Calvin Ranked #6 in D3hoops.com Preseason Poll

Wow, is all I'm thinking right now.

I fully expected the Calvin Knights to begin the season ranked. If I had to guess I would have picked a number right around the #15 spot where they finished last year. They have a no fewer question marks than anyone else (and maybe more) -- there's a starting front court to replace (complete with league MVP) and the fact that seven of fourteen varsity spots are being filled by players with nothing more than mop-up experience -- but everyone has question marks so you figure you pretty much start off where you finished.

But then you see something like this D3hoop.com preseason poll and the only response is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Preseason polls are preseason polls which means they are not to be taken very seriously. It's basically people -- educated people, albeit -- guessing with only a tiny bit of information. Not to say Calvin can't end up as a Top 10 team it's just that I didn't expect this. I think they'll probably win 20 games, have a 50-50 shot of winning the league, and hopefully make the tournament, but this takes reasonable expectations and blows them out of the water.

Definitely not to take anything away from D3hoops.com or their associated pollsters -- it's the best D3 poll out there -- it's just that we should remember this is a preseason poll and preseason polls are hard to do because no one knows anything yet.

The #6 ranking marks the Knights' highest position in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll (I believe) since they finished the 2004-05 season in the #2 spot. Calvin finished as high as #7 two years ago after advancing to the Sweet Sixteen and losing to (then) top-ranked St. Thomas by 1 on the Tommies' home floor.

The only ranked team on Calvin's schedule is #18 Wheaton (Ill.)

Expectations: we has them.

Follow @FFTMAG on Twitter.

Fun With the Coaches Poll

The MIAA coaches poll came out on Thursday. As expected, Hope was picked to win the league. Here's the results (first place votes in parenthesis):

Rank	Team	Points
1	Hope	9 (6)
2	Calvin	14 (2)
3	Olivet	17
4	Adrian	28
5	Albion	30
6	Kalamazoo	38
6	Trine	38
8	Alma	49

Each coach ranks the other seven teams (they don't include their own team).

Calvin received two first place votes (one from Hope coach Matt Neil, and one from an unknown source). The remainder of their votes were either four seconds and a fourth, or three seconds and two thirds.

Here's all the voting possibilities I could come up with for each team:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Points
Hope	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	9
Calvin	2	4	0	1	0	0	0	14
Calvin	2	3	2	0	0	0	0	14
Olivet	0	5	1	1	0	0	0	17
Olivet	0	4	3	0	0	0	0	17
Adrian	0	1	3	1	0	1	1	28
Adrian	0	1	3	0	2	0	1	28
Adrian	0	1	3	0	1	2	0	28
Adrian	0	1	2	2	0	2	0	28
Adrian	0	1	2	1	2	1	0	28
Adrian	0	1	2	0	4	0	0	28
Adrian	0	1	1	2	3	0	0	28
Adrian	0	1	0	4	2	0	0	28
Adrian	0	0	5	0	0	1	1	28
Adrian	0	0	4	1	1	0	1	28
Adrian	0	0	4	1	0	2	0	28
Adrian	0	0	4	0	2	1	0	28
Adrian	0	0	3	3	0	0	1	28
Adrian	0	0	3	2	1	1	0	28
Adrian	0	0	3	1	3	0	0	28
Adrian	0	0	2	3	2	0	0	28
Adrian	0	0	1	5	1	0	0	28
Adrian	0	0	0	7	0	0	0	28
Albion	0	1	3	0	0	2	1	30
Albion	0	1	2	1	1	1	1	30
Albion	0	1	2	1	0	3	0	30
Albion	0	1	2	0	3	0	1	30
Albion	0	1	2	0	2	2	0	30
Albion	0	1	1	3	0	1	1	30
Albion	0	1	1	2	2	0	1	30
Albion	0	1	1	2	1	2	0	30
Albion	0	1	1	1	3	1	0	30
Albion	0	1	1	0	5	0	0	30
Albion	0	1	0	2	4	0	0	30
Albion	0	0	4	0	1	1	1	30
Albion	0	0	4	0	0	3	0	30
Albion	0	0	3	2	0	1	1	30
Albion	0	0	3	1	1	2	0	30
Albion	0	0	3	0	3	1	0	30
Albion	0	0	2	3	1	0	1	30
Albion	0	0	2	2	2	1	0	30
Albion	0	0	2	1	4	0	0	30
Albion	0	0	1	5	0	0	1	30
Albion	0	0	1	4	1	1	0	30
Albion	0	0	1	3	3	0	0	30
Albion	0	0	0	5	2	0	0	30
Kalamazoo	0	1	0	0	1	4	1	38
Kalamazoo	0	1	0	0	0	6	0	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	1	1	0	4	1	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	1	0	2	3	1	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	1	0	1	5	0	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	0	2	1	3	1	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	0	1	3	2	1	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	0	1	2	4	0	38
Kalamazoo	0	0	0	0	4	3	0	38
Trine	0	1	0	0	1	4	1	38
Trine	0	1	0	0	0	6	0	38
Trine	0	0	1	1	0	4	1	38
Trine	0	0	1	0	2	3	1	38
Trine	0	0	1	0	1	5	0	38
Trine	0	0	0	2	1	3	1	38
Trine	0	0	0	1	3	2	1	38
Trine	0	0	0	1	2	4	0	38
Trine	0	0	0	0	4	3	0	38
Alma	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	49

That was fun. Let me know if I missed any possibilities.