Paul Suellentrop of the Wichita Eagle begged the question yesterday with the release of the updated AP/ESPN polls: Should Wichita State be ranked?
Jay Bilas and Jeff Eisenberg agree that the 17-3 Shockers, who last season won the NIT tournament, will receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament even if vote-getting Creighton wins the MVC’s auto-bid, but I think Suellentrop was onto something, even if he’s not allowed to use tempo-free non-sense in his stories. The Shockers lay claim to the MVC’s most (not second-most) efficient offense (1.14 ppp) and most efficient defense (0.92 ppp) in MVC conference play.
Wichita State is a clear-cut example of how slow poll-voters can be to notice quietly-efficient teams that deserve to be ranked. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at why the Shockers deserve more than 28 votes in the latest AP poll.
0: Votes Wichita State received in the preseason top 25 polls after returning three starters to their NIT-winning squad.
1.48: The Shockers scored 1.48 points per possession when they drubbed No. 12 UNLV, 89-70 at home. Only two other teams (UC-Santa Barbara and Louisiana-Monroe, oddly enough) have managed more than a point per trip against the Runnin’ Rebels all season.
3: Only three Division-I teams have yet to lose on the road this season: No. 11 Murray State (9-0), No. 5 Kansas (4-0) and Wichita State (6-0). Combined, WSU and Creighton are 13-1 on the road, which gives them the best road record of any top two conference teams in the nation.
5: WSU players with an offensive rating of 110 or higher and 17.8 percent possessions or more. While Joe Ragland (123.8) and Carl Hall (125.6) are both ranked in the top-60 in the nation in their possession category, what makes the Shockers unique is that there they possess a wealth of offensive threats that use possessions. Creighton has three players that fit that narrow criteria.
7: Margin by which Wichita State led Creighton with 16:20 to play in their lone meeting so far this season. The Blue Jays went on to save face and grab the 68-61 win, but the Shockers led in two of the four factors (free throw rate and offensive rebounding rate) and tied for a third (turnover rate) in the loss. They meet again to challenge WSU’s unbeaten road record on Feb. 11.
9: Wichita State’s Pomeroy ranking. That’s 33 spots ahead of No. 11 Murray State, 26 ahead of No. 24 UConn and 47 ahead of No. 18 Mississippi State.
11: Teams have an adjusted efficiency margin of +0.26 or better. Those teams in order are No. 4 Ohio State (+0.367), No. 5 Kansas (+0.320), No. 2 Missouri (+0.304), No. 25 Wisconsin (+0.302), No. 3 Syracuse (+0.299), No. 10 Michigan State (+0.298), No. 1 Kentucky (+0.296), No. 16 Indiana (+0.265), No. 14 Florida (+o.265), No. 7 North Carolina (+0.262) and Wichita State (+0.260). Creighton comes is at 19th on the list at +0.209.
31: Points senior Joe Ragland scored against UNLV on 8-of-9 shooting from behind the arc.
43: Wichita State’s margin of victory over 210th-ranked (by Pomeroy) Southern Illinois yesterday — a school record for SIU. What’s best, the Shockers did it without senior 7-0 big man Garrett Stutz, who sat the game with a back injury. Even freshman walk-on Randall Vautravers scored a career-high four points in the 85-42 win.
75: Strength of schedule ranking for the Shockers which includes wins over UAB, UNLV, Colorado and Northern Iowa; an overtime loss to Temple; and losses to Creighton and Alabama. Creighton is ranked No. 107 in SOS.
