kenpom.com says Duke is dominant

[Zeb]

I was checking out Ken Pomeroy's NCAA basketball ratings on http://www.kenpom.com (http://www.kenpom.com/rate.php) to see how we stacked up this year. We're currently #2. I then went back and looked at previous years and was amazed at how highly Duke has scored over the past 10 years:

1999 - #1
2000 - #5
2001 - #1
2002 - #1
2003 - #6
2004 - #1
2005 - #3
2006 - #5
2007 - #11
2008 - #2 (so far)

The 2007 ranking was particularly interesting. For all of the characterizations of last year as a big step back, according to Ken P., only 10 teams had a better season than us. That is cause for celebration on most campuses.

I know statistical models are not the end all of this sport. K and the team strive to win championships not formulas. But this was a reminder of what an amazing job they have done for the past decade. The team's average finish has been 3.7! I don't think any other team can come remotely close to that over the same period. For comparison: UNC's average finish is 28.6. (The D'oh years killed them.)

In short, we're rooting for a really good basketball program. In case you didn't already know that...

[Wander]

These numbers are completely pointless during this part of the season.

[juise]

That is interesting. 2007 is surprising, but I am even more surprised about the low rating in 2006. That team looked pretty solid to me, especially the one time I got to see them in person (a 31-point trashing of #2 Texas).

[tombrady]

These numbers are completely pointless during this part of the season.

that wasn't the point of his post. but good job on being negative!

[elvis14]

that wasn't the point of his post. but good job on being negative!

Man, you said it. How many times over the last three weeks has someone made a post about stats or rankings only to have too many negative people take the time to post that it doesn't mean anything this time of year? How does that add to a discussion? Too many times for me, last time I checked we were all on the same side!

[Zeb]

I really didn't care about what the kenpom site said this year... I agree its too early for these models to have much significance. I was just curious about our current ranking, especially what the SoS looked like so far.

Another interesting thing about the historical rankings is Duke teams I thought were worthy of a championship (2002, 2004) scored just like my Duke colored glasses expected them to, even though the NCAA tourney didn't play out that way.