losses by those ahead of us can only help us climb.
Ladies maintaining pace in all important Net Rankings. Raiders moved up 1 spot to #22. Looks like Middle Tennessee & Michigan were the only 2 teams to move up from last weeks top 25. Everyone else appeared to stay the same or move down or out of the top 25.
Lady Raiders work their way back up to #20 in the Net. MT is now the only Top 20 representative outside of the Power 6 Basketball conferences. Keep up the hard work ladies!
#23 Kansas lost again today! They've lost 2x this week.
#18 Baylor lost to OSU earlier this week.
And #20 Gonzaga is tied 35-35 with Portland at halftime.
Tomorrow, #24 Illinois (away at Minnesota) and #22 North Carolina (home vs #11 NC State) play.
Biggest make a statement week since the Louisville game. Gonzaga ended up winning. Anyway, if we take care of business against UAB Monday strong chance the Lady Raiders will be in AP top 25! From there just keep it up against Charlotte & Tech next week.
AP poll should be out before the UAB game, so hopefully we keep up the winning ways.
Both Illinois and NC win today. However, #18 Baylor and #21 Oregon both lose. Question is, do they slip enough for us to jump them? Realistically though, we just need to play with a chip on our shoulders and go take care of business. Whether we like it or not, we lose one game and we'll have an uphill battle to get into the rankings and a favored speed. Unless something unexpected happens, this team will be dancing in the NCAA tourney. Sure would be nice to possibly host a game and to have a shot at doing that we need to treat every game like a championship game. We have the gear to tackle that mountain. All we need to do is climb one step at a time.
The fact that we're #18 in the NET means we have a legit chance to host an NCAA game if we win out. That is absolutely incredible, would be a huge milestone -- BUT an NCAA berth should be the bar we meet regardless!
Still #27 in today's AP Poll but we did gain votes and have 39. Texas sits at #25 with 62 votes.
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A lot of really questionable voting when certain voters have Louisville at, for example, #19 and us unranked after we crushed them earlier this year and have been on a win streak since before that game
Lady Raiders can't afford any slip ups.
Even if MT climbs further in NET, not sure the Selection committees are obliged to follow them. Got to be the best they can be.
Comparing other 9 seeds net ranking. MT #18, Oklahoma St. #50, Kansas #34, Creighton #23
Yep the better TTU does, the better for us.
New Net Ranking high today! Lady Raiders reach #17 ranking by flip flopping spots with Lady Vols.
Awesome! Also this week from the AP rankings, #23 Oregon falls Friday. #25 Texas fell earlier this week and plays #26 Baylor tomorrow. Win today and Monday we "should" have a Top 25 spot. Actually, already should but better late than never.
Boo! I was comparing the top 50 net rankings of ladies numbers vs men numbers from G5 conferences. It's an overwhelming higher ratio for the men vs ladies. Are G5 institutions doing a better job supporting men's basketball vs women's basketball? Or is there more bias against G5 women vs Power5 women (Power6 when including Big East) from the NCAA & media voters?
If most G5's just aren't supporting women's basketball well maybe I should give more of a thumbs up to our administration. Despite my anger towards our athletic department in certain areas, I can't deny that despite our G5 status the good recruiting & efforts being installed in our ladies basketball program. We're heads & shoulders above 90% of other G5 schools in this area anyway.
I don't know that I can answer that but there is still a noticable gap in the way the NCAA treats the men and women. Haven't we been the higher seed and played on a P5 team's home court in past NCAA Tournaments? If it wasn't us, it happens. Too many early round home games for the P5 team's instead of a neutral court like men do. So the set up for years has been P5 heavy. To me, this is part of the reason there is rarely a Cinderella story like the men. Most of those that have a chance to put on that slipper can't overcome the home court advantage and get weeded out early.
Say we make a NCAA Sweet 16 run. We have virtually everyone back, then we probably start next season ranked. But if we win out, lose in the first round then we start the same uphill battle we are fighting now over again.
It's hard for a non P5 school to make a name for itself. Those who have seen the Lady Raiders play know they are a Top 25 team. Yet here we are, hoping we get in this week. Teams in front of us lose and drop a few spots and have several losses. Us lose? We are going to drop like a rock.
Until the NCAA levels the playing field, it's always going to be a challenge.
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After watching Louisville choke bad in game today Against top 2o NCState, I realized that most top 20 teams are bigger than us but not really better. We have skilled basketball players than can shoot the ball. Louisville went 1-16 in the 4th quarter and NCState was not much better. Nationally televised game that was painful to watch. I like our chances to make a run this year!
Agreed. Come tournament time it's always guard play that makes the difference in high stakes games. After watching Wheeler's gutsy play come to life when the pressure was on it really builds the confidence level. Despite having been struggling from the outside recently, when we really needed her yesterday she was drilling 3's from all over in the 4th. Wheeler & Blakeney don't take a backseat to anyone in the top 25 handling the rock. Their ability to drive, shoot, & beat the press can keep us in a lot of games. We're also one of the nation's best in free throw accuracy. In tournaments many of those factors can play bigger roles than who has the tallest squad. Watched a couple top 25 women's teams this weekend. Both shot no better than 65% from the stripe.
Agree on the skill level and importance of FTs. Those qualities win games. Let’s not forget we’re a pretty tall team too. Maybe not the tallest but Boldyreva is 6’6”, Malashka is 6’1”, Grannum is 6’3”… and our guards are pretty big too. Whittington is almost 6’0” and Scott actually is that tall.
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