…that mean oh so much. Yesiree Bob, we may love it, we may hate it, but we sure as sugar can’t ignore the ol’ RPI rankings. Sure they’re not perfect, but many an important person, including them what select the NCAA Tournament of 64, er, 5, pour over these numbers as if they were the entrails of some cloven-hoofed beast given up so that the Caeser’s future may be foretold. To that end, I did me some checkin’ and figurin’ so that we all may get a better reckoning of the path that lay before our beloved Panther hoopsters. Plus, I was bored. So, here’s a little back o’ the envelope analysis re: our opponents RPI scores and rankings from now ’til the end o’ January. So, without further ado, here’s my mini-analysis:
Date Opponent RPI Ranking RPI Score
1/12 DePaul 19 0.6249
1/15 Louisville 46 0.5880
1/18 Rutgers 59 0.5769
1/21 St. John’s 158 0.4957
1/23 Syracuse 32 0.6000
1/28 Marquette 64 0.5753
1/31 Uconn 43 0.5905
Mean RPI Ranking: 60.1429
Mean RPI Score: 0.5788
Median RPI Ranking: 46.0000
Median RPI Score: 0.5880
For the record, Pitt’s RPI ranking was 12 and our RPI score was .6419. So poll(s)-wise, we’re actually pretty in line with the RPI calculations. Whether that factors come March is another question.
As for the numbers themselves, one can see that St. John’s, and to a lesser extent, DePaul, are the outliers when calculating the mean. Thus, the median. It’s here that Louisville becomes the ‘center’ of these rankings and scores. Overall, these figures point to the obvious: January’s going to be a tough month for the Panthers. Any winning record, even a record of 4-3, should be enough for us to remain ranked, excepting for a series of blowout losses against the likes of UConn.
Notes: I copied the RPI Rankings and Scores from MSNBC, so blame them if its all wrong. Also, this is current as of January 9th, so the game between Cinci and Uconn doesn’t factor into this. Still, I don’t think it will have a huge effect (I hope). I used Excel to crunch the numbers so if they’re off, blame Bill Gates. Hell, he’s rich, he won’t care. Also, the fomatting’s been giving me fits, so bear with me, as it’s only a Northern song, er, ‘cuz I’m new at this.
