Coaches and AP Poll - #9

[hoyabands]

ESPN/USA Today Poll
1. North Carolina (23) 29-2 766
2. UCLA (4) 28-3 721
3. Memphis (3) 30-1 720
4. Tennessee 28-3 697
5. Kansas (1) 28-3 650
6. Wisconsin 26-4 582
7. Duke 26-4 569
8. Texas 26-5 565
9. Georgetown 25-4 564
10. Butler 28-3 452
11. Stanford 24-6 444
12. Xavier 26-5 408
13. Louisville 24-7 383
14. Notre Dame 24-6 344
15. Connecticut 24-7 317
16. Purdue 24-7 296
17. Vanderbilt 25-6 272
18. Drake 28-4 235
19. Michigan State 24-7 188
20. Indiana 25-6 175
21. Washington State 23-7 165
22. Gonzaga 25-6 153
23. Brigham Young 25-6 127
24. Marquette 22-8 91
25. Davidson 25-6 60

Others Receiving Votes
Clemson 33, Mississippi State 26, USC 24, Saint Mary's 17, South Alabama 10, Kentucky 10, Arizona State 6, Kent State 2, Western Kentucky 2, Pittsburgh 1.

AP Top 25
1. North Carolina (52) 29-2 1,776
2. Memphis (13) 30-1 1,693
3. UCLA (5) 28-3 1,646
4. Tennessee (2) 28-3 1,626
5. Kansas 28-3 1,517
6. Texas 26-5 1,360
7. Duke 26-4 1,316
8. Wisconsin 26-4 1,309
9. Georgetown 25-4 1,300
10. Xavier 26-5 1,043
11. Stanford 24-6 1,036
12. Butler 28-3 976
13. Louisville 24-7 959
14. Notre Dame 24-6 802
15. Connecticut 24-7 767
16. Drake 28-4 672
17. Purdue 24-7 646
18. Vanderbilt 25-6 565
19. Michigan State 24-7 497
20. Gonzaga 25-6 474
21. Washington State 23-7 375
22. Indiana 25-6 357
23. Davidson 25-6 181
24. Brigham Young 25-6 154
25. Marquette 22-8 128

Others Receiving Votes
Clemson 64, USC 57, South Alabama 43, Mississippi State 21, Kent State 11, Baylor 7, Pittsburgh 6, Oklahoma 4, Kentucky 3, Cornell 3, West Virginia 3, Western Kentucky 1, Kansas State 1, Saint Mary's 1.

[joey0403p]

Can't complain about that ranking at this point. At least MD Twerps didn't get any votes.

[hoyabands]

thought we might have done enough to atleast crack top 8. i had duke slipping a little more and us potentially leap-frogging texas (which we missed doing by 1 point). oh well, dont really mean anything at the end of the day

[TrueHoyaBlue]

So close to respect... we're within one vote of Texas, four votes of Duke, and only 18 behind #6 Wisconsin. (On the other hand, we're 112 votes ahead of #10 Butler, which gives us a bit of a cushion).

[williambraskyiii]

i dont have any problem with duke or texas...wisconsin at #6 is a SELL.

[MacHoya]

Interesting - ND beats the Johnnies and USF and moves up 5 places - while we beat two ranked teams and only move up one. (And yes I know that this is because of the number of teams losing in front of each of the two teams).

Also - I hope UCLA knows how LUCKY they were to steal games from Stanford and Cal.

On a serious note - we did receive a minor showing of respect in that Louisville did not drop in the poll after losing to us.

[The Stig]

So according to the coaches we're still a 3 seed. Time to change that in NYC!

[Filo]

It's what I expected, but after winning the regular season crown of the toughest conference and closing out the regular season with wins over two ranked opponents, the Hoyas should no longer be ranked behind Duke, Wisconsin and Texas at this point. They're all really close in terms of RPI, Kenpom, etc. though.

Que sera, sera.

[bubbrubbhoya]

I normally don't pay attention to the polls, but what this tells me is that the Hoyas are clearly being held to an extremely high standard in order to prove their worth. Despite the fact that we're out of the top 8, though, I see a 2 seed as very likely.

Looking above us, there are at least two teams that will lose before the season is out: Duke/UNC and Kansas/Texas, since they are in the same conference tournament. Especially if Duke and Texas fail to win their tourneys, it's pretty clear: take care of business in NYC, and the 2 is ours for the taking.

[hoyarooter]

Mar 10, 2008 11:53:57 GMT -5 williambraskyiii said:

i dont have any problem with duke or texas...wisconsin at #6 is a SELL.

What he wrote.

[KeysPlaceHoya]

I really don't get why UCLA gets rated so highly and the Hoyas get such little respect. They don't have any wins that are any better than Georgetown's (they beat Michigan St. on a neutral court and Stanford "twice") and their worst loss (to rpi #108 Washington) is waaaaaay worse than the Hoyas' worst loss. Now add in the fact that they're winning some close games due to some refs calls/non-calls, and if they were Georgetown you'd hearing windbags like Seth Davis railing about how Stanford is really the best team in the Pac-10 because their loss to likely MAAC champ Siena doesn't look so bad in hindsight...I know UCLA had some injury issues but so did the Hoyas, unless I've just imagined that one of the Hoyas' McDonald's All-American freshmen didn't play a single game in Big East play.

Whatever. So long as we don't get jobbed out of a 2 seed I don't care what the rankings are. At the end of the day, the Hoyas still have to beat these teams on the court.

[lichoya68]

WHO CARES THE ONLY POLL THAT COUNTS IS THE FINAL ONE AFTER ITS ALL OVER YUP HOYAS THINK ABOUT THAT ONE GET MOTIVATED BY THIS ONE DUKE GIMME A FREAKING BREAK MARYLAND GONE HOYAS KINDA GREAT IN CLOSE ONES BUT PLEASE LETS HAVE A LITTLE BLOWOUT ONCE IN A WHILE FOR US OLD GUYS GO HOYAS BEAT THE CUSENOVA

[Boz]

Mar 10, 2008 13:47:09 GMT -5 lichoya68 said:

WHO CARES THE ONLY POLL THAT COUNTS IS THE FINAL ONE AFTER ITS ALL OVER YUP HOYAS THINK ABOUT THAT ONE GET MOTIVATED BY THIS ONE DUKE GIMME A FREAKING BREAK MARYLAND GONE HOYAS KINDA GREAT IN CLOSE ONES BUT PLEASE LETS HAVE A LITTLE BLOWOUT ONCE IN A WHILE FOR US OLD GUYS GO HOYAS BEAT THE CUSENOVA

"The Cusenova" has got to be the worst school ever. I hate them. Goddam Orangecats!

[kghoya]

if you take a look at the number of big east teams in the top 25 of the polls and the rpi, it seems to me that if a team were to win the regular season as well as the conf tourney...they should be in the mix for a #1

its almost as if voters watched the memphis - georgetown game and then just read about a bunch of close games

awesome

[hoya00]

For what it's worth, Lunardi has us as a 2-seed and rising (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology).

Let's win again as a #1 seed in the BET and earn some more respect.