College Basketball: Top 25 Polls Analyzed

    
January 19th, 2009 by Matthew Ryter
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The Story: Unbeaten Wake Forest is this week’s No. 1 team in both the AP and the Coaches’ poll. The Demon Deacons, after beating then unbeaten Clemson this past week, remain the only unbeaten team in the country. Duke, No. 2 in both polls, received a few first place votes in both polls. Wake Forest and Duke are the first conference rivals to be ranked No. 1 and No. 2 since Ohio State and Wisconsin held those spots on Feb 19, 2007. They are also the first ACC tandem to do this since Duke and Maryland were ranked first and second for the first three weeks during the 2002-03 season. Last week’s No. 1 team Pittsburgh fell to No. 4 after losing at Louisville. The Cardinals were the biggest movers of the week. They cracked the top ten in the AP poll at No. 9 and moved up eight spots in the Coaches’ poll to No. 12. Two teams, California and Michigan, have fallen from the Coaches’ poll. A total of four teams, California, Michigan, Bayor, and Tennessee, have fallen from the AP poll this week. New to this week’s Coaches’ poll are Memphis and Illinois. Joining these two teams in the AP are Florida and Gonzaga.

 

AP Top 25


1. Wake Forest (68) 16-0 1,793
2. Duke (4) 16-1 1,721
3. Connecticut 16-1 1,590
4. Pittsburgh 16-1 1,569
5. North Carolina 16-2 1,510
6. Oklahoma 17-1 1,498
7. Michigan State 15-2 1,394
8. Syracuse 17-2 1,146
9. Louisville 13-3 1,090
10. Clemson 16-1 1,043
11. Marquette 16-2 1,003
12. Georgetown 12-4 979
13. UCLA 14-3 897
14. Texas 13-4 858
15. Xavier 15-2 848
16. Butler 16-1 726
17. Arizona State 15-3 671
18. Purdue 14-4 553
19. Notre Dame 12-5 469
20. Villanova 14-3 353
21. Minnesota 16-2 298
22. Memphis 14-3 208
23. Gonzaga 12-4 201
24. Florida 16-2 175
25. Illinois 15-3 159


Others Receiving Votes
Baylor 148, Saint Mary's 137, Kentucky 105, California 82, Florida State 34, Kansas 23, Ohio State 20, Missouri 14, Davidson 14, Tennessee 14, Utah State 12, Washington 12, West Virginia 8, Miami (FL) 8, Arkansas 6, Michigan 5, Dayton 4, George Mason 1, LSU 1.


Dropped From Rankings
Baylor 21, California 22, Tennessee 24, Michigan 25.

ESPN/USA Today Poll


1. Wake Forest (25) 16-0 769
2. Duke (6) 16-1 747
3. Connecticut 16-1 688
4. Pittsburgh 16-1 679
5. Oklahoma 17-1 649
6. North Carolina 16-2 643
7. Michigan State 15-2 566
8. Syracuse 17-2 520
9. Clemson 16-1 472
10. Marquette 16-2 469
11. UCLA 14-3 443
12. Louisville 13-3 377
13. Xavier 15-2 360
14. Georgetown 12-4 349
15. Texas 13-4 344
16. Arizona State 15-3 337
17. Butler 16-1 332
18. Purdue 14-4 193
19. Notre Dame 12-5 180
20. Minnesota 16-2 154
21. Villanova 14-3 152
22. Saint Mary's 17-1 134
23. Baylor 14-3 82
24. Illinois 15-3 72
25. Memphis 14-3 72


Others Receiving Votes
California 65, Florida 52, Gonzaga 35, Utah State 31, Ohio State 22, Brigham Young 22, Dayton 16, Missouri 13, Kentucky 12, Davidson 9, Kansas 3, West Virginia 3, Washington 2, Miami (FL) 2, Florida State 2, Arkansas 2, Michigan 1.


Dropped From Rankings
California 23, Michigan 24.

 

Ryter’s Block: Many people that I spoke with believed that Duke would be this week’s No. 1 team because they were No. 2 last week. I think that both polls were correct in voting Wake No. 1. They beat Clemson on the road and have also beaten North Carolina this season. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they are 16-0. There are eight teams in the AP top 10 from either the Big East or the ACC, with both conferences have four squads in the mix. The Big East has six teams in the AP’s top 12. The early dominance that these two conferences are showing is remarkable. Both polls are in disagreement once again but for the most part teams in the top 20 only differ about 1 or 2 spots. Look out for Kentucky. If Jodie Meeks continues to play out of his mind and Patrick Patterson can dominate down low this team will be ranked in the upcoming weeks (they're up to 28th in the AP). For once, I mostly agree with where most teams stand…

  

Games to watch this week…

 

Mon. Jan 19                            No. 8 Syracuse at No. 4 Pittsburgh

 

Tues. Jan 20                            Ohio State at No. 24 Illinois

 

Wed. Jan 21                            No. 9 Clemson at No. 6 North Carolina

                                                No. 21 Villanova at No. 3 Connecticut

                                                No. 16 Arizona State at Arizona

 

Thurs. Jan 22                           No. 18 Purdue at No. 20 Minnesota

 

Sat/Sun Jan 24/25                   A total of 20 ranked teams in action

 

What teams deserve more love? What teams are ranked too high? Please post your opinions below…

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