Takeaways From the First RPI Rankings
I posted the first edition of this season’s RPI rankings yesterday afternoon. Today, I want one article to explain what goes into it and how I run it. In my other article today, I’ll talk about some takeaways at this…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingI posted the first edition of this season’s RPI rankings yesterday afternoon. Today, I want one article to explain what goes into it and how I run it. In my other article today, I’ll talk about some takeaways at this point in the season.
Going into the last night, the Badger-Large had two undefeated teams and had six of their eight teams with a winning record and at least six wins. That level of performance landed them with two RPI top-five teams in their respective Divisions, Oregon at No. 3 in D1 and Beaver Dam at No. 1 in D2, although they were handled by Monona Grove last night.
The Big Rivers Conference is another conference that’s done well in RPI terms thus far. Last season, the only two teams that finished in the top ten of any division were Hudson and Eau Claire Memorial near the back of the D1 top ten. As of yesterday, the BRC had ECM and Hudson in the top 15 of D1, at 10 and 14. In D2, Menomonie and Rice Lake also cracked the top ten early, sitting at three and eight heading into the Holiday season.
The most prominent thing I noticed was that there’s still a way to go for the high-profile early season non-conference games to settle in and raise the OWP for teams like Homestead, who challenged themselves as much as possible, since the teams they’ve played lost in other high-profile games, their OWP isn’t anywhere close to where it’ll be at the end of the season.
One team I knew had improved, but by more than I thought, and want to shoutout is Weyauwega-Fremont. Olivia Witkowski Olivia Witkowski 6'0" | PF Weyawega-Freemont | 2025 State WI has been one of the most impressive small school kids for the past two seasons on a team that didn’t win more than ten games total these past two years. Now, they’re 6-4 rolling into the Holiday season and seem to be on pace for an outstanding season, given where the program has been the past two seasons.
The final thing I’ll mention is the benefit that smaller conferences get by being able to play more non-conference games. It may be more of a small school thing. However, teams in five or six-team conferences who have to fill their schedule with double-digit non-conference games can give them an advantage over teams from larger conferences who don’t have that kind of schedule versatility.
The best teams will see each other at some point, but it’s a fun exercise to go through on the way to the postseason.
Here’s the link for the RPI Rankings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iX0etKDg_5kUWfaM-M72JTxaUK_EPlZib0pKNk-YOlA/edit?usp=sharing