Updated DPPI (through games of 11/27)

Michigan St. lost which mildly hurts KU's rating. But KU holds strong in 5th place. Duke, off the rout of Indiana moves to No. 1 and Texas Tech moves to No. 2. Right now, KU is projected to beat Stanford by 21. It would be nice to have a full scale blowout by 30 or more. KU ranks 33rd in consistency of all 353 teams. That is nice but I would not mind a little inconsistency to the upside. KU also ranks 45th in mental toughness but that is pretty sketchy this early in the season.

As for the conference rankings, the DPPI has the Big 12 in a strong third and closing in on No. 2 ACC. The SEC is a distant 4th. The Big 12 now boasts the best winning % thanks to the ACC/Big 10 challenge going 4-4 each. We need the bottom dwellers West Virginia and TCU to step up the pace. The Massey composite of 30 computer rankings has the Big 12 2nd to the Big 10.

going through the list of teams you have to go clear down to number 37 Belmont to find a team with a worse defensive rating than KU. Hopefully the guys can get that figured out this week.

In the DPPI there are four key variables that impact overall rating and hence overall effectiveness. They are;

Offensive rating
Defensive rating
Consistency
Mental Toughness

KU ranks very highly in offensive rating, consistency and mental toughness. Their defensive rating is what is keeping them from passing Ohio St., Gonzaga and Texas Tech.

Texas Tech will fad once they get fully connected simply because their mental toughness is skewed from the makeup of their schedule. When I say they will fade I mean that if you adjusted their mental toughness but kept everything else the same they would be slightly ahead of KU so they are likely to drop 2 to 3 spots purely on that. KU really needs some strong performances on this home stand. And watch out but Arizona St. looks to be for real. They are rated 15th or better than both Tennessee and Michigan St. And that is on the road. A solid win their will go a long way to boosting us. Right now I have us as a 0.8 point favorite with a 53% probability of winning. A 5-10 point win would be fantastic.