The first NCAA NET rankings are out and IU basketball has another mountain to climb – The Daily Hoosier

The first consequences of a disappointing week in the Bahamas became apparent on Monday morning.

The NCAA has released its first NET rankings for the 2024-25 college basketball season, and Indiana appears to be well off the list in the NCAA Tournament right now.

IU is ranked No. 71 in the initial release, a spot that is not typically in the NCAA Tournament field.

The 2024-25 men’s basketball season marks the seventh season of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which replaced the RPI as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams prior to the 2018-19 season.

The NCAA Tournament Committee uses the NET to facilitate field selection.

Games like IU’s 28-point loss to Louisville are particularly damaging in the NET rankings, which take performance versus expectations into account. Based on analytics sites like Bart Torvik and KenPom, Indiana was expected to win this contest.

The two main factors used to create the rankings include the Team Value Index (TVI), a results-based feature that rewards teams for beating good opponents, particularly on the road, and an adjusted net efficiency rating.

Adjusted efficiency is a team’s net efficiency adjusted for opponent strength and location (home/away/neutral) across all games played. For example, a given efficiency value (net points per 100 possessions) against stronger opponents is higher than the same efficiency against weaker opponents, and a given efficiency on the road is higher than the same efficiency at home.

It’s still very early in the season, so Mike Woodson’s 5-2 Hoosiers still have plenty of time to climb the NET rankings.

In 2022, Rutgers became the lowest-ranked team in the NET era to secure an overall offer. The Scarlet Knights entered the tournament ranked No. 77 in the NET rankings, largely based on their 6-6 record in Quad 1.

The NET quadrant system organizes the quality of wins and losses based on the game location and the opponent’s NET ranking.

So far, Indiana is 0-2 in Quad 1 games, 0-0 in Quad 2, 2-0 in Quad 3 and 3-0 in Quad 4.

This is how the quads are determined:

• Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
• Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
• Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
• Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

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