Poll #7 ESPN/USA TODAY--AP#7--WITH 2 1st place votes

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/usatpoll.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ESPN/USATODAY

RK TEAM RECORD PTS

1 Duke (19) 25-2 746

2 Kansas (1) 25-2 708

3 Ohio State (4) 25-2 699

4 San Diego State (3) 27-1 672

5 Texas 23-4 667

6 Pittsburgh (4) 24-3 664

7 Brigham Young 25-2 593

8 Purdue 22-5 562

9 Notre Dame 21-5 506

10 Arizona 23-4 461

11 Georgetown 21-6 437

12 Wisconsin 20-6 428

13 Florida 21-5 397

14 Villanova 21-6 377

15 Connecticut 20-6 312

16 Louisville 20-7 278

17 Texas A&M 21-5 254

18 Vanderbilt 20-6 242

19 North Carolina 20-6 236

20 Syracuse 22-6 183

21 Missouri 21-6 161

22 Kentucky 19-7 134

23 Utah State 25-3 109

24 Temple 21-5 85

25 St. John's 17-9 73

Others receiving votes: George Mason 55, Xavier 18, Washington 6, UCLA 5, Valparaiso 3, Coastal Carolina 2, West Virginia 1, Saint Mary's 1

Interesting to see SDSU with 3 first place votes.

I didn't think we'd get that little of action. I thought Texas, losing to a non-ranked team should have slipped more than 3 spots. It's hard to believe that we have now two top 10 wins and we're only #7.

EM_Puma wrote:
I didn't think we'd get that little of action. I thought Texas, losing to a non-ranked team should have slipped more than 3 spots. It's hard to believe that we have now two top 10 wins and we're only #7.

A Top 10 road win will put us in the Top 5. We are only 6 days away from being in the top 5 if we sweep this week. If we don't sweep - we will still be Top 10.



Big East biased voters seem to have all called each other and pooled their votes for Pitt. Texas had that big win at KU a while back and that is keeping them up there even though they have lost more games than we have lost. We should be #5 right now and SDSU should be #1.

#7 in AP with two first place votes!?!?!

kiwibacon wrote:
#7 in AP with two first place votes!?!?!

:bug: WOW. I was NOT expecting that.

Voters are holding out to see what we do this week since apparently our two Top 10 wins isn't enough.



We win out this week and we'll be in the Top 5 ahead of SDSU.

Looks like these two have been Jimmered:



John Feinstein



Mark Berman



The rest will shortly be Jimmered. :D

If we did manage a win on Saturday, THIS week would really have been the week for 1-4 to have lost. We would have risen INSANELY if that were the case. As it stands now, sadly, even with 2 wins this week, I don't see us moving far (except past SDSU, of course) assuming all ahead of us win.

True, the rankings don't techically matter, it's not too far a stretch to see them at least influencing the selection committee mindset somewhat. If a team's hovering around 1-2-3-ish, that's a team that's in the public consciousness, which will often affect the committee SO much more.

redneckjedi wrote:
Looks like these two have been Jimmered:



John Feinstein



Mark Berman



The rest will shortly be Jimmered. :D

That's awesome. The guy that put BYU 1st has the highest number of "good" ratings, and the guy that put BYU the lowest (14th) has the highest number of "bad" ratings.



Love it!

tmoney35 wrote:

Looks like these two have been Jimmered:



John Feinstein



Mark Berman



The rest will shortly be Jimmered. :D

That's awesome. The guy that put BYU 1st has the highest number of "good" ratings, and the guy that put BYU the lowest (14th) has the highest number of "bad" ratings.



Love it!

I put in my good and bad vote before seeing this but that is what I put. How does someone seriously put us at 14? I could understand 10 or 11 but 14 is stretching it.



As far as the two #1 votes...do I take back all of my bad mouthing East coast media bias as both voters are from back east?

I think we are right where we deserve to be. Losing at the Pitt is excusable, because it is the Pitt, but losing to UNM isn't for a top 10 team. I think that only Texas and PITT are undeservedly ahead of us (and of course SDSU). The good news is, that if we win both games this week, and SDSU doesn't lose again before playing us, that we will pass SDSU rightfully, and also I think pass Texas and PITT. That would net us a top 5 ranking and quite a few first place votes.



I think everyone is holding out to see how we do this week. We have beat up on some really, really bad teams recently, and had a few one-gamer weeks and that hasn't held much sway with the voters.



We need to avoid a letdown before saturday, and cross our fingers that SDSU goes into saturday with still one loss. A beat down there, at that place will vault us past Texas and PITT, and if it doesn't it will be one of the biggest travesties in college bball this year.

SDSU doesn't play again until Sat. so their one loss is assured.

I don't really want a 1 seed for our team. A 2 seed starting in Denver would be most ideal. I can't even BELIEVE we are almost a lock for a 2 seed this year. How amazing is that?? Who'da thunk??

If we're the 1 seed, they can still send us to Denver. Sites and seeds are not locked and married to each other.

I was just watching Around the Horn and Woody Paige (who I normally abhor) says "You gotta reward BYU and put them as a 1 seed so that we can see THE JIMMER for as long as possible." And one of the other panelists (couldn't tell, I think it was Cowlishaw) says "but strength of schedule." Yep, the East Coast bias is still there, BYU's SOS is higher than Ohio St., Duke, and Pitt, the other teams that were consensus #1's.

Schmoe wrote:
I was just watching PTI and Woody Paige (who I normally abhor) says "You gotta reward BYU and put them as a 1 seed so that we can see THE JIMMER for as long as possible." And one of the other panelists (couldn't tell, I think it was Cowlishaw) says "but strength of schedule." Yep, the East Coast bias is still there, BYU's SOS is higher than Ohio St., Duke, and Pitt, the other teams that were consensus #1's.

It was probably Cowlishaw... Back before I canceled tv I was a regular "Around the Horn" watcher off my DVR (Pretty sure you meant that show, even though you put PTI) and Cowlishaw was as big of a BCS homer as you get, and got teased regularly for it. It is pretty much the same thing in basketball. East Coast bias and all that.



(PS - how can you not love Woody Paige?!?!?! )

Magnus Ver Magnusson wrote:
SDSU doesn't play again until Sat. so their one loss is assured.

Good to know. I will admit I don't look at their schedule. If SDSU (coaches, and 85% of their fan base) was on fire, I wouldn't cross the street to pee on them.





- I can't believe another team hasn't beaten them this year. The times I have seen them play this year I have been very un-impressed.

BlueIsBetter wrote:

I was just watching PTI and Woody Paige (who I normally abhor) says "You gotta reward BYU and put them as a 1 seed so that we can see THE JIMMER for as long as possible." And one of the other panelists (couldn't tell, I think it was Cowlishaw) says "but strength of schedule." Yep, the East Coast bias is still there, BYU's SOS is higher than Ohio St., Duke, and Pitt, the other teams that were consensus #1's.

It was probably Cowlishaw... Back before I canceled tv I was a regular "Around the Horn" watcher off my DVR (Pretty sure you meant that show, even though you put PTI) and Cowlishaw was as big of a BCS homer as you get, and got teased regularly for it. It is pretty much the same thing in basketball. East Coast bias and all that.



(PS - how can you not love Woody Paige?!?!?! )

Yeah, it was around the horn. Also, I hate Paige because he's a clown and for all the horrible things he said about my home state and The Church prior to the winter olympics. He thinks that he's much funnier than he is (reminds me of someone who used to post here) and generally doesn't know his stuff.