LSAClassOf2000

January 27th, 2014 at 2:05 PM ^

Looking at some of the individual ballots, it is nice to see a few folks were paying us an even bigger compliment. Seth Davis did indeed put us at #6, Joe Rexrode had us at #7 and numerous folks had us at #9. One voter who had us unranked last week even put us as high as #5. That being said, the AP Poll seems a little more sensible to me as well. 

dc22

January 27th, 2014 at 2:55 PM ^

The AP poll seems to have got it right. There is no basis for teams like Kentucky and Iowa to be ranked ahead of us like they are in the USA today poll.

B1G_Fan

January 27th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^

All that matters to me right now is ,   Winning,  Big ten regular season champion,  Big ten touney seeding,  Big ten tourney champions, NCAA seeding, Final four appearence and a NCAA championship. That Charolette loss is whats holding us down right now. Nothing a few more W's won't cure

RobSk

January 27th, 2014 at 4:27 PM ^

Silliest rank in these rankings has got to be Wichita State. Yeah, I understand they have won all their games, but dang. Who is their best win? Alabama? Missouri State? Does anyone think they could beat any of the rest of the top 10 even in a home game?

      Rob

Naked Bootlegger

January 27th, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

My gut feeling is that they are receiving a nice bump from their impressive tourney run last year to further legitimize this year's undefeated record.  I'm not saying this is necessarily right, but going toe-to-toe with Louisville in the 2013 national semifinal game is definitely not hurting their ranking this year.

Yeezus

January 27th, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^

I am late to the party but think of it this way:

1) USA today poll is a fucking joke.  Fuck it.  Don't pay attention.

2) We are the second highest 4 loss team in the AP poll at #10.  The only team ranked higher than us with 4 losses is Kansas, who is on fire right now (not to say that we are not, but KU is probably the best team in the country right now).  We moved up 11 spots in the poll.  The next highest move was 3.  

I am fine with the AP Poll.  

maquih

January 27th, 2014 at 9:18 PM ^

The fact that we're talking about these polls and not kenpom/sagarin is the problem.  These polls only have legitimacy because people like all of us link to it and argue about it.  Let's just discuss computer rankings and if enough of us do that, the big media publishers will just publish those rankings and quit making stupid polls.

JayMo4

January 27th, 2014 at 9:44 PM ^

USA Today poll is silly, but fortunately not important.  It won't have any impact on whether we can go on from here to win the Big 10 or accumulate quality wins that will help us with our seeding.  It certainly won't cause us to lose in March.

But yeah, having us behind Iowa with the head-to-head win, the two recent huge road victories, and the same number of losses as the Hawks doesn't make sense.  Having us behind a Wisconsin team that only just now snapped a three game losing streak, including at home against us, also doesn't make sense.  They've got the one game overall record advantage, but we're three games ahead of them in the conference.  I don't get it.  MSU ahead of us is fine for now.  Maybe when we beat them at home we'll pass them then.

steve sharik

January 27th, 2014 at 10:01 PM ^

if it said "Duke" on our jerseys.  To wit:

Team A: 

  • 15-4
  • 0 wins vs. RPI top 10
  • 4-4 vs. top 25
  • 3-0 vs. 26-50
  • 9-3 last 12 games
  • #9 KenPom

Team B: 

  • 15-4
  • 2 wins vs. RPI top 10
  • 3-3 vs. top 25
  • 2-0 vs. 26-50
  • 10-2 last 12
  • #7 KenPom

AP voters have ranked Team A #6; Team B, #10.

Coaches have Team A #7; B, #14.

Team A is Kansas; Team B, Michigan.

And in the end, the NCAA committee doesn't even look at rankings.  The above is why.  They are stupid and biased.  We should all stop paying any attention to them.