[ColoradoTree]

If the Pac-12 standings shake out like the current rankings do (Stanford 1, UCLA 2, Washington 3, USC 4, Cal 5, etc.) and seedings hold in the Pac-12 tournament, here's a projection of what our best 9 wins would be for the purposes of the final pre-NCAA team rankings if we win out:

#5 Vanderbilt, #6 UCLA (away), #6 UCLA (Pac-12s), #7 Washington, #14 USC (away), #14 USC (Pac-12s), #15 LSU, #16 Texas, and #20 Cal (away), against just the one loss to #2 Georgia.  That's still a great resume, and Texas will climb further as the season will go on (though LSU will also drop, as will some of the Pac-12 teams). So, keep in mind when our ranking starts to drop in the next couple of weeks that it will likely climb back up when it has to for us to be in the top 8 by season's end. As long as the team gets wins, that is. Losing to UCLA isn't brutal in terms of absorbing a loss to a highly-ranked team; it's just that we'd be hoping Washington State is ranked at that point, or else we'd be including a team outside the top 50 in our top 9 wins on the year. (Washington State losing to both Utah and Colorado was very unfortunate.) 

For tomorrow's rankings, however, we've got #5 Vanderbilt, #15 LSU, #16 Texas, #28 Washington State, and an unranked win measured against the loss to Georgia. To compare, Duke has wins over #8 Oklahoma State, #10 Ohio State, #17 Florida State (away), #23 Pepperdine, and #24 Old Dominion, against now two losses to UNC (which counts the same as one loss to the #6 team in the country). They don't count it this way, of course, but it's striking that Duke has nine ranked wins against our four. Sure, we've got the better top win, but goodness, Duke has maybe one "easy" win among its 10, and we've got four among our 8. No question at this point who has had the harder schedule.

Viewed another way, we currently have just one top 10 win, due to Texas dropping a bit. Duke has two. UCLA has two (#8 Oklahoma State and #9 South Carolina). USC has two (#6 UCLA and #9 South Carolina).

That said, Duke's schedule is frontloaded--aside from a good win or two it'll pick up in the ACC tournament, it has just one Top 15 team left on its schedule: #11 N.C. State. Meanwhile, we have three (UCLA, UW, USC), and another who may well be there by the time we play (Cal), on top of whoever we get in the Pac-12 tournament. FYI, Texas has a similar issue. They're currently #16 (best wins are #10 Ohio State, #13 Northwestern, and #17 Florida State), but they've got matches remaining against #8 (away), #12, #23, #30, #31, #34 (away), #37, and #50 (away), and that's before the Big 12 tournament. If they do what they're capable of, they'll be back in the top 10 by season's end, which is good news for us.

[ColoradoTree]

If the Pac-12 standings shake out like the current rankings do (Stanford 1, UCLA 2, Washington 3, USC 4, Cal 5, etc.) and seedings hold in the Pac-12 tournament, here's a projection of what our best 9 wins would be for the purposes of the final pre-NCAA team rankings if we win out:

#5 Vanderbilt, #6 UCLA (away), #6 UCLA (Pac-12s), #7 Washington, #14 USC (away), #14 USC (Pac-12s), #15 LSU, #16 Texas, and #20 Cal (away), against just the one loss to #2 Georgia.  That's still a great resume, and Texas will climb further as the season will go on (though LSU will also drop, as will some of the Pac-12 teams). So, keep in mind when our ranking starts to drop in the next couple of weeks that it will likely climb back up when it has to for us to be in the top 8 by season's end. As long as the team gets wins, that is. Losing to UCLA isn't brutal in terms of absorbing a loss to a highly-ranked team; it's just that we'd be hoping Washington State is ranked at that point, or else we'd be including a team outside the top 50 in our top 9 wins on the year. (Washington State losing to both Utah and Colorado was very unfortunate.) 

For tomorrow's rankings, however, we've got #5 Vanderbilt, #15 LSU, #16 Texas, #28 Washington State, and an unranked win measured against the loss to Georgia. To compare, Duke has wins over #8 Oklahoma State, #10 Ohio State, #17 Florida State (away), #23 Pepperdine, and #24 Old Dominion, against now two losses to UNC (which counts the same as one loss to the #6 team in the country). They don't count it this way, of course, but it's striking that Duke has nine ranked wins against our four. Sure, we've got the better top win, but goodness, Duke has maybe one "easy" win among its 10, and we've got four among our 8. No question at this point who has had the harder schedule.

Viewed another way, we currently have just one top 10 win, due to Texas dropping a bit. Duke has two. UCLA has two (#8 Oklahoma State and #9 South Carolina). USC has two (#6 UCLA and #9 South Carolina).

That said, Duke's schedule is frontloaded--aside from a good win or two it'll pick up in the ACC tournament, it has just one Top 15 team left on its schedule: #11 N.C. State. Meanwhile, we have three (UCLA, UW, USC), and another who may well be there by the time we play (Cal), on top of whoever we get in the Pac-12 tournament. FYI, Texas has a similar issue. They're currently #16 (best wins are #10 Ohio State, #13 Northwestern, and #17 Florida State), but they've got matches remaining against #8 (away), #12, #23, #30, #31, #34 (away), #37, and #50 (away), and that's before the Big 12 tournament. If they do what they're capable of, they'll be back in the top 10 by season's end, which is good news for us.