2005-2006 PWR

[Ken \'70]

[quote Robb]You're probably right.  I know I've been surprised in the past just how much movement there can be in RPI even at this point in the season.  When you say "no practical difference between the two at this point," you just mean that it's impossible to say whether good results would get us to 4 or 5, right?  Because there's a HUGE difference in being the #4 and #5 team - just look at us last year, having to go to Minny as the #5.  If you're the #4 seed, you get to go to a regional close to home, and there's a decent chance you'd be facing the AHA or CHA autobid in the first round.  A #5 seed can get sent to Siberia or Timbuktu and has a chance of playing the #9 team in the country - huge difference there.[/quote]

This isn't last year, and won't be.  PWR 4 is going to be playing in the east, whether it's Miami, Cornell, BC, or CC.  Therefore 5 is going to be playing in the east.  With MN and WI pretty much set for 1 and 2, baring meltdown, even a 6 seed gets eastern ice.  3 through 6 playing east is a pretty wide landing area, let's just keep winning and we'll be in there.

[Robb]

[quote Ken '70]
This isn't last year, and won't be.  PWR 4 is going to be playing in the east, whether it's Miami, Cornell, BC, or CC.  Therefore 5 is going to be playing in the east.  With MN and WI pretty much set for 1 and 2, baring meltdown, even a 6 seed gets eastern ice.  3 through 6 playing east is a pretty wide landing area, let's just keep winning and we'll be in there.[/quote]
Yeah, but they don't put as much emphasis on keeping the 1-16, 2-15 matchups as they do other things - intraconference matchups, banding, etc, so you're still somewhat rolling the dice as a 5 seed, where a 4 seed is a sure thing.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that a 6 seed gets eastern ice?  Are you assuming that 2 of the 5-8 band will be from the WCHA, so they'd keep us east to avoid a potential second round intraconference matchup?

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Robb][quote Ken '70]
This isn't last year, and won't be.  PWR 4 is going to be playing in the east, whether it's Miami, Cornell, BC, or CC.  Therefore 5 is going to be playing in the east.  With MN and WI pretty much set for 1 and 2, baring meltdown, even a 6 seed gets eastern ice.  3 through 6 playing east is a pretty wide landing area, let's just keep winning and we'll be in there.[/quote]
Yeah, but they don't put as much emphasis on keeping the 1-16, 2-15 matchups as they do other things - intraconference matchups, banding, etc, so you're still somewhat rolling the dice as a 5 seed, where a 4 seed is a sure thing.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that a 6 seed gets eastern ice?  Are you assuming that 2 of the 5-8 band will be from the WCHA, so they'd keep us east to avoid a potential second round intraconference matchup?[/quote]

These days they don't worry about intraconference matchups in the second round, only the first.  They do seem to have concentrated more on the 1-16 seeding in recent years, but it's not codified, and changes in committee personnel could change the way the whim of the committee plays out.  And you never know when they'll pull something like "we let them decide it on the ice" out of their keysters.

[jy3]

btw, i was looking on uscho. who are the hosts of the sites this year?

[Ken \'70]

[quote Robb] Yeah, but they don't put as much emphasis on keeping the 1-16, 2-15 matchups as they do other things - intraconference matchups, banding, etc, so you're still somewhat rolling the dice as a 5 seed, where a 4 seed is a sure thing.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that a 6 seed gets eastern ice?  Are you assuming that 2 of the 5-8 band will be from the WCHA, so they'd keep us east to avoid a potential second round intraconference matchup?[/quote]

1-16, etc is the default setup.  They vary it if first round interfconference matchups occur or to put a host school where it has to be.  They really don't exercise much discretion outside of these bounds.

PWR 1 & 2 get to play as close to home as possible.  The top 4 are now all closer to Grand Forks and Green Bay than Albany or Worcester.  The top 2 therefore go west, 3 and 4 go east.  Since 3 plays 6 and 4 plays 5, all of those will be in either Albany or Worcester.

The only team close to upsetting this is BC, and they have too much wood to chop to get to PWR 1 or 2.

[nyc94]

[quote jy3]btw, i was looking on uscho. who are the hosts of the sites this year?[/quote]

East (Albany, NY): RPI and the ECAC
Northeast (Worcester, MA): Boston University
Midwest (Green Bay, WI) Michigan Tech
West (Grand Forks, ND) :University of North Dakota

http://www.ncaa.org/releases/champsites/2003062701cs.htm

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote nyc94][quote jy3]btw, i was looking on uscho. who are the hosts of the sites this year?[/quote]

East (Albany, NY): RPI and the ECAC
Northeast (Worcester, MA): Boston University
Midwest (Green Bay, WI) Michigan Tech
West (Grand Forks, ND) :University of North Dakota

http://www.ncaa.org/releases/champsites/2003062701cs.htm[/quote]
Doesn't bode well for Michigan.  They've made the Frozen Four six times in the past ten years:  three-for-three from regionals in Yost; one-for-one from a regional in E. Lansing (one hour from Ann Arbor); and two-for-three from regionals in Grand Rapids (two hours from Ann Arbor).  In three regionals not held in Michigan, they've been bounced every time.

[TCHL8842]

Just at a quick glance, I think we have the best TUC record in the PWR ranking.  All we got to do is keep on winning and the RPI should slowly improve.  Also if you add the game versus RIT, we are tied for the best record in the nation.

[jy3]

[quote TCHL8842]Just at a quick glance, I think we have the best TUC record in the PWR ranking.  All we got to do is keep on winning and the RPI should slowly improve.  Also if you add the game versus RIT, we are tied for the best record in the nation.[/quote]
that seems true. only in the minne wisc table do they have a better tuc record b/c the games against minne are gone. at least in my quick glance.


Wisconsin    vs    Cornell
   .5964    1    RPI    0    .5408    
12-5-2    .6842    0    TUC    1    .7143    5-2-0
3-1-0    .7500    1    COp    0    .6250    2-1-1
0-0-0       0    H2H    0       0-0-0
      2    TOT    1

[mikee293]

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php

Don't look now but Cornell is at number 4 in the pairwise rankings!

I know a lot could change, especially as the games out west come in.....But this is awesome to see.

[oceanst41]

So Cornell is a 1 seed as of right now. RPI took a huge leap tonight to .5512 after bonuses. However, this is before the WCHA scores are in. Just keep winning.

[Trotsky]

Yeah, it seems like they leap around 10pm and then slide by 1am.

6 wins from the RS title.
10 wins from the ECAC title.
14 wins...  ;-)

[Robb]

Well, well.  Way to go UMD Bulldogs.

That drops Wisco's common opponents record to 3-2 (.600) and we're at 2-1-1, so we should take this comparison for now.  We must beat SLU to keep it.

Edit: and Ken '70 was very right about RPI.  We went from .5416 to .5512 in one game by beating a strong team.  We won't get that much of a boost from our remaining games, and MSU will get more of a boost from some of their games, but this is not as cut and dried as I thought.  Back in November, after that 1-point weekend vs. RPI/Union, I never would have dreamed that this team would even be in the running for a #1 seed.  Wow.

[mikee293]

looking at the PWR rankings as of 10:48, the only 3 teams that we are losing comparisons to are Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Miami. From what the Robb just said, it seems like we should be able to flip the Wisconsin comparison once the PWR get updated. And Cornell can easily flip the Miami comparison later in the season, as CU and Miami are tied in record against common opponents, but CU has 3 games left against teams that Miami has faced.  Still left on the schedule: RPI, Clarkson, St. Lawrence.

[Trotsky]

With the update at 10:57 EDT, Cornell is now 5th in RPI:

1 Minny
2 Wisco
3 Miami
4 CC
5 Cornell

Honestly, I never would have thought Cornell could climb to the best RPI among all Eastern teams.  That's astonishing.