PPI Rankings - December 7, 2009

Below is the first release of the PPI Rankings for the 2009-10 year:

#1 Kentucky
#2 New Mexico
#3 Villanova
#4 Texas
#5 Syracuse
#6 Purdue
#7 Florida
#8 Mississippi
#9 Duke
#10 Butler
#11 Kansas
#12 UNLV
#13 Pittsburgh
#14 Charlotte
#15 Cornell
#16 Richmond
#17 West Virginia
#18 Texas Tech
#19 Missouri State
#20 North Carolina State
#21 Wisconsin
#22 Georgetown
#23 Clemson
#24 Louisiana Tech
#25 UAB
Others receiving votes: Texas A&M, St. John's, Northwestern, Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Xavier, Oklahoma State, Connecticut, Kansas State, Coastal Carolina, Saint Mary's

Big East Power Poll - 11/21/09

Here are my Big East PPI Rankings as of 11/21 - keep in mind that teams like Louisville who have played only one game will move up as they play more games.

#1 Syracuse: What a performance in MSG. First, they destroy California and then they do the same to UNC after coming out of the locker room in the second half with a head of steam. The early observation is that they are a ton better defensively than last year and transfer Wesley Johnson is the real deal.
#2 South Florida: While they lost a nailbiter to South Carolina, they destroyed Virgina and defeated mid-major Davidson. It will be interesting to see whether the recruiting scandal is going to be a distraction.
#3 Villanova: In Puerto Rico, Villanova needed a late 3 to beat George Mason, but they played better in the second round against A-10 standout Dayton. Villanova plays Ole Miss on Sunday in the Finals.
#4 Pittsburgh: Three quick wins for Pittsburgh coming out of the gate, including vs. Wofford who won @ Georgia.
#5 Georgetown: Georgetown squeaked out a defensive struggle against Temple after winning big @ Tulane. Greg Monroe needs to be more assertive asking for the ball and with the ball.
#6 Seton Hall: Seton Hall may be the sleeper of the Big East with 3 straight wins including an underrated win @ Cornell. As many don't know, Cornell won at Alabama and at UMass to start the year.
#7 DePaul: CNN Breaking News! DePaul is undefeated! However, this is likely to end against SEC favorite Tennessee tomorrow.
#8 Connecticut: Very unimpressive to start the year - they need to improve on their perimeter defense, 3-point shooting, and most importantly, their rebounding. Surprisingly, I think this team misses Jeff Adrien more than Hasheem Thabeet. Reinforcements are on the way as 6'11" Ater Majok is eligible on 12/20 and C Jonathan Mandeldove returns later from academic ineligibility.
#9 Louisville
#10 St. John's
#11 Notre Dame
#12 Rutgers
#13 West Virginia
#14 Cincinnati
#15 Marquette
#16 Louisville

2008-09 Final Rankings

NCAA Basketball is 6 days away! Last year was a very entertaining year, with Michigan State taking out some big-time teams on the way to the Final Four in its home state. When all was said and done, North Carolina won the NCAA Tourney. Although they've since lost many players to the NBA, as always, they restock and retool. With the season less than a week away, here were the final standings of the 2008-09 season, based on the culmination of both the regular season, conference tourneys, and March Madness. I have included their relative power rating, with the #1 team (in this case, North Carolina) assigned a 100.00 rating and other teams compared to the top team.

#1 No. Carolina 100.00
#2 Memphis 94.74
#3 Louisville 92.94
#4 Michigan State 89.67
#5 Connecticut 89.42
#6 Duke 86.90
#7 Pittsburgh 85.71
#8 Villanova 85.32
#9 Missouri 83.52
#10 Oklahoma 83.45
#11 Kansas 80.30
#12 Syracuse 80.25
#13 Purdue 76.67
#14 Gonzaga 75.82
#15 Xavier 75.70
#16 Washington 75.62
#17 UCLA 73.40
#18 LSU 73.07
#19 Arizona State 72.78
#20 We. Virginia 71.80
#21 Penn State 70.18
#22 Wake Forest 70.17
#23 Marquette 69.35
#24 Texas 69.15
#25 Creighton 68.65
Others: Oklahoma State, Baylor, San Diego State, Tennessee, Utah, Texas A&M, Arizona, Siena, Illinois, Florida State, USC, Butler, Auburn, Tulsa, Florida