RTC Top 25: FINAL
Posted by KDoyle on March 5th, 2012For the seventh straight week, Kentucky heads the Top 25. The Wildcats breezed through the SEC portion of their schedule and are en route to the #1 overall seed heading into the NCAA Tournament. Florida and Baylor are two teams that continue to slide as their defense — or lack thereof — has been exposed. The Quick ‘n Dirty after the jump…
QnD Analysis:
High Risers and Big Droppers—For the third time this season, Indiana knocked off a top five team. This time around, the Hoosiers soundly defeated Michigan State, 70-55. With their 2-0 week — the other win coming against Purdue — Indiana moved up five spots to #16. Conversely, Florida is spiraling downward in a big way. The Gators have lost three straight games and five of their last eight to slide six places south to #23.
Who to Rank #21-#25?—New Mexico, Notre Dame, Florida, San Diego State, and St. Mary’s all round up this week’s Top 25, but there is great debate among these teams. Of the combined 32 votes, only 17 had them ranked inside the Top 25.
A Look Back At Our Preseason Rankings—How’d We Do?
On Target—North Carolina (#1), Kentucky (#2), Ohio State (#3), Syracuse (#5), Duke (#6), Baylor (#12), Wisconsin (#13), Michigan (#18), Gonzaga (#21), Temple (#23), Florida State (#24), New Mexico (ARV)
- The pollsters shot 50% from the field in predicting the Top 10 as North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio State, Syracuse, and Duke all lived up to expectations.
- After North Carolina’s and Ohio State’s impressive wins over the weekend, these teams are peaking heading into their respective conference tournaments — UNC probably played their best game of the season at Cameron Indoor on Saturday — and both have legitimate shots at reaching the Final Four.
- After some mid-year struggles that saw Wisconsin depart from the Top 25, the Badgers are back in the middle of pack checking in at #14.
- Michigan has been a steady team all season — they have not lost back-to-back games — and check in at #10. If anything, pollsters underrated the Wolverines, who picked up the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
- Kudos to one pollster who slotted New Mexico in at #20 in the preseason. Clearly, he saw the potential of Steve Alford’s squad.
Ranked Too High: Connecticut (#4), Vanderbilt (#7), Florida (#7), Pittsburgh (#9), Louisville (#10), Xavier (#11), Memphis (#14), Alabama (#16), Arizona (#16), UCLA (#19), Texas A&M (#22)
- Like many others, our pollsters were big time believers in the Connecticut Huskies. Returning virtually everyone from last year’s National Championship team — save Kemba Walker, of course — and landing blue chip recruit Andre Drummond made Connecticut a popular top five ranking. There is an abundance of talent on this team, but it seems that losing Kemba left a hole too big to be so easily filled. Not to mention, Drummond hasn’t lived up to expectations and Alex Oriakhi has been invisible for much of the season.
- Vanderbilt, Florida, and Alabama of the SEC have all been minor disappointments, according to their preseason ranking. Vandy, with the sharpshooting prowess of both John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor, was a popular top 10 pick, but early season losses to Cleveland State, Xavier, Louisville, and Indiana State thwarted their Top 25 ranking altogether. Florida has been a staple in the Top 25 all season, but have slowly declined and currently stand at #23 after three straight losses to conclude the regular season. Lastly, Alabama was another trendy pick in the preseason. After advancing to last year’s NIT title game, returning a bulk of their team, and jumping out to a 7-0 start with wins over Wichita State, Purdue, and Virginia Commonwealth, the Crimson Tide looked like a Top 10 team. But, going 13-10 the rest of the way proved that hot start was nothing more than fool’s gold.
- Texas A&M — what a colossal miss this team was. Granted, they have played without their star Khris Middleton for part of the season, but a 13-17 overall record and a paltry 4-14 record in the Big 12 makes the Aggies one of the bigger disappointments of the season.
- The UCLA Bruins…no comment.
Ranked Too Low: Kansas (#15), Marquette (#25), Missouri (ARV), Michigan State (ARV), Wichita State (ARV)
- After graduating the Morris twins and losing to Virginia Commonwealth in last year’s NCAA Tournament, there were many questions surrounding Kansas entering this season. Fortunately for the Jayhawks, Thomas Robinson developed into arguably the best player in the nation, Jeff Withey really came into his own and has complemented Robinson nicely, and Tyshawn Taylor is a fearless point guard. All of this adds up to a #3 ranking and potential #1 seed in the Dance.
- Picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big East, Marquette has proven throughout the season to be a true force in the conference. Despite hitting a minor road bump in the middle of the season losing four of six games, the Golden Eagles are a combined 23-2 outside of this stretch. Buzz Williams will garner serious consideration for Big East Coach of the Year honors.
- Missouri, Michigan State and Wichita State all saw very little love from pollsters, but certainly earned it through their impressive play throughout the year. Missouri has been a staple in the top 10 since Week Four, while Michigan State has been in such company for about 10 weeks now. As for the Shockers, it took some time for them to crack the Top 25, but they rose to as high as #9 in the Week 16 poll.
Not On the Radar: Murray State, Indiana, UNLV, Notre Dame, San Diego State, St. Mary’s, Creighton, Iowa State, Drexel, Kansas State, St. Louis
- The preceding 11 teams did not garner a single vote in the preseason Top 25. All of these teams, with the exception of Iowa State and Drexel, have been in the Top 25 for at least one week this season — many have had a longer stay than this though.
- It took Murray State until Week Five to enter the Top 25; they have remained in the poll ever since.
- St. Louis made a brief appearance in the Top 25 after a 6-0 start, but a loss to Loyola Marymount back in November has had them on the outside looking in since then.
- Indiana — who many believed to be a year away — captured the national spotlight after handing Kentucky its only loss of the season in December. The Hoosiers’ highest ranking of the year came at #6 as they began the year with a 15-1 record. Since then, however, Indiana has gone 9-6.
- Mid-major darlings St. Mary’s and Creighton have frequented the Top 25 off-and-on for much of the year, while San Diego State and UNLV carried over success from last year over to the 2011-12 season.
Conference Call— Big Ten (5), Big East (4), Big 12 (3), ACC (3), Mountain West (3), SEC (2), West Coast (2), Ohio Valley (1), Missouri Valley (1), Atlantic 10 (1)
