I’m proud to re-introduce a feature here at Rush the Court – the RTC Blogpoll.

From November through March during the college hoops season, check back here every Monday for the rankings of our four main scribes- myself, rtmsf, nvr1983 and jstevrtc- combined into one, fantastic Top 25 ranking. Take that, AP and coaches!  The aggegrate of our own internal poll will constitute what we submit to the larger national Blogpoll each week. 

To get our loyal readers into hoops mode even for a few minutes during the long offseason, here’s a summer edition of the rankings with commentary provided by yours truly regarding each ranked team. Look for this feature on a weekly basis during the 2009-10 campaign (which, as I concluded while compiling this poll, cannot come soon enough).

Once again I had trouble with coming up with an order for these teams because they keep on losing games they shouldn’t. I feel like it’s easy to classify them into groups, but hard to differentiate within those groups outside of the top 10. Anyways, leave your praise or criticism in the comment section.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Pittsburgh	1
2	North Carolina	1
3	Memphis	3
4	Connecticut	3
5	Louisville
6	Oklahoma	2
7	Michigan St.
8	Duke
9	Wake Forest	1
10	Villanova	1
11	Gonzaga	3
12	Kansas	3
13	Washington	5
14	Missouri	2
15	Xavier	4
16	UCLA	1
17	Butler	6
18	Purdue	5
19	Louisiana St.	7
20	Clemson
21	Syracuse	3
22	Illinois
23	Florida St.
24	Arizona St.	3
25	Marquette	8
Last week’s ballot

This week’s poll was tough because so many top 25 teams lost and it’s kind of hard to compare the relative strength/weakness of each loss. I also wasn’t sure what to do with Marquette. I dropped them quite a bit because of the loss of Dominic James, but I came away impressed after watching their loss at Louisville particularly with Jerel McNeal having an awful day.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Connecticut	2
2	Pittsburgh	1
3	North Carolina	1
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Louisville	1
6	Memphis	1
7	Michigan St.	2
8	Duke	1
9	Kansas	7
10	Wake Forest
11	Villanova	3
12	Louisiana St.	5
13	Purdue	6
14	Gonzaga	1
15	UCLA	6
16	Missouri	2
17	Marquette	6
18	Washington
19	Xavier	1
20	Clemson	7
21	Arizona St.	9
22	Illinois
23	Butler
24	Syracuse
25	Texas
Last week’s ballot

It has been difficult to rank teams this year because it seems like there isn’t any consistency among the top 25 teams outside of the top 5 or 6, which have been consistently good lately (with an occasional off-night, which I’m willing to give college kids. Feel free to leave praise and criticism in comment section.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Pittsburgh	3
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Connecticut	1
4	North Carolina	3
5	Memphis	1
6	Louisville	1
7	Duke	1
8	Villanova	1
9	Michigan St.	4
10	Wake Forest	1
11	Marquette	3
12	Arizona St.	2
13	Clemson	1
14	Missouri	1
15	Gonzaga	6
16	Kansas	2
17	Louisiana St.	8
18	Washington
19	Purdue	3
20	Xavier	3
21	UCLA	1
22	Illinois	7
23	Florida St.
24	Syracuse	2
25	Texas
Last week’s ballot

As a member of the CBB Blogpoll, we’ve been asked to join the weekly roundtable, where we’ll be answering a series of questions about the state of the season.  A Sea of Blue is this week’s host – be sure to stop by over there to see some of the other blogs’ answers (ed. note: we tried and failed to keep our eyes on our own paper).  

Who really looks like the best team in college basketball this season?

On “look” alone, it has to be Pittsburgh.  The Panthers have only sustained two losses, and in both of those losses (@ Louisville and @ Villanova), the manchild known as DeJuan Blair was in foul trouble.  But will that translate in March this time around?  Remember, the Panthers have never played past the Sweet 16 in the history of the program.   Why is this year any different?  For one, Pitt’s offensive efficiency is the best it’s ever been (currently #3 nationally).  For another, they have a scoring option from each of the key positions on the court (point/wing/post) in Levance Fields, Sam Young and Blair.  We hesitate to think Pitt will win it all this year, but we have to believe that this is a Final Four team.

Is Blake Griffin the Player of the Year already, or can somebody catch him?

Over.  Blake Griffin is your 2008-09 POY, and it’s not even close.  The only player that could have caught him in the last month was Stephen Curry, but his recent injury plus some media backlash (ahem) about his play in “big” games this year has rendered that point moot.  We all know how sick Griffin’s numbers are (23/14/3 assts), but Oklahoma has had only one slip-up despite several close games they could have dropped. 

What currently ranked team is the biggest disappointment so far this year?

Michigan State.  We’re tired of hearing excuses about this team.  They were top 5 to begin the year, and they’re still top 10 in most polls, but they have a bigger tendency to completely quit than any other team near the top of the rankings.  Witness the shellacking at Ford Field by UNC in December or the recent rape at the hands of Purdue just this week.  Maryland of all teams also destroyed them earlier this year.  The pieces are supposedly there, with Kalin Lucas, Goran Suton, Durrell Summers, Raymar Morgan and so forth… but from our view it appears that there are no great players here, just a collection of very good ones. 

Predict the next team to beat Oklahoma.

The easy choice is at Texas or at Missouri in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll be a little contrarian and predict a home loss to Kansas on Big Monday next week.  KU is playing much better than anticipated this season, and Bill Self’s defense is good enough to shut down everyone except Blake Griffin in that game.  We like the Jayhawks to do it, especially if OU is elevated to #1 in next week’s polls. 

As part of the new Blogpoll, we’ll be posting our poll on RTC.net that will then be used to create a composite Blogpoll that will be released at a later date. I’m pretty sure this is how it is supposed to work, but if it isn’t this post will probably disappear pretty quickly.

This week was a rather difficult one to rank teams since so many of the top 25 teams lost to teams they probably shouldn’t have. As always, I’m open to your suggestions. I may not agree with them, but I will take them into consideration for future voting. Feel free to leave compliments or complaints in the “Comment” section.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	North Carolina	2
2	Connecticut	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Pittsburgh
5	Michigan St.	5
6	Memphis	5
7	Louisville	2
8	Duke
9	Villanova	5
10	Arizona St.	12
11	Wake Forest	4
12	Clemson	3
13	Missouri	5
14	Marquette	2
15	Illinois	5
16	Purdue	1
17	Xavier	4
18	Kansas	2
19	Butler	4
20	UCLA	14
21	Gonzaga	3
22	Syracuse	3
23	Florida St.
24	Utah St.	5
25	Louisiana St.
Last week’s ballot

Here we go (through Mon. night’s games)…

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Here’s this week’s blogpoll.  Keep in mind that the votes were tallied including games through Monday night only…

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Here we go with Week 4’s Blogpoll…

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Here it is, through Monday night’s games…

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