If you are not up to speed on the Blog Poll it was started by Brian Cook at mgoblog as an blogger version of the AP football poll. You can read the full details here. It eventually became a part of the rankings at CBSSports.com. This season they are doing a college basketball version of the poll. One requirement of being a voter is full disclosure of your ballot each week and with explanations. Also, unlike the folks in the media poll, I will be taking your opinions under advisement. Or maybe I should do what the coaches do and let someone else fill out the ballot…my six year old daughter would do a great job I am sure. Anyway without further ado, here is my ballot for the first week:
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| Rank | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connecticut | |
| 2 | Oklahoma | |
| 3 | North Carolina | |
| 4 | Pittsburgh | |
| 5 | Memphis | |
| 6 | Marquette | |
| 7 | Louisville | |
| 8 | Villanova | |
| 9 | Clemson | |
| 10 | Wake Forest | |
| 11 | Duke | |
| 12 | Butler | |
| 13 | Michigan St. | |
| 14 | UCLA | |
| 15 | Xavier | |
| 16 | Illinois | |
| 17 | Kansas | |
| 18 | Arizona St. | |
| 19 | Missouri | |
| 20 | California | |
| 21 | Purdue | |
| 22 | Minnesota | |
| 23 | Washington | |
| 24 | Florida St. | |
| 25 | Gonzaga | |
Errors, Omissions and Explanations of My Whacked Out Logic
- It was suggested I give an explanation of voting philisophy and I am not sure I have one past #4 other than throwing pasta against the wall and seeing which mascot the noodles most closesly represent. Seriously, the top four feel pretty solid after that who knows since most of them seem to have lost one game this week except for Memphis which explains how they probably ended up at #5. Speaking of Memphis…
- Teams I probably have ranked too high: Memphis at #5 for sure but ask yourself this: Having watched Memphis handle Gonzaga in Spokane over the weekend if the NCAA Tournament started tomorrow, would you put the Tigers at a #2 seed? I would.
- Teams I had no idea what to do with: Everyone below #15. I think you could throw a blanket on these guys and they all would be pretty much the same.
- If I could have put Clemson, Wake Forest and Duke in a three way tie I would have. Of course all Clemson had to do was beat FSU and I would have put them around 6th. Of course if you wanted to swap them with Marquette, Villanova and Louisville wholesale that would work too.
- Yes I put FSU in the poll but did not rank Virginia Tech despite them having the exact same ACC mark. Why? Because three of the Seminoles five losses came at home to Duke, UNC and Pitt by an average of six points. In the process those three teams looked really bad on the offensive end which might say something about the Seminole defense or the water in Tallahasse. The other two losses were to Northwestern(who beat Michigan St.) and Miami. In other words none of the losses make you want to run away from them. The Noles might be for real and at this point should be ranked.
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Wake beat Clemson, so I would have them at #9, but I have a hard time putting any team that loses by 25+ to an unranked team in the top 10.
UCLA looked really good against ND, so I’d be tempted to put them in the Top-10, but then again, the rest of their schedule is pretty lame.
OU is a paper tiger. I’d keep them at 2 for now, based on record, but one loss should drop them oout of the top-5.
Speaking of ND, our win against them looks a heck of a lot less spectacular now. What a monumental collapse in South Bend. And they don’t even have football to fall back on…
And our win against MSU looks better than ever, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Notre Dame was not, in fact, better than MSU back in November. Notre Dame probably did not need to supplement their schedule with UCLA and Ohio State.
In fact, with the RPI and power ratings, aside from money and television exposure for recruiting, there may be less reason for great teams to play tough out of conference schedules now, than ever.
Villanova probably played it smart, unlike Notre Dame, figuring that the Big East schedule was plenty tough, and that if they did well there, they were sure to get a high seed anyway. Notre Dame played Indiana (which would have been a top ten team), then Texas, then North Carolina, plus Ohio State and UCLA.
Indiana ended up losing all its players and Notre Dame beat Texas, but lost to UNC, OSU and UCLA. If they had taken four soft touches like Villanova did, then they would be 15-7 over all and 3-7 in conference, with South Florida, Rutgers, Providence and St Johns coming coming. Then they could have tried to win a couple more at home from Louisville or Villanova or for an upset on the road and finish say 20-10 in the regular season.
Nova lost to Texas and beat Temple at home and that was it for them in the pre-conference season, which actually let them sneak up on teams. And in spite of all the power ratings, so many people still think that a 12-10 Notre Dame is worse than a 15-7 VPI.
“Wake beat Clemson”
Wake also lost to GT which means I probably should have dropped them below Duke as well considering the Devils do not have anything that looks that bad including the 27 point loss to Clemson.
Good point.
Actually, I am not sure that losing a close game at GIT, a team that knows your style intimately due to being a twice a year rival is worse than getting beaten handily at Michigan.
Except Duke beat Michigan on a neutral court a few weeks prior. I have an infinitely low opinion of GT right now.
Florida State might be coming up in the rankings. They are holding people down with their defense, and starting to look a little Michigan -Statey.
GIT is not bad at home. The probably should have beaten Maryland, FSU and UVa and let them all get away. I am glad we have them at home. They are probably better than UVa and possibly NC State.
THF – I tried, tried to explain the rankings to my 10 year old son as the AP puts them out and I finally came to the following – if you are ranked 2 and an opponent is 3 how do you justify moving 3 over 2 if 2 doesn’t lose? So in a lot of ways it’s about your current ranking and wins and losses. If 3 beats 1 then 2 will probably be 1 if they don’t lose. From what I’ve seen in action. So the pasta on the wall is good, whose good and how good is the opponent.The preseason polls set the table. Go Heels!
Now if you could start a THF Poll app here, Tar Heel Fan, I would just spend all my time on this site!
I would, unfortunately, put Kansas ahead of Oklahoma. Self is doing a job akin to Roy’s in 2006. Look for the NCAA to try to make them play Roy again.
Marquette has played a very weak schedule and has lost to Dayton, Tennessee and South Florida. They have Louisville, Pittsburgh and Villanova on the road coming up and UConn at home. They will have close to ten losses by Selection Sunday.
Memphis is one of the few teams where it is impossible to know how good they are because their conference is terrible and their schedule is weak and has peaked. Yes, they beat Gonzaga, but Gonzaga is kind of the Duke of the West coast in February and March.
I don’t think there is any way in the world that Oklahomas is better than Pittsburgh. I don’t see anything impressive on their resume. I would love to be the number two seed in their region or have them be the number two seed in UNC’s region.
My top five would be:
1. UConn
2. UNC
3. Pittsburgh
4. Louisville
5. Villanova
I suppose there’s a possibility that Oklahoma is better than we are, but I doubt it. UConn has earned its No. 1 spot, but we should be No. 2.
On a good night, I would not take any team including UConn against ours.
I think the season is shaping up exactly the way most people saw it, with UConn and UNC on top and maybe flip-flopped at this point due to UNC’s injuries. They are two of the most experienced teams in the country and play in the two best conferences. I worry about their big man, though. We will definitely need to continue our excellent outside shooting that has been a constant since the Wake game.