Michigan remains #5 in the AP Poll
1. Tennessee
2. Duke
3. Virginia
4. Gonzaga
5. Michigan
6. MSU
7. Kentucky
8. Nevada
9. UNC
10. Marquette
11. Kansas
12. Virginia Tech
13. Houston
14. Villanova
15. Louisville
16. Texas Tech
17. Purdue
18. Buffalo
19. LSU
20. Iowa State
21. Maryland
22. Miss. St
23. NC State
24. Wisconsin
25. FSU
The top 6 remains unchanged, although Michigan's gap over #6 MSU grew and we moved into a virtual tie with #4 Gonzaga (1 vote behind them).
We now have wins over #9 (UNC), #14 (Nova), and #17 (Purdue who's new to the poll) with a loss to #24 Wisconsin.
Maryland dropped 8 spots to #21 after losing both games this week, including a neutral site loss to Illinois @MSG. Iowa dropped out completely from #19 after losing 2 games this week.
Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota are the only B1G teams receiving votes.
January 28th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Lot of basketball left to be played - just keep winning!
January 28th, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
So losing to Syracuse at home is a better loss than losing to Wisconsin on the road.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
Not saying its right, but the benefit of the doubt will always go to Duke, my friend. Especially now that Tre Jones is back. I think the pollsters probably were more forgiving of Duke in that game since Jones was out with an injury.
Duke is still, pound for pound, the most talented team in America on any given night. I don't like it, and they probably should be lower than where they are now. But it is what it is. It's probably better for ratings that they be ranked higher.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
Yeah Duke lost that game without Jones for most of it and without Reddish. That's like if we lost to OSU tomorrow night, in OT, without X or Matthews/Poole. Still not a great loss, but the context is massive.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
Duke has a much higher sos and more quality wins. Looking just at losses is a dumb way to rank teams.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:18 PM ^
ACC road games are no joke. But those are the only true road games that Duke will play in any given season let alone this year. Their Zags loss was on a neutral court and as said earlier the Syracuse loss was in Cameron. Tre Jones injury or not, they're still losses.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:46 PM ^
I had to log in to upvote this because it pisses me off. Does that even make sense?
January 28th, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
I think college basketball is strong as a whole this year. It seemed top heavy at the beginning of the year, but the top teams (including us) came back down to earth a little bit and teams like Purdue and Wisconsin who didn’t start well are now playing a lot better. Keep Duke and Michigan at opposite ends of the bracket and hopefully they play in the NC game so the two most hated universities in the country play for it all. I’d love it.
January 28th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
This exactly. The NCAA and the networks would absolutely love a finals featuring Duke versus Michigan. Two incredibly passionate fan bases, duke being perhaps the greatest blueblood out there, and Michigan having perhaps the largest fanbase out there is a dream scenario. Throw in all of the storylines about a matchup coming roughly 25 years after the Fab 5/Weber time out, and the networks/NCAA would be salivating.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
Webber's timeout was against UNC, not Duke... You point is well taken though.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
I know that the TO was against UNC, but my point was just that it add more interest to us being in the finals.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:49 PM ^
Admit when you're wrong, dude. Accountability looks much better than excuses.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Eh, I'm not so sure Duke is going to go far. They are loaded with talent, probably the most since that undefeated Kentucky team a few years ago. But even though that team sent like 8 dudes into the NBA draft, it didn't win the championship.
Of course I could be wrong about this, but I see Duke going out in the 2nd round or Sweet 16. They're certainly not unbeatable, they have weaknesses and in fact, I think they could have a tough time with St. John's this weekend.
I wouldn't be psyched about playing them because of their sheer amount of talent, but they're definitely gettable. I think someone else could take them out in the tournament before they face Michigan.
I'm not sold on Virginia or Tennessee either (definitely not Tennessee). Its a pretty wide open year and Michigan has a golden opportunity.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
Virginia could hit a rough patch in conference, but I don't see Tennessee losing more than a game in the SEC. They actually remind me a bit of our mid-80's Bill Frieder teams - athletic AF that dominate physically smaller opponents. Come March, they'll be exposed against elite competition.
Notwithstanding the 2015 natty, Duke's one-and-done's seem to lose interest in March when they start thinking about the NBA draft. See also Kentucky.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:23 PM ^
Not trolling here, but you may want to look over that last paragraph.
The natty is the ultimate goal of the tournament, and they did it with one-and-dones. Kentucky has also won the natty with one-and-dones. The natty is hard to win, that's why they've only won it a few times in this century, and not every year like you're implying that they should.
January 28th, 2019 at 4:03 PM ^
They won one (1) championship in their one and done era. And I acknowledged it. Since then, they've underperformed (ie, early tournament exits) with one and done's. Kentucky and Duke. But go ahead and neg me anyway.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
Can't say I like it, but I see Duke--and also Kentucky--as teams that are slow getting organized but could kill people and take all the air and fun out of the NCAA tournament if they get on a roll; it has happened before. Those squads have so much turnover--so little institutional memory remains from team to team--that they may struggle. But when Duke looks good they look very very good. Personally, I hate their guts (:) ) but it's kind of a matter of how long it takes their players to download the program and then carry it out.
January 28th, 2019 at 12:55 PM ^
So Gonzaga has beaten Duke on a neutral court (Duke also lost at home to a bad Syracuse team) anndddd....nobody else. Well how about we compare common opponents? Michigan beat unc by 17 and Gonzaga lost to them by thirteen. We beat Illinois by ten on the road, they won by six (went right down to the end) in Maui. Join a conference or let every other "top 5" team in college basketball take three months off before playing in the tournament like Gonzaga does every year
January 28th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
How dare you dis powerhouses such as San Francisco, St Marys and San Diego (that would be San Diego Toreros - not to be confused with the San Diego State Aztecs).
With all the "dog shit tacos" Gonzaga gets to play, they had better not get any sort of nod for a #1 seed come March.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
Please forgive me for pooping on the fine institution of Santa Clara. I know they once had Steve Nash, so they must be pretty good despite losing by an average of 51 points in their two games against Gonzaga this year. Their first game of 91-48 doesn't look so bad when you compare it to their rematch three weeks later that finished with a score of 98-39, which WAS A HOME GAME FOR SANTA CLARA, MIND YOU.
I'm sure if they win out they'll get a one seed once again, where they would probably be on the bubble if they had to play in a garbage Pac 12
January 28th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
Why does anyone care about college basketball polls? They literally mean nothing because college basketball has this large tournament at the end of the year to determine their national champion. The AP poll isn't even included in those metrics to determine seeding or placement in this tournament.
The sportswriters voting in this poll have spent less time on selecting these teams than this post took to create.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
Many of us care just because we like seeing our team ranked at the top or near the top of these polls. Yes, they don’t do much because there is a whole seeding selection, but they do get airplay on the major networks, so it’s nice to see Michigan right at the top.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:16 PM ^
The only ranking that really matters anymore is the NET. The AP poll is basically obsolete.
Even then it only matters for seeding. And given that none of the first round locations are particularly desirable for us, I don't even think that matters much.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
Just keep swimming.....just keep swimming....
January 28th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
My prediction...Tennessee makes it 2 years in a row that a 1 seed loses to a 16 on the opening weekend of the tourney. I call it the Rocky Top Horror Picture Show.
January 28th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
We're #5! We're #5! We're #5!
January 28th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Michigan moved up to #5 in the Coaches Poll, while MSU dropped to #8 (UK and Nevada jumped them). The top four are the same as the AP Poll.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
I’m loving how Villanova is sneaking behind that chicken coop, our win @ Nova is looking better and better.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Having Tennessee as consensus #1 is just a truly terrible ranking. They're #6 in KenPom, #6 in torvik, and #5 in NET. Are voters even watching the games?
January 28th, 2019 at 2:33 PM ^
Voters swoon over muscles, dunks and wins. More advanced metrics? Not as much.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^
I feel like the top 6 have established they're a cut above the group after that. I tend to think Duke and Gonzaga might be slightly above the rest but all 6 seem capable of winning a national championship. Other teams can too, but would have to play above their weight, which in modern basketball means hitting a lot of 3s.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
Were you at the Kingdome for the Illini and Seton Hall games?
January 28th, 2019 at 2:16 PM ^
Man, am I being too much of a Sparty hater by asking how in the hell is MSU still ranked 6th?!?
January 28th, 2019 at 4:36 PM ^
2-1 this week with wins over two ranked teams (at least at the moment). In all honesty, that was a pretty brutal week with playing 3 teams in the top half of the conference.
The reason we dropped when we lost to Wisconsin was that it was our only game that week.
January 28th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
Just about right if you ask me.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^
Goldilocks would agree.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
Michigan loses by 10 points at Wisconsin and drops from 2 to 5. MSU loses at Purdue by 10 points and drops from 6 to 6.
January 28th, 2019 at 3:55 PM ^
MSU also beat 2 ranked teams last week. I probably would have put kentucky ahead of them this week, but thats about it.
January 28th, 2019 at 6:23 PM ^
Yeah, and Michigan won 17 straight before the loss to Wisconsin. It happens. But that also gave MSU loss number 3, I don’t care if they beat a couple ranked teams (Iowa is no longer ranked and Maryland lost to Illinois). Michigan beat ranked teams as well.
a 17-0 team drops a game - drop them 3 spots...
an 18-2 team drops another game - keep them the same...
It just feels like Michigan is getting no love for beating 3 top 25 teams (by double digits) and being 19-1.
January 28th, 2019 at 4:18 PM ^
Yeah, but that was the only game we played that week. MSU had a weird 3 game week, which included two wins over ranked teams.
Slightly different circumstances
January 28th, 2019 at 3:40 PM ^
I would love voters to explain how Gonzaga is better than us
We whooped UNC. They got whooped by UNC. We have 1 loss, they have 2 losses. nuff said
January 28th, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
They did beat Duke. We have a lot of chances to improve our resume, I think we’ll have a better seed in the Dance.
January 28th, 2019 at 8:20 PM ^
January 28th, 2019 at 8:29 PM ^
You guys are cute. During football season it’s nothing but S&P and ‘metrics’. Now, in a sport where losses mean less it’s all about W’s and L’s.
https://www.masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm
January 31st, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
Playing for a higher seed now in a tournament, so rankings do matter.
In football, just win and you are 1-4. (MSU in 2015 and ND this year are good examples of just win and make it)
metrics do not matter in either sport...it’s always win/loss record that gets the team places.