Human polls - Duke AP/Coaches #1 - this week, anyway

[JasonEvans]

Seeing as the 2/14-20 week is over, I figured we should move the conversation about "who is #1 on 2/21?" somewhere else.

One thing I am interested in seeing-- how many teams get #1 votes. I won't be at all surprised to see 6 teams get votes.

As for who will be #1... I have no idea. I think it will likely be Kansas, but it will be very close and I could see a case being made for several of them. If I had to bet...

Kansas
Duke
Ohio St
Pitt
Texas
SDSU

-Jason "your good is as guess as mine" Evans

[juise]

I love having chaos at the top of the polls. I am glad that the voters are finally starting (but just starting) to break out of their robotic, predictable pattern of automatically bumping down teams that lose and moving up the next team that won. Not all wins and losses are equal.

I note that some voters vote based on how teams are playing now and some look at "body of work." It seems like the CBS contingent isn't impressed by Duke's 1 win against current top 25 teams. As well know, the key is to keep winning and the polls/seeds take care of themselves.

[KyDevilinIL]

Putting my Monopoly money on this:

1. Pitt
2. Ohio State
3. Duke
4. Kansas
5. Texas

Still think there's a slight possibility of oddities, such as the media and coaches' polls naming different No. 1s. Or even a team taking the No. 1 spot with fewer No. 1 votes than a lower-ranked team because there could be wide discrepancies in where teams fall on various ballots.

Based on what I've read and heard, it seems fairly certain Duke won't be No. 1. Beyond that it's a quite volatile situation.

[juise]

Still think there's a slight possibility of oddities, such as the media and coaches' polls naming different No. 1s.

Good point. I think that the coaches will be kinder to Duke than the AP will. That seems to be the trend. My wild guess predictions are:

AP:
(1) Pitt
(2) tOSU
(3) Duke
(4) Kansas
(5) Texas

Coaches:
(1) Pitt
(2) Duke
(3) Kansas
(4) tOSU
(5) Texas

[timmy c]

Putting my Monopoly money on this:

1. Pitt
2. Ohio State
3. Duke
4. Kansas
5. Texas

As long as we're betting Monopoly money...

1) Duke
2) Ohio St.
3) Kansas
4) Pitt
5) Texas

[wilson]

Putting my Monopoly money on this:

1. Pitt
2. Ohio State
3. Duke
4. Kansas
5. Texas

I highly doubt if Pitt will vault three places into the top spot on the heels of a humdrum win over South Florida, followed by a loss.

Still think there's a slight possibility of oddities, such as the media and coaches' polls naming different No. 1s.

I think this is a distinct possibility.

Since we're all just throwing darts here anyway, I'll toss a few too. I think Ohio State goes back to the top spot. Their two losses have come on the road to top-11 teams, better than any of the other top 6 can say. My prediction:

1. Ohio State
2. Duke
3. Kansas
4. SDSU
5. Texas
6. Pitt

One thing that seems clear is that, much like last year, there's no odds-on favorite at this point in the season (even on SportsCenter, when they asked four "experts" who the best team is, they got three different answers...two said Ohio State). This makes things fun and opens up chances for more teams to have legit title shots. In light of the current state of affairs in college athletics, methinks this is pretty much the new norm from here forward.

[juise]

A different human poll: SportsNation likes Duke.

[Bluedog]

A different human poll: SportsNation likes Duke.

It's funny that the poll on ESPN last night included Texas and Pitt as well. I wonder why they decided to get rid of them. Duke was also leading in that one, but not as large of a margin. Looks like Duke picked up the TX and Pitt voters. By the way, if I had to guess:

AP:
1. Pitt
2. Ohio St
3. Duke
4. Kansas
5. Texas

USA Today/Coaches:
1. Duke
2. Pitt
3. Ohio St
4. San Diego St
5. Kansas

[LA_Bluedevil]

The last few weeks the prognasticators discussions have been pretty much like this "I think Ohio State should be no. 1 but TX is playing the best basketball right now", so the decision to move Duke to #1 seems like a no brainer whilst still being able to debate who's playing the best. If I said to you, that my team is 25-2, with two losses on the road to tournament teams, no. 6 RPI, and the best player in the nation at SG and SF, you would say no problem with that team being #1. My goodness Foxsports' Goodman has moved Notre Dame ahead of Duke at # 5?! The anti-Duke bias is such that now nationwide people have to "explain/defend" in detail choosing Duke as their top team, even Duke fans. It seems silly. With all that my top 5:

1. Duke
2. SDSU
3. BYU
4. OSU
5. Kansas

[PumpkinFunk]

My best guess, though I'm hearing we're #1 on Twitter now, so who knows:

1. OSU - 2 "best" losses - @Wisconsin and @Purdue
2. Kansas - People consider them better than us, wins not necessarily worse/better though
3. Duke
4. Texas - Best wins of group, bad losses
5. SDSU - One loss wasn't bad. Resume isn't great, though.

[KyDevilinIL]

I'm surprised, but we're No. 1 in the coaches' poll. Pitt is No. 6 and the national media clowns are flipping out on Twitter.

Somehow, I'm sure Duke will be even further demonized and blamed for Pitt's ranking.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...l/usatpoll.htm

[DukeSean]

Seeing as the 2/14-20 week is over, I figured we should move the conversation about "who is #1 on 2/21?" somewhere else.

One thing I am interested in seeing-- how many teams get #1 votes. I won't be at all surprised to see 6 teams get votes.

As for who will be #1... I have no idea. I think it will likely be Kansas, but it will be very close and I could see a case being made for several of them. If I had to bet...

Kansas
Duke
Ohio St
Pitt
Texas
SDSU

-Jason "your good is as guess as mine" Evans

I know it's anyone's guess at this point, but I'm curious how/why you'd put Kansas at the top after that beatdown to K-State? I would think Kansas is the least worthy of the #1 spot, at least for this week...

[DukeSean]

I'm surprised, but we're No. 1 in the coaches' poll. Pitt is No. 6 and the national media clowns are flipping out on Twitter.

Somehow, I'm sure Duke will be even further demonized and blamed for Pitt's ranking.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...l/usatpoll.htm

Yea I'll admit I'm surprised as well. I thought OSU would be on top

[Indoor66]

Order has been restored. Coaches Poll:

Rank

School (first-place votes)

Record

Points

Last week's rank

1.

Duke (19)

25-2

746

5

2.

Kansas (1)

25-2

708

1

3.

Ohio State (4)

25-2

699

3

4.

San Diego State (3)

27-1

672

6

5.

Texas

23-4

667

2

6.

Pittsburgh (4)

24-3

664

4

7.

Brigham Young

25-2

593

8

8.

Purdue

22-5

562

11

9.

Notre Dame

21-5

506

7

10.

Arizona

23-4

461

13

11.

Georgetown

21-6

437

9

12.

Wisconsin

20-6

428

10

13.

Florida

21-5

397

15

14.

Villanova

21-6

377

14

15.

Connecticut

20-6

312

12

16.

Louisville

20-7

278

16

17.

Texas A&M

21-5

254

17

18.

Vanderbilt

20-6

242

18

19.

North Carolina

20-6

236

19

20.

Syracuse

22-6

183

20

21.

Missouri

21-6

161

21

22.

Kentucky

19-7

134

22

23.

Utah State

25-3

109

24

24.

Temple

21-5

85

25

25.

St. John's

17-9

73

NR

[DevilWearsPrada]

I just saw on ESPN, that Duke is the New No 1.

[BD80]

... It seems like the CBS contingent isn't impressed by Duke's 1 win against current top 25 teams. ...

St Johns is now in, so that makes TWO!

We can get another win against a top-25 team on Wednesday, but in so doing we will probably knock them out of the top-25.

KSU has games at Texas and Nebraska and could easily wind up in the top 25.

[KyDevilinIL]

St Johns is now in, so that makes TWO!

We can get another win against a top-25 team on Wednesday, but in so doing we will probably knock them out of the top-25.

KSU has games at Texas and Nebraska and could easily wind up in the top 25.

I thought we lost at St. John's.

[pfrduke]

Order has been restored. Coaches Poll:

6.

Pittsburgh (4)

24-3

664

4

I wonder when (if ever) the last time was that a team had as many first-place votes as Pitt does but was ranked as low as they are. Ending up 6th while getting 4 of the 31 top votes suggests some major dissension among all the ballots.

[-bdbd]

I just saw on ESPN, that Duke is the New No 1.

While I was surprised to see Pitt down to #6, just keep in mind that the difference between 4-5-6 is all of 8 total points. So those three could easily shuffle on a whim quickly.

One nice thing about being all the way up to number one is that, even if you lose, there's still a decent chance of pulling in a one-seed. The one-seed is what we should be focused on earning at this point. It'll make the first few rounds of the NCAAT go much smoother/easier.

Now, about that pesky toe...
(Actually it is VERY cool that the guys have achieved this accolade totally w/o KI for the last 2.5 months. ) Imagine how good we can be if he does make it back soon.

Go Duke!!!

[JasonEvans]

I know it's anyone's guess at this point, but I'm curious how/why you'd put Kansas at the top after that beatdown to K-State? I would think Kansas is the least worthy of the #1 spot, at least for this week...

Well, it was a rivalry game and it happened on a Monday night, so I figured it would not be as fresh in the minds of the voters as the weekend losses of Pitt, Texas, and Ohio State. My logic was not too terrible as Kansas came in at #2 to Duke in the Coach's poll.

I am a bit surprised that we took such a large percentage of the #1 votes in the Coach's poll -- 19 out of 31. I expect that whoever is #1 in the AP poll will not get more than 60% of the #1 votes.

-Jason "I bet the writers will like Pitt a lot more than the coaches did... and SDSU won't get nearly as much love from the writers" Evans