Commonwealth Power Rankings, January 14th

Things got crazy this week in Virginia to say the least. Five of last week’s seven top teams suffered one or multiple bad losses.

January 14, 2013; 3:20 PM • by Ross Catrow

Things got crazy this week in Virginia to say the least. Five of last week’s seven top teams suffered one or multiple bad losses: UVA lost to Wake Forest and Clemson, George Mason lost to UNCW, Virginia Tech lost to Boston College, William & Mary lost to Towson and Hofstra (!), and JMU lost to Hampton (!). It wasn’t exactly a banner week in the Commonwealth.

Only three teams went 2-0: #19/#22 VCU, VMI, and Hampton. The Keydets and Pirates should continue to see their stock rise in conference play while the Rams will likely need multiple losses in order to forfeit the #1 spot.

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1	VCU 14-3, 2-0	Coaches Poll: check. AP Poll: check. The Rams are ranked #22 in this week’s AP Poll–it’s the first regular-season poll appearance since 1985. Aaron Williams
2	Virginia 11-5, 1-2	Virginia may have lost both its games this week, and against middling ACC teams at that, but there was enough of a gap between them and the rest of the Commonwealth that their ranking remains unchanged. Brian Leung
3	Richmond 11-6, 1-1	The Spiders are suffering without big man Derrick Williams, whose projected return was pushed back into Febuary. A sound loss to La Salle also re-emphasized their struggling front-court situation. Butler, UNC-C, and VCU up next. Oof. Josh Grice
⬆4	Virginia Tech 10-6, 1-2	Erick Green, the nation’s leading scorer, took over and rallied VT from down 11 points in the second half against Georgia Tech to force overtime, where they pulled off a 70-65 road win. It was James Johnson’s his first ACC win as a head coach. Gary Cope
5⬇	George Mason 9-7, 2-2	Patriots, I want to believe, but you’re making it awfully hard.Brian Leung
⬆6	JMU 9-8, 3-1	At 3-1, JMU is a contender in the CAA. If Devon Moore can play more consistently, the Dukes could earn a top-3 seed entering the CAA tournament.Aaron Williams
⬆7	VMI 8-7, 3-0	It’s not that I think that VMI is necessarily the seventh best team in the state, it’s that I have 14 boxes to fill out and they had to go somewhere.Brian Leung
8	Norfolk State 8-10, 3-0	It has been a rough non-conference schedule for the Spartans, but Norfolk State should be a top finisher in the MEAC. Aaron Williams
9⬇	William & Mary 7-8, 1-3	The Tribe’s 5-game losing streak started with understandable losses to Purdue, Vanderbilt, George Mason, and Towson, but things got out of control when they lost to Hofstra by 11-points. Aaron Williams
⬆10	Radford 7-10, 1-2	A much-needed win against High Point for Radford, but it’s too bad they weren’t able to carry momentum into UNC Ashveille. Brian Leung
⬆11	Hampton 4-10, 2-0	The Pirates only average 57.1 ppg, which ranks 337th in the nation. But, they’ve won two straight and have beaten Howard twice, so there’s that.Gary Cope
12	Liberty 5-12, 1-2	Three of the Flames’ wins are against teams that don’t even have a logo next to their school name on ESPN.Gary Cope
⬆13	Longwood 3-14, 0-3	Longwood lacks an identity because they do nothing well. Nothing.Aaron Williams
14⬇	Old Dominion 2-14, 0-4	How did this team beat UVA? Mind boggling.Gary Cope

Contributors: Gary Cope (VT; TechHoops.com), Joshua Grice (UR; Richmond Rowdies), Brian Leung (UVA; StreakingTheLawn.com), Aaron Williams (VCU; RVANews)

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Related

• Previous rankings; RVANews

January 14, 2013 3:20 PM 0