We're #1!!

[johnb]

In addition to his rankings of Gonzaga and Duke, Newell was the biggest single outlier with Houston, LSU, and Iowa.

Maybe this is all for clicks, but maybe he actually tries to look past the records and answer the question. It's a young season, and maybe Vegas would favor Gonzaga if they played again (though if they did, I'd definitely take the points).

At least he's a journalist who presumably watches a lot of games--in contrast to something like the USA Coaches Poll, which asks head coaches to do the ranking; I find it hard to believe that any good coach spends more than a few minutes watching basketball games that don't involve teams they have on their schedule. Maybe a big game, like Gonzaga/Duke, but do we expect an ACC HC to actually watch Providence/Wisconsin and give serious thought about why Providence beats WU and loses to Virginia and is out of the rankings while Wisconsin loses that game to Providence, edges Houston, and is ranked. Some coaches might care about getting to be a voter, but I can't imagine they care about getting their votes perfect. My guess is that a typical head coach just vets a list generated by an assistant whose mandate is for the list to not being an outlier in any direction, with a special emphasis on not voting in a way that would provoke likely rivals.

Having said that, I like the fact that Duke's #1, with a good possibility of keeping the ranking into the new year.

[4Gen]

I have a bad premonition that omicron is going to hit the western world like a sledge hammer. That's not to say that my premonition includes that it produces serious illness, but I think it will be omnipresent. Now I know that canceling this season is way down on the list of pandemic concerns, but still, if it happens, I'm going to feel terribly cheated.

[Bluedog]

I have a bad premonition that omicron is going to hit the western world like a sledge hammer. That's not to say that my premonition includes that it produces serious illness, but I think it will be omnipresent. Now I know that canceling this season is way down on the list of pandemic concerns, but still, if it happens, I'm going to feel terribly cheated.

It appears that the NCAA has changed their rules as it relates to close contacts/quarantines/etc. once vaccinated so it has much less of an impact and hardly any games have been canceled despite decently high case counts in certain places. Could they change the rules again if omicron becomes a bigger deal/evades vaccines? Sure, but we don't know that. Also seems unlikely that we will be having lockdowns/major activity restrictions again based on the public policy/perceptions around that now, but who knows.