January 31, 2023: My Week 9 Top 25 ballot...with context
My weekly ballot breakdown...
It’s that time of week again. Here’s how my ballot looked for D3hoops.com. To check out the Week 9 Top 25, click here. The number on the left is where I had them ranked. In parentheses is where they were ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25.
1- Trinity TX (1): This is an easy one. The Tigers remain undefeated and have more than proven themselves against top level competition this season, particularly in non-conference play. No reason to move Trinity out of the top spot, though they did not play this past week. Key SCAC matchup set for tomorrow at Schreiner.
2-Christopher Newport (3): The Captains headed north and claimed a pair of wins, the second coming over NJCU, which was fairly solid for a non-conference win, considering NJCU is the NJAC race right now despite its sub-.500 overall mark. Big test vs UC Santa Cruz sent for Sunday afternoon at home.
3-Transylvania (2): Transylvania continues doing its thing, leading the HCAC title race by a game with six games left in the regular season. Manchester gave the Pioneers a fight in a midday matchup on Wednesday, but Transy pulled out a 13-point win in that one, and added a 23-point win at Bluffton on Saturday.
4-Scranton (4): Scranton is 19-0 and has not had much trouble rolling through the Landmark (not that I thought they would). Victories over Moravian and Goucher this past week keep hopes of a perfect season alive. Rematch vs Catholic is set for Saturday. It was a 10-point game at Catholic earlier this month.
5-NYU (7): The Violets had a bit of an upset alert at home against Case Western yesterday, before a 6-1 run in the final minute or so provided enough breathing room for an 11-point win. It’ll be an interesting rematch with the two battling exactly six days from now, this time at CWRU in Cleveland. Not sure why the UAA did that flip-flop, having NYU and TK face Carnegie Mellon and CWRU on consecutive weekends. Familiarity with the opponent won’t be an issue.
6-Smith (5): At 18-1, Smith opened the week with a strong victory over Tufts, winning by 10 before dominating as expected against Mount Holyoke on Saturday, winning 85-24. Smith is the best in the NEWMAC right now, though there is not a lot of breathing room for the Pioneers in a league with five teams very tight atop the league standings currently.
7-Hope (6): Hope has two losses this season, but in the past week, picked up back-to-back wins over those two opponents, getting “revenge”, if you will. The Flying Dutch first went to Trine on Wednesday, and won in a very tough atmosphere in Angola, IN, by a 14-point margin, then followed that by taking down Albion, 78-49, who had handed Hope a 69-53 loss exactly two weeks prior. I really like what Hope is doing right now, and those two wins warrant a two-spot jump in my ballot.
8-Trine (12): Trine has been up and down throughout this season, but overall, I really like what Trine has done and is right up there with Hope atop the MIAA. Wins over Wartburg, Hope, and Calvin, still look great, and yes, recent results should certainly be taken into account. Balancing those two out is sometimes difficult, but right now, I fully believe Trine is a Top 10 team. They travel to Albion in a tough duel this Wednesday in what might be their toughest matchup outside of Hope or Calvin in the MIAA.
9-Trinity CT (11): The Bantams are 19-1, and I’ve heard mixed thoughts about their schedule and overall resume. But at the end of the day, from watching Trinity play, this is a team that has met every expectation put forth. Their only loss is to my #6 team, and it came in overtime by 3 points, but outside of that, the Bantams have taken down Springfield, Bowdoin, Roger Williams, Babson, Hamilton, and Amherst, the latter three coming in this past week alone. They have four games left in NESCAC play, and have all the signs of being a team that will make a deep tournament run.
10-Chicago (10): The road trip going down to Atlanta then straight up to Rochester and playing twice in three days is far from easy. That considered, Chicago had a decent week, winning by five at Emory (who deserves some respect despite being towards the middle of the UAA) before falling at Rochester.
11-UWEC (17): I dropped UWEC back because although I really do like UW-River Falls a whole lot, an 11-point defeat against any team will probably slide you back a spot or two. I wasn’t too hard on UWEC this week, because they’ve more than excelled through WIAC play, and this league is just that deep. One loss isn’t necessarily the difference maker for me, especially because just watching UWEC, eye test wise, this is a team with experience and outside shooting. We’ll be talking about the Blugolds in March.
12-DeSales (9): Not much to say on DeSales. Kept them #12 as they keep doing what they do best: dominating in the MACF. Took down Lycoming and King’s this week; held both below 35 points.
13-UW-Whitewater (23): I have the Warhawks a whopping 10 spots higher than they ended up, and perhaps I have them too high, perhaps the voters as a whole have them too low. I really was impressed by the 30-point win over UW-La Crosse. I don’t think everyone knows just how good UWL is, and that’s a tough win for any team in the WIAC. Winning by that margin over any opponent in that league is incredibly difficult.
14- Puget Sound (20): The Loggers took a road loss to Whitman, but immediately bounced back by taking down a solid Whitworth team by 28 points. Every team will have its ups and downs, and Whitman was the better team on the floor that night. But PS is still my pick to win the NWC.
15-Hardin-Simmons: Parris Parmer is the main reason HSU is in the Top 10 right now. She hit a game-winning shot in a one-point win at Sul Ross State on Thursday that kept HSU undefeated in ASC play, and that record looks great in the eyes of a lot of voters (I would think). It was a phenomenal moment, but overall, as good as Sul Ross State is, it’s not a “marquee” victory that would warrant a major jump up. I slid HSU up one spot.
16- Rochester (18): Rochester snapped a three-game losing skid by beating Chicago by 10 at home, and I was particularly impressed with the defensive effort from the Yellowjackets in that one. Though the three-game losing skid isn’t something I’m willing to overlook, they are still worthy of a spot in the Top 20.
17- UW-Oshkosh (NR): The Titans ascend higher in my ballot, despite still not receiving a spot in the Top 25. To summarize: this is a team that handed WashU its worst defeat of the season (yes WashU had a few injuries at that point), took down Bethe, DePauw, and Wartburg on the road, and has come up with notable WIAC victories over uW-La Crosse and UW-Stout. I may have them a little too high, but we shall see.
18- Babson (16): Babson went 1-2 on the week, warranting a signficant slide towards the bottom of my ballot for the Beavers. But they also weren’t bad losses. Losing at home to Trinity CT isn’t great, but they were in it the whole way, and fell by just four. The 10-point defeat at the hands of Springfield was the one I raised my eyebrows at. Springfield really stepped up in that one.
19-Millikin (25): I’ve had Millikin in my ballot for several weeks now, and unlike UWO, they were finally ranked this week. They deserve it having absolutely controlled the CCIW. Head coach Olivia Lett has a fun team to watch.
20- WashU (NR): The Bears had already more than put themselves on the map in victories over Top 10 opponents in Chicago and NYU, but adding another weekend sweep, this time of Rochester and Emory on the road, was enough for me to put the UAA’s current leader into my ballot.
21- Ohio Nothern (13): The OAC is fairly deep, but in this situation, I felt like the teams ahead simply had better resumes at this point in time. ONU took down Wilmington by eight on the road and then dominated against Mount Union. I could see moving ONU back into my Top 20 very soon. -
22- Gustavus Adolphus (22): Originally, it seemed the MIAC would be a two-bid league, but now I’m starting to think Gusty might be the league’s only representative come March. We shall see. But road wins at Bethel and Augsburg this past week gave me the confidence to move Gusty up three spots.
23- Loras (NR): Since the non-conference schedule has died down and the Top 25 wins have stopped coming for the only ranked team in the ARC, it seems the hype around Loras has died down a bit from voters. The Duhawks still have exceptional non-conference wins, and outside of the loss at Wartburg, have seemingly sprinted through the league slate. They deserve to be ranked.
24- Baldwin Wallace (14): I’ve had a lot of trouble buying into Baldwin Wallace. Not just for the last week. For the last three or four weeks. They just haven’t looked all that convincing, and beat a 2-18 Heidelberg team by just 10 this past week. A 10-point loss to Marietta followed, and too many teams had strong enough weeks to the point that I just couldn’t place BW all that much higher. They’re a difficult team to figure out.
25- Calvin (21): I ended up having Calvin a bit higher than where they ended up in the poll. I really like what the Knights have been doing as of late, and it’s shaping up to be a huge week for Calvin in the second week of February, getting another crack at both Trine and Hope. At 16-3, Calvin is in a good spot, and just needs to keep winning to keep its Pooll C hopes alive. Side note- Gabby Timmer became Calvin’s all-time leading in career rebounds on Thursday, with 1,072 and counting in her collegiate career.
On the outside looking in:
26. Ithaca
27. Elizabethtown
28. UMHB
29. UW-Stout
30. UC Santa Cruz
Biggest difference between my ballot and the poll: Whitewater (-10), Baldwin Wallace (+10), Ohio Northern (+7), Hardin-Simmons (+8)
Dropped out of my ballot: Mary Hardin-Baylor
Now in: WashU
Who I didn’t have that the poll did: Elizabethtown, Ithaca, Messiah
Who I had that the poll didn’t have: Loras, UW-Oshkosh, WashU
The poll’s biggest risers: Hardin-Simmons (13 -> 8), Ohio Northern (18 -> 13)
The poll’s biggest drops: Babson (9 -> 16), Baldwin Wallace (10 -> 14)