BYU might be headed to the Top 10

BYU has an outside shot at making the Top 10 on Monday. What a fantastic team. 20-1 is hard to believe.



The teams ahead of BYU had a lot of turmoil this week. Here's the action:



10 KSU beat 1 Texas

Unranked North Carolina St. beat 7 Duke

12 Georgetown beat 9 Pittsburgh

Unranked UConn beat 1 Texas

7 Duke beat 17 Clemson

Unranked Georgia beat 8 Tennessee

Unranked Oklahoma State beat 10 KSU



Texas lost two games, but both were on the road and both were against pretty decent teams. They will take a tumble, but I have a feeling they stay just inside the Top 10. But, this is a toss up.



Kansas State beat Texas (at home) but proceeded to lose at home to a decent Oklahoma State team. Once again, this will be a huge toss-up. I still think they stay ahead of BYU.



Duke lost at North Carolina State but proceeded to win at Clemson. Probably won't tumble out of the Top 10 because Clemson is ranked. But, it's possible.



Pittsburgh will fall some after losing at home to Georgetown. BYU will pass them.



Tennessee's loss at a struggling Georgia team will push them behind BYU.



No one is in a very likely position to pass BYU. I imagine that BYU has a pretty serious spread from the voters right now because of doubts over their schedule strength. However, this spread should tighten up some this week because of BYU's win at SDSU and because BYU has already hit the impressive 20 wins. BYU will gain votes both ways. Look for BYU possibly passing Purdue by virtue of this.



Net result: BYU ends up between 8 and 12 in the AP poll. If BYU wins over UNM and Utah next week, BYU will assuredly end up in the Top 10.



20-1. Fantastic.

Nice analysis. Thanks for sharing.

If we do not move to #9-10, I will be pissed, 1 (TWICE,) 7, 8, 9, and 10 all lost.



We are one of only 5! 1 loss teams, with only 1 unbeaten left.

As far as the AP votes go...42 out of 65 voters had BYU ranked at or below their current ranking (14). Only 8 of those were actually voted at 14. So I would be surprised if those other 34 voters did not rank BYU better than 15's-22's like they were this week. More of those voters will probably vote them anywhere from 11's-15's this week up from 15's-22's. The other 24 voters or so will probably have BYU anywhere from 7's-11's. We will definitely be flirting with Top ten on Monday in the AP.

Would be nice, but I'm skeptical it will happen. My guess is we'll be at 11. Do we deserve top 10, probably, but pundits will simply look at our schedule and say, "Well of course they're at 20-1, look at who've they played." Not saying we've only played cream puffs, but we haven't beaten any ranked, high-caliber teams. The perception is basketball West of the Mississippi sucks this year, so BYU is just feasting on the weak.



I don't necessarily agree with the notion, but that's my guess as to how the "experts" will view our ranking. Voters aren't looking for reasons to move us up in the poll, voters are looking for reasons to knock us down.

kind of fun to talk about BYU basketball breaking top 10. it's wierd. I feel like I'm in the wrong forum.

CougarClaw wrote:
kind of fun to talk about BYU basketball breaking top 10. it's wierd. I feel like I'm in the wrong forum.

I know, but it is awesome that our BB is doing better then a our FB, and our FB did not do bad. ;)

BYUROCKS wrote:

kind of fun to talk about BYU basketball breaking top 10. it's wierd. I feel like I'm in the wrong forum.

I know, but it is awesome that our BB is doing better then a our FB, and our FB did not do bad. ;)

Uh oh.... remember what happened when our fball team broke into the top 10? :sick: :sick:

From a psychological standpoint, it would probably be better if the pollsters kept dropping BYU a notch or two, as they keep beating everyone on their schedule; this would insure the team keeps playing angry and motivated.



My ideal scenario is BYU goes undefeated through conference play, wins the MWC tournament, and gets into the sweet 16 by beating two very good teams--that would be fun. And then I'd like to see a Duke or a Texas or a Kansas get frustrated playing BYU and trying to stop Jimmer and the boys. Dare we dream of a final 4 spot?

I really had my doubts that we'd crack the top 10 this week. The numbers just didn't quite add up, and I saw us coming in at 11. Well, I caught the last 5 minutes of the #11 Pittsburg at unranked Seton Hall game, and Seton Hall was workin' hard, and I mean REALLY trying, to lose the game, but they just couldn't manage it. :) I think that result just pushed us in! Thank you Pirates, GO COUGARS!



¶--EDIT-- Okay, so I'm just not quite bright, and forgot that Pitt was one of the teams that had already gotten the mid-week loss. Oh well. Number 11 isn't too bad. Hopefully voters were just waiting to see what we looked like against a good team on the road before showering praises...but I doubt it.

Mars wrote:

Dare we dream of a final 4 spot?

No, we dare not.

What a buzz kill