Most Overrated & Underrated
By Scott Spreitzer
Sportspic.com
Each week throughout the college basketball season, Scott will dissect the new top-25 rankings on Monday evenings and post what he feels is the week's most overrated top-25 team, along with the most underrated ranked team, and an unranked squad that he feels should be in the AP top-25.
MOST OVERRATED RANKED TEAM: Murray State Racers
This is the second time that the Racers have landed in this spot. Murray State, at 23-0 and ranked ninth in this week's Top 25, is a nice story, but the Racers don’t deserve their lofty ranking. After all, to be in this spot, they had to be ranked above Duke, Michigan State, and Georgetown, to name a few top programs. Beating up on the 309th toughest schedule (according to Pomeroy rankings, which has MSU ranked 61st) doesn't impress me as much as it does the pollsters. I have a problem ranking teams in the Top 10 when they play creampuff after creampuff. Sure, you can only beat the teams on your schedule, but just about every ranked team could be 23-0 right now if they swapped schedules with Murray State. The final four games on Murray State's schedule will be its toughest stretch of the season, including a Bracket Buster game against St. Mary's. Sweep their way to an undefeated regular season and maybe my thoughts on the Racers will change - maybe.
MOST UNDERRATED RANKED TEAM: Florida State Seminoles
The Seminoles finished last season ranked 151st in scoring and looked much the same in the early going this year, despite possessing arguably the third-most talented team in the ACC. However, Florida State has scored at least 75 points in four of its last six games without sacrificing anything on the defensive end. The Noles were in a tough spot against Virginia over the weekend, yet came through with a hard-fought three-point win. That's the type of game previous FSU editions would have lost. Before this season began, the Seminoles were hoping to have a couple of players step up on the offensive end. Instead, they have fared even better with seven players averaging between 13.2 and 7.2 points per game. With the wraps off the offense and with its continued ferocious play on defense, FSU has the ability to beat anyone in the Top 25. As long as the Noles don't fall back into that sleepy offensive style, they could make serious noise in March.
UNRANKED TEAM THAT SHOULD BE RANKED: Temple Owls
Temple has played the 13th toughest slate in the nation and could come up big again this week. The Owls have won six straight, 11 of 13 (9-4 ATS) and their defensive play can be stifling. And unlike the John Chaney era, Fran Dunphy's Owls can flat out score. Temple has connected on 47.5 percent of its field goal attempts, including going 40.2 percent from behind the arc - ranking 34th and 11th in the nation, respectively. Posting a 17-5 (13-9 ATS) mark with those kinds of numbers against the nation's 13th toughest slate is impressive.