Moving up in the polls.

[mhettel]

the higher you get the harder it becomes to move up in the polls, due mainly to the fact that you need someone above you to lose so they drop some. It's not a great weekend to expect the kind of losses we need to move up.

Assume we take care of business and beat SJU.

#12 Texas @ Iowa State- Being a road game should make this a bit closer, but Texas should prevail.

#11 Butler @ Wisconsin Green Bay-5 of WGB's 9 losses have come against projected tourney teams (including a 9 pt loss @ Butler). If they play well, they could pull it off, but Butler is feeling it, and has found a way to win multiple times this year.

Northwestern @ #10 Michigan State- Blowout expected

Oregon State @ #9 Stanford- Blowout expected

Purdue @ #8 Wisconsin- Could be a very good game, but I'd expect Wisconsin to win. If Purdue wins, it probably says more about them than Wisconsin, meaning the badgers probably drop 2-3 spots as opposed to the 5-6 we'd need to pass them.

#7 Tennessee @ LSU- a well coached Tennessee team against a poor LSU team with a coaching change. I smell a HUGE blowout. Even if LSU gets the "W", it will be considered an emotional type win, and Tenn won't drop that far----plus they beat us.

#6 GTown @ UofL- -probably a good game, but GTown won't drop more than a couple spots if they lose to a good UofL team on the road.

Gotta win tomorrow to tread water for another week. Lets hope for an upset or 2 above us, cause that's what it's gonna take.

[The Artist]

Your points are definitely true, but there are other ways to gain ground.

For example, I believe a few voters still have us unranked. With a W tomorrow, maybe they put us in the top 20, giving us some nice points.

Our current situation isn't the particular case where a lot of people have all of the teams ranked the same. So, it's possible Butler may be "locked in" to their position, whereas we can still gain some points with voters. I haven't look into the votes to see if this is exactly true, but it's definitely possible.

[tacitus]

gotta agree with the Artist. I would add that teams below us in the overall rankings might be teams above us in an individual voter's rankings. So if they lose, we can gain more points. Regardless... at this point we just need to keep winning. We are playing for a 2,3 or 4 seed, depending on how well we finish out. All that matters to me is where we are in the rankings after the tourney...

[mhettel]

I'd be shocked if there are still voters that don't have us on their ballot anywhere. I don't think that's correct.

I'd even more shocked if those same voters (assuming they do exist) suddenly put us in their Top 20 based on a road win at SLU and a home win vs SJU. I'm guessing any voter currently not recognizing us, has no intention of ever doing it.

We'll move neither up nor down if we win and the teams rated directly above us do to.

I do not believe there is a great deal of volatility inthe voters ballots. Certainly not enough to move teams around in the poll.

[ford]

marquette lost today, and washington state earlier this week, so it's it's possible we could pick up some points with some voters

[Filthy Chilean]

I know this is off topic but speaking of Marquette, how the hell are they still ranked?

[MADXSTER]

MHettel, All but 2 voters have us in the top 20 in this past weeks' poll.

Try this,

http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollst ... 6&w=14&r=T

[ford]

texas losing at the half by 4

[XURunner85]

I agree it is going to be harder to move up in the polls this week, but all it takes is a good win and a loss by one or two teams right in front of us. Take it one spot at a time.

[Masterofreality]

I know this is off topic but speaking of Marquette, how the hell are they still ranked?

A charlatan program. Period. Crean is still living off Dwayne Wade and one win against Wisconsin.

They'll be gone from the rankings this week.