What’s in a Ranking?

HAPPY NEW YEAR CATLAND (:
After a long, delightful, frenetic Holiday I’m finally gettin back to what I do best ….. expressing my opinion.
Question of the day—- What exactly is in a ranking & if it doesn’t matter as much as we profess, then why all the fuss?

I think this one is fairly simple. It’s called for the sake of argument. It provides the media, fanbases & coaches w/the opportunity to convey their biased favoritism through subtle gloating of We are better because the numbers say so! If it works out on paper/computer, well then it’s law. WRONG. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. Game after game refutes this equation if not shreds it to pieces. The REAL NUMBERS coming from the stats says it all.
This is common knowledge, I’m not tellin you anything new– so then WHY do these rankings carry so much weight or better yet, WHY do we let them? Again… for the sake of argument & at the very best a reasonable base to establish where a team should fall. Problem w/that base is another B word—-> Bias. I think we can all agree that the presence of bias compromises a true base line. So how should teams be ranked? No, I don’t have the answer to that one…. although it would be nice to see a weekly guide by Las Vegas & the folks that don’t watch at all. (One of the grand mystery’s of the sports world, I might add— how do they do it? LOL We who live, eat & breathe this stuff always seemed to be trumped by the fella next door that says…. OOOH I like this team, they have a cool mascot). <—- That’s a whole other subject & I’m rambling as usual.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of basketball Geiger counter to measure a team peaking??? That is the trick going into March. FTR: We aren’t even close to peaking & that’s a good thing— We don’t want to see that till the beginning week of March @ the earliest Last week of February.
The funny thing about these rankings is every once in awhile they are pretty close to being right. Like now.
Kansas is exposed & opening up the big 3— Texas moves to #1 (don’t get too comfortable you will be evicted & whisked back in several times throughout this season.) & We come @ #2. I’ve always said 2 is better than 1, so I’ll hang on to this concept w/all claws going into Tuesday night’s swamp land. I also think it is a fair assessment. Okay this is about unbiased as ya can get because those of you that know me well — know I don’t put too much stock in Rick Barnes…. he chokes year after year & his teams peak way way too early. Their conference plays a big part in his failures. The nightmare is—— patterns, streaks break all the time & playing the law of averages you are eventually going to exceed expectations. CatLand, I’m going on record now saying I believe this is the year Texas will do this. In spite of conference, past & coach— this team is for real. They mirror us in every way except they are veterans. <—- This scares the h*ll outta me. They play w/a passion & they play possessed. A wicked nasty combination. I give credit where credit is due — doesn’t mean I suggest we cash it in & hand them the goods. What I am saying is this ….. if things continue we are in for one EPIC Championship entanglement w/that bunch. We just got rid of one Texan— I don’t want to see that vindicated by another! GRRRRR………
If we’re peaking in March like we should be—- even Texas is in for a mighty hurt.
Experience is going to reap solid rewards by that time— so let the rankings say what they want—- they are going to see saw like crazy in the coming weeks. We’ll even have our time at #1 before it’s all over with, trading off with Texas from time to time. Out of the “Big 3″ kansas is the less formidable & will display as such in their win/loss column. Question is—- who slides into this party??? If ya think about it…. there is a handful of teams w/quality W/L records right as I type—– but overall, Parody has taken center stage this season …… after the Big 3 you have a considerable drop off.
All that plays into our favor. We go from NIT to National Title Contender, Our Coach is saying & doing things that force you to rewind, review & think—– This clip will be aired a 1000 times after we win the title—- LIVING HISTORY. More importantly we have a team of all stars that possess a DIE HARD WILL TO WIN & our finding ways to accomplish that desire. Funny thing is— we are so young that we don’t have enough sense to stop & respect our competition & exhibit a lil fear —–that’s what NORMAL freshman do—– WE DON’T. And you won’t find me complaining one bit. This can also be our Achilles heel in that I don’t see another beating us—–
I see us beating ourselves. I do believe it’s going to happen & if it takes 2 or 3 times to get it through our heads, then so be it—- it’s all about the journey, finding out who you are & what you are— the Victorious End is not half the fun the journey is.
Enter Cal~ ….. Cats, in this game—- there isn’t another coach out there that knows how to work w/these types of players better than he does. So pour on the extra ingredient x’s 10.
We’re gonna be there— the final chapter is …. will we just be the mighty Goliath contending or THE RETURN OF A CHAMPION? I don’t know bout ya’ll, but I’m sure gonna have fun finding out.
What A RIDE huh?! I don’t want it to ever end.
So let’s not concentrate so much on the rankings— we’ve always been & always will be #1 in the hearts & minds of the Big Blue Nation. Better yet, We’re #1 on all college basketball’s mind right now!
WE ARE KENTUCKY & WE WILL ROAR!