AP poll #22

[Redheaded Hoya]

link coming

The Top Twenty Five
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 4, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking:
Record Pts Pvs
1. Florida (72) 21-2 1,800 1
2. UCLA 20-2 1,657 5
3. Ohio St. 20-3 1,655 4
4. Wisconsin 22-2 1,592 2
5. North Carolina 20-3 1,507 3
6. Texas A&M 19-3 1,422 10
7. Pittsburgh 20-3 1,418 7
8. Memphis 19-3 1,242 11
9. Kansas 19-4 1,226 6
10. Butler 22-2 1,107 13
11. Marquette 20-4 1,102 14
12. Nevada 21-2 919 15
13. Oregon 19-4 853 9
14. Washington St. 19-4 820 18
15. Air Force 20-3 763 17
16. Duke 18-5 700 8
17. Oklahoma St. 18-4 667 12
18. Alabama 17-5 438 19
19. Southern Cal 18-6 306 --
20. Kentucky 17-5 282 --
21. S. Illinois 19-5 246 --
22. Georgetown 16-5 230 --
23. Vanderbilt 16-7 196 24
24. Arizona 15-7 151 20
25. Stanford 15-6 144 23
Others receiving votes: Virginia 124, Indiana 117, Notre Dame 108, Texas 105, Kansas St. 85, Virginia Tech 71, Boston College 68, West Virginia 59, Va. Commonwealth 42, New Mexico St. 32, Florida St. 24, Creighton 19, BYU 15, Clemson 15, N.C. State 15, Gonzaga 11, Akron 10, UNLV 10, Maryland 9, Tennessee 8, Massachusetts 4, Winthrop 2, Michigan St. 1, Old Dominion 1, Texas Tech 1, Villanova 1.

[Redheaded Hoya]

Link:
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankingsindex

[KHoyaNYC]

Here's the link, with coaches poll next to it for comparison.

sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankingsindex

[hoyaLS05]

At first glance, with us at No. 22, ahead of Vanderbilt and with no Notre Dame, I like it. Alabama is still too high, but what're you going to do.

[HeartAttackHoya]

even if the only difference in being ranked is having the espn ticker easier to follow, this makes me very happy...

[Boz]

Blatant post padding!

;D

Why the AP is better: ND is not in it.
Why the AP is worse: Maryland has 9 votes.

Why it doesn't matter: showdown in Freedom Hall on Wednesday.

Go Hoyas!

(OK, it's nice to see the team back in these polls; even I can admit that no matter how much I say they mean nothing)

[dTRAIN]

Maryland's 9 votes are from that one Kentucky guy who had them at 17th. 9 points for 17th place.

dTRAIN

[dajuan]

boz1 said:

Blatant post padding!

(OK, it's nice to see the team back in these polls; even I can admit that no matter how much I say they mean nothing)

Agreed. I say I don't care, but it will be nice to see the score of Wednesday's game listed on the Top 25 scoreboard.

[GUJook97]

Yeh, I guess we sort of deserve the schedule because of what we've had recently, but this next week is brutal. Even if we go to Freedom Hall and get a win, and even if we beat a top 15 Marquette team at home, we still have to come back and beat WVU on Monday night - a team that always plays us tough, will have a huge contingent in the crowd, and is bunched right next to us in the Big East rankings.

Two weeks from now I will care about the rankings. Not right now.

[FrazierFanatic]

2 wins this week moves us well into the top 20 (yeah, I know, don't jinx us, etc. - if we're not good enough to overcome a little jinx, we don't belong here anyway)! ;D

[williambraskyiii]

every team we've lost too is represented in this poll...That sounds like no "bad" losses to me!

[hoyarooter]

williambraskyiii said:

every team we've lost too is represented in this poll...That sounds like no "bad" losses to me!

Nice catch there. Even if two of the teams do have just one point.

[hoya01]

Agreed on the excitement about being ranked again if for nothing else the ticker at the bottom of ESPN. I want to see us leap frog USC. I have a hard time seeing them as a basketball school. I guess with OJ Mayo, I need to get used to them being a top 25 team. A Marquette win will be huge.

[PDRHoya99]

heartattackhoya said:

even if the only difference in being ranked is having the espn ticker easier to follow, this makes me very happy...

HeartAttackHoya, don't take this as a knock on you specifically, because you certainly aren't alone in making this claim. However why the hell is this even marginally important to anyone on this board? As a fan of the hoyas, I've never been in a situation where they were playing, and I was desperately watching a ticker for the score. EVERY GAME WE PLAY HAS AN INTERNET AUDIO FEED!!!!! If you need to know the score quicker than every 40 minutes, either a) listen, b) look it up online. Even if Rich is thoroughly confused he'll give a score update every few minutes or so, and most websites update more often than that.

But, lets say the game is over, so Rich is not longer blessing the airwaves with his presense. Well, a) if you're a fan you should have been listening already, and thus know the score, or b) the internet doesn't shut down for 40 minutes at a time, just look the thing up. I'll admit, it will require one extra page load to get from the main score page to the big east score page, but since pages typically load in 5 seconds or less, that shouldn't be a real time loss. Clearly with the level of posts made by most of the people on this board, 24/7 access to the internet is a given, so then why is there such concern about how often we appear in the bottom line? That thing is there for casual fans and gamblers (which doesn't explain why they show women's scores, but that's a whole other rant).

My hunch is that the repeated appearance in the ticker somehow gives certain members of this board a warm and fuzzy all over again. As if they constantly need reminding "Hey, Georgetown won today". If that's the case, why not just take a piece of paper, after you see the score once write it down and stick it in your pocket. Then the next time you need that reassurance, pull out said piece of paper and look at it. That ticker can also be expanded by writing down scores of other games (e.g. Syracuse losses), which could double the pleasure of looking at it. If you get real technical you could just make it a thin strip of paper and tape it to the bottom of your TV for full effect.

[PushyGuyFanClub]

If that's the case, why not just take a piece of paper, after you see the score once write it down and stick it in your pocket. Then the next time you need that reassurance, pull out said piece of paper and look at it. That ticker can also be expanded by writing down scores of other games (e.g. Syracuse losses), which could double the pleasure of looking at it.

Brilliant!

pushyguyfanclubbily

[paranoya]

MB Hoya,

What if you are at a dinner like I frequently am and dont own a blackberry? Getting the score on the way to the bathroom at the bar is frequently my option which is why the ESPN ticker thing is important. To suggest people arent fans bc they dont listen/watch every game is absurd as is assuming that everyone has internet access at all times (people get blocked at work, the aforementioned situation, people go away on vacation, etc.).

[theexorcist]

On December 9th, Georgetown played Oral Roberts. I had to get to Dulles to make a flight, so I had to miss the game. I checked every single TV I could find with a CNN feed, looking like mad to find a score - futilely. I finally finagled my way into a checkin lounge that had a BYU-Michigan State game on that eventually showed the score - which got me heading to Australia in a chipper mood. Even when I found highlight shows at Dulles, they didn't have the highlights since we were a non-Top 25 game. Overseas, the only potential chance to get a score in a paper or on TV is if a team is ranked - it took me a week to find an internet cafe in Singapore to find out that we beat WSSt (though ESPN did thoughtfully show some Duke game against a MAC school on a Monday morning).

So, given that many Hoyas, and me in particular, have to travel during games, I want us to be ranked so it's easier for me to get a quick shot of them.

Either that, or I want to win the lottery so I can become a Hoyahead, following the team around in a tie-died shirt.

There are a variety of reasons why the first option is better.

[HeartAttackHoya]

MBHOya, in addition to the ticker factor is the fact that every thirty minutes or so ESPN News will be showing Hoyas highlights..Now, if you dont enjoy watching Jeff Green alley-oop highlights every thirty minutes, I might have to start questionning your fan loyalty..

[PDRHoya99]

I wasn't suggesting people weren't fans in the slightest. I was just pointing out that as fans, it's kinda absurd to say a more frequent appearance in the bottom line really improves our lives with regards to such fanhood. The score is available so many ways, that I'm shocked that anyone is truly dependent on that as a source.

If you're at a dinner or other social gathering (which I'd guess happens what, once or twice a season for a truly important game), then you'd either wait, or use your mobile/blackberry. While I'll believe there are some on this board that don't own a blackberry, you'd have a hard time convincing me that you don't own a cell phone, and yahoo will text you the scores for free at the half and end of the game.

As for assuming 24/7 internet access, I didn't say everyone had it, just the majority of thie board. If you've had time in your life to get to triple-digit posts on a message board, I'm guessing you have access to the internet on a relatively constant basis. While I understand that doesn't cover everybody, it certainly covers 80% of this board.

Finally, isn't part of being on vacation getting away? If it's for a crucial game, maybe you find a way to make it happen, but do you really need to know an up to the second Hoyas/Louisville score if you're on the beach in Belize?

[PDRHoya99]

As someone who travelled frequently for business in a previous job, I know the pain of missing games while on the road. I pleasantly recall watching the 2nd half of the 2001 Arkansas game at a bar at Dulles airport (with an employee quite desperate to close said bar) because I'd just flown in from Miami, and cabbing home would have made me miss most of it. However, even while travelling (at least domestically), yahoo had no problem texting me final scores of each and every game. At the time it was totally free. Now most carriers probably charge you a dime to receive that message. I think most of us can afford a dime/game over the course of a season.

As for the highlights, I think this only proves my point that fans are looking for the warm fuzzy (ie, Jeff isn't gonna jam the alley-oop any differently on the 6th viewing). As a west coast fan, I experience most of my games through the eyes of Rich, so seeing the same play over and over with Stu Scott commentary doesn't do much for me.