4/14 ITA Rankings Preview

The top 4 stays the same this week though Oklahoma has extended its lead at #1 to almost 10 points after knocking off #2 Baylor last Friday.  OU's lead was 15 points but its stunning loss at Texas Tech dropped it down a full 5 points.  Baylor is #2 though its lead over #3 Illinois went from 6 points to 5 with the loss to Oklahoma. Illinois stays at #3 with #4 Virginia a little over 4 points back. 

This week's rankings use each team's top 9 best wins as will each of the next 2 rankings which will take us all the way up through the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field on April 28th.

Texas Tech and Stanford were the 2 big risers this week with Texas Tech coming up 7 spots from 23 to 16 after the win over #1 Oklahoma and Stanford coming up 12 spots after the wins over #5 USC and #15 UCLA. Some may wonder why the increase wasn't bigger and its due to the fact that the best 9 wins were used so its tougher to move the needle with just 1 or 2 wins.  Going into the weekend Stanford only had 5 ranked wins and 4 of those 5 were ranked between 55 and 75.  

Princeton takes the biggest fall inside the top 40 by dropping 5 spots from 30 to 35 after losing to both Dartmouth and Harvard

Others Coming Up:

• Georgia comes up 3 spots from 8 to 5 on the strength of its win over Ole Miss coupled with USC and Duke both losing.
• TCU comes up 3 spots from 10 to 7 after its big win over Texas A&M coupled with the USC and Duke loses.
• Several teams came up 1 spot including Texas A&M, Wake Forest, Ole Miss, and North Carolina

Others Going Down:

• USC dropped 4 spots from 9 to 5 after its loss at Stanford coupled with both Georgia and TCU picking up big wins
• Duke dropped 2 spots from 6 to 8 after its loss to North Carolina 
• UCLA dropped 4 spots from 15 to 19 after its loss to Stanford and due to the fact that its 9th best win was over #62 Washington.  
• Oklahoma State dropped 4 spots from 25 to 29 after losing to both Texas Tech and Baylor.  

Other Notes:

• I have Virginia Tech and North Carolina tied for 14th but each has 1 win over a team ranked below 75 so it's possible that UNC could end up 14th and VT 15th.  Virginia Tech's 9th best win is over Georgia Tech which should be ranked in the 83-90 zone.  North Carolina's 9th best win is over East Carolina or Miami both of which are ranked below 115 and should be below 125. 

4/14 ITA Rankings Projections (ones in bold moves at least 4 spots)

Rank	School	Points	Previous
1	Oklahoma	84.31	1
2	Baylor	74.70	2
3	Illinois	69.58	3
4	Virginia	65.47	4
5	Georgia	63.79	8
6	Texas A&M	63.66	7
7	TCU	61.32	10
8	Duke	60.44	6
9	USC	58.73	5
10	Texas	58.00	9
11	Ohio State	47.91	11
12	Wake Forest	45.50	13
13	Ole Miss	43.59	14
14	Virginia Tech*	41.65	12
14	North Carolina*	41.65	16
16	Texas Tech	40.98	23
17	Florida	39.17	17
18	San Diego	39.10	18
19	UCLA	39.06	15
20	Mississippi State	36.42	20
21	South Florida	36.40	19
22	Vanderbilt	36.27	21
23	Columbia*	34.23	22
24	Stanford*	33.40	36
25	LSU*	29.56	24
26	Northwestern*	28.92	26
27	Tulsa*	28.37	29
28	California	27.77	27
29	Oklahoma State	27.42	25
30	Louisville*	26.84	28
31	Drake	26.07	31
32	Minnesota	25.77	32
33	Florida State*	25.63	33
34	Harvard*	25.34	35
35	Princeton*	24.86	30
36	NC State*	21.38	34
37	Notre Dame*	19.98	38
38	San Diego State*	18.56	37
39	Tulane*	16.45	39
40	Pepperdine*	15.97	40

* represents a team that has a win over someone that is ranked below 75 so it's tough to be 100% accurate pinpointing where in that range the team falls so the point totals may be off a bit.