The polls aren't worth spending a lot of time discussing, but here is
a case that really deserves mention. I nominate Western Michigan for
the dubious honor of Rodney Dangerfields of college hockey. No
respect at all.
The WMEB poll came out this week, and where was WMU? Not in the top
10. But they're tied for first in the CCHA along with Michigan and
MSU, and they are 8-2-0 overall. Meanwhile, they trail Michigan (#3),
BG (#7), and LSSU (#8) in the WMEB poll.
Stronger evidence...their results to date.
>Western Michigan CCHA
> H 10/13/95 W 11 Brock 2 nI
> H 10/14/95 W 9 Western Ontario 2 nI
> A 10/20/95 W 7 Michigan 2
> H 10/21/95 L 2 Michigan 3
> H 10/27/95 W 4 Providence 1 nc
> H 10/28/95 L 4 Providence 5 nc ot
> A 11/03/95 W 3 Notre Dame 2
> H 11/04/95 W 6 Notre Dame 2
> A 11/10/95 W 6 Lake Superior 5
> A 11/11/95 W 3 Ferris State 2
>
> GP W L T GF GA
>OVERALL 10 8 2 0 55 26
>LEAGUE 6 5 1 0 27 16
If I told you of a team that had blown out Michigan on the road and
beaten LSSU on the road, and had only lost to the first place team in
the CCHA (Michigan) by one and the first place team in HE (Providence)
in overtime, and then I told you that team wasn't even in the national
top 10, you'd probably want to know just who was voting for that top
10. :-)
Is it the old unknown team syndrome? If MSU had rolled up the same
results, would they be in the top 10 - and maybe even above at least
BG & LSSU?
With the release of CHODR by Tim and Robin yesterday, let's see how
the Broncos fare there:
> Division I Offense Defense Overall
>Rank Team Record Rating Rank Rating Rank Rating
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1 Colorado College 5 0 3 5.89 2 2.88 6 3.01
> 2 Boston University 5 1 0 6.37 1 3.37 18 3.00
> 3 Lake Superior 6 2 0 4.55 8 2.10 2 2.45
> 4 Michigan 6 1 0 4.86 5 2.55 3 2.32
> 5 Western Michigan 6 2 0 4.71 7 2.61 4 2.10
IMO, CHODR has proven itself in the past to have been a pretty decent
analysis of a team's offensive and defensive capabilities. Looks like
there's not much difference between Michigan, LSSU, and WMU in that
regard. But (sing along now) which of these teams is not like the
others...
Finally, I ran the new-and-improved RPI just to see where WMU came
out...for those who place a lot of weight upon such things, take a
gander at this:
>RPI Opp OppOpp
>RK G W L T Win% RK Win% RK Win% RK RPI
>1 Boston University 6 5- 1- 0 83.33 3 61.20 10 52.26 13 64.50
>2 Western Michigan 8 6- 2- 0 75.00 10 65.08 5 51.33 14 64.12
Just about any way you cut it, it seems clear that WMU is not getting
the respect they deserve. But if I were them, I would prefer it that
way.
Now that I have drawn attention to them, they will probably lose two
this weekend. :-)
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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