Another wacky week of college hoops that saw some of the top dogs fall in a big way, and three very familiar names enter into the poll. Hard times up there in Syracuse, NY, as the Orange have dropped four straight and are reeling right now. Ohio State, the only undefeated team in the nation, is obviously the clear choice at #1.  Some quick n’ dirty analysis after the jump, as always…

QnD Analysis.

• A Unanimous #1—This is the third straight week that Ohio State is the top team in the nation, but the first week that they are unanimously number one.
• High Risers and Big Droppers—Just two weeks ago the Syracuse Orange looked as if they were a legitimate contender for the Final Four and one of Ohio State’s biggest challengers to overtake them for the number one ranking. Fast forward two weeks and SU has lost four straight games and has fallen from #3 to #19. It would not surprise me if Syracuse’s unfortunate streak ballooned up to five straight losses as they have the daunting task of playing at #5 Connecticut on Wednesday evening. Also, Villanova and Illinois both fell six spots after each lost both of their games this past week. Louisville had, by far, the most successful week of any team as they cracked the rankings in a big way. The Cardinals were unranked, and now they are #14 in the country after one-point wins over West Virginia and Connecticut. Notre Dame also had a big week defeating Pittsburgh in their lone game and climbing seven spots.
• Where to rank Minnesota, again?—For the second straight week, there is some disagreement with where to rank the Golden Gophers. In one poll, Minnesota is ranked as high as #15, but not ranked in another. They play Ohio State this coming Sunday at home, a win against the undefeated Buckeyes would surely win over the doubters.
• New to the Rankings—Louisville, Arizona, and North Carolina all joined the top 25 this week. These are three of the most noteworthy teams around the nation in terms of tradition and name recognition, and all have been playing quite well as of late. Louisville has moved up to second place in the Big East, North Carolina is all of a sudden 5-1 in the ACC, and Arizona is now tied with Washington in the Pac-10 for first place.
• Others Receiving Votes—The ORV category stayed constant with six teams receiving a vote in the top 25. Three of these teams hail from the Big East, which makes a total of 10 of the nation’s top 31 teams from this conference.
• Conference Call—Big East (7), Big 10 (5), Big 12 (4), MWC (2), SEC (2), ACC (2), Pac-10 (2), WAC (1).

KDoyle (99 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 6:59 pm by KDoyle and is filed under blogpoll, Regular Features. Tagged: arizona, illinois, louisville, minnesota, north carolina, notre dame, ohio state, syracuse, villanova. 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.