Thoughts on the USA Today / ESPN Top 25 ...

[Jersey Devil]

Here is the USA-TODAY/ESPN Top 25 College Basketball Poll as of February 11, 2001:

Team (First-place votes) Record Points Previous Rank
1. North Carolina Tar Heels (28) 21-2 772 1
2. Stanford Cardinal (3) 22-1 732 2
3. Duke Blue Devils 22-2 723 3
4. Michigan State Spartans 19-3 658 4
5. Illinois Fighting Illini 19-5 642 6
6. Kansas Jayhawks 19-3 641 5
7. Syracuse Orangemen 19-4 545 7
8. Arizona Wildcats 17-6 525 10
9. Florida Gators 16-5 507 11
9. Iowa State Cyclones 21-3 507 14
11. Boston College Eagles 18-2 412 20
12. Virginia Cavaliers 16-6 408 9
13. Tennessee Volunteers 18-6 365 8
14. Oklahoma Sooners 19-4 294 21
15. Wake Forest Demon Deacons 16-7 275 15
16. Georgetown Hoyas 19-4 271 12
17. Alabama Crimson Tide 18-5 265 17
18. Maryland Terrapins 15-8 264 13
19. Ole Miss Rebels 19-4 225 24
20. Wisconsin Badgers 15-6 194 18
21. Notre Dame Fighting Irish 16-5 167 23
22. Fresno State Bulldogs 20-3 153 22
23. Southern California Trojans 16-6 131 19
24. Iowa Hawkeyes 17-6 114 16
25. Kentucky Wildcats 15-7 75 NR


Are there any disagreements to this poll? Who should be moved up or down? Who has been "mistakenly" left off the top 25? Who shouldn't be on here?

[Marc]

I'm glad they finally got into the top twenty-five, but they deserve a better ranking. Let's break this down...

Kentucky plays one of the hardest schedules in the country. Only having one senior on the team and starting two freshmen in the starting line-up plus the extremely difficult schedule in the early season, they got off to a slow start at 3-5. Since their big win over Indiana in December, I believe, they have gone something like 12-2, including wins over #1 North Carolina, #9 Florida, #13 Tennessee, and within one point from #4 (then #1) Michigan State. And in reality, they should have another W in the win column, in fact, the ref of the game they should have won (don't remember the opponent) even called coach Tubby Smith telling him he's sorry. That would make us 16-6.

16-6? Let's see... you have Arizona at 17-6 at #8 - am I missing something here? Overrated. Then, how on earth do you have Tennessee at #13 at 18-6? Kentucky has convincingly beat them already. What about Wake Forest? They have seven losses at 16-7. As does Maryland at a mediocre 15-8. How are they #18 and we're #25?

</rant> :)

[NickHammy]

My Buckeyes are beatin' all these top 25 teams and they have a better record than a couple of these teams. They were nowhere close in the polls. Why not?