It is quite clear that Ohio State, Kansas, and Pittsburgh should be ranked one through three in that order as all of the pollsters were in complete agreement on that, but after that things get a little murky. Notre Dame is on the verge of crashing the party and a successful Big East Tournament may award them a #1 seed come Selection Sunday. QnD analysis after the jump…
QnD Analysis.
- It is unanimous that Ohio State is the top team in the nation as all six pollsters have them checking in at #1. Their 28-point thrashing of Wisconsin at home on Senior Day—avenging an earlier loss to the Badgers—makes Ohio State the current favorite to garner the overall top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
- High Risers and Big Droppers—There were several teams that had big weeks and moved up considerably in the poll, but no team ascended more than the Xavier Musketeers. Notre Dame’s come from behind victory at Connecticut and Kentucky’s wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee may have been more impressive, but no one can argue how hot Xavier has been in the A-10. As a result of their play—going 15-1 in a very competitive league—Xavier moved up seven spots to #17. On the flip side, BYU’s stay at #3 was short lived as they fell seven spots to #10. The suspension of Brandon Davies for the remainder of the season coupled with a blowout 18-point loss at home to New Mexico surely was responsible for such a drop.
- Where to rank Utah State?—Even with a 28-3 record and having one of the best big men roaming the paint out West in Tai Wesley, there is still some uncertainty as to where Utah State should be ranked. The general consensus is that the Aggies should be in the low twenties as three pollsters have them right around there, but there are two extremes as they are ranked as high as #15 in one poll and not ranked in two other polls.
- Four new faces—While all four of these teams—West Virginia, Temple, Kansas State, and Texas A&M—are familiar faces to the top 25, they are nonetheless new ones this week. Sliding out of the top 25 are George Mason, Missouri, Villanova and Georgetown. The latter two teams have been reeling as they have a combined record of 3-10 in their last 13 games.
- Also Receiving Votes—After having a small number of teams on the periphery of the top 25 in recent weeks, the number has ballooned up to seven teams in this week’s poll.
- Conference Call—Big East (7), Big 10 (3), Big 12 (4), SEC (3), Atlantic 10 (2), MWC (2), ACC (2), Pac-10 (1), WAC (1).
View Comments (3)
Normally as the season progresses, the teams that should be in the top 25 and roughly where they should be ranked becomes clearer. This year its just gotten muddier. Seven teams in the "other receiving votes" categories, wild swings from week to week. I'd say UConn and above is pretty clear they deserve to be in the top 25 and even top 20... Arizona on down, it's safe to say that somebody could have any of those teams anywhere in the 19-25 range, or even unranked and not even on the radar.
I'm not sure UConn deserves to be in the top 25 but when you compare to the teams below them it works out well for them. After that you have a muddled mess as you said.
One bone to pick with my fellow pollsters: I know K-State is playing well but they finished with the same record as A&M in conference, a worse overall record and lost to the Aggies. Not sure how they could be ranked above them.
The last five or so teams are all "ehh" to me but we have to find 25 teams somewhere. I'm surprised Cincy isn't in there. I had them #21 after going 11-7 in the Big East.
Well, all K-State's conference losses were at the start of the conference season, while all A&M's losses were at the end of the conference season (provided you use a very loose definition of "all"). And A&M's win over K-State was at A&M and a month and a half ago. And K-State played a significantly tougher conference schedule than A&M. And finally, K-State's got the wins over Kansas and Texas, while A&M's best win on the season is the home win over K-State.
Oh. And unbalanced conference schedules suck.