By Amar Singh
sports
Jerry Stackhouse Is Enraged By The NCAA Rankings
Vanderbilt defeated Florida 88-72 on Saturday, but despite the lopsided triumph, the players continued to play into the final minutes.
Jerry Stackhouse, the head coach, reportedly said he stayed with his regular rotation in order to maintain his position in the NCAA's NET standings, as reported by Robbie Weinstein of 247Sports.
He described it as "disappointing" that mechanisms that place a premium on productivity prevented him from clearing his bench.
"I hate the fact that we get up 16 or 18 points, and the guys that have helped us get here are the practice guys — you can't even really put them in the game," Stackhouse said.
"It sucks, because that is not the way the game is supposed to be played, and those guys deserve to maybe get a few minutes there at the end. we have to do some things to keep our foot on the gas a little bit."
The strength of the schedule, the venue, and the caliber of victories are among the variables considered by NET.
The algorithm takes into account adjusted net effectiveness based on points per 100 possessions but does not explicitly account for scoring margin.
RPI places Vanderbilt at number 54, but other measures place it much lower. Both ESPN's BPI and the NET rank the Commodores 87th.
Vanderbilt advanced to 16-13 after winning six of its last seven games. The lone defeat, though, came on the road against an LSU squad that hadn't previously recorded a victory since December 28.