Mid-Major Report: 2/21

After a fantastic Bracketbusters weekend, here we are again with the Mid-Major Report. Similar to last week, there have been some serious shake-ups regarding the rankings. With so many good teams playing each other, that was bound to happen. But the week also produced some extremely surprising results outside of Bracketbusters games, specifically in the Mountain West Conference. That is why we have a new number one team. Keep reading to see who they are. As always, refer to the first report of the year for information about how these rankings are achieved.

Dropped Out: San Diego State (0-2 last week, lost to New Mexico and Air Force), Saint Mary's (0-2 last week, lost to Loyola Marymount and at Murray State, have now lost three of four)
A very surprising duo to see fall from the rankings, considering two weeks ago I would have said neither one had a shot at dropping out. But then again, I didn't foresee results like these.
Outside Looking In: Iona, Long Beach State(had their shot at Creighton), George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth, Weber State

10. Saint Louis (22-5, 11th in Ken Pomeroy team rankings
The Billikens return to the Mid-Major Report after a six-week hiatus. They looked among the best mid-majors in the country early in the year, but then lost a couple games and couldn't string enough wins together to get back on top. Now, Saint Louis has won six in a row and nine of ten, including a win at Xavier during the stretch, to provide a little separation for itself from the teams behind it in the Atlantic 10 standings. The Billikens have been highly rated by kenpom.com's system the entire season (39th-ranked adjusted offense, 10th adjusted-defense, top-100 strength of schedule), and appear to be living up to their predictive billing now. With just three games left, the Billikens go on the road twice and play Xavier at home--not an easy road to the finish. But they look to be in good shape for a middling seed at the NCAA Tournament.

9. UNLV (22-6, 29 Pomeroy)
The Rebels were the number 1 team last week, mainly because I couldn't justify placing New Mexico ahead of them. Well, they quickly let me know I should have done just that by losing in overtime to TCU at home. And then they made sure to let the country know they weren't up to the task of being No. 1 by delivering their lowest offensive output on the season by 19 points, and getting trounced at New Mexico in the process. The high ranking from last week and win over San Diego State are all that barely kept the Rebels in the top 10. They are still a very good team, and Mike Moser is one of the very best players on any mid-major team in the country. The Rebels will recover, but last week was ugly.

8. Drexel (23-5, 46 Pomeroy)
The Drexel Dragons are making their debut in the Mid-Major top 10 on the strength of a 15-game winning streak (and they've won 21 of their last 22). After dealing with injuries at the beginning of the year, the Dragons are at full strength and atop the Colonial Athletic Association (tied with George Mason). The Colonial looks like a better conference than it has been given credit for this season, as it fared pretty well in Bracketbusters games (the top four teams in the conference all won, including Drexel by 20 at Cleveland State and Old Dominion at Missouri State). So at 14-2, the Dragons probably deserve more credit than they've been given so far. Despite middle of the road advanced metrics (66th adjusted-offense, 51st adjusted-defense), the Dragons looked very impressive Saturday and are hot as can be.

7. Creighton (23-5, 37 Pomeroy)
Creighton went 2-0 last week, but is barely in the top 10 after stealing its Bracketbusters game from Long Beach State. You can't help but feel like the Blue Jays would be gone if they had been unfortunate enough to have a road game instead of a home one. But they played at home, and with wins at Southern Illinois and over LBSU, they may have righted the ship. Sure, the Jays gave away the the Missouri Valley regular season, but they still have the best player in the conference in Doug McDermott, and with a run in the MVC Tournament, could play themselves back into good seeding in the NCAAs.

6. Harvard (23-3, 30 Pomeroy)
After the disappointing loss at Princeton last week, Harvard got back to what it does best (18th-ranked adjusted-defense), and gave up 42 and 51 points with wins over Brown and Yale last week. The win over Yale in particular was important because a loss would have meant the Crimson had fallen back to the pack in the Horizon League standings. But with the win it maintained a game advantage over Penn and extended its lead on Yale to two games. Harvard still has key games against Princeton and Penn (both at home) to come, so its fate is far from determined yet.

5. Temple (21-5, 31 Pomeroy)
It was a relatively pedestrian week for Temple, which enjoyed wins over A-10 middle-of-the-pack-ers St. Bonaventure and Duquesne. Still, two wins at this stage of the season always look good. With four games to play, Temple has one tough week (this week), and one that looks much simpler in closing out the season. The Owls play at LaSalle (a surprising 18-9, 7-5 in the A-10 this year) and then a rivalry game at St. Joseph's, which has also played above its expectations in the conference this year, posting an 8-5 mark so far. Both those games should be wins for Temple, but don't underestimate the upset potential of a road game against the other A-10 school from Philadelphia.

4. Brigham Young (23-6, 32 Pomeroy)
Yes, BYU has climbed to fourth in the rankings. Despite losing twice to Saint Mary's this year, the Cougars are in the top five, while the Gaels are outside the top 10. But guess what? BYU's record in the last two weeks is 4-0, and St. Mary's is 1-3. Sure, BYU's mark has come against lesser competition (at San Francisco (not bad) and at Santa Clara (terrible) last week), but these rankings are about who's playing well right now. The Gaels aren't. The Cougars seem to be. We'll find out just how well they're playing this week, when BYU visits Gonzaga Thursday. It will not be a game they are expected to win, but if BYU can pull off the upset, like New Mexico, we'll have to start taking them very seriously.

3. Murray State (26-1, 57 Pomeroy)
Everyone can go ahead and calm back down about whether the Racers are for real or not. Since its loss to Tennessee State, Murray State has gone 3-0 with an average margin of victory of 14 points. And if you didn't follow college basketball this weekend, Murray's most recent victory was a 14-point clubbing of Saint Mary's, in which the Racers took the lead and never looked back. For being the game most Bracketbusters aficionados were looking forward to, it was pretty anticlimactic. The Racers were really in control of a team that until about a week and a half ago I thought was the best mid-major in the country. So much for that. Even though kenpom.com will still never be able to fully give the Racers the love they deserve due to their run of close games and poor strength of schedule, they still jumped 11 spots in his rankings from last week. That's pretty significant this late in the season. And now, a running of the table has Murray back in the conversation for a top-5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

2. Wichita State (24-4, 10 Pomeroy)
In you were to ask me who was the most impressive team from Bracketbusters weekend, I would not hesitate in saying it was the Shockers. They appear to be living up to the lofty expectations kenpom.com has had for them for most of the season. On Saturday Wichita visited Davidson and matched up with a very impressive Wildcats squad (one that I suspect will be on these rankings most of next year; they bring all five starters back). After an extremely entertaining first half, the Shockers just imposed their will on Davidson en route to a 91-74 win. Wichita really looked excellent. It shot the ball extremely well, showed off its impressive depth and athleticism, and delivered a dominant offensive second half. These players--Joe Ragland, Toure' Murry, Ben Smith, David Kyles and Carl Hall, are as athletic a group as anywhere in America that I've seen this season. O, and not mentioned in that group is the Shockers' leading scorer and rebounder, 7-footer Garrett Stutz.

1. New Mexico (22-4, 9 Pomeroy)
In similar fashion to Wichita, New Mexico lived up to its advanced-metric hype this past week. At No. 2 last week, I said the Lobos would have to prove to me that they've changed since the beginning of the conference season. Well, prove themsevles they did. With a 10-point win at San Diego State and a 20-point win (and dominant defensive performance) at home against UNLV, the Lobos delivered the most impressive two-win week of any team in the Mid-Major Report this year. With losses by both SDSU and UNLV to other opponents during the week, New Mexico also seized control of the Mountain West regular season race, opening up a 2-game lead. They have the seventh-ranked adjusted-defense at kenpom.com and a star in Drew Gordon who is playing his best ball at the right time (17 points, 17 rebounds at SDSU, 27 points, 20 rebounds vs. UNLV). After a fantastic weekend of college basketball, New Mexico and The Pit sit at No. 1.

Mid-Major Report: 2/13

Upheaval! The strength at the top of the Mid-Major Report this season has been staggering, as several teams had put together significant win-streaks to get to the top and stay there for most of the season. Well, there's a new world order as we stare into the face of Bracketbusters week. Five of the top six teams from last week's report lost games this week. And with that, the top ten has been shaken like never before this season. The temptation was strong to drop four teams from the rankings this week so we could talk about a bunch of deserving newcomers, but that would have been ridiculous. Saint Mary's still deserves to be here So get ready to see some familiar faces, but in a whole new light. As always, you can refer to the first report of the year for information on how these rankings are achieved.

Dropped Out: Southern Miss (1-1 last week, last at 10-14 UAB)
Outside looking in: Drexel, VCU, George Mason, Saint Louis, Long Beach State

10. Creighton (21-5, 35th in Ken Pomeroy's team rankings)
Creighton is barely alive in this week's rankings after having a stranglehold on the top five all-season long. The Blue Jay's have now lost an almost inexplicable three games in a row. Their loss at Northern Iowa two weeks ago was not shocking; teams are almost always eventually going to lose a game like that when they don't play their best. But Creighton followed that up with a loss at Evansville and then a turd of a performance at home against Wichita State. In the process, they all but surrendered the Missouri Valley Conference title to the Shockers. It really has been a stunning turn of events, since the Blue Jays had easily beaten Wichita at Wichita over a month ago, and had looked just as good until February reared its head. Creighton is sporting one of the best offenses in the country, but that offense didn't show up at the same level against Northern Iowa and Evansville, and then when it was slightly better at home against Wichita State, the Blue Jays' 135-ranked adjusted-defense was exposed in giving up 89 points. Now, it's time for the Jays to draw a line in the sand. Continue free-falling, and they could unbelievably find themselves on the bubble. Right the ship, and they're still a comfortable six or seven seed.

9. Harvard (21-3, 37 Pomeroy)
Princeton got the best of Harvard again. What is up with this rivalry, that no matter how good Harvard seems to be, the Tigers have their number? Certainly, Princeton played well, shooting 50 percent from the field and going 17-24 from the foul line to Harvard's 7-11. The loss make's Harvard's situation with the NCAA Tournament much more precarious. Now with just a one-game lead in the Ivy League, losing the conference championship (the Ivy League does not hold a tournament) seems much more possible now, and would put Harvard in a similar situation to last year, when it did not receive an at-large bid. This team has gotten more recognition since the beginning of the season than last year's team did, since it was coming off a good season already. Harvard will have that going for it, but will it be enough? Probably best to just recover and win the next three games at home against Yale, Princeton and Penn, and secure the title.

8. Temple (19-5, 36 Pomeroy)
The Atlantic 10 is once again represented in the top 10. Temple sat just outside the rankings last week because despite a six-game win streak in the conference, they hadn't really beaten any of the teams that matter. Well, now that streak is up to eight, and with an easy dismantling of Xavier added to their resume, the Owls get the nod. Temple looks to be hitting its stride at the right time with Ryan Moore (18.8 ppg) and Khalif Wyatt (16.7) leading the way in scoring. Temple's 1-2 punch, along with the unflappable Juan Fernandez, gives them the 16th-best adjusted-offense in the country. And in typical Temple fashion, the Owls haven't shied away from tough competition this year. They have the 21st-rated strength of schedule in the country. And at 19-5 against that kind of competition, the Owls are to be taken seriously.

7. Murray State (24-1, 68 Pomeroy)
The Racers' six week run atop the Mid-Major Report is over. With a loss to Tennessee State at home, Murray State drops six spots in this week's poll. It was a bad loss, no question. And most writers have been chalking it up to the pressure of an undefeated season. Ken Pomeroy was bothered by this, and expressed as much in a post on his website. And while he doesn't discount the possibility of pressure playing a factor, he says the biggest reason they lost is more likely because win probabilities said there was no expectation of them continuing to win ("You play enough games in which you are heavily favored, and you are going to lose eventually. Put more precisely, a team that plays ten games as a 90% favorite is expected to lose once during that span, and the Racers have played a lot of such games this season, including the game against Tennessee State.") In my mind, the numbers guy's explanation and the feelings guys' explanations are two different ways of saying the same thing: It's really, really hard to go undefeated over the course of a college basketball season. And that's why Murray was No. 1 for as long as it was. By the way, after the loss, Murray won by 19.

6. San Diego State (20-4, 55 Pomeroy)
Any doubts we may have had about San Diego State due to their poor rating at kenpom.com should have been alleviated this week, when they came within a bucket of going 2-0 against UNLV this season. Actually, the team ratings back me up on this one. The UNLV game was SDSU's only game last week, and by losing they improved eight spots at kenpom.com from a week ago. Go figure. Playing a team highly rated by his system very closely will do that for you. Seriously, though, there should be no doubting the Aztecs from here on out. They are extremely talented and athletic, can run the floor and shoot the ball well. No doubt in my mind that they are a top 15 team in the country (as in a legitimate Elite Eight threat).

5. Brigham Young (21-6, 31 Pomeroy)
For the first time this season, BYU didn't fall out of the rankings the week after breaking into them. This is BYU's third stint in the Mid-Major Report, and during each of the previous two, they suffered losses to fall out immediately. Not this week. With a 38-point win over a bad Pepperdine squad, the Cougars extended their win-streak to three. Their 20th-rated adjusted-defense will be put to the test on the road next week; BYU plays its next three games on the road, including a huge game for them at Gonzaga. BYU has very little chance of winning the WCC, but a great shot at of improving its seeding come tournament time.

4. Saint Mary's (23-3, 32 Pomeroy)
Despite a loss at Gonzaga last week, there's no need to panic about St. Mary's. That's because it wasn't all that surprising of a loss. Gonzaga is very good; Gonzaga is a tough place to play; St. Mary's had won 12 in a row going into the game. The Gaels are still, like San Diego State, a threat to beat anybody in the country on a given day. They have the 14th-best adjusted-offense in the country, and average better than 16 assists per game. Yeah, the loss hurts just a bit, but with a Bracketbusters game at Murray State upcoming, as well as the WCC Tournament looming, the Gaels have plenty of time to do some damage and secure an excellent seed in the tournament.

3. Wichita State (22-4, 9 Pomeroy)
The Shockers have been ranked almost comically high at kenpom.com all year, but after dominating Creighton Saturday, they have set the new standard. A top-10 spot! I will say this, however, on their behalf: during the Creighton game Wichita State actually looked worthy of being so highly rated (maybe not top 10, but definitely top 20). The Shockers took a lead in the first half and never looked back, turning in a splendid offensive performance. They now have the ninth-rated adjusted-offense, 24th adjusted-defense, and 72nd best strength of schedule. Oh yeah, and they're in the driver's seat to win the MVC title now. Like Temple, they appear to be playing their best basketball of the season at a good time to do it.

2. New Mexico (20-4, 12 Pomeroy)
The Lobos are another team that play exactly to Ken Pomeroy's specifications, coming in this week with an obscenely high ranking of 12. Of course, you now know if you didn't before that New Mexico is the one team out of the top six from last week to avoid a loss. But with wins over Boise State and Wyoming (in which NM scored just 48 points), it wasn't enough to get them the top spot. Really, the reason New Mexico didn't make the cut is I'm being cautious with them once again. They climbed to fifth in the Jan. 17 Mid-Major Report, and promptly went 0-2 the following week against
San Diego State and UNLV. Well, guess who they've got coming up this week? Yup. At San Diego State and home against UNLV. Prove to me that you've changed this time around, New Mexico.

1. UNLV (22-4, 22 Pomeroy)
That's right. From No. 7 to No. 1. UNLV was that impressive (or maybe 1-6 from last week were just the opposite). Either way, anybody who watched the SDSU-UNLV game Saturday had to come away impressed by Vegas. They've got it all (except for maybe a consistent big man), and they have a player in Mike Moser who has it all individually: size, athleticism, length, speed, shooting ability, ball-handling. He was the best player on a court full of pretty excellent players. In the Mountain West Conference, clearly the best non-power-6 conference in the country, there is a three-way tie atop the league. San Diego State has lost two games by a combined 19 points. New Mexico has lost two games by a combined 12 points. And UNLV has lost two games by a combined four points (both on the road). Clearly at the moment, they've got the best resume of the group.

Mid-Major Report: 1/11

I apologize for the irregularity as to what day of the week these rankings are coming out. The goal is to have it on each Monday, but it falls entirely on what my work schedule for the week ends up looking like. That being said, it should never be later than a Wednesday (which is today).

As always, refer back to the first report of the season for guidelines on how I make my decisions.

First, a couple notes on this week's rankings:
1. I set out in the first report that I would be including some of the larger non-BCS leagues like the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West in my poll. Those teams have advantages over teams from the tiny conferences like the SWAC or MAAC, certainly, but they are still playing with rosters empty of McDonald's All-Americans and one-and-done type players. That being said, the point of this list is also to raise awareness about some teams that maybe a casual fan hasn't heard of. It's the type of thing that could be helpful picking an 8/9 game when you're filling out your NCAA bracket in March, or just to give you a little extra knowledge. And with that being the most important aspect to me, if the Mountain West continues its brutalization of this poll (three teams in last week, four this week), I will have to reassess whether or not I use that conference in my rankings anymore. Typically, the Mountain West has one or two teams doing very well, and others trying to put together a strong enough resume to get a bid in the tournament. The conference often has a third or fourth team on the bubble for the NCAAs. It is atypical, however for any conference, let alone the Mountain West, to have four teams with records of 14-2 or better. In fact, the Mountain West is the only conference in the country that can boast such a stat (the Big Ten (now Twelve) falls just short). That is why I'm confident (hopeful?) as the teams begin to play each other and hit a tougher schedule in general (Ahem, Wyoming and New Mexico), their records will normalize and it will make room for some of the other teams deserving of recognition.

2. Three teams fell out of the standings from being ranked last week: Saint Louis, Virginia Commonwealth and Harvard. You'll notice a similarity between all these teams: they lost last week. For VCU and Saint Louis, who were both in the bottom half of the poll, a loss is always going to hurt a team's chances of sticking around (VCU's two losses made it an easy decision). Perhaps for Harvard, though, dropping from fourth to nonexistent seems a bit harsh. Unfortunately for the Crimson, it had to happen. They lost at Fordham, a team that is by no means as bad as it has been the past few years, but is still just 7-8 on the season. And during the same week, tons of teams (unranked and ranked below Harvard in last week's poll) went on the road and won games against competition equal to or greater than Harvard. Keep in mind: it's tough to be in the top 10 of this poll. Using the larger mid-major conferences means there are a ton of deserving teams, and losses are always going to be hugely detrimental.

3. You may notice there are 11 teams in this week's poll. That's not a mistake. Call me a coward if you like, but I didn't have the heart to say one of the bottom four teams didn't deserve to be in. Last week's No. 10 team, Middle Tennessee, has probably the weakest resume of the group, but they were ranked last week, and went 2-0 since to improve to 15-2. They've now won seven in a row. Sorry, but the Blue Raiders deserve to stick around. Right, on to the rankings.

10. Middle Tennessee (15-2, 57 in Ken Pomeroy's team rankings) and Iona (13-3, 42 Pomeroy)
You just read the argument for Middle Tennessee: 15-2, seven in a row, undefeated in the conference and they still are one of the best shooting teams in the country; 49.5 percent on the year, good for 10th best. As far as Iona, they make the list because they are now 5-0 in the MAAC, and have won six of seven. Now that the Gaels have ended a long road trip (eight straight games away from home), they're showing that they're actually pretty good. Playing on the road is tougher than being at home. Iona could have taken an easier route and would probably be 15-1 right now. But they didn't, so they're 13-3. After a strong week of play, they'll get the credit they deserve, at least here. O yeah, Iona scores the second-most points in the country (85.9 a game), dishes out the most assists (20.2) and shoots it even better than their 10th-ranked compatriots (50.4 percent from the field).

9. Wichita State (13-3, 22 Pomeroy)
A 3-0 week with wins over Evansville, Southern Illinois and Illinois State has the Shockers back into the top 10 after a week's hiatus. They have rebounded well from the loss to Creighton, but will need to play at a higher level in the coming weeks to stay afloat in the Missouri Valley Conference, probably the second best non-BCS league in the country this year (competing with the A-10 right now for that spot). They are liked very much by Ken Pomeroy's rankings, with a good strength of schedule, and top-30 Adjusted-offense and defense.

8. Wyoming (14-2, 69 Pomeroy)
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the Cowboys' one and only appearance in the top-10 this year. They've played an uber-weak schedule so far (341 according to Pomeroy!), but that will change. They will see plenty of tough games in the upcoming conference schedule, starting with New Mexico this week. Wyoming is not especially impressive in any statistical category, but it is 14-2 on the season and has won 11 of its last 12 games. That is enough to earn them a spot at No. 8.

7. Southern Mississippi (15-2, 71 Pomeroy)
Another team that Ken Pomeroy's rankings are not crazy about, Southern Miss comes in at No. 7 mostly on the strength of its 11-game winning streak. The team is best in the Conference USA at the moment, and amidst a 2-0 week beat one of its top contenders, Tulane, on the road Jan. 7. If it wasn't obvious already, I'm impressed by road wins, especially in important games. For now, the Golden Eagles are hot, and they deserve a little recognition.

6. New Mexico (14-2, 23 Pomeroy)
Perhaps surprisingly, New Mexico is extremely high in Ken Pomeroy's rankings (coming a spot behind Wichita State) despite their horrific schedule strength. In the non-conference, the Lobos' opponents were good enough for 277th best, but their 15th best Adjusted-defense rating is going a long way. New Mexico also averages 17.3 assists-per-game, good for 10th in the country. Mid-majors that share the ball are always attractive to me, because they often don't have reliable 20-25 point scoring stars like some of the power-six teams. High assist numbers will generally mean the team is sound at moving the ball and therefore getting good looks--an indication that their success on offense stands a better chance of sustaining.

5. San Diego State (14-2, 74 Pomeroy)
I was a bit shocked to see the Aztecs had dropped 25 spots in Ken Pomeroy's ratings despite not losing a game, but then I saw their opponents last week. San Diego State beat up on the Hawks San Diego Christian (not a D-1 team) and then only managed to beat 0-16 Chicago State by eight points at home. (Chi-St. ranked 339 out of 345 by Pomeroy's numbers, meaning they might as well not be D-1 either). With an already pretty weak schedule, it is less surprising to see the steep decline in their computer ranking. The weak schedule, while it did not cause SDSU to drop, still hurt the team, as they were leapfrogged by the next team on the list. The Aztecs will have plenty of time to make it up, however, with a huge matchup with UNLV looming this weekend.

4. Saint Mary's (15-2, 24 Pomeroy)
"Gaels" becomes the first nickname to strike twice in the same week as Saint Mary's stayed strong this week and improved to 15-2 with a 2-0 performance. These Gaels have now won five in a row, and 13 of 14, with the one loss coming to still-undefeated Baylor. Not too shabby. They another team that shares the ball well, with 17.3 assists per game (ninth in the nation), and their Adjusted-offensive rating is 11th-best in Pomeroy's system. Saint Mary's jumped SDSU this week because their two wins (at San Diego and vs. San Francisco), while not especially impressive, are still significantly stronger than the two recorded by the Aztecs.

3. UNLV (16-2, 17 Pomeroy)
It gets boring from here on out in the poll if you've read before. None of last week's top-three did enough (or perhaps its better to say none of the three really did anything of note) to make any waves. In the next week, that should change. For now, however, Nevada Las-Vegas will have to stay content with being the highest-ranked Ken Pomeroy team to make the rankings. According to his ranking,, their AP poll rank, as well as UNLV's points, rebounds and assists-per-game averages, it is not a stretch to say they are the best mid-major team in the country. They'll have a chance to prove it this weekend, and the rest of the season against what looks to be a very tough Mountain West.

2. Creighton (14-2, 35 Pomeroy)
Creighton went 3-0 over the past week, even with a win over a pretty good Northern Iowa team. They've now won four in a row, and look like the class of the MVC with wins over the two teams that figure to be the Blue Jays' stiffest competition in the conference (Wichita and N. Iowa). They also are a top-10 scoring team in the country (81.9 ppg), second-best in assists 19.9 and top the nation in field goal percentage at the moment, shooting 51.1 percent from the field. With all that though, their four-game win streak is only one-fourth as long as the No. 1 team, meaning Creighton will have to live with No. 2 for another week.

1. Murray State (16-0, 31 Pomeroy)
Murray State beat Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay in the past week to improve to a perfect 16-0. Neither of those wins exactly jumps off the page at you, but the Racers earned their No. 1 spot by being undefeated and it's going to take more than wins over Northern Iowa or Cal-State Bakersfield in order to dethrone the Racers. The Racers' wins (and probably eventually losses) will continue to look weak by virtue of the conference they play in. Keep in mind that according to Pomeroy, they played the 105th-toughest non-conference schedule in the country. Of the teams in this week's poll, only UNLV (96th) and Iona (43rd) had tougher-rated non-conference schedules. And Murray State was the only team to run the table in that span. The Racers have earned every bit of this ranking.