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My AP Top 25: Wisconsin stays No. 1; UConn stays ranked
I know, I know -- Kentucky is the greatest team ever assembled. The Wildcats can even beat the 76ers -- not this year's 76ers, mind you, but the 1983 76ers of Dr. J, Moses Malone and "fo, fo, fo."
Or not. Let's pump the breaks on Kentucky a little bit here, OK? Yes, the 'Cats looked great destroying Kansas by 32 points. Yes, they've got nine McDonald's All-Americans -- and that doesn't even include one of their best players, Willie Cauley-Stein.
But these are mostly freshmen and sophomores. They're kids. And this platoon system has the potential to blow up in John Calipari's face, if certain guys don't buy into the team concept as much as he'd like. Didn't we learn from last season, when people were talking about Kentucky going undefeated and it wound up a No. 8 seed for the NCAA tournament?
Kentucky's good, and maybe it will win the national title. But for now, the 'Cats stay at No. 2 on my ballot. I had Wisconsin No. 1 last week, and I'm not going to drop the Badgers after a week in which they won two games by 24 points each.
Elsewhere, we knock out SMU, Stanford, Syracuse and Memphis and welcome Miami, West Virginia, Creighton and Providence.
Tough week for the AAC. SMU got swamped by a very good Gonzaga team (on the road, admittedly) as well as Indiana. Memphis has somehow played just one game, and it wasn't pretty -- a 15-point loss to a very good Wichita State. And UConn lost in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tourney finals to West Virginia.
I drop the Huskies from No. 12 to 23, but they'd better be careful, with Texas coming to town on Sunday and Duke on the horizon a couple of weeks later.
My ballot:
1. Wisconsin
2. Kentucky
3. Arizona
4. Duke
5. Wichita State
6. North Carolina
7. Louisville
8. Texas
9. Iowa State
10. Gonzaga
11. Villanova
12. Kansas
13. Virginia
14. San Diego State
15. VCU
16. Michigan
17. Miami
18. Florida
19. Michigan State
20. Ohio State
21. Oklahoma
22. West Virginia
23. UConn
24. Creighton
25. Providence
Or not. Let's pump the breaks on Kentucky a little bit here, OK? Yes, the 'Cats looked great destroying Kansas by 32 points. Yes, they've got nine McDonald's All-Americans -- and that doesn't even include one of their best players, Willie Cauley-Stein.
But these are mostly freshmen and sophomores. They're kids. And this platoon system has the potential to blow up in John Calipari's face, if certain guys don't buy into the team concept as much as he'd like. Didn't we learn from last season, when people were talking about Kentucky going undefeated and it wound up a No. 8 seed for the NCAA tournament?
Kentucky's good, and maybe it will win the national title. But for now, the 'Cats stay at No. 2 on my ballot. I had Wisconsin No. 1 last week, and I'm not going to drop the Badgers after a week in which they won two games by 24 points each.
Elsewhere, we knock out SMU, Stanford, Syracuse and Memphis and welcome Miami, West Virginia, Creighton and Providence.
Tough week for the AAC. SMU got swamped by a very good Gonzaga team (on the road, admittedly) as well as Indiana. Memphis has somehow played just one game, and it wasn't pretty -- a 15-point loss to a very good Wichita State. And UConn lost in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tourney finals to West Virginia.
I drop the Huskies from No. 12 to 23, but they'd better be careful, with Texas coming to town on Sunday and Duke on the horizon a couple of weeks later.
My ballot:
1. Wisconsin
2. Kentucky
3. Arizona
4. Duke
5. Wichita State
6. North Carolina
7. Louisville
8. Texas
9. Iowa State
10. Gonzaga
11. Villanova
12. Kansas
13. Virginia
14. San Diego State
15. VCU
16. Michigan
17. Miami
18. Florida
19. Michigan State
20. Ohio State
21. Oklahoma
22. West Virginia
23. UConn
24. Creighton
25. Providence
Labels: John Calipari
posted by David Borges at
12:50 AM
6 Comments:
FYI...the text you drop UCONN 12 to 19, the list you drop them to 23.
Thanks. Corrected!
"But these are mostly freshmen and sophomores. They're kids. And this platoon system has the potential to blow up in John Calipari's face, if certain guys don't buy into the team concept as much as he'd like. Didn't we learn from last season, when people were talking about Kentucky going undefeated and it wound up a No. 8 seed for the NCAA tournament?"
You're a moron- Who didn't learn from last year? I say you didn't. You didn't learn that a team of ONLY FRESHMAN AND SOPHOMORES THAT STARTED 5 FRESHMAN BEAT WISCONSIN IN THE FINAL 4!!! Last year they were a underseeded, and they (mostly just freshman BTW) made NCAA history by knocking out 3 of the prior year's final 4 participants and beat seeds #1 Wichita State, #2 Michigan, #4 Louisville, and #2 Wisconsin to make it to the Championship game. So what were we supposed to learn in the end? That they WEREN'T as good as their preseason #1 ranking, or that they were? Evidently you learned the opposite of what logic would tell you, which isn't very surprising due to the fact that you ignored that this team that added 4 more McDonalds All-Americans has all that returning talent and experience would rank Wisconsin as the better team.
BTW- Willie Cauley-Stein didn't even play in that Final 4 game due to injury, so you can add that JUNIOR to the pile of McDonalds All-Americans that this team added since the last time they met up with and beat Wisconsin. You're willing to drop UK due to something that MIGHT happen, yet have no trouble refusing to drop Wisconsin despite UK beating KU by 32 pts (a team who, according to you, is the 12th best team in the nation right now), and proving how devastating the platoon system can be- even against top-tier programs.
Ohhhh ... You're the guy who calls people "morons" on the Internet while hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. I'll respond anyway.
I didn't drop UK. I had hem No. 2 preseason and have them there still. I had Wisconsin preseason No. 1, and I don't punish teams for winning games. That would be, well ... "moronic" behavior, in my opinion.
Do preseason, early season (November) rankings even mean anything? With teams only having a handful of games under their belt that dont really mean anything, as teams are trying to find a rhythm or work on improving chemistry, does it really matter between a #1 or #2 ranking? Kentucky fans have so bought into Calipari's system of bringing in top talent and reload year after year that they are ignorant to the fact that he isnt really a great coach.
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