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Olympic Fan
03-02-2014, 01:22 AM
It's amazing what happened to the top 25 this week. Going into Sunday's games (which involve four more top 25 games), last week's AP top 25 teams have lost 16 games -- eight teams have lost once and four teams have lost twice. I don't know if that's a record, but it's got to be one of the worst regular season weeks in poll history.

Losing so far:

4. Syracuse -- to Virginia
5. Kansas -- to Oklahoma State

7. Louisville -- to Memphis

9. Creighton -- to Xavier
10. St. Louis (2) -- to Duquesne; to VCU
11. Cincinnati (2) -- to UConn; to Louisville

15. Iowa State -- to Kansas State

17. Kentucky (2) -- to Arkansas; to South Carolina
18. Michigan State (2) -- to Michigan; to Illinois

20. Iowa -- to Indiana

22. Ohio State -- to Penn State

24. Texas -- to Oklahoma

Still to come Sunday: Stanford at No. 3 Arizona; No. 14 Wisconsin vs Penn State; No. 20 iowa vs Purdue; No. 22 Ohio State vs. Indiana.

It will be interesting to see where the ACC teams end up. Will No. 6 Duke (1-0 on the week) jump No. 5 Kansas (1-1) and/or No. 4 Syracuse (1-1)? How far will the 'Cuse fall? I'm guessing No. 12 Virginia (2-0) climbs into the top 10 -- I know they jump St. Louis (0-2) and Cincinnati (0-2), I'm guessing they jump Creighton (1-1) too. No. 19 UNC (2-0) has got to climb over Kentucky (0-2) and Michigan State (0-2). Maybe over Iowa State (1-1)?

BlueandWhite
03-02-2014, 06:58 AM
It's amazing what happened to the top 25 this week. Going into Sunday's games (which involve four more top 25 games), last week's AP top 25 teams have lost 16 games -- eight teams have lost once and four teams have lost twice. I don't know if that's a record, but it's got to be one of the worst regular season weeks in poll history.

Losing so far:

4. Syracuse -- to Virginia
5. Kansas -- to Oklahoma State

7. Louisville -- to Memphis

9. Creighton -- to Xavier
10. St. Louis (2) -- to Duquesne; to VCU
11. Cincinnati (2) -- to UConn; to Louisville

15. Iowa State -- to Kansas State

17. Kentucky (2) -- to Arkansas; to South Carolina
18. Michigan State (2) -- to Michigan; to Illinois

20. Iowa -- to Indiana

22. Ohio State -- to Penn State

24. Texas -- to Oklahoma

Still to come Sunday: Stanford at No. 3 Arizona; No. 14 Wisconsin vs Penn State; No. 20 iowa vs Purdue; No. 22 Ohio State vs. Indiana.

It will be interesting to see where the ACC teams end up. Will No. 6 Duke (1-0 on the week) jump No. 5 Kansas (1-1) and/or No. 4 Syracuse (1-1)? How far will the 'Cuse fall? I'm guessing No. 12 Virginia (2-0) climbs into the top 10 -- I know they jump St. Louis (0-2) and Cincinnati (0-2), I'm guessing they jump Creighton (1-1) too. No. 19 UNC (2-0) has got to climb over Kentucky (0-2) and Michigan State (0-2). Maybe over Iowa State (1-1)?

All of this tells me that we're in for an NCAA tournament much like 2011 and 2006, with a ton of upsets, another VCU-like team (or more) coming out of nowhere to make the Final Four, possibly no #1 seeds making the Final Four again, unlikely champion (but again probably from a power conference) etc...

Saratoga2
03-02-2014, 07:51 AM
Syracuse has been skating on thin ice for 7 or 8 games and it caught up with them. They are not a deep team, and with Grant (their third best player) unable to play, the burden was concentrated all the more on Fair and Ennis. We know what a pounding our Duke team went through and Syracuse had a similar experience but without the depth to get through it well. People have also figured out what works against the Syracuse zone and also how to defend them.

So who are currently the best teams in the ACC? I would have to give the nod to Virginia, with Duke and UNC close to each other and Syracuse a 4th and only then if they can get Grant back in some capacity.

Duke should emerge from the rest with Amile somewhat recuperated and hopefully Quinn benefiting from the week off. They will have had time for both players and coaches to have done some introspection. That should result in conclusions about substitution policies, etc. Wake away should be a challenge for them as we will likely have some rust and are playing away. The UNC game at home should be a battle. UNC was not that impressive in their last.

The large number of ranked opponents who went down this weekend indicates the parity that exists in college ball. A superior team on paper can be beaten by a lesser foe through hustle, smart coaching, the breaks and just exhaustion that these kids can feel. Deep teams that play solid defense and make few mistakes are going to be in most games and anything can happen in the end.

Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
03-02-2014, 08:43 AM
Duke sure picked the right weekend to take off!

BD80
03-02-2014, 08:48 AM
Strange game, the only winning move is not to play

NYBri
03-02-2014, 09:37 AM
Teams at this time of year are dragging...physically and emotionally. Long grind so far and on the cusp of tourney time. Lesser teams are more hungry at times to try to get to the dance and players looking for roles next year. Top teams may be mentally looking at their dance card and not pay attention to the business at hand. It takes real hunger and focus to play at a very high level all season. In some respects, we are lucky to have UNC to close out the regular season which will keep all our players' heads in the game.

Good time for a week off.

moonpie23
03-02-2014, 10:36 AM
I really hope dre has refreshed himself.........we need him.....

Duke95
03-02-2014, 11:03 AM
UVa over Syracuse wasn't really an upset. I expect UVa will be ranked #7 at the lowest. I would not be surprised to see them jump into the Top 5 even.
Perhaps 5 Uva, 6 Duke, 7 Syracuse

Wander
03-02-2014, 11:30 AM
Just intuitively, the week didn't seem particularly amazing to me with regards to upsets, so I checked.

First of all, Louisville over Cincy and Michigan over MSU happened last weekend, so it's only 14 losses, not 16 as listed in the original post. Second of all, in regards it that being "one of the worst regular season weeks in poll history," well the week just before this one had 13 losses by ranked teams:

1 Syracuse (twice), 4 San Diego State, 5 Duke, 7 Cincinnati, 13 Michigan State, 15 Iowa, 19 Texas (twice), 21 UConn, 23 UCLA, 25 Gonzaga (twice)

And the week just before THAT also had 13 losses by ranked teams:
2 Arizona, 5 San Diego State, 6 Villanova, 7 Kansas, 9 Michigan State, 11 Iowa State, 14 Kentucky, 15 Michigan, 20 Memphis, 22 Ohio State, 23 SMU, 25 Pitt (twice)

And then I got bored and stopped going back. Sure, 13 is less than 14. But if the last two weeks each had 13 losses by ranked teams, I highly doubt that this week's count of 14 is even close to any sort of record.

BigWayne
03-02-2014, 12:41 PM
Wander - you are right on.

My feeling yesterday was that it was unusually high number of ranked teams getting beat by unranked teams in one day.
Don't want to go trumpeting or checking about a record because who really keeps track of these things anyway.

I did think to myself that it seemed like a good day for Duke to not be playing, which come to think of it, is maybe why this thread
got started in the first place with no game to talk about.

HaveFunExpectToWin
03-02-2014, 05:30 PM
Strange game, the only winning move is not to play

How about a nice game of chess?

NYBri
03-02-2014, 08:02 PM
Top 25 holding serve today....except OSU.

DukieInKansas
03-02-2014, 08:40 PM
Strange game, the only winning move is not to play


How about a nice game of chess?

Good thing they started with tic tac toe

OldPhiKap
03-02-2014, 09:44 PM
Good thing they started with tic tac toe

Jim Boeheim = Dabney Coleman, without the mustache.

DukieInKansas
03-03-2014, 12:37 AM
Jim Boeheim = Dabney Coleman, without the mustache.

Does that make Coach K = Matthew Broderick?

crimsonandblue
03-03-2014, 01:29 AM
Does that make Coach K = Matthew Broderick?

Pretty sure K is WOPR.

DukieInKansas
03-03-2014, 11:17 AM
Pretty sure K is WOPR.

Better choice

FerryFor50
03-03-2014, 11:22 AM
3979

Wait... wrong Carnage, right?