March 15, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in Other, Rankings with 9 comments
With the biggest tournament of the year, the Stanford Invite, matching up many of the country’s top teams, we have lots of movement in the top 25 this week with plenty of new teams joining the rankings. Huck Finn, the Tally Classic, and the Music City Mash-Up also impacted the rankings.
Now that USA Ultimate is publishing rankings, we have begun to consider their results as a part of our selection process.
Here’s the top 25. Here’s a look at the big movers across the divisions.
D-I OPEN
– Beat the best to be the best! Oregon Ego wins the Stanford Invite to put themselves at the top of the rankings, unseating #3 Wisconsin. Oregon crushed the Hodags in quarterfinals to put themselves in the driver’s seat to get to the top. With Dylan Freechild, Aaron Honn, and Camden Allison-Hall continuing to dominate, with the addition of a strong cast of role players, these guys are tough.
– #2 Carleton finds their way back to where they started the season. Considering their lack of focus on wins in the regular season, I wouldn’t want to face them in May. Simon Montague was a powerhouse all weekend, and Nick Stuart added some highlight reel plays to help Carleton get to the finals (and beat Oregon on Saturday).
– #5 Tufts flew up the charts this week as the biggest mover in the Open division. They won out their pool on Saturday and took Oregon to 15-13 in the semifinals. With their possession offense and a much improved defense since Queen City, the E-Men believe they have a shot at the title this year.
– North Carolina stays at #6 despite missing the Championship bracket. They choked away a win against #4 Pitt that left them drained for their crossover. They proceeded to win out on Sunday, easily defeating the teams they faced. I picked UNC to make the finals of Stanford: had they won that game against Pitt, who knows? They’re good.
– #10 Central Florida just manages to stay in the top 10 , despite playing, as their coach Andrew Roca told Ultiworld, the worst they’ve ever played. Fundamentally this is still a top 10 team. They did get quality wins over #18 UNC-Wilmington and #11 Colorado.
– Three new teams join the rankings this week: Whitman (#16), Eastern Michigan (#24), and Northern Iowa (#25). Whitman proved they belong with big wins over Wisconsin and UNC-Wilmington at Stanford. EMU was a bubble team that snuck in after terrible showings by many of the Midwestern teams at Huck Finn. They have a lot to prove at Centex this weekend. Northern Iowa didn’t win Huck Finn, but they beat the winner, Mizzou, by 6 on Saturday. We’ll see if they can stick around.
– Illinois and Iowa left the rankings after lackluster weekends at Huck Finn. UC-Davis also got bounced after losing all their games at Stanford.
D-I WOMEN’S
– Oregon remains the #1 team in the nation after going undefeated at the Stanford Invite. They have just one loss this season, to #2 British Columbia, who they later beat in the finals of the same tournament. Oregon is the odds-on favorite to win the National Championship this year.
– Wisconsin jumped 17 spots to #3 after an impressive run at Stanford, getting all the way to the finals before losing to Oregon, who went on a 5-1 run at Bella Donna’s game point to take the crown. Wisconsin’s height and offensive system give other teams fits. They did get a head-to-head win over British Columbia, but considering that UBC was missing some of their very best players, Wisconsin narrowly slips to the 3rd spot.
– A 14-6 finals win over #18 Georgia at the Music City Mash-Up pushes#13 Ohio Stateup three spots. Their performance was a nice rebound after a so-so showing at the Queen City Tune Up.
– #12 Virginia is the Women’s Division’s second biggest mover. They get pulled up thanks to Ohio State’s performance this weekend. Hydra beat OSU by five at QCTU. Virginia has only lost three games this season: to #3 Wisconsin, #6 Carleton, and UNC-Wilmington.
– Our rankings mirror USA Ultimate’s: the Northwest and North Central are dominating. There are six Northwest teams in the top 25 (#1 Oregon, #2 UBC, #4 Washington, #21 Western Washington, #22 Whitman, and #24 Victoria). There are five North Central teams — and they’re all in the top 10 (#3 Wisconsin, #6 Carleton, #7 Iowa, #9 Minnesota, and #10 Iowa State).
DIII
No changes this week, although some top DIII Open teams did play (but not against each other).
