Methods

The Keeper of the Hoops rankings are not only based on simple win-loss records and the scores, but a system that sorts wins and losses into tiers and awards teams a rating for each performance based on those tiers. It's similar to an RPI rating, but I believe a team's Quality Rating (or Q Rating) is a good indicator of how strong that team is.

My system begins with me assigning teams to tiers. This is important because teams receive different amount of points, depending on which tier their opponent was from. Obviously the higher up on the scale, the more points a team is going to win. I currently have 7 different tiers with Elite being the top and Terrible being the bottom with Great, Good, Average, Below Average, and Bad being the five tiers in between.

As I stated above, teams receive a baseline rating for beating a team in each of these tiers. The following list explains how many automatic points a team for beating a team in that tier: Terrible (0.25), Bad (0.50), Below Average (0.75), Average (1.00), Good (1.50), Great (2.00), Elite (2.75). I have included bonuses, up to an additional 0.25 points for each tier, that can be awarded for road wins (0.10 extra) with the rest of the bonuses coming from margin of victory (10 points or more usually scores extra points with 20-point-or-more blowouts receiving full credit).

But teams also receive ratings when they lose with the same type of scale. Teams lose more points for losses at home and to losses to teams in the lower tiers. A team does not get penalized for losing to a team in the Elite or Great tier, and if it is a close game the team even has a chance to earn up to 0.50 points against Great teams and a full 1.00 against Elite teams. Here is the scale for minus points when a team loses to a team in that tier: Average (-0.50), Below Average (-1.00), Bad (-1.50), Terrible (-2.00). Again, losses carry with it bonuses with home losses tacking on an additional -0.10 and the margin of the score carrying weight as well.

So when you're looking at a team's schedule and see the numbers next to the final score, just know that the number in green or red is the Quality Score for that team from that game and the bold, dark number next to it is the potential quality points from that game. If a team beats an Average team on the road by 20 points, then that team will receive the maximum 1.25 points from the game. But if it loses to an Average team on the road by 2 points, then that team will receive the minimum loss of -0.50 points from the game.

To see this chart visually, I have created a master chart with all Class 6A, 5A, and 4A-D1 schools listed according to their rating. You can view that here.