NET Rankings

[Rednilla 5,449]

Can anybody explain how it is that we're sitting here with the best record in the country, having played one of the tougher schedules in the country (according to the NET quad rankings, at least), yet are still at #7 in the country in NET? I mean, Kentucky, who we beat, is #4...Gonzaga got beaten by Alabama, whom we have beaten twice now, and they're at #1...MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!

[WarTim 3,529]

I can explain. We are Auburn. 😎

[yngwie1995 2,410]

Jesse Newell has us #7 again in the AP. UK is #4. WTF? Of course, I guess we shouldn't be surprised by anything that guy does.

Edited February 7, 2022 by yngwie1995

[dmbseeker00 122]

Not rankings look alot at scores and margin of victory. A 2 pt win, believe it or not, is way different than a 6 pt win, for example.

[wareagle7298 133]

Well, if they are going to make it a beauty pageant, I guess we better put on our slippers.  Honestly, none of these things matter for squat. We've been #1 for three straight weeks, which is no small accomplishment. But we keep on winning and get a #1 seed, or we falter and don't. 

[tgrogan21 6,198]

35 minutes ago, wareagle7298 said:

Well, if they are going to make it a beauty pageant, I guess we better put on our slippers.  Honestly, none of these things matter for squat. We've been #1 for three straight weeks, which is no small accomplishment. But we keep on winning and get a #1 seed, or we falter and don't. 

Good thing the seeding isn't 100% based on NET rankings. If the season ended right now we would be the #1 seed overall. Our resume is easily the best. Hopefully we'll keep winning but if we drop a game don't worry too much because 1 loss isn't going to derail the great season we have had so far.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,091]

I just looked up 5 computer ratings/indexes and there was only one that had Auburn higher than Gonzaga, the RPI

we just don’t win prettier than Gonzaga. We don’t play prettier basketball. It’s not just us though, virtually no one does year in and year. The best version of Villanova and Gonzaga are going to be the metric darlings, and they’re both going to typically have a gigantic point margin through over half of the season, aka conference play. 

[BJCrawford 1,568]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I just looked up 5 computer ratings/indexes and there was only one that had Auburn higher than Gonzaga, the RPI

we just don’t win prettier than Gonzaga. We don’t play prettier basketball. It’s not just us though, virtually no one does year in and year. The best version of Villanova and Gonzaga are going to be the metric darlings, and they’re both going to typically have a gigantic point margin through over half of the season, aka conference play. 

So Gonzaga beating bad teams by 20 is what makes their net higher?

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,091]

1 hour ago, BJCrawford said:

So Gonzaga beating bad teams by 20 is what makes their net higher?

Margin is a massive part! Beating the NET’s 14th team by 20, 11th by 14, 45th by 30 (twice) and 32nd by 16 does definitely help 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,091]

forgot they beat the 15th by 12 too 

[81spacetiger 159]

Have you watched other non-SEC games; tougher teams we may encounter in the tournament?  Gonzaga puts up a lot of points and have played 5 quality teams going 3-2.  They also blow away everyone else.  They have scored over 100 five times this season in regulation.  So I can see why they are so high.

We have a good spread of quality wins.  As I see them:

UK	19-4
Murray St	22-2
Morehead St	19-6
LUC	18-4
Ala x 2	14-9
LSU	16-7
SLU	16-6

But we were so close to dropping MIZ and UGA - but we didn't.  We have, I think, 2 more quality teams (Ark and UT) and a bunch of teams that could beat us if we don't play well.  It is my hope we roll undefeated the rest of the way in the reg season.  If we can do this I think we can stay a #1 seed no matter what happens in the SEC tournament.    

[Butthead 525]

Who cares -- as Al Davis said, Just Win Baby.

[Rednilla 5,449]

15 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I just looked up 5 computer ratings/indexes and there was only one that had Auburn higher than Gonzaga, the RPI

we just don’t win prettier than Gonzaga. We don’t play prettier basketball. It’s not just us though, virtually no one does year in and year. The best version of Villanova and Gonzaga are going to be the metric darlings, and they’re both going to typically have a gigantic point margin through over half of the season, aka conference play. 

That explains why we aren't #1, but not why we *are* #7. I presume it's the same deal with us dropping that far in the NET, that the teams ahead of us "win prettier" than we do, but it just baffles me that we could have won this many games against this many quality opponents and still be this far down the line.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

What most of these metrics do are try to see how a given team performs vs expected outcome. So for example if a given metric says Auburn should beat UGA by 11 and we win by 2, we drop in the metric. When Gonzaga is supposed to beat BYU by 11 and they beat them by 30 they rise. Its not so much margin of victory as it is the actual margin vs the expected margin. 

[Rednilla 5,449]

51 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

What most of these metrics do are try to see how a given team performs vs expected outcome. So for example if a given metric says Auburn should beat UGA by 11 and we win by 2, we drop in the metric. When Gonzaga is supposed to beat BYU by 11 and they beat them by 30 they rise. Its not so much margin of victory as it is the actual margin vs the expected margin. 

Thank you! An explanation that fits what I was asking. I still think it's bogus that we're #7, but at least I understand more now.