INeedMoreCreativity's Week 4 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purdue | This is usually my weirdest ballot each year. This is the first ballot where I put a HEAVY emphasis on team resumes over preseason expectations and over how "good" teams look... |
| 2 | Arizona | I start doing that to reward teams who won most of their 2+ feast week games rather than playing one easy home game... |
| 3 | Virginia | I'm trying to reward teams who have proven something with their resume. The quality teams who scheduled weaker will probably catch up later... |
| 4 | UConn | |
| 5 | Alabama | |
| 6 | Houston | Dropped as other teams simply scheduled harder and won their games. I'd probably pick them to win on a neutral court vs anyone though |
| 7 | Kansas | Textbook example of overall rationale: "I am not trying to find the best team, I’m trying to find the most deserving team. ”Still #3 in WAB, #9 in SOR (as of 11/27). I expect KU to drop in future |
| 8 | Creighton | |
| 9 | Auburn | |
| 10 | Gonzaga | |
| 11 | Texas | Dropped as other teams simply scheduled harder and won their games. #26 in WAB and #17 in SOR (as of 11/27) |
| 12 | Maryland | |
| 13 | Mississippi State | |
| 14 | Indiana | |
| 15 | Tennessee | Also textbook example of overall rationale: "I am not trying to find the best team, I’m trying to find the most deserving team”. Resume holding them back for now: #22 in WAB, #30 in SOR (as of 11/27) |
| 16 | Sam Houston | Stellar resume. Everyone should be ranking them!!! Probably the only team with two top-100 away wins. |
| 17 | Iowa State | |
| 18 | Kansas State | I expect them to rise quickly as they continue to turn their team quality into a quality resume. |
| 19 | Arkansas | |
| 20 | Baylor | Dropped as other teams simply scheduled harder and won their games. #39 in WAB and #35 in SOR (as of 11/27) |
| 21 | Michigan State | |
| 22 | West Virginia | |
| 23 | San Diego State | |
| 24 | Illinois | |
| 25 | Ohio State |
Overall Rationale
I rank teams mostly by resume, as if the season ended today and I were ranking them for the tournament. I am not trying to find the “best” team, I’m trying to find the “most deserving team”. ------------ I use eye-test evaluations along with computer metrics to inform my rankings. Having a good record against a good schedule is the most important thing for my rankings. Sometimes, a team may have an excellent resume despite poor SOS (such as previous years’ Gonzaga), or a poor resume despite a great SOS (some .500 power conference teams). If your team wins more games against its schedule than other teams would win against that same schedule, then your team has a good resume. ------------ FAQ: ------------ 1. Why is my team ranked so low? My team is ranked #5 in kenpom! -- It’s likely that your team has a resume that’s relatively poor. I bet your team will do pretty well later in the season, but until then, I’ll rank the team with the better resume higher. ------------ 2. Why is that team ranked so high? They don’t even have any ranked wins! -- That team likely still has a good resume! A win against an okay team can be just as good as a win against a great team, depending on where the game is played. An average top-25 team is as likely to win on the road against the #75 team as it is to win hosting the #10. ------------ 3. How do you have Team A ranked over Team B? Team B just whalloped Team A! -- Single game results are only a small part of a team's larger whole body of work. Team A dropped in my rankings according to how bad their loss was, and Team B rose according to how good their win was. I don’t assign any additional weight to the game.