BlogPoll Ballot: Week Four

It's that time again. Time for y'all to heavily criticize my selection of, in my opnion, the Top 25 teams in the country.

Again, another week, and another week I move slowly away from the numbers. I still compute out the Top 25 numbers-only, and use it as a base, but don't shy away from altering any teams. As always, the explanation is after the jump...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Connecticut	1
2	North Carolina	1
3	Memphis	1
4	Pittsburgh	3
5	Louisville	2
6	Duke
7	Kansas	6
8	UCLA	8
9	Missouri
10	Oklahoma	5
11	Michigan St.	3
12	Gonzaga	2
13	West Virginia	1
14	Wake Forest	6
15	Villanova	2
16	Arizona St.	5
17	Washington	5
18	Purdue	3
19	Marquette	1
20	Clemson	6
21	Brigham Young	2
22	Illinois	1
23	Utah	4
24	Louisiana St.
25	Syracuse
Last week's ballot

This will have to be quick, as I'm tired as hell and just want to go to sleep.

1-5 - (UCONN, UNC, Memphis, Pitt, Louisville)

While the numbers still give the edge to North Carolina, Connecticut was the easy selection here. UNC, though, still slides in at #2, and I still think that they are clearly the best team in the country. Memphis is better than most are giving them credit for, and while Calipari's coaching job doesn't equal Self's this year, he still is a damn good one. Pittsburgh and Louisville have both lost enough, or recently enough, to stay out of the Top 3, but both are definitely Final Four contenders.

6-10 - (Duke, Kansas, UCLA, Missouri, Oklahoma)

Maybe I'm a homer for putting the Jayhawks at 7, but I wanted to put them even higher, and restrained becaue of my affiliation. I think we're better than Duke, but Duke (probably) has a better resume, has better numbers, so they go. I've been down on UCLA all year long, but they are still very dangerous this year. Do I think we can take them? Absolutely. But they aren't as bad as you might believe. The Missouri-Oklahoma debate is an interesting one; Missouri has the better numbers, while Oklahoma has only picked up one loss with a completely healthy Blake Griffin for 40 minutes. I suppose we'll find out on Wednesday night, but as to which team is better is interesting.

11-15 - (Michigan State, Gonzaga, West Virginia, Wake Forest, Villanova)

I'm way down on the Spartans, but they have still put together a fairly impressive resume, and 11 seemed right. Same with Gonzaga, although I think they have enough top-end talent to make a run to Detroit. West Virginia, despite a pretty bad loss Thursday night to Bobby Huggins' ex (no, not K-StatE), are still absolutely adored by the numbers, and that helped them slide up this high. Still, another loss and I'm significantly dropping them. Wake Forest, egh. But, no one else really fit in here, like at all. That's also how Villanova ended up at 15, despite the aforementioned bad loss to the Hoyas Saturday. Even with the loss, they have a better resume with anyone else out there...

16-20 (Arizona State, Washington, Purdue, Marquette Clemson)

Arizona State is really good, I think, but they lost two games this week, including one against a pretty bad Wazzu team. If you get Harden in foul trouble, or at least limit him to fewer touches, the Sun Devils become very beatable. Very, very beatable. Coler me unimpressed. Washington, on the other hand, is a better team. However, Arizona State has a slightly better resume, so I figured I'd keep them ahead of the Huskies. Purdue would have gone higher, but similar to the Mountaineers, they had a bad loss Thursday night. Quette and Clemson are mired in cold streaks, and are both overrated due to soft early-season schedules. Down here, around 20, they're are fine, but anyone who has them above 15 is flat-out wrong. They just aren't that talented.

21-25 (BYU, Illinois, Utah, LSU, Syracuse)

I love BYU, still, and yet it seems they drop farther and farther every week. They got a slight bump this week, thanks to their impressive win over the Utes, but still. They probably deserve to be higher, but whatever. Same with Illinois, but I just don't see the talent, there. If they played Clemson or Marquette or Washington tomorrow, I'd take the other team. Without thinking. So, they stay here. Same kind of thinking with Utah. LSU, I'm beginning to become a fan. I watched their game Saturday against UK, and they really impressed me. Marcus Thornton = stud, and they have plenty of solid players. They will be a tough out in March, and despite their sketchy SOS and non-con and KP/Sagarin statistics, they are good enough, again, to sneak into my Top 25. And, finally, Syracuse. I desperately wanted to make this only the Top 24, because I could think of absolutley no one who deserved to be ranked. Then, I had the idea to put in a joke team, but I thought that would be in poor taste. So, I regrettably chose the Orange, mostly because of their talent and awesome non-con. Sorry, not a whole lot of defense about that one.

OK, I'll be dropping in the comments later to answer any-and-all questions, and hopefully provie further reasoning.