USCHO poll 2/16

[Pete]

Woohoo 12 votes!!  

USCHO Division I Men's Poll
February 16, 2004

   Team        (First Place)    Record  Pts   Last Week
 1 Boston College       (40)    23-3-4  600     1
 2 North Dakota                 20-6-3  539     2
 3 Maine                        21-6-3  496     3
 4 Michigan                     21-8-1  485     5
 5 Minnesota-Duluth             20-8-3  468     6
 6 Wisconsin                    17-9-6  371     7
 7 Minnesota                   18-11-3  363     4
 8 St. Cloud State              18-9-3  320     9
 9 New Hampshire               16-10-5  231    10
10 Miami                       18-11-3  224     8
11 Denver                      18-10-4  209    12
12 Ohio State                  19-13-0  143    14
13 Brown                        14-6-5   99    11
14 Massachusetts                16-8-5   79    13
15 Colorado College            16-11-3   59    NR

Others Receiving Votes: Colgate 42, 
Rensselaer 28, Cornell 12, Michigan State 10,
Notre Dame 9, Providence 6, Bemidji State 5,
Dartmouth 1, Niagara 1

[Ack]

Granted only 1's in the top 15, but there are 5 ECAC teams with votes - someone's paying attention (they must not sit in the sorority section A)

[HOTELCALIFORNIA]

well what the fuck

[Pete]

[Q]well what the fuck[/Q]

?

[calgARI \'07]

First of all, these rankings mean nothing.  They are done by people that don't ever see 55 of the 59 Division I teams.  
If these bother you, don't look at usatoday's rankings where Cornell gets no votes.  
Bottom line is that Cornell does not deserve to be ranked.  Sure, they have won four straight, but two of those wins were against two of the worst teams in Division I (Vermont and Princeton), one against an average team (Yale) and the other against an above average team (Dartmouth).  They have not proven that they belong in the top 15.  Where they are (with a few votes but not ranked) is where they should be at this present time.  A win over RPI and obviously over Union will put them back in these rankings.  But again, these rankings mean nothing.  
The only rankings that matter are the pairwise, where Cornell is 21st right now.  Theoretically, they could still get an at large bid.  To do that, Cornell will most likely have to win to remainder of their games and lose in the ECAC Championship.  The best and most likely way (and only sure fire way)of Cornell getting into the NCAA's is by winning the post season tournament.

[Will]

Well said Ari.  "The polls mean nothing" is something of a mantra among the USCHO Fan Forum elite.  The pairwise rankings are all that matters (though I think KRACH is a slightly better predictor for success and I care about that too), and we have a lot of hockey left to win if we hope to go to the NCAA tournament.  So let's get out there and support our team.  LET'S GO RED!!!

[jeh25]

One of the guys who got revenge on Volonnino wrote:

Well said Ari.  "The polls mean nothing" is something of a mantra among the USCHO Fan Forum elite.  

The only pole that matters is the one that I stuck in your^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H you hang your banners on.

[CowbellGuy]

calgARI '07 wrote:

The only rankings that matter are the pairwise, where Cornell is 21st right now.

Actually, they're 19th at the moment. If you apply even very modest bonus modifiers, it's good for at least a couple more spots. As teams make their way through the playoffs, and quality of opponent generally improves for the teams in contention in the WCHA, HEA, and CCHA more than ECAC, it will likely hurt Cornell's PWR, but if the cards fall right, an at-large bid isn't as far out of the question as I suspected it would be after the Colgate series. Of course we all know the auto-bid would be preferable.

[upperdeck]

winning the next 4 and looking at the teams above us in the power means very likely we got up 3-4 spots, thats bubble time.. in reality we need to win 4 and sweep the first round and then see where we lie.. anything less than a sweep of the reg season means no chance without running the playoff table.. very likely that winning out those 6 and getting to play colga and brown is our only chance.. but look at all our games this year we could easily have beaten colgate twice and brown twice as lost all 4... would it surprise anyone to win the next 8??

[Will]

john smith wrote:

winning the next 4 and looking at the teams above us in the power means very likely we got up 3-4 spots, thats bubble time.. in reality we need to win 4 and sweep the first round and then see where we lie.. anything less than a sweep of the reg season means no chance without running the playoff table.. very likely that winning out those 6 and getting to play colga and brown is our only chance.. but look at all our games this year we could easily have beaten colgate twice and brown twice as lost all 4... would it surprise anyone to win the next 8??

So long as our players stay relatively healthy, the offense keeps its output on the up and up, and the guys can stay out of too many fights...anything is possible.

[marty]

One of the guys who got revenge on Volonnino wrote:



So long as our players stay relatively healthy, the offense keeps its output on the up and up, and the guys can stay out of too many fights...anything is possible.

And those fights must include fights against RIP.  It is essential to stay out of the penalty box against them.  As discussed earlier in the year, they score primarily when a man (or two) up.

[Chris 02]

Just for reference

USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll
February 16, 2004

   Team                               Pts (1st) Last Record
 1 Boston College                     510 (34)   1   23-3-4
 2 University of North Dakota         456        2   20-6-3
 3 University of Michigan             420        5   21-8-1
 4 University of Maine                418        3   21-6-3
 5 University of Minnesota-Duluth     400        6   20-8-3
 6 University of Wisconsin            314        7   17-9-6
 7 University of Minnesota            297        4  18-11-3 
 8 St. Cloud State University         291        9   18-9-3
 9 Miami University (Ohio)            205        8  18-11-3
10 University of Denver               195       12  18-10-4
11 University of New Hampshire        194       11  16-10-5
12 The Ohio State University          132       15  19-13-0
13 Colorado College                    71       NR  16-11-3
14 Brown University                    67       10   14-6-4
15 University of Massachusetts         47       13   16-8-5

Others receiving votes: Colgate University 32, 
Michigan State University 11, Providence College 7, 
University of Notre Dame 6, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 6, 
College of the Holy Cross 1.