Polls 1/23

ebilmes · January 23, 2006, 04:12:42 PM

up to #5 in both meaningless polls...

USCHO.com/CSTV Division I Men's Poll
January 23, 2006
Team      (First Place Votes)  Record  Points  Last Poll
1 Boston College (27)          16- 4-2   773      2
2 Wisconsin      (11)          18- 4-2   739      1
3 Miami          ( 2)          17- 4-4   734      3
4 Minnesota                    16- 6-4   709      4
5 Cornell                      13- 4-2   600      8
6 Michigan                     14- 9-1   552      6
7 North Dakota                 17-10-1   550      9
8 Vermont                      15- 7-2   485      5
9 Colorado College             17-10-1   484      7
10 New Hampshire               13- 8-4   344     11
11 Providence                  13- 9-1   297     13
12 Maine                       15- 9-0   268     12
13 Boston University           12- 8-2   259     16
14 St. Lawrence                14- 9-1   258     10
—  Denver                      14-10-2   258     19
16 Michigan State              14- 9-5   233     19
17 Harvard                     10- 7-2   227     15
18 Colgate                     13- 6-5   203     17
19 Lake Superior               12- 7-5   104     14
20 Northern Michigan           14-11-1    89     18

Others Receiving Votes: Ferris State 75, Nebraska-Omaha 60, Ohio State 42, St. Cloud State 29, Clarkson 6, Holy Cross 6, Bemidji State 4, Alabama-Huntsville 3, Alaska-Fairbanks 3, Mercyhurst 3, Niagara 2, Dartmouth 1


USA TODAY/American Hockey men's poll

Jan. 23, 2006
    Team (first-place votes)   Record    Points    LW
 1. Boston College (28)        16-4-2     498       2
 2. Wisconsin (2)              18-4-2     452       1
 3. Miami (Ohio) (4)           17-4-4     449       4
 4. Minnesota                  16-6-4     409       3
 5. Cornell                    13-4-2     372       8
 6. North Dakota               17-10-1    314      10
 7. Vermont                    15-7-2     277       5
 8. Michigan                   14-9-1     259       6
 9. Colorado College           17-10-1    252       7
10. New Hampshire              13-8-4     156       9
11. Maine                      15-9-0     116      12
12. Providence College         13-9-1     115      13
13. Denver                     14-10-2     86      NR
14. Boston                     12-8-2      80      15
15. Michigan State             14-9-5      73      NR

Others receiving votes:  St. Lawrence 52; Harvard 50; Colgate 44; Mercyhurst College 12; Ferris State 10; Lake Superior State 2; Northern Michigan 2.

ganderson · January 23, 2006, 04:22:48 PM

Nice to get the respect from the pollsters, but we're still chillin' at a comfortable 8th in the pairwise.

Trotsky · January 23, 2006, 04:30:30 PM

It makes sense -- the three teams immediatley above Cornell last week all had bad weekends, so they're +3. (Not that it matters, of course.)

CowbellGuy · January 23, 2006, 04:31:06 PM

Ah, thanks for reminding me why I couldn't do preformatting the other way. I switched it to actual PRE tags, but the lines don't wrap now. Lesser of two evils or something.

jhib · January 23, 2006, 04:35:43 PM

Harsh for Colgate to drop a spot after sweeping the same teams Cornell played. I can see Denver's jump, but Michigan State split. Is this the first poll after the PWR numbers went up? I guess that might explain it.

Trotsky · January 23, 2006, 04:46:40 PM

It's the first one since USCHO started posting, but other sites have had PWR-like rankings up for a while.

Point taken, though: people will naturally pull in their picks to align with PWR for those teams they don't see (about 80% of D-1), thus showing the polls up as even more worthless than before...

Josh '99 · January 23, 2006, 06:08:07 PM

I'd pick Colgate over Vermont in a three-game series.

ugarte · January 24, 2006, 04:59:37 PM

The team is overrated, but it is pleasant to read nonetheless.

Killer · January 24, 2006, 05:35:46 PM

On one hand, I agree with you: it's hard to see this team as a legitimate #5, though they did look pretty good last weekend.

But on the other hand, going down the list of the rest of the top 10 teams in the poll, who do you think really deserves to move up ahead of us:

Michigan? 2-3 in their last 5
ND? 4-1 in their last 5, but 5-3 in 8
UVM? 2-3-1 in last 6, only 2 wins against Northeastern and shutout twice by BC
CC? 4-game losing streak
UNH? 4-2-1 in last 7, but there's a 6-2 blowout loss to Niagara in there

It's kind of tough to come with 2 or 3 good candidates to move us down around 7th or 8th, which is where we probably think we belong (a la PWR).

So, yeah, we can scratch our heads a bit, but hell, let's enjoy being #5 for a while. LGR!!!

Tub(a) · January 24, 2006, 05:39:02 PM

[quote ugarte]The team is overrated, but it is pleasant to read nonetheless.[/quote]

It's pretty easy for those with an intimate view of the team to call them overrated because we have seen the bad losses/ties and the close games. However, most poll voters don't remember that and just see the 13-4-2 record or the weekend sweep of two good teams.

The spot in the poll is also not that far from current PWR, so I don't know how overrated they actually are.

ajec1 · January 24, 2006, 07:57:03 PM

[quote Killer]On one hand, I agree with you: it's hard to see this team as a legitimate #5, though they did look pretty good last weekend.

But on the other hand, going down the list of the rest of the top 10 teams in the poll, who do you think really deserves to move up ahead of us:

Michigan? 2-3 in their last 5
ND? 4-1 in their last 5, but 5-3 in 8
UVM? 2-3-1 in last 6, only 2 wins against Northeastern and shutout twice by BC
CC? 4-game losing streak
UNH? 4-2-1 in last 7, but there's a 6-2 blowout loss to Niagara in there

It's kind of tough to come with 2 or 3 good candidates to move us down around 7th or 8th, which is where we probably think we belong (a la PWR).

So, yeah, we can scratch our heads a bit, but hell, let's enjoy being #5 for a while. LGR!!![/quote]

To answer your question, NoDak should be ahead of us...as people have suggested, this is a case of simply looking at records. North Dakota's only loss in the last five? Minnesota, while their number one goaltender, Jordan Parise was out (although their backup was extremely solid in the Minnesota series). Over the last 8 includes the Harvard loss, which could be partly contributed to them losing several good players to the World Juniors (they should have still won those games at home but we should have beat Princeton as well...). Don't get me wrong, I am happy we are #5, the polls are just a bit ridiculous at times (although we were ranked higher than SLU going into this weekend, so they aren't completely goofy).

Omie · January 24, 2006, 10:29:02 PM

As of right now we are in 3-way 5th place tie for PWR (loosing the tie breaker) so the top 5 in the polls are actually pretty much the same in PWR.

Trotsky · January 25, 2006, 10:58:22 AM

[quote ajec1]although we were ranked higher than SLU going into this weekend, so they aren't completely goofy[/quote]
That's not indicative of their knowledge or discernment, however, but only the momentum of Cornell having been a poll leader for the last few years, and SLU being a newcomer.

ajec1 · January 25, 2006, 04:46:58 PM

[quote Trotsky][quote ajec1]although we were ranked higher than SLU going into this weekend, so they aren't completely goofy[/quote]
That's not indicative of their knowledge or discernment, however, but only the momentum of Cornell having been a poll leader for the last few years, and SLU being a newcomer.[/quote]

I was just giving them the benefit of the doubt. :-) Remember, the "common man" is supposed to look at polls and think, "Wow, what great college hockey minds..."