Guru's College Report: A-10 Bonnies Lie With The Poll

(Guru’s note: A separate blog highlighting candidates for the weekly USBWA national player of the week is below this one. If you are in melgreenberg.com click mel’s blog on the left to get to the full archive in blogspot.)

By Mel Greenberg

Now that St. Bonaventure finally cracked the Associated Press women’s poll, the next trick for the Bonnies is the avoid the fate many first-time residents suffer by losing before the next vote.

While they are favored Wednesday in an Atlantic 10 game against Massachusetts, on Saturday they face Dayton an co-favorite with Temple who are tied for second just one game back in the loss column.

But for the moment, coach Jim Crowley, the dean of conference coaches, can enjoy becoming the 150^th team to be ranked since the Guru launched the poll in November 1976.

Crowley is the 246^th coach to guide a team into the rankings.

Teams out of New York state who have been previously ranked are St. John’s, Marist, Fordham, Queens College, and Syracuse.

In terms of the Atlantic 10, the Bonnies join current members Fordham, whose ranking came in AIAW days, La Salle, whose ranking came when the Explorers were in the MAAC, Temple, St. Joseph’s, Dayton, George Washington and Xavier with a ranking history.

Additonally, Penn State, who moved to the Big 10, and Rutgers, who moved to the Big East, earned prominent rankings when they were part of the conference.

The A-10 yet to be ranked crowd includes Richmond, Saint Louis, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Duquesne, and Charlotte.

This week the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference still lead the pack with five members each, while South Carolina’s return gives the Southeastern Conference four teams, a number ahead of the Big Twelve, which has two teams, the Big Ten, which has four, and the Pac-12, which has one.

The Colonial Athletic Association, West Coast Conference, and Horizon join the Atlantic 10 as mid-majors with one team each.

Penn State reached its 360^th all-time appearance as the Lady Lions moved up a spot to 18^th.

Baylor and Notre Dame, the ongoing 1-2 punch in the rankings, tied Virginia with 57 appearances in the Top five for 10^th place.

Stanford reached its 200^th Top Five appearance in the AP Poll.

Duke moved ahead of Old Dominion into seventh place with 132 Top 5 appearances.

Rutgers tied Vanderbilt for 10^th in total appearances at 343.

South Carolina’s win at Tennessee knocked the Lady Vols out of the Top 10 for the first time this decade (Jan. 4 2010 start) leaving just Connecticut, Duke and Stanford to maintain perfect attendance in the category at 44 appearances in the near elite category.

The Guru has a weekly print column over in Philly.com which addresses items of the Big Five and Drexel, though most of the info will have usually been spoken to here.

Since the weekly official NCAA RPI weekly report was posted Monday, here’s how the locals look:

Delaware 6 SOS (Strength of schedule) 24

Rutgers 10 SOS 7

Villanova 16 SOS 9

Princeton 25 SOS 38 – Hopefully, the Tigers won’t be punished for playing their Ivy competition.

Penn State 28 SOS 68

Temple 43 SOS 28

St. Joseph’s 58 62

Drexel 93 SOS 71

La Salle 134 SOS 95

Penn 230 SOS 184

Here are the Top 25 RPI teams not currently ranked

Kansas State 11 SOS 2 – was ranked earlier

Villanova 16 SOS 9

Oklahoma 17 SOS 17

DePaul 21 SOS 19 – Fell out last week

Princeton 25 SOS 38.

Here are the five AP teams who are ranked in the poll but outside the 25 RPI.

Gonzaga 26 SOS 89

Georgia 27 SOS 35

Penn State 28 SOS 68

South Carolina 31 SOS 73

North Carolina 101 SOS 242

Perfect In Conference

Here Are Teams Still Unbeaten

Boston U. – Amer East 10-0

St. Bonaventure – Atlantic Ten 9-0

Duke – Atlantic Coast 10-0

Fla. Gulf Coast – Alantic Sun 13-0

Baylor – Big Twelve 11-0

Notre Dame – Big East 10-0

Delaware – Colonial Atlantic Association 11-0

UTEP – Conference USA 9-0

Wis.-Green Bay – Horizon 10-0

Princeton – Ivy 5-0

Bowling Green – Mid-America East 10-0

Florida A&M – MEAC 10-0

Eastern Illinois – Ohio Valley 11-0

Stanford -- Pac-12 11-0

American – Patriot League 8-0

Fresno State – WAC 7-0

And that’s it for the moment

-- Mel