For example, In week 14 of the AP Poll, URI received 486 points from the AP Poll particpants; in week 15, URI score jumped to 666 points, an increase of 37%. Although not as impressive as the 150% increase in points that North Carolina received this week, the 37% increase in score points is indicative of the fact that more of the AP voters have become aware of the achievements that URI M-BB is making this season. .
Also, looking solely at the AP Poll rankings obscures the natural clustering that tends to occur in any sample of values. Looking at the AP Poll point scores (rather than at the AP Poll rankings) allows the various teams to be "clustered" based on their average point scores for that week.
For week 15 of the AP Poll, such a "clustered" ordering based on the average of how each of the AP voters scored each team would look lke this:
First place Virginia tied for second Michigan State Villanova third place Xavier fourth place Cincinnati tied for sixth place Purdue Texas Tech eighth place Ohio State tied for ninth place Gonzaga Auburn tied in eleventh place Clemson Duke tied thirteenth place Kansas North Carolina tied fifteenth place Saint Mary's Rhode Island tied sixteenth place Arizona Tennessee eighteenth place Wichita State twentieth place West Virginia tied twenty-first place Texas A&M Michigan twenty-third place Oklahoma tied twenty-fourth Nevada Arizona State
The above analysis is reinforced by URI's #14 placement in the Coaches Poll.
A graphical representation for the AP Poll point scores for last week and this week are as follows (with the Rhode Island entry each week colored blue):
My summary points are
- that this week URI has taken a meaningful step "up" in times of national awareness
- that the national rating on a subjective "national experts doing the selection" basis (as opposed to the computerized objective rating supplied by the BPI, KenPom, and Sagarin numbers) would place URI M-BB as being rated #15 in the country, for this week at least