Friarblog participates in CBS Sportsline’s Blog Poll Top 25.  Bloggers from around the country cast their own votes each week to come up with an alternative ranking system.

Another week of college basketball, another bloodbath for a lot of last week’s top 25 teams.   Here is my new top 25.

Rank Team Delta

1 Connecticut

2 Oklahoma

3 North Carolina

4 Pittsburgh

5 Michigan St. 3

6 Memphis 7

7 Louisville 2

8 Villanova 4

9 Marquette 1

10 Wake Forest 1

11 Clemson 5

12 Duke 5

13 Missouri 12

14 Illinois 3

15 Arizona St. 3

16 UCLA 5

17 Gonzaga 2

18 Kansas 3

19 Washington 1

20 Purdue 1

21 Xavier 7

22 Utah St.

23 Butler 7

24 Syracuse

25 Florida St.

Last week’s ballot
Dropped Out: Minnesota (#23).

Some thoughts:

• Louisville was the only causality in the Top-5 this week.  They tried to slip one by the voters by trying to make up for their 33 point drubbing at Notre Dame earlier in the week by DeMolishing DePaul by 45 on Sunday.  Can’t fool this BIG EAST snob!  Nice try though.
• Hmm, Villanova went up 4 spots, and they just got crushed in Morgantown on Friday night.  True, but I tend to give a pass on tough road games like that, and WV is likely a tourney team.  Can’t overlook the big victory Nova had against Marquette earlier last week.
• Missouri up 12 spots?  They had a big win against Kansas and have won 9 out of their last 10.  Looking into their schedule and their advanced (Ken Pomeroy) stats, I probably had them too low last week.  Plus a crapload of teams above them lost, so they make the huge jump.

I was contacted and asked to participate in a new polling system for College Basketball — The CBSsports.com College Basketball BlogPoll.

From the email:

The BlogPoll is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a top-25 poll, a la the AP or coaches’ versions, except voted on—to borrow a phrase from PBS—by Bloggers Like You. The college football version was started in 2005 by MGoBlog’s Brian Cook and moved to CBSSports this past season, where the poll appears alongside the mainstream versions and Brian provides his weekly breakdown of the balloting. The hoops version will operate the exact same way and with Brian’s technical supervision, though I’ll be writing the editorial content.

This sounds like a cool idea, and I am definitely looking forward to casting my votes each week.  However, a few things concerns me.

1) I generally have no idea what the hell I’m talking about

2) I am a complete BIG EAST snob, in that I only really watch and follow BIG EAST games.

3) I am going to vote Providence #1 each week, and leave UCONN off the ballot.

I kid, I kid! I will be fair and honest, I promise!

The first poll will be launched on February 9th next week I think.

Question for the readers out there.  Should Providence beat Villanova on Wednesday and WVU on Saturday, they should legitimately be ranked next week, no?

Whenever Duke plays UNC, they are usually both top ranked teams and the games are always entertaining.  I get it.  ESPN usually shoves these games down our throats ad nasuem.  Apparently CBS Sportsline has joined the circus.

I’ve been going to Sportsline every day to check out their conference previews and see what else Gary Parrish has to say.  They had a cool “Countdown until Season Tipoff” on the upper right side for the start of the “Coaches vs. Cancer” tournament, which was the first official college basketball game of the season.

Well I visited the site today and apparently they had nothing better to count down to.  Hence this unnecessary widget of sucktasticness.

Aside from the 85 other articles and pictures on the homepage relating to Duke and UNC, do we really need to know that their game is 90 fucking days away?  Are you telling me that for the next 3 months, there is not one better game we should be looking forward to?  I guess I better just go start eating Chalupas, Big Macs, and milkshakes every meal so I can go hibernate until its time to see a real basketball game.