Monday, January 22, 2007

Trolling the Polls

Every now and then, I just like going line by line on the latest college football or basketball poll and see which direction I think various teams are headed. Here are a few random thoughts on the Week 12 AP college hoops rankings:

Wisconsin (#2) is playing very well right now, but they are not one of the top five teams in the nation. Florida, North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, and Pittsburgh are. They could hang around the top rankings, however, because the Big 10 is pretty soft this year, and perhaps even slip into the first #1 ranking in school history.

Arizona (#17)will bounce back from their current losing streak and be one of the ten best teams in the nation by tournament time. They've got too much talent and are too well coached not to.

Virginia Tech (#24) is not a bad team, but they won't stay ranked for long. They should have lost to a staggering Maryland team in Blacksburg last night, and they'll take several losses in conference play.

Georgia Tech and Maryland (both receiving votes) are in full retreat. Tech wasn't even competitive at North Carolina Saturday night, and the Terps are 1-4 in the ACC with a home loss to Miami (one of the three worst teams in the conference) a nasty blot on their post-season resume.

Beleagured coaches Mike Brey at Notre Dame (#22) and Kelvin Sampson at Indiana (#23) are doing surprising good jobs and have their teams overachieving. With both the Big East and Big Ten down this year, the Irish and Hoosiers have a good chance of sustaining that success.

3 Comments:

At 12:19 PM, Blogger Jacqueline said...

It would appear that you need some reminding :) If you're going to put Pittsburgh up in the top five in the nation, you have to put Wisconsin there as well. Last time I checked, Wisconsin trounced Pittsburgh (and would have even if Pitt's star had been at full strength instead of sick). If you really want to know why Wisconsin really IS as good as their record and the polls show, go read up on last night's (1/24) game against Michigan at the Kohl Center. Only a great team beats up on a decent team when the star is on the bench for an extended period of time.

 
At 1:39 PM, Blogger Kevin Erb said...

Yeah, dude, I have to agree with Jax here. Soft Big 10 or not, Wisco is easily one of the best four teams in the country.

Pitt, as it is every year, is vastly overrated. They have lost every big-time game they've played this year. Pitt beats the teams it's supposed to (especially since all of its games are at home), but hasn't won any of its marquee games.

 
At 8:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually, you're both right. Wisconsin is not one of the 4 top teams in the country, and neither is Pitt.

UNC, UCLA and Florida are head and shoulders above everyone else. Kansas can play with those teams, but has consistency issues that will make it a lot harder for them to win the national championship.

Wisconsin and Pitt are 2 seeds, unless Kansas has a few too many clinker games to knock them out of that spot.

 

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