In case you were unaware, I have been involved in the “War on the AP Poll” for about a year now. Every week during basketball season I post an article titled Cracking the Code that talks about that weeks AP Poll and goes through how it works and which voters had the best and worst picks. I was planning on doing that again this week, but there were so many questionable decisions in this weeks poll that I am going to dedicate this article to my #WarOnTheAP and show you how little this poll really means. While it could/should be used as a bench mark on who is the best teams in the country, it ends up being a bunch of national and local writers trying to seem like geniuses and show that they know how good teams are better than the others. Overall, it ends up being a competition which makes the poll lose its value a little bit. But don’t take it from me, take a look at the top 5 most questionable decisions I noticed from this weeks poll in order of ridiculousness:
Voter: Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal
The Pick: Texas at #13, Kentucky unranked
I am starting to get sick of singling out Graham in my poll articles. He has been voted the worst pick of the week the most out of every voter and it is just decisions that I don’t even have an explanation for. I shouldn’t even be surprised that he wins this prestigious award again. I am also starting to think that maybe he shouldn’t have a vote because he is so consistently bad week in and week out. Alright, rant over, now for the pick. I understand thinking Texas has some potential late in the season with star power in Mohamed Bamba. But come on, this team is 8-3 and has no signature wins. This pick looks even worse now, as Texas just had a 1 point win over Tennessee State. And it doesn’t stop there. He also had Kentucky unranked. Now this one I wish I could even explain a little bit, but Kentucky is 11-1 with their lone loss being at Kansas. They’ve also looked a lot better as the season has progressed and they are doing exactly what you would expect from a young team. I understand not being high on them, but being unranked makes no sense at all.
Voter: Jesse Newell, Kansas City Star
The Pick: Arizona State at #12
I get it. Arizona State is that team doing well that usually isn’t there so people are skeptical. But they have proven themselves time and time again and have arguably the most complete resume in college basketball. This is a very good team that at the very least is top 10 (Jesse is the only voter who has them outside the the top 7). Jesse has been low on them all season, as he was the last voter to include Arizona State in his poll. This is one of the problems with the poll: when a voter makes a mistake, they don’t own up to it. They’d rather save face and act like they were right the first time. Well Jesse, I think you may have dropped the ball on this pick, but there is still time to board the Arizona State hype train!
Voter: John McNamara, The Capital Gazette
The Pick: Cincinnati falling from 19 to 25 after 2 top 75 wins
This one hurts a little more because of my Cincinnati loyalty, but I think everyone can agree this was a bad pick regardless of your feelings towards the specific team. It is the principle of the pick. This man had Cincinnati ranked #19 in his poll last week, watched numerous top 25 teams lose, saw Cincinnati beat an undefeated Mississippi State team and handily beat a UCLA team in LA and thought “Dang, I need to drop them six spots”. As the great Cincinnati twitter account Oh Varsity stated, he must have been punishing Cincinnati for poor sportsmanship because they beat those two teams by a combined 29 points. They could’ve had some respect and let them keep it closer! This is a case of knowing where you are going to move a team based on name and preference rather then watching what happens.
Voter: David Cloninger, The State
The Pick: Duke at 15
This one is quiet the head-scratcher also. Maybe he doesn’t think they’re as good as their record indicates, maybe he thinks their loss to Boston College means a little more than everyone else. But for the beginning part of the college basketball season, Duke was looking like the best team on the courts with a pair of the best players in the country in Marvin Bagley and *barf* Grayson Allen. Again, they did take the loss to Boston College but I don’t think anyone thinks they are truly not a top 5 team. Thats what makes this decision to put them at #15 all the more confusing. What makes it even worse? The team he has replacing Duke in the top 10 is TCU, who, while they are undefeated and very deserving of a top 25 or even top 20 spot, haven’t proved yet they should be in the top 10 just based on their opponents. Regardless, Duke is not a team that looks like it should be ranked on the edge of the top 15, nevertheless the top 10.
Voter: Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News
The Pick: Florida at 25 after being 21 last week
Ill admit: this pick is not horrible and not really deserving of a spot on this list, but someone needed to fill the 5th spot and this pick is just off of what other voters did. After their three losses and one win over then #17 Cincinnati, voters decided to keep Florida around, hoping they would regain their form from the beginning of the season when they were in the top 5. Unfortunately for them, they did not. The went on to lose to Clemson, who has put together a nice start to the season. Nonetheless, most voters (63 of them) dropped Florida out of their rankings. But ole Jon Wilner decided to keep them in at number 25, despite the flurry of losses. While this has some validity and I can certainly see Florida regaining their form and clawing their way back into the rankings, this isn’t truly representative of how teams are performing at the moment, which is sort of how the AP Poll is supposed to work (though that us a discussion for another day). Not too bad of a pick, just a little head-scratching and shows a little bit of what is wrong with the polls.
So now you see a little more of how the AP Poll isn’t exactly the best representation of the teams like we always seem to think it is. Hopefully, next week won’t be as bad and I can resume my usual Cracking the Code article, but we all know the #WarOnTheAP needs to continue if needed. I’ll see you next week.