Margin of victory isn't supposed to figure into NET ranking. What probably happened was that some of our earlier opponents padded their resumes with wins and some teams ahead of us slipped a bit. Or maybe I'm wrong.
It takes that into account indirectly - offensive points per possession less defensive points per possession = net efficiency. If a team is efficient on both ends, they will end up with a large margin of victory. Here' is UF's using data from barttorvik.com, R²=0.997 This was UF's largest net efficiency, so we had a big jump.
They do adjust net efficiency for the opponent and the location. That's the icing, I just posted the cupcake part.
Would be sweet to enter conference play 10-3. If so, one would think 20 wins before the SEC conference tournament would be in reach. Looking ahead of course, way ahead.
Need to beat UK. They are our basketball equivalent to UGA, and our biggest rival. I’d say I have even more dislike for Tennessee, though.
Well, okay, there's an argument for that. But to be honest, I'd rather beat FSU than other team in this or any parallel universe.
Something that makes me suspicious of most ranking systems is that every team has a ranking before the very first game in most of them. How does it make sense in any computer ranking before a single game is played? The results are skewed from the start based on nothingness. That said, now that most teams have at least 10 games under their belts, the rankings have at least a little legitimacy.
The NCAA NET ranking system has some glaring flaws that I can't figure out. To wit: The Pitt game... Both teams are now 9-3. Gators beat Pitt 86-71 on a neutral court. Anyone that watched the game will tell you that the best team won. Gators are 4-2 on neutral courts, Pitt is 1-1. Gators are 1-2 in Quad 1 games, Pitt is 0-2. Gators are 2-1 in Quad 2 games, Pitt is 0-0. Gators are 1-0 in Quad 3 games, Pitt is 4-1. Gators are 5-0 in Quad 4 games, Pitt is 5-0. Per KenPom, Gators are #91 in SOS, Pitt is #335. And yet, the NET system has Pitt as the #39th best team in the country, and UF as #46. Grrr...
Like last year, will come down to how our guards play. How they defend 3 and how they shoot from 3. The point differential from guards has been our Achilles heal the past few seasons. Once we get into SEC play, will that have improved?
Right now, I think only Gator fans believe in our team. Hopefully, that changes with a win against UK.
RK will continue to be the factor that teams have to account for and as they shift to guard Richard, Clayton, and Pullin easier opportunities will present themselves to RK. With four bigs, we are NOT the same team that played in the conference last year. The talent level has also increased substantially. The key to our season is belief in all of the above by the players. For so many years the game with our school has been viewed as one that the top teams in the conference expected to win. We were nevertheless competitive in many of them despite our severe height disadvantage and woeful 3 point shooting. I recall several games that we would have won had we made 2 more 3s on a night where even hitting those two extra 3s would have kept us in the low 30s percentage wise. Golden’s willingness to use his bench and various combinations of players is a refreshing change in strategy.
As long as what changes is that non Gator fans start believing, as opposed to Gator fans no longer believing!
