Sunday, March 17, 2013

My Final AP Top 25, Plus All-America Teams

Here's my final AP Top 25 ballot of the season. It's potentially the most inconsequential Top 25 all year. After all, once we find out what teams are going where and playing when in the NCAA tournament, does it really matter where they're ranked?

Of perhaps more interest is the three All-America teams and Player of the Year and Coach of the Year picks voters are asked to submit. Here are my selections:


FIRST TEAM
Trey Burke, Michigan
Victor Oladipo, Indiana
Otto Porter, Jr., Georgetown
Doug McDermott, Creighton
Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State


SECOND TEAM
Kelly Olynyk, Gonzaga
Mason Plumlee, Duke
Cody Zeller, Indiana
Shane Larkin, Miami
Ben McLemore, Kansas


THIRD TEAM
DeShaun Thomas, Ohio State
Shabazz Napier, Connecticut
Russ Smith, Louisville
Anthony Bennett, UNLV
Shabazz Muhammed, UCLA



Player of the Year: Otto Porter, Jr., Georgetown
Coach of the Year: Jim Larranaga, Miami


Yup, I went with Napier on Third Team. That's not homerism, but rather someone who watched him play all season while much of the rest of the country seemed to ignore him and his team.

I often side with the Big East, so Porter was an easy choice for me. As for Coach of the Year, I strongly considered Jim Crews of St. Louis, who took over for the late Rick Majerus under tough circumstances. But people forget the Billikens were expected to be a Top 15/20 team this season. I gave the slight edge to Larranaga, who, I'm sure, is hated more by UConn fans for being the coach of THAT George Mason team in 2006 than he is for being a former standout player at Providence.

Oh yeah, that Top 25 I was talking about earlier:


1.       Gonzaga
2.       Louisville
3.       Indiana
4.       Kansas
5.       Miami
6.       Duke
7.       Ohio State
8.       Georgetown
9.       New Mexico
10.   Michigan
11.   St. Louis
12.   Michigan State
13.   Kansas State
14.   Florida
15.   Memphis
16.   Oklahoma State
17.   Arizona
18.   Virginia Commonwealth
19.   Marquette
20.   Creighton
21.   Pittsburgh
22.   Oregon
23.   Syracuse
24.   Wisconsin
25.   Mississippi

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Still think Gonzaga is #1? That team would of been a .500 team if they played a big east schedule all year. Barely beat Southern and got spanked by Wichita State. I don't understand how they got the nod in seeding over Miami. There best win all year was a "neutral game" vs KSU in Seattle.

March 24, 2013 at 11:58 AM 

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