College Basketball: Top 25 Polls & Commentary

    
January 12th, 2009 by Matthew Ryter
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The Story: The No. 1 team in the land, Pittsburgh, will stay atop both polls this week after beating St. John’s. The only other team receiving first place votes, Wake Forest, remained unbeaten after beating North Carolina yesterday. Wake, No. 2 in this week’s AP Poll, beat UNC for the first time in four years. Meanwhile, North Carolina now has two losses on the year and has dropped to No. 5 in the AP poll and fell to No. 6 in the Coaches’ Top 25. Duke remains at the No. 2 spot in the Coaches’ poll this week but with Wake surpassing them in the AP, Duke falls to No. 3. The only other unbeaten team, Clemson, has moved into the top 10 in both polls. The Tigers are No. 9 in the Coaches’ poll and sit at No. 10 in the AP.  Purdue fell five spots to No. 19 after losing at Penn State; however they bounced back with a win yesterday at home against Wisconsin. After a No. 17 ranking and beating the Tar Heels last week, Boston College has fallen out of the rankings completely after losses to Harvard and Miami (FL). West Virginia is the only other team to drop from both polls. Tennessee fell out of the Coaches’ poll but remains No. 24 in the AP poll. California and Villanova are the newcomers in both polls; while St. Mary’s replaces Tennessee in the Coaches’ poll.

 

AP Top 25


1. Pittsburgh (70) 15-0 1,798
2. Wake Forest (2) 14-0 1,686
3. Duke 14-1 1,678
4. Connecticut 14-1 1,549
5. North Carolina 14-2 1,461
6. Oklahoma 15-1 1,440
7. Michigan State 13-2 1,356
8. Syracuse 16-1 1,232
9. UCLA 13-2 1,222
10. Clemson 16-0 1,153
11. Texas 12-3 1,009
12. Notre Dame 12-3 1,008
13. Georgetown 11-3 908
14. Marquette 15-2 752
15. Xavier 13-2 710
16. Arizona State 14-2 573
17. Butler 14-1 521
18. Minnesota 15-1 508
19. Purdue 12-4 490
20. Louisville 11-3 433
21. Baylor 13-2 364
22. California 15-2 299
23. Villanova 13-3 229
24. Tennessee 10-4 198
25. Michigan 13-3 153


Others Receiving Votes
Gonzaga 137, Arkansas 132, Illinois 115, Memphis 86, Saint Mary's 50, Miami (FL) 25, Florida 25, Wisconsin 24, Brigham Young 18, Davidson 12, West Virginia 12, Boston College 11, Kansas 6, Florida State 5, South Carolina 3, George Mason 2, Oklahoma State 2, Harvard 1, TCU 1, Texas A&M 1, Virginia Military 1, Missouri 1.


Dropped From Rankings
Boston College 17, West Virginia 25.

ESPN/USA Today Poll


1. Pittsburgh (29) 15-0 773
2. Duke 14-1 729
3. Wake Forest (2) 14-0 725
4. Connecticut 14-1 660
5. Oklahoma 15-1 617
6. North Carolina 14-2 611
7. UCLA 13-2 576
8. Syracuse 16-1 560
9. Clemson 16-0 528
10. Michigan State 13-2 503
11. Texas 12-3 421
12. Georgetown 11-3 365
13. Notre Dame 12-3 363
14. Marquette 15-2 353
15. Arizona State 14-2 328
16. Xavier 13-2 279
17. Minnesota 15-1 262
18. Butler 14-1 256
19. Purdue 12-4 182
20. Louisville 11-3 173
21. Baylor 13-2 159
22. Villanova 13-3 110
23. California 15-2 109
24. Michigan 13-3 78
25. Saint Mary's 15-1 62


Others Receiving Votes
Arkansas 51, Illinois 47, Memphis 42, Brigham Young 37, Gonzaga 17, Dayton 14, Tennessee 11, Utah State 11, Wisconsin 10, Florida 9, Illinois State 9, West Virginia 7, Davidson 6, Boston College 6, Ohio State 5, Miami (FL) 4, Washington 3, Missouri 2, Texas A&M 1, UNLV 1.


Dropped From Rankings
West Virginia 22, Boston College 24, Tennessee 25.

 

Ryter’s Block: Every team wants to bring their “A” game against the UNC’s of college basketball. This week proved that. How can you beat arguably the best team in the nation one week and then lose to Harvard the next? Teams get more excited to play the big name schools and think they can just overlook the smaller schools. To steal a line from Lee Corso, “Not so fast my friend.” That’s the beauty of college hoops, there’s always upsets. It’s great to see Wake Forest at the No. 2 spot in the AP poll; they should be No. 2 in the Coaches’ as well. I thought they deserved that spot last week. California, 15-2 overall record including 4-0 in conference play, should be ranked higher. I think that they should be above No. 19 Purdue. No surprise that the AP and Coaches’ poll can’t get on the same page. Conference play is now in full swing and things should start shaking up and the better teams will emerge on these polls whereas the pretenders will fall.

 

Here are the games to look out for this week:

 

Monday, Jan. 12                       No. 11 Texas at No. 5 Oklahoma

Monday, Jan. 12                       No. 13 Notre Dame at No. 20 Louisville

 

Wednesday, Jan. 14                  No. 8 Syracuse at No. 12 Georgetown

 

Thursday, Jan. 15                      No. 17 Minnesota at Wisconsin

 

Saturday, Jan. 17                      No. 1 Pittsburgh at No. 20 Louisville

                                                No. 12 Georgetown at No. 2 Duke

                                                No. 3 Wake Forest at No. 9 Clemson

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