KenPom Ratings 2018

[ptownbraves]

Comparing the end of year KenPom numbers with the beginning:

Pre-season KenPom rankings:
87 - ISUr
93 - Loyola
99 - MoSt
129 - UNI
131 - Valpo
133 - Bradley
148 - SIU
160 - Evansville
203 - ISUb
223 - Drake

Compared to end of conference play:
47 - Loyola
113 - Missouri St.
125 - Bradley
127 - UNI
131 - Evansville
136 - SIU
138 - Indiana St.
148 - Illinois St.
149 - Valpo
160 - Drake

It speaks to the parity of the conference that we have 7 teams clustered within 24 spots of each other.

I'm surprised to see Missouri State and UNI ranked as high as they are compared to other schools. With UNI, this is probably due to their strong non-conference schedule. Illinois State did lose some good talent, but I'm a bit surprised KenPom has them that far down.

Outperformed/Underperformed their initial ranking:
203 - ISUb - 138 (+65)
223 - Drake - 160 (+63)
93 - Loyola - 47 (+46)
160 - Evansville - 131 (+29)
148 - SIU - 136 (+12)
133 - Bradley - 125 (+8)
129 - UNI - 127 (+2)
99 - MoSt - 113 (-14)
131 - Valpo - 149 (-18)
87 - ISUr - 148 (-61)

The pre-season rankings are kind of a shot in the dark and based on prior year ending numbers, so this doesn't provide much value. But it's still fun to look at how the experts thought of our teams compared to how they finished.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Pomeroy is always interesting. Remember when it projected 10-8 to win the league and 2 9-9 teams to play on Thursday back in November? What a Valley of Even that would’ve been.

KenPom seems to be way missing the boat with ILST but cool to see the change in their rankings. MVC outperformed preseason expectations by a cumulative 132 spots — or 13.2 per team.

Most notable is 3 of KenPom’s Valley top 5 are Thursday night teams.

KenPom’s rankings would predict the following for Arch Madness:
(9) N Iowa > (8) Evansville
(7) Missouri St > (10) Valparaiso

(1) Loyola > (9) N Iowa
(5) Bradley > (4) Drake
(7) Missouri St > (2) S Illinois
(6) Indiana St > (3) Illinois St

(1) Loyola > (5) Bradley
(7) Missouri St > (6) Indiana St

(1) Loyola > (7) Missouri St

3 Friday upsets and a Thursday team winning 3 despite their 1-46 history.