College Basketball Reference

By Adam Kiefaber

After the first week of the season, I thought that North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA were the top four teams in the country. After Washington State lost its first game to UCLA, those teams are ranked that way and should stay 1-2-3-4 until NCAA Tournament.

A lot of other teams besides Washington State lost this past week. Michigan State (right) choked against Iowa, which caused many teams to move up a spot in the polls.

Texas, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Clemson and Villanova all lost, but stayed in the Top 25.

Stanford lost to Oregon and fell out of the Top 25.

Falling: Michigan State (CBR - No. 5 last week) fell from No. 6 to No. 11 in the AP after its ugly 36-43 loss to lowly Iowa. However, MSU is still ranked better than any other two-loss team in the country. Washington State (CBR - No. 6 last week) dropped from No. 4 to No. 8 in the AP after its loss 74-81 loss to UCLA. WSU got beat worse than the final score indicated, as it hit seven 3-pointers in the final minute and a half. Texas (CBR - No. 15 last week) fell from No. 12 to No. 19 in the AP after it dropped a 84-97 game to Missouri. The Longhorns are currently ranked better than any other three-loss team in the country. Vanderbilt (CBR - No. 12 last week) lost its first game of the season this weekend to Kentucky. Vandy fell from No. 13 to No. 16 in the AP. Mississippi (CBR - No. 13 last week) fell two spots from No. 16 to No. 18 after losing a 83-85 heartbreaker to Tennessee. Personally, I thought Vandy should have fallen further and Ole Miss shouldn’t have been penalized. Clemson (CBR - not ranked last week) fell from No. 18 to No. 24 after losing to Charlotte last Wednesday. I was surprised to see Clemson still ranked after its last loss. Another team I was surprised to see ranked was Villanova (CBR - not ranked last week), who dropped from No. 19 to No. 25 in the AP after its loss to Cincinnati. Nova was been a disappointment this season. Earlier in the year, I thought that the AP voters should have ranked Nova more often and now I don’t understand why they continue to vote for this team.
Rising: UCLA (CBR - No. 4 last week) moved up one spot after its win over Washington State. One spot is not normally a big deal, but it is when you are talking about moving up from No. 5 to No. 4. Georgetown (CBR - No. 8 last week) moved up to No. 5 from No. 7, but that will be short lived after this week’s loss to Pittsburgh. Tennessee (CBR - No. 10 last week) moved up two spots after beating Ole Miss. Indiana (CBR - No. 11 last week), Texas A&M (CBR - No. 9 last week), and Duke (CBR - No. 7 last week) moved up one spot because of that Michigan State loss to Iowa. Dayton (CBR - No. 14 last week) and Xavier (CBR - No. 18 last week) continue to improve in the rankings. Those two A-10 teams will square off on Jan. 24. Wisconsin (CBR - No. 17 last week) moves up from No. 21 to No. 17 after beating the BIG-10 conference’s worst teams. Pittsburgh (CBR - No. 20 last week) moved from No. 20 to No. 15 after wins over South Florida and Seton Hall. The Panthers should move down further after beating GTOWN this week, as long as they don’t lose to Cincinnati this weekend.
Newly Ranked: It is surprising after all of the losses to Top 25 teams this week that only one new team joins them in the poll. That team is Arizona State (CBR - No. 21 last week), which enters the Top 25 for the first time this season and definitely deserves the honor after wins over Xavier, Oregon and Arizona.
No Respect: I never thought I would say this, but I have to bring up the Florida Gators as my No. 1 team that deserves some more respect. Florida has 47 votes, which was good enough for 28th, but I would have to rate this team over Clemson and Nova. The Gators are 15-2 and 2-0 in the SEC. This team will be tested more, but they are young and improving as the season moves on. St. Mary’s is another team I would vote for over Clemson and Nova. St. Mary’s has 41 votes. The entire Mountain West conference deserves some respect. Not a single team received a single vote in the AP this week, but this nine-team league has seven quality teams.

AP Top 25
No. School Record Points Prev
1 North Carolina (45) 17-0 1765 1
2 Memphis (24) 15-0 1739 2
3 Kansas (3) 16-0 1678 3
4 UCLA 16-1 1578 5
5 Georgetown 13-1 1439 7
6 Tennessee 14-1 1404 8
7 Duke 13-1 1362 9
8 Washington State 14-1 1342 4
9 Indiana 14-1 1215 10
10 Texas A&M 15-1 1184 11
11 Michigan State 14-2 988 6
12 Butler 16-1 985 14
13 Marquette 13-2 955 15
14 Dayton 14-1 793 17
15 Pittsburgh 14-2 670 20
16 Vanderbilt 16-1 658 13
17 Wisconsin 13-2 649 21
18 Mississippi 14-1 612 16
19 Texas 13-3 592 12
20 Xavier 14-3 395 24
21 Miami (Fla.) 14-1 286 25
22 Arizona State 13-2 257 28
23 Rhode Island 15-2 196 22
24 Clemson 13-3 187 18
25 Villanova 11-3 140 19
Others Receiving Votes: Drake(14-1) 75; Stanford(13-3) 53; Florida(15-2) 47; St. Mary’s(14-2) 41; Oregon(12-4) 39; Louisville(12-4) 16; West Virginia(12-4) 15; Oklahoma(12-4) 11; Illinois State(13-3) 7; Arizona(11-5) 5; Arkansas(13-3) 5; Baylor(13-2) 4; Ohio State(12-4) 3; Kent State(13-3) 2; Gonzaga(12-4) 2; Missouri(11-5) 2; Connecticut(11-4) 2; Kansas State(11-4) 1; South Alabama(13-3) 1

This entry was posted Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 2:05 am and is filed under AP Breakdown. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.