The Poll Attacks is going to have a field day with hookem ballot.
atleast he included Uconn even if its a little high. Everyone who has replyed so far has either nm/ncst or both on their ballots. Some even have michigan state ranked yet not uconn even in next 10.
Yeah, hookem...you'll have to share your method. I've been trying to figure out how to rank the Lobos higher, but just couldn't figure it out. Do tell...
I really do not want to know... Indiana ... 11th... ouch.
I have a new project for you People Pollers... I would like to create a new addition to the poll. I would like to do a type of rating system to go along with the poll every couple of weeks or so. So if you all are interested in something like that, I think we should put our heads together and come up with it. You've got RPI, BPI, Saragin, KenPom, Statsheet, HookemNot telling! It does use RPI for SOS purposes though. All I'm saying!
1 Duke
2 Michigan
3 Louisville
4 Arizona
5 Indiana
6 Kansas
7 Syracuse
8 Ohio St.
9 Florida
10 Illinois
11 Gonzaga
12 Missouri
13 Cincinnati
14 Georgetown
15 Minnesota
16 Michigan St.
16 Notre Dame
18 Butler
19 Creighton
20 Oklahoma St.
21 New Mexico
22 North Carolina St.
23 Pittsburgh
24 San Diego St.
25 Temple
Just missed : Maryland, UNLV, Kansas State, Connecticut
Next Five : Kentucky, VCU, Oklahoma, Wichita St.
Crazy thing is that I had New Mexico out of my ballot in last week's unofficial one but this week I have them at 11. One game can do alot before conference play... one way or another.I think we can tell from people's ballots that New Mexico is one of the hardest teams to rank where they are at. The Lobos high rank is #2 (thanks Hook'Em
) and some people don't have them ranked at all. I think both are extremes, but that loss to South Dakota St. was really a head stratcher. In the Lobos defense two of the starters where benched to start the game for violation of team rules. If they had started the game I think it likely would've been a different outcome. (Not making excuses, a loss is a loss and it woke us up for the Cincy game)Duke- Did fine with their back-to-back games. Had a little scare with Santa Clara, but Plumlee has kept up his POY play.
Louisville- Blackshear had a good couple of game that ironically ended with Kentucky. Spread out a lot of minutes in the close win over Kentucky, but Behanan-Siva-Smith pulled the load. Dieng will help when he’s farther from injury, but a fifth is still needed. Hancock looks to slow to be that option. He chose the wrong school to transfer to. Smith had his first mediocre shooting performance against a team who can play.
Michigan- LeVert had a big week as Hardaway was injured. Have now beaten Eastern, Central, and Western Michigan.
Arizona- Won the Diamond Head Classic as they are now 2-0 in one-point games. Would’ve liked to have seen a matchup with a full strength Miami side. Parrom has turned into an elite shooter, something that shouldn’t be undervalued. Hill played as a go-to-guy in the win over SDSU as Ashley was the only freshman who did something.
Florida- Have dropped to 3 on kenpom. 39 over SeLa and 17 over Air Force, but it was the loss to Kansas St that was the problem. Kansas St side- had finally established a rotation after Weber saw the error of his ways after the poor showing vs Gonzaga and Henriquez had his best game of the year including a 5-9 effort from the line (a stripe in which he has gone 2-21 from in all other games). Now for Florida, Rosario needs to be more consistent, Boynton needs to find his shot (under 30% on the year), and they gave to many minutes to their bench. Still think they are the team to beat in the SEC, but it’s close.
Pittsburgh- 16-point win over Kennesaw was their second worst performance of the year, but it can mostly be attributed to three point shooting. Have become a very deliberate team offensively who won’t settle for a three and attacks the rim. Stats- they have gone under 60 possessions for 4 straight games as they are now 345<sup>th</sup> in tempo, have not had double digit 3pa in the past four games (for comparison, Henderson of Ole Miss has averaged twelve 3pa over the same time span), and have had 20 more offensive rebounds than the opponent team has had defensive rebounds in the past three games. Will Dixon’s team continue this in Big East play?
Creighton- Dingman looks like he has replaced Jones as he went 8-10 from deep in their two games. Wragge is still in a shooting funk though. Normally don’t like to see a starter go two straight games of 2 points, but Gibbs knows what he is doing. Got the two ISU’s this week.
San Diego St- One point was the difference against Arizona. Franklin looked frustrated. Was in foul trouble, took only 6 shots, and let Hill get the best of him. Freshman Shepard looked better than early in the year.
VCU- Their defense wreaks havoc. Didn’t play the three best teams, but their opponent averaged 30 turnovers. That is a lot; Wisconsin is averaging 7 giveaways over that span. Weber and Theus are having a battle for defender of the year. Daniels shooting is of the utmost importance.
Oklahoma St- Not much trouble. Forte started to make his shots. Gardner had a really nice game against Tennessee Tech, not bad for their 8<sup>th</sup> guy. Gonzaga and Kansas St this week.
Kentucky- Followed a clean win over Marshall with a close loss at Louisville. Wiltjer and Harrow have turned it around. Wiltjer is 13-21 from deep over the past three and Harrow has now scored double digits in the past three including 40 in the past two. Poythress is getting reduced minutes.
UNLV- UTEP, Northern Iowa, Canisius, and UNC aren’t exactly murderer’s row, but they all can play. Struggled in the two road games which (coincidentally?) were the two Birch struggled in his short Rebel career. UNC is the most interesting game as it is hard to fathom them losing to a team that was struggling so much without their best player (Bullock, McAdoo who?). UNC was the favorite, but it didn’t feel like that. Normal culprits, Jones and Reihardt did fine. Next culprit, clogged up frontcourt did not pass the test. I don’t know if it is the injury or Bennett, but Moser was worthless. Along with Sosa and Thomas who were passable in years past. Birch did nothing good. Then the one guy who put up stats in Bennett didn’t really look that good. Something has to change, especially when you consider this was a UNC team that gave 20 minutes to Desmond Hubert.
Cincinnati- Have had a terrible couple of weeks as they get ready to be steamrolled by Pitt tomorrow. Looked terrible in the first half against Xavier. Next, spotted Wright St six points at half. Capped it off with a home loss to New Mexico. Stats from Xavier + New Mexico: starting frontcourt (Jackson and Mbodj) totaled 7 points, whole frontcourt (starters and bench) totaled 20 points, leading scorer (Kilpatrick) put up 40 on Russ Smith-esque 15-49 shooting, and third best player (Parker) shot 7-24. Cashmere Wright has been a rock at the point, but they need to Kilpatrick to make shots if they want to win because Parker and the frontcourt of misfit toys will never produce consistently.
