A wild week shook up the rankings last week… so here it is…

• A New Number One—With Duke losing, the rankings at the top have finally changed; Ohio State slides into the number one position with Kansas and Syracuse both moving up one spot as well. The Orange quite possibly have their toughest week of the year as they do battle with two top 10 teams—#5 Pittsburgh and #7 Villanova. The rankings of Big East teams will undoubtedly be in continual flux as conference play progresses.
• High Risers and Big Droppers—With their wins over Oklahoma State and Missouri — the one against the Tigers coming by a deuce in overtime — Texas A&M climbed seven spots and cracked the top 10. Now 16-1, A&M has won 13 games in a row dating back to late November when they lost to Boston College in the opening round of the Old Spice Classic. Other big movers were Texas, Minnesota, and St. Mary’s who all rose four spots. The Golden Gophers had a big win at home against a top 10 team in Purdue, and St. Mary’s has won 10 straight games; all of the Gaels’ wins save one have come by double digits. Purdue and Notre Dame both had disappointing weeks as each lost both of their games and dropped six spots. The Irish were blown out by Marquette and St. John’s, while Purdue lost close ones to Minnesota and West Virginia.
• Where to rank Michigan State?—The Spartans’ ranking ranges all the way from #15 to not being ranked at all. They have been playing well of late, having won four of their last five games; they’re 4-1 in the Big 10, and have defeated two top 25 teams during this stretch — Minnesota and Wisconsin — but their rollercoaster performance in the middle of the non-conference appears still to be haunting them. Michigan State can validate their ranking at #19, and even climb into the top 15 (potentially) with wins against Illinois and Purdue this week.
• 26, not 25—Due to a tie in the final spot of the rankings, both Temple and Cincinnati are in the rankings. Subsequently, there are actually 26 teams listed this week rather than the usual 25.
• Others Receiving Votes—Like last week, which saw a total of eight teams in the ORV category, there are eight again this week. As a result of their improved play over the past couple months, Missouri State and Utah State have both entered the top 25 for some of the pollsters.
• Conference Call—Big East (7), Big 10 (6), Big 12 (4), MWC (3), SEC (2), A-10 (1), ACC (1),Pac-10 (1), WCC (1).

KDoyle (99 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 5:00 pm by KDoyle and is filed under blogpoll, Regular Features. Tagged: big east, cincinnati, duke, kansas, michigan st, minnesota, missouri st, notre dame, ohio st, purdue, st mary's, temple, texas, texas a&m, utah st. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.