Poll Dancing: Reason for Hope
(photo credit: Gold and Black.com)
If you listen to our Podcasts or the tune into the QuickCast you have heard the opinions of this site’s writers as we look ahead to the post season. I think I am the least optimistic of the bunch this season as I think it’s a long shot for our Boilers to make the dance.
Poor shooting, inability to finish close games and the erratic nature of this team in general, has hampered their ability to string together a handful of wins…and right now, they could use such a run. Quality wins are littered throughout the schedule thus far, but the loss at Nebraska and the recent thrashing that Illinois handed our Boilers at Mackey, has inserted doubt into the psyche of the fanbase and the team alike, it seems.
In the seasons when Purdue’s ranked, I post a composite ranking of human and computer polls that I call the BSCR (Boiled Sports Composite Ranking). It generally does a great job in giving you an idea of where Purdue really is at that point. BUT, this season, Purdue fell out of the rankings early, so there hasn’t been much of a reason to post such a ranking.
I was curious this morning, so I looked at a handful of computer polls to see what the robots think of Purdue. Sure, they can’t see anything, so there is no eyeball test…but also, they aren’t biased by the name on the jerseys as so many polls seem to be.
Surprisingly, at 11-9, Purdue is not in bad shape at all right now…and opportunity abounds in the next five games.
Purdue plays three ranked teams in their next five games. The good news, of course, is going 3-2 in this stretch would probably give Purdue two more quality wins. The bad news is three of these five games are on the road…and the two at home will be versus ranked opponents.
But again, opportunity abounds for our Boilers.
As it stands now, Purdue’s BSCR is 32.3.
That puts them on the bubble, but with some hope.
The antiquated Sagarin is the low ranking at 81, and Haslemetrics gives the Boilers a ton of love at 16. Amazingly, it seems most computer algorithms believe Purdue is a top-25 team…my eyes disagree at this point. Hopefully they’re seeing something I am missing.
Next chance for these Boilers to prove me wrong comes tonight in Jersey at 8:00 v Rugggggger.
