pairwise ranking

[cbrooks]

Being realistic Scott. BC is the team to beat. I haven't watch them play but there players have the numbers and there goaltender is the same they had last year. Miami has some talent. I'm not sure why there not in the top 5. I'm not completely confident yet. Probably as confident as I will get given UNDs record in the tourney the last 10 years.

[cbrooks]

Found this article about Miami's slump they had this year. Miami was in the NCAA final losing to BC last year.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2011/02/09_team_of_the_week_miami.php

[cbrooks]

BC won the beanpot cup 7 to 6 against Northeastern. It sounded like that game went back forth.

[scsavre]

Woulda been nice to have the upset.

I bet the Gophs wish they woulda of had a shootout in their tourny. It could have been another win against a rated team.

[Bear55]

I think in college hockey shootout wins still count as a tie on your record.

[cbrooks]

]Woulda been nice to have the upset.

I bet the Gophs wish they woulda of had a shootout in their tourny. It could have been another win against a rated team.

Are you talking about the games they had against Union and Ferris St?

[scsavre]

I think it was ferris. BC - looks like a non conference win in the books to me. There dont have any ties in PWR

[cbrooks]

Check out this story. Its not often you see recruiting violations in hockey.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2011/02/18_northeasterns_cronin,_oconnell.php

Shoot! I was trying to get this to come out as a link you can just hit and got to. It wouldn't let me do this. sorry fellas

[Bear55]

PWR as of today. Gophers inching up the chart but I still don't know if they can fight their way into the NCAA's.

1 Yale

2 North Dakota

3 Boston College

4t Merrimack

4t Denver

6 Michigan

7 Minnesota-Duluth

8t Union

8t Nebraska-Omaha

10 Notre Dame

11t New Hampshire

11t Miami

11t Rensselaer

14 Wisconsin

15 Western Michigan

16t Boston University

16t Dartmouth

18 Minnesota

19 Colorado College

20t Maine

20t Princeton

22 Ferris State

23t Minnesota State

23t St. Cloud State

23t Alaska

26 Robert Morris

27t RIT

27t Northern Michigan

29 Bemidji State

30 Cornell

31t Ohio State

31t Alaska-Anchorage

[cbrooks]

BC tied and lost to NorthEastern this weekend Feb 20

Pairwise

1.Yale

2.UND

3.BC

4.Merrimack

5.Denver

6.Michigan

7.UMD

8.Union

9.UNO

10.NotreDame

11.New Hampshire

12.Miami

13.RPI

14.Wisconsin

15.Western Mich

16.Dartmouth

17.BU

18.Minnesota

19.CC

20.Naine

21.Princeton

22.Ferris St

23.Alaska

24.Mankato

25.SCSU

[scsavre]

I think the Gophs have to at least make the championship game to make the NCAA's, and that might not be enough. We wont gain more then a spot or two if we win our next 4 games against unranked teams.

Maybe if they beat CC twice in the WCHA's, then knock off UND friday, and maybe that gets them on the bubble. They better just win to be sure.

[cbrooks]

]I think the Gophs have to at least make the championship game to make the NCAA's, and that might not be enough. We wont gain more then a spot or two if we win our next 4 games against unranked teams.

I'm thinking exactly that. There will just keep spliting these last two weekends and then finish in the top two spots in the Final 5. Just making a wild prediction. They can do what UMD did two years ago when Stalock got on his hot streak. If I'm wrong I'm wrong but if I'm right. I'm gonna look really smart .

[Bear55]

I think you guys are right on, need to go 6-0 into the final five and probably take 2 out of 3 games to get in.

[cbrooks]

This has a good run down of what everybody needs to do to make the NCAA tourament.

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2011/02/16_ncaa_tourament_bracket_adcs.php

Darn...That didn't bring to the article. Scroll down to the bottom left hand side in the Top Ten articles. Its #1 titled "NCAA bracket ABCs: first edition"

[scsavre]

I knew Sioux fans had their rights and wrongs mixed up, but brook you have your rights and lefts mixed up. Bottom right on my computer. I have to keep an eye on you.

Gophs will make it exciting. If they make it to STp for the WCHA, it is going to be crazy. I would think the league would give them a tie breaker being the home team for the NCAA's. I guess the frozen 4 is still a long ways away from just making the NCAA's though. So maybe not.

[cbrooks]

Thanks for keeping setting me straight Scott. I laugh out loud when I read that. No kidding

[Bear55]

Typical PWR the gophers sweep a crappie team and drop from 18 to tied for 19th. They will have to win the WCHA tournament to get into the NCAA's, not impossible with the way they have been playing but it will be very hard to accomplish. Going 2-2-2 against UMD, Denver, & WI would normally be considered ok but they dug themselves a hole the first half of the season and needed to do much better then that to get themselves out of the.

[scsavre]

Are you kidding, they went down....that is just stupid.

[cbrooks]

Feb 28th

Pairwise KRACH

1.Yale............1.UND

2.UND.............2.Yale

3.BC..............3.BC

4.Michigan........4.Denver

5.Denver..........5.Michigan

6.Union...........6.UMD

7.Merrimack.......7.Union

8.UNO.............8.Notre Dame

9.Notre Dame......9.Miami

10.Miami.........10.UNO

11.UMD...........11.Merrimack

12.New Hampshire.12.New Hampshire

13.RPI...........13.Minnesota

14.CC............14.CC

15.Dartmouth.....15.Wisconsin

16.Boston U......16.Boston U

17.Maine.........17.Western Mich

18.Western Mich..18.Maine

19.Minnesota.....19.SCSU

20.SCSU..........20.RPI

21.Wisconsin.....21.Dartmouth

22.Ferris St.....22.Mankato

23.Alaska........23.Alaska

24.Mankato.......24.AA

25.Princeton.....25.Ferris St

Wisconsin has drop alot the last couple of weeks. Minnesota hasn't gone up much despite all the wins they have lately. The best thing for Minnesota right now would to have Wisconsin the first round of WCHA playoff and take them out of NCAA tourney. You don't want the Wisconsin on Team Under Consideration especially since regions are held in Green Bay.

[Bear55]

I've always been a fan of KRACH (even when it ranks the Gopher lower) but wow it kind of hurts to look at today (13th vs 19th PWR). They have played well since the new year, 7-4-3 against some pretty good competition but obviously not enough to move up in the PWR.

[scsavre]

You know what I dont like.

W Michigan moves back 3 with a split

BU moves back 1 with a win and a tie

Dart moves up 1 with a split

CC moves up 5 with a win and tie

Wis moves back 7 got swept

Ren moves back 2 lost and tied

The Gophers move back 1 after sweeping. That is jsut dumb to me.

[Bear55]

Here is a good read about the PWR and TUC. If the Gopher sweep Bemidji they can actually hurt themselves by taking them out of the TUC, I guess the only good news I can find is if we are going down we might as well take SCSU with us because they are totally screwed if Bemidji loses.

http://www.uscho.com/wcha-blog/2011/03/01/the-improtance-of-defeating-tucs-in-the-pairwise-system/

Overall the PWR isn't a terrible system but it's stupid stuff like this that makes you want to bang your head against the wall. There have been several instances in the past where teams could help themselves by losing and that just isn't right.

[cbrooks]

I remember you mentioning Bear that the Krach system would be the best way to do the rankings because you can't hurt your rank by beating teams. I think its a matter of time before they go to that system. Every year you hear of more people mentioning the Krach rankings. I agree with everything you mention above. Winning and losing should never be comprimise like that.

Minnesota is gonna have to earn its way to the tourney without any favors.

[Bear55]

I remember thinking that 10 years ago but the "committee" seems determined to stick with their system. I hope for a change but don't really know if it will ever happen.

I know some of the smaller conferences and schools don't like KRACH because its heavily determined by strength of schedule and you might have a team that is 17-14-3 get in ahead of a team that is 20-10-4 but I still like it. Changes are a team with 17 wins against a strong schedule is going to beat a team with 20 wins against a so so schedule anyway.

Like I have said before the PWR does do a good job of picking the top teams, things just get messy in the middle and some of these odd statistics can have a dramatic effect on your teams ranking.

The Gophers didn't do themselves any favors the first half of the season and they are paying for it now. Its time to win or go home, something tells me we make a run but come up short.

[solbes]

Like the current system or not, it always gets exciting at the end. Teams that were absolute locks for an NCAA bid even 1 month ago are now in danger of losing their bid. Teams that were not even sniffing the tourney a month ago are now in the hunt.

The only two teams that are probably a lock from here on out are UND and DU. Omaha, Duluth, CC, Minnesota, Saint Cloud, and Wisconsin are all teams that could go either way depending on outcomes of their next 4-6 games.

I agree with Bear, but it really does weight Strength of Schedule pretty heavily. UMD does not deserve to be #6, as they currently stand in Krach.