After a wild, wooly, and weather-impacted week, here's how my Power Rankings look for this Sunday:
1. SMU
2. UST
3. Bethel
4. Concordia
5. (tie) CSB & St. Olaf
6. Augsburg
7. GAC
8. Carleton
9. (tie) Hamline & St. Kate's
10. Macalester
Simply no choice but to put the Cardinals atop this week's Power Rankings after yesterday's shocking and breathtaking victory over UST down the River in Winona. I've already had a helping of crow (thank you very much) and have paid my dues here I think. I just didn't think that this year's version of SMU could match-up to last year's team but they have proven me wrong - and then some. Again, if you haven't seen this team play yet I urge you to get out there and catch this squad in action. They are a fun group to watch for sure. Can they keep this up? We'll see. I resisted the temptation to shove Bethel into a second place tie with the Tommies. Just too many unanswered questions about this group yet despite the convincing home win over Hamline yesterday. Concordia remains solidly at the fourth spot
CSB may have caught a bit of new life this last week with wins over both Macalester and St. Olaf just yesterday but am not sure how long that'll last before they're put on life support again as a home date with Concordia this Wednesday and a trip down to Carleton next Saturday are in the offing. Suddenly-slumping St. Olaf has watched their stock drop dramatically after home court beatdowns by Concordia and UST on successive nights that left Skoglund Center looking more like Berlin circa April 1945 (and no, Ole fan, you were not the Russians here either). After yesterday's somewhat predictable loss up at CSB, the Oles have a shot at righting the ship again with a home date against Macalester on Wednesday and a trip to Hamline next Saturday afternoon. Augsburg has taken advantage thus far of a favorable schedule since the New Year and could keep things going along with Carleton coming to town on Wednesday night before the all-important game at Bethel next Saturday.
I really thought GAC was on the right track after that thumping of Augsburg right before the holiday break......I could even forgive the road loss to St. Olaf after the first of the year but the home loss to Macalester this last Monday night raised all sorts of red flags in my mind about this team. Not to take anything away from Macalester but, from a GAC standpoint, that's just one game where you HAVE to take care of home court and they failed to do that. The ensuing loss at Bethel followed two nights later and, though they did beat Carleton yesterday at home, they are saddled with a 3-5 record in the MIAC and only 6-5 overall. I can't help but think about how things almost spiraled out of control for this group last year at about this same time and, even though I was wrong for saying what I said at the time, I just see this same scenario repeating itself this time around and it scares me quite frankly. And now I look at their schedule and see both (gulp!) UST and SMU on the slate for this coming week. Ruh roh!!!!
Despite the loss to GAC yesterday, don't count Carleton out just yet. They are going to win some games this season that people don't think they can win. Question for the Knights is can they hold up under a grueling conference schedule to get themselves into that sixth spot? They have the ability to do it but can't completely count on the misfortunes of others to help them along. Ditto for Hamline which has all kinds of potential but can't find a way to be consistent.
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