The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

WVU basketball No. 1

…though not in either of the polls that “matter,” but rather on one that probably should matter more than it does. It is the Pomeroy Rating, the brainchild of Ken Pomeroy, who started his own blog years ago and was eventually recognized by ESPN.com and asked to contribute his thoughts.

Obviously, what he thinks has some merit. Today he thinks WVU is playing better than anyone else in the country.

Many will quickly dismiss this because WVU cannot be No. 1 when the Associated Press and coaches’ polls don’t include WVU. Um, why? At least look at the teams near the top of the Pomeroy Ratings. They’re pretty good and they’re not going anywhere.

This is relevant because Ken describes his rating as more of a projection (by the way, you really need to read that to wrap your mind around the concept).

I would describe the philosophy of the system as this: it looks at who a team has beaten and how they have beaten them. Same thing on the losses, also. Yes, it values a 20 point win more than a 5 point win. It likes a team that loses a lot of close games against strong opposition more than one that wins a lot of close games against weak opposition.

Think of it as RPI, Version 2.0 with some criteria that really matters.