Now that every team has a handful of games under its belt, we feel a little more justified in moving teams around based on what we’ve seen and read so far. With that in mind, here’s this week’s RTC Top 25. Analysis to follow after the jump…
QnD Analysis.
- Movers and Shakers. The big movers this week were Syracuse (+16) and California (-8), who were 2-0 and 0-2, respectively, in last week’s CvC Tournament. Syracuse rode blowout wins over California and UNC to open the nation’s eyes to Wesley Johnson and company, and the Orange debut in our poll this week at #9. Cal, on the other hand, plummeted eight spots after getting spanked twice in two nights at Madison Square Garden by the aforementioned Syracuse team and Ohio State. Speaking of the Buckeyes, they also dropped four spots after losing to UNC on Thursday night. The next biggest mover upwards this week was Vanderbilt (+3), who must have impressed some folks with their close win at St. Mary’s en route to Maui this week.
- Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable. We always like to take a look at variance to see which teams do the pollsters most agree and disagree upon this week. Of the teams that all four of us voted into the Top 25, Washington (with a range of #7 to #17) and Ohio State (range: #14 to #23) showed the most variance. If you include everyone, then two SEC teams — Vanderbilt and Florida — exhibit the most uncertainty. Both schools were ranked as high as #16 by one pollster and as low as unranked by another.
- How Boring. On the other end of the spectrum, everyone agrees that Kansas should remain at #1 despite its close win against Memphis last week in St. Louis, and three others — Michigan, Tennessee and Texas — were all slotted in roughly the same range among the four of us.
- Newbies. Other than Syracuse vaulting into the top 10 this week, the poll also welcomes Gonzaga, Maryland and Minnesota at the #20-#22 slots and Louisville at the #24 slot (tied with Cal). Dropping out were Oklahoma, Siena, Georgia Tech, Dayton and Oklahoma State.
- Conference Call. Big East (6), Big Ten (6), SEC (4), ACC (3), Big 12 (2), Pac-10 (2), Horizon (1), WCC (1).
View Comments (2)
Not that it really matters.. but its kind of weird to drop a Nova team that goes 5-0 including winning a tournament without two starters 3 spots isn't it?
Not really. We don't really subscribe to the inertia theory of polling - ie, just b/c you're at a certain spot and won, you stay there or move up. Villanova needs to look a little stronger for this pollster to move them up.