(Coastal) Carolina On My Mind

I've got two young kids at home, a highly competitive beat to cover, water stains on my dining room ceiling, an ice floe for a driveway and, by coincidence, a whole mess of birthdays and Valentine's Days to account for over the next few weeks.

My point? I'm busy. And while I consider my vote for the men's college basketball AP Top 25 a terrific privilege, I can't possibly spend all my waking hours scouring over who deserves a spot in each week's poll and who doesn't.

That's why I can be susceptible to the PR e-mails that some sports information directors send out to voters, asking us to consider their respective school. Inevitably, it's a mid-major program that is doing some very nice things outside the national headlines. Let's face it: the SID's at Duke or Syracuse hardly have to remind everybody what their team has been up to lately.

While I certainly don't heed the advice of all of these e-mails, one in particular caught my attention this week: Coastal Carolina. Who, you ask? Why, the Chanticleers, who compete in the Big South -- hardly a powerhouse conference. They're 22-2, with their only losses coming against College of Charleston and Georgetown back in mid-November. Their 13-0 in the Big South, and their 20-game winning streak is second in the nation to Ohio State's.

More than anything, I ask, why not Coastal Carolina? With so much parity in college hoops this year, how can anybody say the Chanticleers couldn't knock off a few teams in this year's tournament and be this year's (dare I say) George Mason? Who could say it's a crime to rank Coastal Carolina and not a more well-known program like Vanderbilt, Xavier or West Virginia?

So there you go: Coastal Carolina at No. 25.

Otherwise, not too much shake-up in this week's poll. My top five stays the same (Ohio State is really, really looking good. Beating Minnesota on the road is impressive; beating Wisconsin on the road on Saturday would be even more so). UConn drops from No. 6 to 8.

Gone are Washington and the A-10's Xavier and Duquesne. In are Florida, the A-10's Temple and, of course, Coastal Carolina.

1. Ohio State (24-0)
2. Kansas (22-1)
3. Pittsburgh (21-2)
4. Texas (20-3)
5. San Diego State (23-1)
6. Duke (21-2)
7. Brigham Young (22-2)
8. Connecticut (18-4)
9. Georgetown (18-5)
10. Villanova (19-4)
11. Notre Dame (19-4)
12. Missouri (18-5)
13. Syracuse (20-4)
14. Wisconsin (17-5)
15. Louisville (18-5)
16. Florida (18-5)
17. Utah State (22-2)
18. Purdue (18-5)
19. Kentucky (16-6)
20. Arizona (20-4)
21. North Carolina (17-5)
22. Minnesota (16-7)
23. Texas A&M (17-5)
24. Temple (17-5)
25. Coastal Carolina (22-2)