Div. III Weekly USCHO.com Poll

[D3PuckMan]

I figured I'd start a thread for the discussion of the weekly poll so as to keep the clutter in the Fan Poll thread to a minimum. As someone who used to run polls on forums in the past, I know that clutter creates problems.



December 13, 2004

Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week
1 Middlebury (12) 8-0-0 147 1
2 Manhattanville (3) 11-0-1 135 2
3 Plattsburgh 8-1-0 106 3
- Wis.-Stevens Point 8-0-0 106 4
5 Bowdoin 4-1-1 96 5
6 Elmira 6-2-0 77 6
7 Gustavus Adolphus 7-0-1 67 7
8 Rensselaer 10-1-0 39 8
9 Wis.-Superior 6-2-1 34 8
10 Williams 4-4-0 7 NR

Others Receiving Votes: Wis.-River Falls 5,
St. Thomas 4, Utica 2

[D3PuckMan]

I'm not quite sure why I opened up this thread other than to keep headaches to a minimum in the other thread, but I'm going to take some shots at teams and where they're ranked and I'm sure it's going to start a storm. But, here it goes.

1 Middlebury - Deservedly so
2 Manhattanville - Iffy. Think they should have started a spot lower to start the season. A good win over Elmira, but tying Bowdoin should have hurt them more.
3 Plattsburgh - Who have they played this season?
- Wis.-Stevens Point - Nat'l Runner-Up last season has to fight and claw for a tie for 3rd? Should be higher in my opinion
5 Bowdoin - Out-played but still lost to #1 Midd. Beat Platts. Nothing else to mention.
6 Elmira - Penalized for loss to D. I Clarkson but also lost only game of consequence (vs. M-ville)
7 Gustavus Adolphus - Started season with tie of Superior and have run the table since. Their next 3 games are crucial if they plan to get any respect this season.
8 Rensselaer - 10-0 vs. Div. III opponents. But haven't beaten anybody of consequence.
9 Wis.-Superior - Should be higher in the polls. Gave the #4 (at the time) Pointers all they could handle and have also beaten St. Thomas and River Falls. Both of whom, were ranked at the time. The only team in the nation to have beaten two ranked teams thus far.
10 Williams - You're kidding me right? A 4-4 team ranked in the top 10? And it's not like their 4 wins were against good teams.

[hab]

Good comments D3PM, I agree with most of what you have to say. I think that the top 5 right now are very, very close and good arguements could be made for putting them in different orders (Midd; Manh; Bowdoin; Platt; StevPt, pick your order). Then there are another 5 or 6 contenders that could easily break into that group, but still have something to prove (RPI, Elmira, GA, Superior, St. Thomas). Agree that it is hard to pick Williams for number 10, right now. After 4 losses to top 10 teams they need to do something to earn their way back into the rankings.

[PointerHockey]

Any clue as to when the next installment of the USCHO.com Div. III Women's Poll is going to be released?

[D3PuckMan]

Ask and ye shall receive:

January 3, 2005

Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week
1 Middlebury (12) 8-0-0 146 1
2 Manhattanville (2) 11-0-1 131 2
3 Wis.-Stevens Point (1) 10-0-0 118 3
4 Plattsburgh 8-1-0 108 3
5 Elmira 6-2-0 82 6
6 Bowdoin 4-3-1 74 5
7 Gustavus Adolphus 7-0-1 69 7
8 Rensselaer 10-1-0 39 8
9 Wis.-Superior 6-2-1 37 9
10 Wis.-River Falls 7-4-0 8 NR

Others Receiving Votes: Williams 7, St. Thomas 5,
Utica 1

[PointerHockey]

Gee, yippee...

Glad to see that everyone's still napping.

Oh well, at least I won't have to worry about checking out the polls from now on.

See y'all in March.

[MagicHound]

1 Middlebury
2 Manhattanville
3 Wis.-Stevens Point
4 Bowdoin
5 Elmira
6 Plattsburgh
7 RPI
8 Gustavus Adolphus
9 Wis.-Superior
10 St Anselm

[uvmcats]

1 Middlebury
2 Manhattanville
3 Wis.-Stevens Point
4 Bowdoin
5 Elmira
6 Plattsburgh
7 RPI
8 Gustavus Adolphus
9 Wis.-Superior
10 St Anselm

Magic, I will copy this over to the fan poll thread.

[Hockey4ever]

If you haven't already, take a look at the Mease rankings. It's pretty interesting to compare the polls. As for the USCHO poll, I don't understand how Manhattanville can be ranked 2nd when they tied a game against Bowdoin. Bowdoin just lost two big games against Stevens Point. So you would think that Stevens Point would be ranked ahead of Manhattanville since they have an undefeated record. Although it is a new season, I think that Point proved themselves last year by beating Manhattanville at the frozen four. I agree with Middlebury being ranked number one. They won nationals last year and are still undefeated. Also, Elmira's only real loss came from Manhattanville who's been ranked 2nd. The other two losses came from exhibition games. Shouldn't they be ahead of Bowdoin who has three losses and a tie? I agree that Plattsburgh should be behind Bowdoin since they lost to Bowdoin. RPI deserves to be in the rankings with an undefeated record. I think once they play some higher ranked teams they could either prove their position in the polls or drop depending on how they do. Gustavus is also a very good team. The only glitch on their record is a tie to Superior who is also strong. I'm not sure though if Superior deserves to be ranked so high because of a loss to St. Olaf. I guess you should give every team a break. But if they want to make it to nationals they can't afford another loss like that. I can see how it would be hard to rank these teams especially if you haven't seen them all play. And even harder since many of the western teams haven't played the eastern teams. Stevens Point earned their ranking because of a national appearance. But I think there could be some more teams in the West that have potential to play with, or even beat the Eastern teams. Remember for Point to get to nationals, they played out two double overtimes. I also think there are some Eastern teams that could play with or beat Western teams. It will be interesting to see the results of Middlebury and Williams playing against some good teams this weekend and to see how RPI does against Manhattanville.

[leeb]

I seriously doubt RPI will stay that high in the Mease rankings. They are playing too many D3 powerhouses on the road in the second half of the season. Having said that, I can see RPI winning at least one and maybe even a few games against the likes of Manhattanville, Plattsburgh, Elmira, etc.

The upcoming games against Manhattanville on the road will be the litmus test for this RPI team. Manhattanville is certainly as good as any team in the country right now. Last year, RPI played two patient, opportunistic games against Manhattanville at the Field House and came away with a 2-1 loss and a 1-0 win. RPI's offense has improved but the key will still be playing solid defense, scoring opportunistic goals and Rosina Schiff playing her game.

RPI won't run the table by any means but they will be competitive with any team in the country and may pull out some good wins.