NCAA | Washington ninth in season’s final coaches’ poll

Washington (25-7) gets the most respect of teams that missed the Elite 8

-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

The season-end coaches’ poll, conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA), has a few surprises.

First, though, no surprise: the Pac-12 and Big Ten each placed four teams among the top nine—only national champion Texas (Big-12) broke the duopoly.

Michigan reached the Final Four by traveling to the Bay Area and embarrassing Stanford, then gave Texas all it could handle in the semis. Naturally, the coaches rated Stanford higher than Michigan.

Eight teams lost in the Sweet 16; Washington received the highest rating (#9) of any of them. And Hawai’i—the team Washington beat in the round of 32—earned lots of respect by finishing at #11.

BYU and Michigan State reached the Elite 8, but voters rated them #12 and #16, respectively. Last year’s national champ UCLA ended at #13, despite losing to Michigan State in the round of 32.

Finally, the RPI put Washington at #14, but coaches figured that six teams with better RPIs—Florida, BYU, UCLA, Louisville, Florida State, and Kansas—should be ranked lower than the Huskies.

NOTE: Washington finished 5-6 against teams in the final AVCA Top 25, with victories against #2 Oregon, #6 USC, #11 Hawai'i, #13 UCLA and #15 Purdue, and losses against #2 Oregon, #4 Stanford (twice), #6 USC, #7 Nebraska and #13 UCLA.

Final AVCA Rank	School (First-Place Votes)	Total Points	Final 2012 Record	Previous AVCA Rank	Volleyblog Seattle Rank	Final RPI
1	Texas (60)	1500	29-4	3	1	2
2	Oregon	1436	30-5	6	2	4
3	Penn State	1380	33-3	1	3	3
4	Stanford	1286	30-4	2	5	1
5	Michigan	1253	27-12	NR	4	16
6	Southern California	1188	30-6	4	7	11
7	Nebraska	1151	26-7	10	6	5
8	Minnesota	1070	27-8	11	8	6
9	Washington	1015	25-7	5	9	14
10	Florida	871	27-5	15	11	10
11	Hawai'i	833	27-3	8	15	21
12	BYU	781	28-4	16	12	13
13	UCLA	746	23-8	17	14	8
14	Iowa State	710	22-8	18	16	15
15	Purdue	677	23-11	22	13	22
16	Michigan State	548	23-10	NR	10	33
17	Louisville	504	30-4	9	18	7
18	Florida State	470	28-4	12	17	12
19	Dayton	437	27-5	13	NR	19
20	Kentucky	408	22-11	NR	19	20
21	Western Kentucky	288	33-4	17	NR	30
22	Ohio State	244	23-11	14	NR	23
23	Wichita State	210	24-10	NR	20	36
24	Creighton	172	29-4	21	NR	24
25	Kansas	117	26-7	20	NR	9

Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots: North Carolina 66; San Diego 61; Texas A&M 22; Kansas State 19; Miami (FL) 17; St. Mary's (CA) 13; Northern Iowa 3; Tennessee 3

Dropped Out: North Carolina #24; San Diego #19; Kansas State #25; Miami #23

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WRITTEN BY: Jack Hamann | PHOTOGRAPHY: Leslie Hamann

www.nolittlethings.com

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