AP Poll 2/24/2014

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Florida is #1, then the Shockers, Arizona, Syracuse, Kansas, Duke (#6), then Louisville.

UNC debuts at #19.

[FerryFor50]

Hard to argue with any of that.

Duke deserved to drop a spot, but not too far after going 2-1 this week and taking down Syracuse.

UNC definitely deserved to be in the top 25. 19 might be a bit high, but they are playing pretty well right now.

[jv001]

Question is, who gave North Carolina Central that one vote? GoDuke

[sduke1986]

Question is, who gave North Carolina Central that one vote? GoDuke

Mark Gottfried did

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

We very much still control our own destiny. I think one additional loss last week would have knocked us out of contention for a 1 seed. But, with a game remaining against UNC, a few games we "ought" to win, and potential games against UNC, UVA (#12 by the way, my bad not mentioning it), and a rubber match with Syracuse - we could potentially build a nice resume to justify a #1.

[sduke1986]

Florida is #1, then the Shockers, Arizona, Syracuse, Kansas, Duke (#6), then Louisville.

UNC debuts at #19.

Looks pretty solid to me. Louisville could be higher as they've really seemed to hit their stride, but it really doesn't matter either way.

After we smack UNC, that will be another win over a ranked team. LOL at UNC fans on IC who were talking up Roy as ACC COY. Wow, he managed to get a preseason #11 team back into the rankings with 3 Burger boys in the starting lineup, so impressive. I think we can all agree that Tony Bennett deserves ACC COY, right? Jimmy B lost any chance he had with how he acted the other night IMO.

[nmduke2001]

We very much still control our own destiny. I think one additional loss last week would have knocked us out of contention for a 1 seed. But, with a game remaining against UNC, a few games we "ought" to win, and potential games against UNC, UVA (#12 by the way, my bad not mentioning it), and a rubber match with Syracuse - we could potentially build a nice resume to justify a #1.

I don't know. I think a 1-seed will be tough. I assume WSU goes undefeated. They get a number 1. Florida has a solid case. Arizona is likely a number 1. So, I believe that 3 of the 4 are taken. If Syracuse can get to the ACC tourney without a loss, I think they get the last 1-seed. If Syracuse loses a game before the tourney and then beats us in the tourney, Syracuse gets the last number 1. I think we need to win out and hope Syracuse loses before the tourney to have any chance at a number 1. Just my opinion.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I don't know. I think a 1-seed will be tough. I assume WSU goes undefeated. They get a number 1. Florida has a solid case. Arizona is likely a number 1. So, I believe that 3 of the 4 are taken. If Syracuse can get to the ACC tourney without a loss, I think they get the last 1-seed. If Syracuse loses a game before the tourney and then beats us in the tourney, Sracuse gets the last number 1. I think we need to win out and hope Syracuse loses before the tourney to have any chance at a number 1. Just my opinion.

Right, but my point is that we control our destiny. If we beat them two out of three with one loss in our last 12 games, I think we get "their" spot. Granted, it's a tall order to win out, but I'd rather be hoping for that than for a scenario that involves other teams collapsing.

Great to be in a spot this late in the season where we don't have to hope the dominoes fall a certain way.

[FerryFor50]

I don't know. I think a 1-seed will be tough. I assume WSU goes undefeated. They get a number 1. Florida has a solid case. Arizona is likely a number 1. So, I believe that 3 of the 4 are taken. If Syracuse can get to the ACC tourney without a loss, I think they get the last 1-seed. If Syracuse loses a game before the tourney and then beats us in the tourney, Syracuse gets the last number 1. I think we need to win out and hope Syracuse loses before the tourney to have any chance at a number 1. Just my opinion.

I wouldn't be so sure about Arizona. They still have some tough games left (Cal, Stanford and Oregon). Zona struggled with Stanford before they lost Ashley, and already lost to Cal once. Oregon, they also struggled with. Zona was also fortunate enough not to have to play UCLA without Ashley. I could see Zona losing one, maybe 2 more games, and possibly not the conference tournament. That would knock them out of a #1, provided other teams step up.

[Gthoma2a]

Hard to argue with any of that.

Duke deserved to drop a spot, but not too far after going 2-1 this week and taking down Syracuse.

UNC definitely deserved to be in the top 25. 19 might be a bit high, but they are playing pretty well right now.

To be fair, they did beat us by 8 points and are on a 9 game winning streak. They may be a bit underrated. I hate them, but we have consistently underrated them for the last month (I really miss those IC meltdowns right now; I used to laugh when they said they would split with us).

[UrinalCake]

Hard to imagine getting a 1 seed with 6 losses. I'm sure it's happened before, but there are so many other teams with fewer. Our strength of schedule is good but not murderer's row either, and our biggest OOC win is Michigan at home. So even if we win out, meaning we beat UNC and then beat two of UVA, Syracuse, and UNC in the ACCT, I still think we're a 2.

[Des Esseintes]

Hard to imagine getting a 1 seed with 6 losses. I'm sure it's happened before, but there are so many other teams with fewer. Our strength of schedule is good but not murderer's row either, and our biggest OOC win is Michigan at home. So even if we win out, meaning we beat UNC and then beat two of UVA, Syracuse, and UNC in the ACCT, I still think we're a 2.

It's happened the last two years.

[tommy]

Hard to imagine getting a 1 seed with 6 losses. I'm sure it's happened before, but there are so many other teams with fewer. Our strength of schedule is good but not murderer's row either, and our biggest OOC win is Michigan at home. So even if we win out, meaning we beat UNC and then beat two of UVA, Syracuse, and UNC in the ACCT, I still think we're a 2.

In 2012, one of the #1 seeds (Michigan State) had seven losses.

[Kedsy]

Hard to imagine getting a 1 seed with 6 losses. I'm sure it's happened before, but there are so many other teams with fewer. Our strength of schedule is good but not murderer's row either, and our biggest OOC win is Michigan at home. So even if we win out, meaning we beat UNC and then beat two of UVA, Syracuse, and UNC in the ACCT, I still think we're a 2.

In 6 of the past 7 seasons, there has been at least one team with 5 or more losses (10 altogether in 7 years), including Duke in 2010 (with 5 losses). Going back to 2001, there have been 16 teams with 5 or more losses in 13 years, including Duke in 2004 (5), 2005 (6), and 2010 (5). I didn't feel like going further back than that, but it seems pretty common for a team with 5 losses to get a #1 seed.

In the same 13 year period, 8 teams have received #1 seeds with 6 or more losses (two of the teams had 7 losses!): Indiana (6) last season; Michigan State (7) in 2012; UNC (6) in 2007; Duke (6) and Washington (6) in 2005; Oklahoma (6) and Texas (6) in 2003; and Illinois (7) in 2001.

So it's not commonplace, but it's not particularly unusual, either.

[duketaylor]

I think right now we're either the 5th or 6th seed, overall, so a solid 2 seed. I highly doubt Wichita State would get a 1 seed based on SOS and quality wins. Sagarin has them 17th, overall, 1-0 against top 25 and 3-0 against top 50. I think the top 4 are Fla., Kansas, 'Zona and Syracuse if today was Selection Sunday. Two seeds likely Duke, Louisville, Creighton and I guess Wichita State.

[UrinalCake]

Fair enough, but the only other team in the top 15 that has as many losses as us is Kansas, and they have the #1 SOS in the RPI (compared to our 5, which is actually pretty good and better than I expected). Anyways, I still think we're looking at a #2 even if we win out.

[sduke1986]

Two seeds likely Duke, Louisville, Creighton and I guess Wichita State

Creighton is the toughest team to gauge in my opinion. They obviously seem to have Villanova's number, but man, they have looked pretty average against some bad teams.

[jv001]

It's great to be positive about our chances with 6 losses. Usually around this time of year, we're worried about how we've reached our ceiling. This year most of us are excited about our chances of getting better and some of us think we can get much better. GoDuke!

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Strangely, Lunardi has #6 Louisville as a FIVE seed...

There's a disconnect somewhere...

[sduke1986]

Strangely, Lunardi has #6 Louisville as a FIVE seed...

There's a disconnect somewhere...

Very odd indeed... How can he possibly justify that? I kind of get the feeling that when they do bracketology, that they often forget about certain teams and then just throw them in there somewhere lol.