Winthrop...#22

Unbelievable. #22 in the Coaches Poll...what seeding will they get in the dance?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankingsindex

 

i would say 10 tops

 

8/9

 

at 22, that would put them 6-8, which would be awesome.

 

It would be awesome but i don't see it happening. They are 69th RPI and played the 266th ranked schedule.

 

Agreed. 12-13.

 

Wait a minute. According to that fucktard johnny Rebel I can't comment on Winthrop since i went to duke.

 

I'd say a 10 seed is about right. But they'll win their first round game.

 

8 or 9 would be respectable like.

 

From USA Today...

I wonder who Marshall was referring to in the last sentence??

Now in Top 25, Winthrop looks to crash the dance

Craig Bradshaw was napping Monday morning when he got a text message with momentous news: Winthrop men's basketball team was ranked for the first time.
"I had to get up and check it myself on the Internet to see if it was real," Bradshaw says.

Sure enough, there it was: No. 22 in the USA TODAY/ESPN coaches' poll. The school is 24th in the Associated Press media poll.

"This means a lot to us," says the 6-10 center from Zealand. "We're ranked in the nation and who would have thought that?"

Ohio State kept the No. 1 spot with all but one of the 31 first-place votes. Kansas moved into second and took the final first-place vote.

Winthrop had never been ranked in any sport except baseball, which has been ranked many times but never higher than No. 23, according to sports information director Jack Frost.

Saturday Winthrop won the Big South tournament and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Bradshaw was named tournament MVP as the 28-4 Eagles stretched their winning streak to 18 games, second in the nation to Memphis' 19.

Last week Winthrop had the second-highest vote total of teams not in the Top 25. In the new poll, Winthrop finds itself next door to No. 21 Duke.

"It's a validation of what these guys have accomplished," coach Gregg Marshall says. "It's a great feeling for people to finally start picking up on what we've had going on down here for a while."

Winthrop is in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in Marshall's nine seasons and the third time in a row, meaning his starting lineup of three seniors and two juniors is tournament-tested. The Eagles lost 63-61 to Tennessee last year and played Gonzaga close the year before losing by 10. Winthrop is 0-6 all time in the NCAA tournament.

"We've had two near misses in the last two years," Marshall says. "We know what it tastes like to come up a little short. And now we want to experience that other side."

Winthrop has never been seeded higher than 14. This time, "I think we should be somewhere around a 6 or 7, I really do," Marshall says. "I'm thinking it will be more like a 10 because of our RPI" of 69, according to Collegiate Basketball News.

Winthrop's four losses are to other ranked teams: No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 North Carolina and No. 20 Maryland.

"We thought we were potentially worthy of ranking a while ago," Marshall says. "It just takes longer at this level. You have to string a lot of wins together. And you can't lose. If you lose one, you drop considerably. As opposed to some other teams at maybe a higher level that can lose one, two, three games and still seem to be ranked."