Caught in the NET
The initial NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings of the 2025-26 season dropped on Monday, and Cleveland State debuted at 165th overall. That’s a substantial fall from the 70-110 range most often assigned the Vikings since the NET was introduced for women’s basketball in 2020, though it was still the third-best number in the Horizon League, behind Green Bay (121) and Purdue Fort Wayne (155).
Chris Kielsmeier’s issues with the NET have spanned all six of its seasons. Back in 2024, after losing to the Phoenix in the Horizon League championship game, and with his team’s postseason fortunes resting squarely outside of the NCAA Tournament despite holding the HL’s regular season title, he went on a bit of a rant about the opaque nature of NET calculations.
“We’re one of the 68 best teams in the country, I believe that,” he said at the time. “These numbers, analytics, data, and stuff that they throw out there, some of it looks like it’s going against us. That’s what’s frustrating about it is…be transparent. Give us more information.”
“I’m a realist. I know it’s stacked against us, but we should be in. And this league should have two teams in it, I’m steadfast in that.”
Though the NET’s formula is confidential, broadly speaking, the path to a good ranking is obvious. Teams that schedule high-quality opponents and play well in those games, or, at the very least, beat bad squads by staggering margins (as top-ranked LSU has done) will typically do well in the NET. Both Green Bay and Purdue Fort Wayne boast wins over high majors this season; in fact, the Phoenix scheduled three consecutive games against power conference teams, picking up a victory over Kansas State along with two competitive losses, to Wisconsin and NC State.
Meanwhile, six of Cleveland State’s nine Division I non-conference opponents placed below 250th (of 363 teams) in the opening rankings. Four – Akron, Chicago State, Valparaiso, and upcoming foe Niagara – rated lower than 325th. The Vikings also missed their only shot versus a high major this season, at Northwestern on November 21st.
Scheduling is often treated as a single-axis variable: did a team make it difficult or easy? However, there are tons of other factors in play, including Kielsmeier’s frequently-stated desires to schedule as many home games as possible, while providing his team with multiple destination experiences each year. Both of those things significantly cut into CSU’s ability to bounce around the midwest, and points beyond, chasing guarantee money and NET juice.
Regardless, Monday’s news picked at an old scab, and weekly radio show host Al Pawlowski was more than happy to offer up his fingernails by asking about it near the end of the opening segment.
“You asked me that question when I’m juiced up,” Kielsmeier sarcastically grumbled. “That’s just splendid. I didn’t know all that. You tell me there’s 164 teams better than this team, I’m going to…yeah, let’s get to work. We need to go practice right now because of that NET ranking. Yeah, those people are really smart.”
It is, perhaps, some consolation to point out that the NET doesn’t actually mean all that much, with respect to the one-bid Horizon League. For all their tough scheduling, Green Bay’s ranking is unlikely to improve enough for serious NCAA Tournament at-large consideration. It mostly comes into play when considering the HL champion’s seeding in March Madness and, for everyone else, selection to the lesser tournaments, the WBIT and WNIT.
In other words, it matters in certain ways, but it’s also unlikely to define anyone’s season.
“We’re 7-1. We’re proud of that,” Kielsmeier said. “I will say that we look forward to showing that we’re a better basketball team than 165th in the country.”
Don’t Call Her Dan
Sarah Hurley enjoyed something of a star turn at the CSU Invitational last week.
After averaging 7.7 minutes per game as a rookie, and 6.4 over the first five games of this year, the Pelham, Ontario, Canada native abruptly played 71 of the 125 available minutes over the MTE’s three contests.
The participation bump wasn’t much of a mystery. Hurley is a big, physical defender on the wing, and also able to offer the Vikings some much-needed shooting capability on the other end of the floor. That’s, essentially, most of what Cleveland State’s system asks of someone playing her position. It also resulted in what the sophomore called her first two interviews ever, between last Wednesday’s postgame press conference and Monday’s radio show.
“I don’t think my mindset has really changed with anything,” Hurley said. “I just try to stay ready for every single game. When my moment comes, I do whatever I can to impact the game.”
She very nearly hit a game-clinching three in that Wednesday contest against St. Bonaventure, before the bucket was wiped out by a shot clock violation, thanks to a video review. The next two games, however, saw Hurley go 4-for-11 from deep.
Perhaps even more significantly, her seven rebounds against the Bonnies and nine versus Radford on Sunday were both game-high totals.
“There’s definitely some technique [to rebounding], especially out of the zone just because you’re not guarding a man, you can’t just grab your person,” she said. “But it’s mainly just effort, just going hard to get the ball.”
Could Hurley’s emergence become the sort of x-factor that helps CSU hit another gear this season?
“I feel like a lot of us are still trying to figure out our roles on this team right now,” she said. “I would say it just feels a lot different, with new people just getting to know each other still. But we’ve been blending together well already, so that hasn’t been much of a struggle for us.”
Wheels Up
Monday (apparently) was National DOBO Day, so Cleveland State’s occupant of that underappreciated position, Hanna Zerr, rounded out the radio show guest list.
Zerr, now in her fourth season with the program, is absolutely loaded with interesting tales from behind the scenes of running the logistics for the Vikings’ 25-person traveling party. She didn’t disappoint on Monday, relating a story from one CSU trip last year.
Appropriately enough, it also involved a second DOBO: Northern Kentucky’s Lindsey Duvall, a superstar Norse player from 2020-23.
“The bus driver backed into a culvert and got stuck in the snow,” Zerr recalled. “So in shootaround at Northern Kentucky, I ordered five XL Ubers at the same time as I was talking to their DOBO, and they actually arranged for a bus to come in, through their company, to pick us up and drive us back to the hotel for pregame meal. That one was crazy.”
Apparently, the issue began with the traffic circle that greets visitors to Truist Arena, when approaching NKU’s campus on University Drive.
“He missed the roundabout turn,” said Zerr, who quickly pointed out that the story’s villain was not their typical bus driver. “He pulled up into maybe more of the academic thing, and I was like, ‘wait buddy, back that way.’ So he backed up, and his wheel – I can show you a video – his wheel was probably three feet off the ground, and here comes not one but two tow trucks to get him out, because it was so big.”
Last November’s canceled game at Niagara was also particularly stressful.
“We were literally sitting on the bus two days in a row to leave, and it was just like a hurry up and wait situation,” Zerr remembered. “Can we go, can we not go? Are they going to play, because they had illness and injury and stuff.”
Be sure to hug your DOBO.
