Basketball Blog Poll - week 17

#1 is becoming a dangerous position to be in. UNC @ Duke could give us our third consecutive week with the #1 team going down.

On a side note, here are my #1 seed projections...

LOCKS
Memphis
UCLA

Likely (in order)
North Carolina
Tennessee

Next in line
Kansas/Texas winner in B12 Tourney
Duke or Stanford should they win their conference tourney

nobody else stands a chance.

1	North Carolina (4)
2	Memphis (3)
3	UCLA (1)
4	Tennessee
5	Kansas (1)
6	Duke
7	Texas
8	Stanford
9	Xavier
10	Louisville
11	Wisconsin
12	Georgetown
13	UConn
14	Purdue
15	Notre Dame
16	Butler
17	Vanderbilt
18	Indiana
19	Michigan St.
20	Marquette
21	Washington St.
22	Drake
23	Clemson
24	Gonzaga
25	Mississippi St.

HERE is a link to everyone's individual ballot.

Basketball Blog Poll

My posting of the Basketball Blog Poll has been spotty at best, but below is the composite poll for week 16.

LINK to everyone's vote.

1	Tennessee (8)
2	Memphis
3	North Carolina (2)
4	Texas (1)
5	UCLA
6	Duke
7	Kansas
8	Xavier
9	Stanford
10	Louisville
11	Georgetown
12	Wisconsin
13	Drake
14	Indiana
15	Notre Dame
16	UConn
17	Butler
18	Purdue
19	Washington St.
20	Michigan St.
21	Marquette
22	Vanderbilt
23	Clemson
24	St. Mary's
25	Gonzaga

Others receiving votes: Kansas State, Miami, Kent State, West Virginia, New Mexico, Pittsburgh, Davidson

Gopher Nation Rankings

I have a couple of personal rankings for my loyal readership. I have been giving you the GN Big Ten Power Poll most weeks, but I have also been participating in a blogger top 25 every week and I have not been very good at showing my rankings. Here are both for this week...

GN Big Ten Power Poll - for a couple weeks Minnesota has been entrenched at #6, but their grip on the best of the worst is slipping. Losing at home to the Illini hurts but so does Michigan beating Ohio State and Penn State beating Illinois. Those teams come to town this week so we can solidify that coveted 6 seed in the B10 Tourney (#6 gets to play Northwestern in the opening round).

1	Purdue
2	Wisconsin
3	Indiana
4	Michigan State
5	Ohio State
6	Minnesota
7	Michigan
8	Penn State
9	Iowa
10	Illinois
11	Northwestern

GN NCAA Top 25 - I didn't really fault Duke for their loss to Wake Forest as it still only gives them 2 losses on the season. So just because they lost their second game now instead of earlier I don't know that it should really penalize them. Purdue and Connecticut keep moving up with their recent hotness while Michigan State and Texas A&M dropped with their recent week.

1	Memphis
2	Duke
3	Tennessee
4	North Carolina
5	Kansas
6	Texas
7	UCLA
8	Xavier
9	Wisconsin
10	Connecticut
11	Purdue
12	Georgetown
13	Stanford
14	Indiana
15	Butler
16	Louisville
17	Michigan St.
18	Drake
19	Kansas St.
20	Brigham Young
21	Washington St.
22	Notre Dame
23	Marquette
24	St. Mary's
25	Texas A&M

I know that commenting is rare here at Gopher Nation, but I would love some feedback particularly on the top 25.

Blog Poll - week 12

Here is the blog poll for Week 12. There is a little controversy, but you can see the votes HERE for yourself. For the record I was one of the 3 who had Kansas as #1.

1	Memphis (13)
2	Kansas (3)
3	Duke
4	North Carolina
5	UCLA
6	Tennessee
7	Georgetown
8	Washington St.
9	Michigan St.
10	Texas
11	Indiana
12	Butler
13	Wisconsin
14	Drake
15	Xavier
16	Stanford
17	Marquette
18	Arizona
19	Ole Miss
20	Florida
21	Pittsburgh
22	Kansas State
23	Vanderbilt
24	USC
25	UConn

Hoops Blog Poll - Week 10

So Gabby at March to Madness has put together a college basketball blog poll. This is very similar to Brian's at MGO, but not as comprehensive. Anyway I was asked begged to be a part of it and I now am. Below is the consensus poll for Week 10.

HERE is the link to see how each individual blog voted.

1) Memphis (8)
2) North Carolina (6)
3) Kansas (2)
4) UCLA
5) Tennessee
6) Duke
7) Washington St.
8) Indiana
9) Texas A&M
10) Michigan St.
11) Butler
12) Marquette
13) Georgetown
14) Dayton
15) Ole Miss
16) Wisconsin
17) Pittsburgh
18) Xavier
19) Vanderbilt
20) Texas
21) Rhode Island
22) Arizona State
23) Drake
24) Miami (FL)
25) Clemson

OVERRATED - Miami (FL), obviously they lost to BC last night and I bet they'll lose 2 of their next 3 to fall from the ranks of the ranked.

UNDERRATED - I still am shocked that Wisconsin isn't getting much credit for their fine season. They lost big at Duke and lost a close one to Marquette, but in my humble opinion they are the most complete team in the Big Ten. They lack a superstar, which I think hurts their national reputation, but I still think they'll be Big Ten regular season champs. Personally I hate the Badgers but they aren't getting the love they deserve this season.

A win tonight for the Gophers and I'll be sure they at least get a vote next week :).

Blog Poll - FINAL

I loved participating in this year's blog poll. I waited till the last minute to submit my final poll so there may be a few inconsistencies in my balloting after the top 6 or 7.

Here is my justification for my top 3...

1. USC - they were the most dominant (over a real team, sorry Georgia) in the BCS games. If we had a playoff I think they would be the most feared and would win it.

2. LSU - although their SEC speed couldn't use angles to catch Wells in the first quarter, they dominated the line of scrimmage and beat Ohio State, they'll be #1, but not on my ballot.

3. Georgia - kind of got screwed by having to play Hawaii in their game. Lose-Lose for the Bulldogs, but they dominate and destroyed the Rainbow Warriors. They deserve a playoff.

Here is my final ballot...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	5
2	LSU	2
3	Georgia	1
4	West Virginia	6
5	Ohio State	4
6	Missouri	2
7	Kansas	2
8	Virginia Tech	5
9	Tennessee	10
10	Michigan	16
11	Oklahoma	6
12	Boston College	3
13	Texas	5
14	Florida	7
15	Brigham Young	10
16	Auburn	3
17	Arizona State	5
18	Cincinnati	4
19	Wisconsin	2
20	Oregon	6
21	Illinois	10
22	Texas Tech	4
23	Oregon State	3
24	Clemson	8
25	Penn State	1

Blog Poll Week - Final Regular Season

So Brian at MGO is having some blog poll issues lately. I think I successfully submitted my blog poll but it didn't give me the handy dandy table to paste here. So I'll manually give you my top 10 just so you have it...

1. Ohio State - This is pretty much not controversial. The interesting thing to note is that they lost their game LATE in the season. Conventional wisdom suggests that you want to lose early but both OSU and LSU lost their last regular season game and are still in the BCS Championship game.

2. Georgia - I looked at the common opponents with LSU and gave advantages to either school when comparing their common opponents. For instance the both played South Carolina, Georgia lost and LSU won. LSU-1, UGA-0. They had 7 common opponents and I gave Georgia 4 (FL, Kent, OleMiss and Aub). Tiger fans can point to the Tennessee matchup which LSU won and Georgia lost, but Georgia convincingly beat OleMiss and Auburn while LSU's games were much closer. Anyway, I give Georgia the BCS game.

3. Virginia Tech - I know, I know that they LSU beat them. But that was week 2. I think that LSU was playing their best football in September and VTech got better. And the game was on the road for the Hokies. Neutral field today and they don't lose by 41. Among the 2 loss teams the Hokies are the only ones to have lost to ranked teams both times, both teams were #2 at the time and also the only team where both losses were to teams still ranked to end the season.

4. LSU - I don't want to hear that their only losses were OT losses, cause they were fortunate to win the Florida, Auburn and Alabama games. Hats off to the Tigers for pulling those games out but when you are on the razor thin edge of losing 5 times (going 3-2), you don't get "credit" for losing in OT.

5. Oklahoma - of the teams with 2 losses they are the only team to have lost both of their games on the road. Both were to unranked teams but losing @ Colorado or @ Tex Tech isn't as bad as losing a home game to Stanford is it?

6. USC - Losing at Oregon when Dixon was still QB isn't so bad. But losing the home game to Stanford truly cost them the BCS Title game (DUH, I know). If their 2nd loss was to any other team on their schedule they might still be playing in Arizona instead of Pasadena.

7. Florida
8. Missouri
9. Kansas
10. West Virginia

That's that.

Blog Poll Week 13

I'm on the road and just crammed this in to get it in on time. I hope I didn't move somebody up that actually lost. Help me out if you catch anything.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Missouri	4
2	Ohio State	1
3	West Virginia	1
4	Georgia	2
5	LSU	4
6	Florida	3
7	Kansas	5
8	Virginia Tech	2
9	Southern Cal	2
10	Oklahoma	2
11	Oregon	2
12	Illinois	3
13	Arizona State	6
14	Boston College	2
15	Virginia	3
16	Auburn	4
17	Clemson	2
18	Wisconsin	3
19	Hawaii	3
20	Texas	12
21	Cincinnati	5
22	Brigham Young	1
23	Texas Tech	1
24	Arkansas	2
25	South Florida	1

Dropped Out: Tennessee (#14), Connecticut (#17), Oklahoma State (#25).