Bob Huggins Thinks the NET Ranking System Should be Revised

During Bob Huggins’ radio show on Monday night, the West Virginia head coach told Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs that he thinks the NET rankings should be revised. Huggins wants the system to not award teams for ’embarrassing’ opponents.

The NET rankings are a computerized system that measures each team in Division-I basketball into four quadrants. Then, wins and losses are measured by where the game is played and point differential. The NET has been used to determine seeding in the previous few NCAA Tournaments.

The topic of the NET rankings came up and Caridi popped the question if Huggins likes the system. Huggins wishes one aspect would change about it.

“I was on the committee and we talked about that. When that came up and some people were for it, we were against this because the last thing you want to do is embarrass a team,” Huggins said. “I mean, you lose by 60 and now you go back to campus, what do you say?”

Huggins used Texas Tech as an example, saying that they’ve played a lot of team that they should’ve had zero business playing. The Red Raiders have played 7-quad four games this season, winning all of those. Texas Tech has defeated 5-out-of-7 of those opponents by 20 or more points. Huggins doesn’t want situations like this to be awarded where great basketball teams schedule low-majors at home, just to ’embarrass’ them.

West Virginia moved to No. 39 in the NET, following a win over UAB. The Mountaineers have 2-quad one wins (UConn, UAB) and 2-quad two wins (Clemson, Oakland). WVU’s only loss to Marquette is ranked as a quad two loss.

(Top Photo: Kelsie LeRose / WVSN)