ISU up to 17 in AP

**twistedredbird** · 01-03-2011, 02:49 PM

ISU moves up to #17.

Michigan should be ranked at this point. Beating 3 straight top 25 teams, BC, OSU and Iowa at Iowa City.

As BF predicted, Baylor will be ranked #1 when we play them Saturday, on national TV so their will be lot's of eyes on it. Let's hope for a good game. Mad that I will miss it because of a funeral.

Iowa's (#19) and Oklahoma's (#21) losses hit them hard.

2011 Women's College Basketball Rankings and Polls for Week 9 - ESPN

**cyclone13** · 01-03-2011, 02:55 PM

Michigan's last 2 games have interesting impact on us: they beat OSU and beat the Hawks.
Not sure what happened to the Hawks: beginning their conference with 0-2 record. Probably the game vs ISU was their Final Four

**twistedredbird** · 01-03-2011, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by cyclone13

Michigan's last 2 games have interesting impact on us: they beat OSU and beat the Hawks.
Not sure what happened to the Hawks: beginning their conference with 0-2 record. Probably the game vs ISU was their Final Four

I'm sure they'll rebound, but having a short roster might be wearing on them. Michigan has good coach, that was a quality win for us, and if they keep pace, will be an excellent non-con win for us come selection time. I also look for TCU to rebound as well now that they are in conference.

**Tornado man** · 01-03-2011, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by twistedredbird

ISU moves up to #17.

Michigan should be ranked at this point. Beating 3 straight top 25 teams, BC, OSU and Iowa at Iowa City.

I'll have to finally agree, TWB. Other than their blowout loss to A&M, and the bad loss at home to Detroit, Michigan has been impressive. Even their loss to Marquette is starting look better, as Marquette has also beaten Green Bay.
They just didn't look very good against us at Hilton. Maybe they were creeped out by all the cops around Borseth.

**acoustimac** · 01-03-2011, 10:20 PM

Part of the reason they didn't look very good against us is called defense. The ISU defense can make a lot of good teams look average to bad.

**Frak** · 01-04-2011, 12:12 AM

ISU WBB is way overated right now. They are going to get exposed in-conference.

**mred** · 01-04-2011, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by Frak

ISU WBB is way overated right now. They are going to get exposed in-conference.

Way overrated? I think that's overstating it. ISU is a borderline top-25 team right now. 17th isn't that far up.

**cyclones500** · 01-04-2011, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by mred

Way overrated? I think that's overstating it. ISU is a borderline top-25 team right now. 17th isn't that far up.

ISU is probably benefitting from "consistent program cred" at this point, as far as ranking. That sort of thing happens when a program is good for a long period of time.

We'll have a better idea even after the first four games of conference play. I have a feeling Baylor will crush the Sisters (although I could see BF pulling off a game like that). There's also Nebraska on the road and A&M at home (would love to knock A&M down a notch with a win there, too)

Off-topic note: Just noticed this in the last couple of days — if you go to ESPN WBB, and go to the team schedules — then click on an opponent, it links to the MBB schedule. Anyone else notice this glitch?

That's the Worldwide Leader in Sports for ya.

**twistedredbird** · 01-04-2011, 07:04 AM

As MRed pointed out, we are probably a borderline top 25 team. BF who votes, hasn't voted for us yet, but I don't think he did last year until half way through the season. I think he probably uses that as motivation for the team.

If I was a non-biased voter, I would probably be ranking ISU in the 20s. We have credible wins over TCU(even though they are down, that is respectable - they beat OU), Virginia(who is on the move), and Michigan. Are only losses are to WV(who is undefeated, and even Geno has said he thinks they will contend against UConn for the Big East title), and Iowa. The team played tough against WV, and event though they lost by 11, if that game isn't the third in three days for the team and BF had a few days to prepare and watch a season of film on them, I think the outcome would be different). Even Chicago St. was a credible win. They took Northwestern and DePaul to the edge. If you look at Chicago St., they take their BCS level opponents to the edge.

As a whole, I think the caliber of WBB is a notch down from last year, except for the top 8 or so teams. A lot of the traditional top 25 programs are in rebuilding mode as we are.

We have to remember, this team is a grinder team who relies on defense. Blowing out opponents isn't going to happen often. It also means, for the most part, most of our games won't be "pretty."

We are going to benefit from being in the north this year. We only have to play A&M and Baylor once. And Mizzou and Colorado are rebuilding. KU is good, and always gives us fits. KSU could be a tough out too, but I will take playing them twice over playing Baylor or A&M twice.

I think BF may have discovered something with Hallie at the 3 this week. It will be interesting to see if we get more of that. Since the start of the season, I thought it would be good to have her at the 3 with Bolte at the 2 for some rotations.
We are lucky that we are in the North this year.

People have been hammering on our posts, but looking at the last couple games, they are scoring the majority of the points.

Of course conference season will determine a lot. Charlie Creme has us as a 5 seed right now, and he is probably the most level headed of the media in evaluating teams.

I'll take being a borderline top-25 team in a rebuilding year.

Go Clones!

**kcdc4isu** · 01-04-2011, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by cyclones500

ISU is probably benefitting from "consistent program cred" at this point, as far as ranking. That sort of thing happens when a program is good for a long period of time.

We'll have a better idea even after the first four games of conference play. I have a feeling Baylor will crush the Sisters (although I could see BF pulling off a game like that). There's also Nebraska on the road and A&M at home (would love to knock A&M down a notch with a win there, too)

That's the Worldwide Leader in Sports for ya.

We go to Baylor come home and play Nebraska, go to Colorado then get Texas A & M at home. If we play to the level we have in many of our games we should be 2-2 & maybe even 3-2.

**907CY** · 01-04-2011, 09:29 AM

This is why I don't put a lot of store in the ratings. We are no where near the 17th best team in the country. Maybe we are in the 30 to 35 range but certainly not the teens. Yes, we have had some good wins and have also played badly against some very weak teams. I think conference play will show the pollsters our flaws. The posts have played well the last two games but if they don't continue to do that every game then we have little chance of being at .500 in the Big 12.

#17... enjoy while it lasts...

**kcdc4isu** · 01-04-2011, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by 907CY

This is why I don't put a lot of store in the ratings. We are no where near the 17th best team in the country. Maybe we are in the 30 to 35 range but certainly not the teens. Yes, we have had some good wins and have also played badly against some very weak teams. I think conference play will show the pollsters our flaws. The posts have played well the last two games but if they don't continue to do that every game then we have little chance of being at .500 in the Big 12.

#17... enjoy while it lasts...

Thanks for being so supportive! We belong in the top 25 at this time, maybe 25 but at least that.

**twistedredbird** · 01-04-2011, 03:43 PM

FWIW, ISU moves to 16 in Coaches Poll.

2011 Women's College Basketball Rankings and Polls for Week 9 - ESPN

**CRAZYGREG** · 01-04-2011, 04:00 PM

With the defense that ISU plays we are definately a top 25 team. It may not be pretty but 48-46 is still a win!

**mhalb** · 01-04-2011, 04:44 PM

We are definitely not a 30-35 ranked team! We belong in the top 25, but I would put us more at 20-25. Our defense has been amazing. Though, the rankings this week are weird. I think I would still have UConn at the #1 spot because they did beat Baylor. They were bound to lose eventually. Every team has a bad game, and they happened to have a bad game against Stanford(which is a extremely hard place to play at) I also don't like Baylor moving up to the #1 spot right before we play them. They will come in with a lot more confidence, and hopefully we will play hard and not timid. I am also not so scared our leading scorers in last years game were Amanda, Kelsey, and Anna. We still have them. If we keep Griner (Baylor's leading scorer last year with 10pts.) calm we will have a good chance, maybe not a win though.