Our most entertaining week of college basketball is now in the books. We had several marquee matchups with some unexpected winners and big-time risers as well. While COVID-19 did dampen some of the week, the games were still electric to watch and players like Walker Kessler and Malaki Branham are turning into stars on the national stage. The voters had another challenging task with the AP poll this week, let’s see what they got right.
You can find last week’s reaction here.
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RANK
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TEAM
|
RECORD
|
POINTS
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PREVIOUS
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baylor (61) | 13-0 | 1,525 | 1 |
| 2 | Duke | 11-1 | 1,447 | 2 |
| 3 | Purdue | 12-1 | 1,376 | 3 |
| 4 | Gonzaga | 11-2 | 1,314 | 4 |
| 5 | UCLA | 8-1 | 1,287 | 5 |
| 6 | Kansas | 11-1 | 1,237 | 6 |
| 7 | Southern California | 12-0 | 1,015 | 7 |
| 8 | Arizona | 11-1 | 1,013 | 9 |
| 9 | Auburn | 12-1 | 976 | 11 |
| 10 | Michigan State | 12-2 | 934 | 10 |
| 11 | Iowa State | 12-1 | 896 | 8 |
| 12 | Houston | 12-2 | 849 | 12 |
| 13 | Ohio State | 9-2 | 819 | 13 |
| 14 | Texas | 11-2 | 640 | 17 |
| 15 | Alabama | 10-3 | 589 | 19 |
| 16 | Providence | 13-1 | 560 | 21 |
| 16 | Kentucky | 11-2 | 560 | 18 |
| 18 | Tennessee | 9-3 | 519 | 14 |
| 19 | Villanova | 9-4 | 437 | 22 |
| 20 | Colorado State | 10-0 | 386 | 20 |
| 21 | LSU | 12-1 | 371 | 16 |
| 22 | Xavier | 11-2 | 270 | 23 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 10-2 | 221 | 24 |
| 24 | Seton Hall | 9-3 | 174 | 15 |
| 25 | Texas Tech | 10-2 | 142 | 25 |
AP News May Not be Trying
This is a bold statement, but one that makes sense when you break it down. The AP proved this week that they either do not proofread each voter’s polls or they simply have horrible voters. The case under scrutiny this week is voter Stephen Tsai. Tsai accidentally put the wrong “G” school in his fourth spot. Instead of 11-2 Gonzaga, he put 5-8 Georgia as though it was college football. This mistake from one of the world’s biggest publications is not okay when so many fans tune into these rankings every week.
Seton Hall Didn’t Deserve Huge Drop
It was a rough week for the Pirates. A COVID-19 outbreak led to a massive chunk of their roster being quarantined but their games were still played. They dropped two games last week in crucial Big East matchups to Villanova and Providence. Each of these teams are inside the top 20, and yet a depleted Seton Hall roster still drops nine spots for close losses to them. Overall, the Pirates did not deserve this fall and should get back on track once fully healthy in the coming weeks.
Speaking of Providence…
Here come the Friars. While the win against Seton Hall was obviously a tad tainted, they still deserve a much higher rank. The only reason Providence isn’t higher is because of preseason ranking and big-school bias. The Friars are 4-0 against Quad 1 this year and they’ve shown they can take down bigger schools in close games. Based on resume alone, this team is worthy of a top 12 (if not top 10) ranking in the country.
Recency Bias Playing Large Factor
Every single year, the voters struggle with taming recency bias and it’s back in full force this season. We already mentioned it a bit with Seton Hall, now let’s discuss LSU. The Tigers were 12-0 going into their matchup against Auburn with four Quad 2 wins. After losing on the road to Auburn in a game where they just clearly couldn’t put the ball in the basket, they fell into the 20s.
Then, we look at Iowa State, who just lost to the clear best team in the country: Baylor. Iowa State has three Quad 1 wins and they still fall three spots because of the loss. Honestly, they should be ranked higher than USC, which has played two opponents in Quads 1 and 2 total. All in all, a team’s overall schedule needs to be taken into consideration in these rankings, not just what happened the previous week.
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Main Image Credit: via Galveston Daily News
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