Ohio State remains at #1, but it was far from unanimous as a total of four teams—the Buckeyes, Duke, Pittsburgh, and San Diego State—received votes for the top spot. Further down in the poll, Steve Lavin has St. John’s in the poll after a big win over Pittsburgh.  QnD analysis after the jump…

QnD Analysis.

• Buckeyes fall again, but remain at top—For the second straight week, Ohio State dropped another game, this time losing to Purdue 76-63, but managed to remain in the #1 position. Although Jared Sullinger poured in 25 points, the game belonged to E’Twaun Moore who had his best scoring output of the season going off for 38 points and making a ridiculous seven threes on just ten attempts.
• High Risers and Big Droppers—There was not a whole lot of movement within the poll, but St. John’s cracking the top 25 following their upset victory over Pittsburgh was the big story of the week. The Johnnies continue to dethrone some of the top teams from around the nation—Notre Dame, Duke, Connecticut, and now Pittsburgh—and in doing so have put themselves firmly in the NCAA Tournament and off the bubble. There were four teams that slid three spots—Kansas, Louisville, Missouri, and Texas A&M—but aside from that no other team fell further. Strangely enough, Missouri and A&M both won each of their games on the week, but still dropped three spots.
• Where to rank Utah State?—For the second straight week, there was a large disparity between pollsters ranking of Utah State. The Aggies are not ranked in four polls, are #25 in another, and then as high as #16 in the final poll. Coming away with a solid 10-point victory at St. Mary’s still isn’t earning them much love.
• Two new faces—George Mason returns to the rankings after a weeklong stint in the also receiving votes category, while St. John’s cracks the poll for the first time in recent memory. Mason has been killing it since early January having won 13 straight games.
• A non-conference treat—The nation got a brief taste of some final non-conference games during the BracketBusters this past weekend, but a much more appealing game for many around the country will transpire in Durham, NC, on Wednesday evening as Temple travels down to play Duke. The Owls appear to have done enough to earn an at-large bid, but a win over Duke would certainly do wonders for their body of work come Selection Sunday.
• Also Receiving Votes—Usually there are several teams in this category, if not more than that, but in this week we have only two teams here: Xavier and West Virginia.
• Conference Call—Big East (8), Big 10 (3), Big 12 (4), MWC (2), SEC (3), ACC (2), Pac-10 (1), WAC (1), Atlantic 10 (1), CAA (1).

KDoyle (99 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 4:15 pm by KDoyle and is filed under blogpoll, Regular Features. Tagged: connecticut, duke, e, e'twaun moore, george mason, jared sullinger, kansas, louisville, missouri, notre dame, ohio state, pittsburgh, purdue, san diego state, st johns, steve lavin, temple, texas a&m, utah state, west virginia, xavier. 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.