Sagarin's Women's Basketball Ratings as of 12/07/2012:

                                         RATING    W   L  SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 25  | VS top 50   | ELO_SCORE    | PREDICTOR 
                                                                                                                                                                             HOME ADVANTAGE= [4.22]


33    Duquesne                =  84.58       7   1   68.75    (179)              0   1  |    0   1        |   84.34   34       |   84.54   30

234  Pittsburgh  (H)         =  63.60       6   2   56.06    (342)              0   0  |    0   0        |   61.16  259       |   65.75  202

129  James Madison (H) =  71.45       3   5   75.72     (40)               1   0  |    1   1        |   70.88  134       |   71.74  126

45  West Virginia (A)       =  82.31       5   2   74.13     (63)               0   0  |    1   2         |   81.53   54        |   82.83   41

202  Dartmouth (A)         =  65.74       1   6   77.02     (22)               0   1  |    0   1         |   65.77  201       |   65.44  210

51  Villanova (N)             =  81.57       6   1   67.69    (208)              0   0  |    0   0         |   80.38   61        |   82.50   44
          or
71  Delaware (N)             = 78.94       4   2   68.69    (180)              0   0  |    0   2         |   76.34   90        |   81.37   54

According to the Sagarin predictor, the Dukes are favored by 23 points.  Might I point out that Pitt is ranked 234 with a record of 6-2.  There is only one other team with a better or equal record ranked that low by Sagarin and that is Army (8-1) which is ranked 260.  What do Pitt and Army have in common?  Answer: two of the weakest schedules in all of D1 women's basketball.  Pitt's schedule is ranked the fourth weakest (342nd) of all the 345 D1 teams.  Apparently those in charge of non-conference scheduling at Pitt wanted to give Agnus the gift of a weak schedule with plenty of games at the Petersen to help preserve her job.  For a quick review here's Agnus' record for the last three seasons:
2009-2010 16-15 (8-14)
2010-2011 14-17 (5-11)
2011-2012   8-22 (0-16)

Even with the weak non-conference schedule, my guess is that Pitt will be looking at another overall losing record this season

The Dukes will get their fourth win in a row over Pitt on Saturday afternoon by sizable margin - perhaps by more points than the men's team lost to Pitt.  It will likely be a rough game.  The Dukes defense will prevail.  I've been told that the Duquesne players generally get along with the Pitt players although there has been a little trash taking back and forth.  However, I don't believe that Agnus is one of the Dukes' coaches favorites. 

Except for the game at West Virgina, the Dukes will be favored in their next five games.  Hopefully the Dukes' winning streak will continue!

The quality of the internet broadcast is simply horrible.

Since the DU webcast was unusually bad (I know that is such a giant surprise), I listened to the George Von Benko and the Pitt broadcast.

Really awkward moment in Agnus's post game show, when she basically yelled at George Von Benko for speaking about an potential injury to Pitt's Brittany Kiesel.   And I do mean yelled at him. 

Agnus called the game, "unnecessarily rough" and basically gave Pitt the moral victory.  I can't stand moral victories.

On the SMS post game show, Suzie talking about Orsi needing confidence.  And how happy the whole team is to have Vanessa back.  Abel is working on her Masters degree, and it will be great to have her back.

Last edited by duqkurt (12/08/2012 4:23 pm)

WashPaRick wrote:

How about George not having an answer for that. Just said thanks coach. Fight breaks out my moneys on Agnus.

He is going to think twice before inviting her  to be on her own post game show. Lol

I wonder if he will still be employed next game.

I was sitting in my kitchen and I was cringing at how awkward that exchange was.

Post-Gazette's take on the game:  http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/pitt-big-east/late-surge-of-3-pointers-keeps-title-of-best-womens-basketball-team-in-pittsburgh-on-the-bluff-665530/

Here's the Tribune Review's version of the game wherein the reporter felt compelled to change Jocelyn Floyd's last name to Ford: http://triblive.com/sports/college/duquesne/3081981-85/game-duquesne-nurkic#axzz2EZWgrNiI

I understand that Sagarin's rankings are not sacrosanct among the several determiners of college basketball's hierarchy.  However, it's interesting to note that after the Dukes' victory over the Panthers yesterday, Duquesne's ranking dropped from #33 prior to the game to #44 after the game.  Pitt, on the other hand, saw its pre-game ranking of #234 jump to #212.  So much for the status of beating a Big East team.

Last edited by godukes1970 (12/09/2012 11:38 am)

duqkurt wrote:

But they are now #33 in real time RPI. Jumping I believe from #56 earlier in the week.

Realtime RPI is screwed up. They're counting St Francis (61) twice and the Pitt (250+)  still isn't included. The real RPI I would guess is somewhere in the low 50's.

godukes1970 wrote:

steve19981 wrote:

duqkurt wrote:

But they are now #33 in real time RPI. Jumping I believe from #56 earlier in the week.

Realtime RPI is screwed up. They're counting St Francis (61) twice and the Pitt (250+)  still isn't included. The real RPI I would guess is somewhere in the low 50's.

For the last two years, I noticed that there has been shoddy maintenance of Real Time RPI.  The Dukes' football team results would show the team's overall record but would indicate that they were 0-0 in the NEC even after conference play had begun.  I tried to find an e-mail address to bring this to the attention of the administrators to no avail.   

I note that Real Time RPI (dated Dec. 8, 2012) as of today predicts that the Dukes' women's team will go 25-3 (13-1).  Only losses for the team on the reminder of the schedule would be to WVU and Dayton.  That would be quite a successful regular season if that's the way it turns out.

I suspect that will be pretty difficult to accomplish.  There are always good teams in the A-10 such as Richmond, Temple, Charlotte, Xavier and St Joe's; beating all of those teams will not be likely; but it would pretty much guarantee an NCAA bid.