The next to last ballot

1 Louisville 4

2 North Carolina

3 Pittsburgh 2

4 Connecticut 1

5 Memphis 1

6 Duke 4

7 Oklahoma 1

8 Michigan St. 2

9 Villanova

10Wake Forest 3

11 Gonzaga

12 Syracuse 7

13 Missouri 2

14 Washington

15 UCLA 2

16 Kansas 4

17 Florida St. 3

18 Purdue 7

19 Marquette 3

20 Butler 3

21 West Virginia

22 Louisiana St. 1

23 Brigham Young 1

24 Ohio St.

25 Arizona St.

Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Clemson (#18), Xavier (#23), St. Mary’s (#24).

So here we are…the last BlogPoll ballot before Selection Sunday.  The #1 seed is getting passed around like a Tijuana crack whore.

1 Pittsburgh 2

2 North Carolina

3Connecticut 2

4 Memphis

5 Louisville

6 Michigan St. 1

7 Wake Forest 2

8 Oklahoma 2

9 Villanova 1

10 Duke 2

11 Gonzaga 1

12 Kansas 1

13 UCLA 2

14 Washington 2

15 Missouri 1

16 Marquette 3

17 Butler 6

18 Clemson 1

19 Syracuse 6

20 Florida St. 1

21 Louisiana St. 3

22 Brigham Young

23 Xavier 2

24 St. Mary’s

25 Purdue 5

Last week’s ballot
Dropped Out: Arizona St. (#22), Illinois (#24).

Some thoughts

• This week the number #1 seed is going to be real interesting.  I think people are going to be 50-50.  In my humble opinion, Pittsburgh deserves to be #1 because for the 2nd time this season, they beat UCONN WHILE they were #1!  Incredible.  Yeah sure UNC got their regular season ACC title (yawn), but who did they beat?  Duke.  Yawn.   Think of it this way…DeJuan Blair always seems to bring it hard against the best big men in the country.    If UNC played Pitt, couldn’t you just see Blair flipping Physco-T over his shoulder onto the floor?
• So Louisville wins the BIG EAST regular season title, yet is the 3rd BIG EAST team in the rankings….go figure.
• TWO Loss teams during the week: Marquette, LSU, Purdue

It’s CBSSports BlogPoll time!

1 Connecticut 1

2 North Carolina 2

3 Pittsburgh 2

4 Memphis 1

5 Louisville 1

6 Oklahoma 3

7 Michigan St. 1

8 Duke 3

9 Wake Forest 4

10 Villanova 3

11 Kansas 5

12 Gonzaga 3

13 Marquette 4

14 Missouri 2

15 UCLA 3

16 Washington 3

17 Clemson 7

18 Louisiana St. 3

19 Florida St. 1

20 Purdue 3

21 Xavier 3

22 Arizona St. 8

23 Butler

24 Illinois 2

25 Syracuse

Last week’s ballot
Dropped Out: West Virginia (#23), Utah St. (#25).

• So, UCONN gets their second crack at being #1…can someone please hold on to this thing?  Being a BIG EAST snob, I’d rather see UCONN hold onto it rather than UNC.  Still, 3 out of the top 5 is good for me.
• Memphis just keeps on winning…I still could not justify putting them above Pittsburgh.  Afterall, Pittsburgh ran into a buzzsaw at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center against Providence….can’t blame them for losing too much :)
• Arizona St, Clemson, and Marquette had big nosedives thanks to two losses in the week.  Marquette played some tough BIG EAST competition so it was hard to drop them a lot, but losing Dominic James means they are no longer a top-10 team anyway.
• Duke will not go away.
• I almost considered putting Providence at #25, for the sole purpose of trying to wrestle away Chris from IBBW’s reoccurring spot in the Coulter/Kos award for biggest home team bias.   Then I realized by putting them at 25, my BlogPoll voting privileges would probably be stripped from me.  Oh well, if we beat Nova on Thursday, look for a Top 25 placement!

It’s Monday morning, so that means, CBS BLOGPOLL!

By the way, last week I placed #3 for the award of the week “Mr. Numb Existence”, which goes to the voter closest to the poll at large.  Um, hooray?

Here is my ballot for the week.

1 Pittsburgh 3

2 Connecticut 1

3 Oklahoma 1

4 North Carolina 1

5 Memphis 1

6 Louisville 1

7 Villanova 1

8 Michigan St. 3

9 Marquette

10 Clemson 1

11 Duke 1

12 Missouri 1

13 Wake Forest 3

14 Arizona St. 1

15 Gonzaga 2

16 Kansas 2

17 Purdue 3

18 UCLA 2

19 Washington

20 Florida St. 5

21 Louisiana St.

22 Illinois 8

23 West Virginia

24 Xavier 3

25 Utah St. 3

Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Butler (#23), Syracuse (#24).

Notes

• Sweet, Providence is playing the #1 team in the country on Tuesday!  Kill me now.
• I debated in my head for a few minutes whether or not to move UP Oklahoma to the #2 spot, instead of just shifting them, UCONN, and UNC all down 1 since they all lost.  Even though Oklahoma lost to Texas over the weekend, they were without their All-American superstar Blake Griffin, who missed the 2nd half due to a concussion.  You know what?  They still lost.  UCONN has been without one of their best players since last week in Jerome Dyson, and no one is feeling sorry for them.  Speaking of UCONN, I still think they are the better team, and only lost to the now #1 Pittsburgh.  They deserve to be #2.
• 5 BIG EAST teams in the Top-10.  To my credit, I did mention that I was a BIG EAST snob before I participated in this poll.
• Hey other BlogPoll voters….raise your hand if you considered dropping out Illinois completely out of your poll for the sole fact that they only scored 33 points in their loss to Penn State.   I had them at #14 in my poll last week, and when I started placing teams around this week, I initially left them out.  However, I realized going from 14 to out with one loss would be silly — well, unless they lost to NJIT or Bryant — or a team in the SEC!
• The bottom 5 always seems haphazard to me, since they all keep losing every week.  When in doubt, move up a good BIG EAST team!  At least I can finally leave out Syracuse this week.

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.

The CBSSports BlogPoll kicks off this week, so I am ready to give my ballot.  This past week was a bloodbath for ranked teams, as FOURTEEN teams that were in the AP Top-25 suffered at least one loss — SIX of the Top 10!  There is going to be a lot of shuffling around, so here is my attept to make sense out of all of it.

1 Connecticut

2 Oklahoma

3 North Carolina

4 Pittsburgh

5 Louisville

6 Clemson

7 Duke

8 Michigan St.

9 Wake Forest

10 Marquette

11 UCLA

12 Villanova

13 Memphis

14 Xavier

15 Kansas

16 Butler

17 Illinois

18 Arizona St.

19 Gonzaga

20 Washington

21 Purdue

22 Utah St.

23 Minnesota

24 Syracuse

25 Missouri

A few thoughts:

• Even though Clemson lost during the week to Florida State, I found it hard to drop them below Duke, considering they absolutely destroyed them on their own court.
• I think Villanova could be ranked higher, but I didn’t want to move them above Marquette, who I still think is a top 10 team — they just had a hiccup on the road in a BIG EAST game
• The bottom half of last weeks AP Top 25 was hit hard. 3 teams lost twice, and they were heavily penalized.  Texas now has 7 losses (3 in a row), so I just had to drop them out.
• Syracuse may very well drop out of the real Top 25, but I think they still think they should stay — Even though they now have 6 losses, they did just beat a tough WV team, and lost to a surging Villanova team who probably desrves to be in the top 10.

So there goes my first ballot…comments, suggestions, and hatred is welcome.

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?