It's still early in the basketball season, and CIS fans are probably thinking about football right now, but let's get the ball rolling on the hoops RPI.
In previous years, we could rely on Mark Cheers' RPI. It doesn't seem to be up for this year, so we'll use the just-created CISBlog.ca RPI instead. As usual, RPI is calculated from a team's record, its opponents' record, and its' opponents' opponents' record with the standard 25%-50%-25% weights. Our RPI only considers regular-season games at this point; we could include the preseason results in later editions.
Also, in a team's record, home wins and road wins count for 0.6 and 1.4 wins respectively, instead of 1 and 1. The same 0.6/1.4 weighting is used for road losses and home losses. This may sound arbitrary, but it's what the NCAA decided on and it seems good enough for now.
So here is The CIS Blog RPI through games of Nov. 16. The top 10 teams are listed, along with their actual W-L record.
MEN
1. UBC (7-1), .606
2. Victoria (6-2), .590
3. Queen's (2-2), .590
4. Cape Breton (3-1), .580
5. Windsor (3-1), .562
6. StFX (3-0), .555
7. Brock (4-0), .542
8. SFU (4-3), .539
t-9. Ottawa (3-1), .533
t-9. Carleton (3-1), .533
Early-season shenanigans: the Ravens and Gee-Gees are exactly tied in record, RPI, strength of schedule, and everything else. They have played the same opponents, each lost once on the road, and have identical win-loss records. Don't count on those last two similarities continuing.
WOMEN
1. Ottawa (4-1), .607
2. Saskatchewan (4-2), .597
3. Regina (5-1), .587
4. SFU (6-1), .578
5. Winnipeg (6-2), .562
6. Windsor (5-1), .561
7. Carleton (2-3), .560
8. Alberta (3-3), .560
9. Dalhousie (1-3), .559
10. Lakehead (3-3), .554
Again, these numbers don't mean much yet, but they're at least interesting and drawing attention to unheralded teams. Ottawa, for example, did not receive any votes at all, yet there they are with the best RPI in the country.
(It is tempting to use this Top 10 list as a framework for the weekly post instead of the official Top 10, but maybe it's best to do so later in the season, once the results have more meaning and all the Quebec teams have actually played a game.)
A complete change of personnel, since last season, in the Ottawa women's coaching staff has done wonders for that team. The rest of the CIS has not caught on to that yet. They will as the season goes on.
ReplyDeleteWe probably should collect all the non-conference results and crunch the numbers.
ReplyDeleteWayne Kondro led his basketball story in last Saturday's Ottawa Citizen with the Gee-Gees women's team, for obvious reasons.
I ended up talking with Andy Sparks, the coach, today (missed him yesterday when I was putting together a column item on them). He's still stressing it is a "slow process" and that they don't have the kind of individual scoring talent where they can put teams away early. Mario Gaetano, the lead assistant, has no doubt been a big part of it tall.
They pretty much are doing with the same cast as last season, only they're a year older and reinvigorated under new coaches. Laurentian is probably the team to beat in the OUA East, but it's a pretty wide-open division, it doesn't have a team like McMaster of the past two years or Windsor this year.
Not to mention that the Queen's women are much weaker than last year, further opening up the OUA East. Interesting that the Gaels' men are so high in RPI despite what hasn't been a tremendous start. They could make some things happen this year as their young guys gain experience, and I really like the addition of Stinson; this team needed another big rebounder.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on being part of The Score Sports Federation. I am as well with my Dino Nation Blog. It is of course a Raptor based blog but I am always looking to promote all forms of basketball that is Canadian. So if they is every stuff that you feel is important please make me aware and I will try to let my readers know about it.
ReplyDeleteI covered Canada Basketball over the summer because it was something I feel strongly about. So anytime I can help you guys out on the basketball front please don't be a stranger
Congrats again
James
P.S I added a link to this post today to let my readers know about you guys.