Arizona ranked No. 15 in the NCAA's first NET ratings of the season, but there's a surprise at the top of the Pac-12.
Stanford (9-1) has the highest rating among Pac-12 teams despite playing the 20th weakest schedule in Division I, according to Kenpom, and beating only one Kenpom 150 team (Oklahoma).
Oregon is 17th, followed by ASU (30), Colorado (31) and Washington (35).
San Diego State (10-0) debuted all the way at No. 3.
If the NET rankings seem a little off, they also did early last season before making more sense as the season went on.
NET ratings are primarily used to construct a sorting tool for which to begin evaluating teams for selection in the NCAA Tournament -- i.e., defining which games are top-tier "Quadrant 1" is based on what the NET ratings are of the teams competing in that game. A number of metrics are used to make the final selections.
As shown on UA's "team sheet" (attached to this post), the Wildcats now have an 0-2 record in Quadrant 1 games, and a 1-0 record in Quadrant 2. They are 5-0 in Quadrant 3 and 4-0 in Quadrant 4, with the average NET ratings of teams they have beaten at 157.
The human-powered AP Top 25 media poll, had the Wildcats at No. 16 while Gonzaga moved to No. 2 after beating them at McKale Center on Saturday. Oregon moved up to No. 8 after beating Michigan.
In the AP poll, SDSU is ranked No. 20 and Stanford received only three votes.
FWIW, I moved Gonzaga to No. 2 on my AP Top 25 ballot while moving Arizona down two spots to No. 19 and Oregon up one spot to No. 12. I dropped Colorado out andΒ did not vote for Stanford.
Here's the entire Top 25 ballot I submitted:
1 Kansas
2 Gonzaga
3 Duke
4 Louisville
5 Ohio State
6 Virginia
7 Maryland
8 Kentucky
9 Memphis
10 Baylor
11 Auburn
12 Oregon
13 Michigan
14 Michigan State
15 Butler
16 Villanova
17 Dayton
18 Florida State
19 Arizona
20 San Diego State
21 West Virginia
22 Tennessee
23 Penn State
24 Wichita State
25 Texas
Oregon's Payton Pritchard was named the Pac-12's Player of the Week while USC's Onyeka Okongwu beat out Arizona's Zeke Nnaji for the league's freshman of the week.
While Nnaji had 16 points and 17 rebounds in the Wildcats' loss to Gonzaga, Okongwu had 18 points and 12 rebounds in the Trojans' win over Long Beach State.
