Ohio State Number One?

[DomeStranger]

No chance Ohio St is #1 on Monday ... my biggest concern was that a 2 loss NC would jump us in the AP, but with their shaky win last night I think that puts that to rest but I'll bet they get more votes that Ohio St does. As for the coaches poll, the only concern there is Duke. I don't think Duke's a great team this year but they do have some impressive wins and just one loss. It wouldn't surprise me to see them get a couple votes there and jump the Ville to #2.

 

[Knicks411]

Really? Because they whooped Notre Dame minus their best player? Because Nova is easier game this year than in a decade? Who has Missouri beaten? I know it isn't their fault that normally good teams like ND and Nova are bad this year, but why would you say something like this without at least looking it up? Poppy, did you watch one game where Missouri looked good?

Was their win over Cal your deciding factor? Cal has played two teams, and been destroyed by both. I guess the RPI makes you a nice win in that case. However, they will be beaten by most of the Pac 10 this year, based on how they have handled their BCS opponents so far.

Missouri beat Notre Dame before Abro got hurt. And they killed both ND and Cal.

Not sure if Missouri is the most impressive team, but they didn't beat ND post Abro.

 

[Marsh01]

Not a chance. We will be almost unanimous at the #1 spot. Here s how the top 5 will play out.

Syracuse
Kentucky
Louisville
North Carolina
Ohio State

 

[CiscoCuse]

#1 next week is nice, but there's a long way to go and all I care about is #1 on April 3, 2012!

 

[JrodCuse]

If we're not #1 on Monday, something is wrong with the poll system.

 

[Orangeyes]

I think in spite of the loss, Ohio State may keep most of their number one votes and will wind up top ranked in spite of their loss.

I am not sure this would be a mistake.

Kentucky is a very talented, but not great team. Syracuse is very talented, but hasn't shown much, or beaten anybody yet. Louisville is fairly no name, and has rocketed up the rankings on a bunch of no name victories, except Vanderbilt, whom has proven very beatable.

Syracuse has beaten Florida and nobody else. RPI has us at 4 but with 19 SOS. Ohio State (RPI 20 SOS 134) has also played Florida and crushed Duke. They lose on the road to Kansas (47RPI 43SOS) tonight.

However, we all know the only rankings that matter are public opinion. With Sullinger out, and with Kansas being a very good team, I think both voting bodies give Ohio State a walk on their loss.

Kentucky clearly loses all their votes, since they lost to a non ranked Indiana team, and the pollsters won't admit they made a mistake on calling Indiana a bad team. Kentucky will lose all those votes. Those votes go to...

Syracuse: Undefeated and looking very good. Dominant defensive team, no half court offense. No great victories. (I am sure most of those who vote wouldn't know what I was talking about with my succinct opinion of our team)

Louisville, Baylor, Marquette, Xavier, and Missouri. I think the Polls will only want to choose Louisville out of these teams. The rest have no recent Top 5 history, and each of them will need another couple wins before they solidify their roles as top teams.

So, Ohio State steals some of Kentucky's votes, Syracuse steals some more, the ranks stack. Our boys UNC and Duke move back up, despite recent losses and with great name recognition. In the end, Ohio State keeps many of their votes, steals enough from Kentucky, and Syracuse bumps up only a notch. Not my choice, but sometimes injuries help the team who loses their guy. This will be one of those times.

Note, this is a guess how the voters will rank us, not what I think is fair. That said... Are we better than Ohio State with Sullinger, or Kentucky in spite of a bad loss to Indiana? Or even UNC with their lottery pick talent (and two losses)?

1) Ohio State
2) Syracuse
3) Louisville
4) UNC
5) Kentucky
6) Duke
7) Baylor
8) Xavior (Crushing Cincinatti would have gotten them more if Cinci hadn't sucked this year)
9 )UCOnn
10) Missouri

With a bunch of non power basketball programs, I wouldn't be surprised if Marquette's nice start takes them another two weeks of unbeaten ball to hit the top ten.

Syracuse might not deserve the top ranking, especially with Ohio State losing to a good team on the road without their best player.

My bet is we wind up number two this week, as many pollsters aren't as dumb as we all think.

How much are you willing to put up? Ez-in-box me for a friendly wager.

 

[realorange]

THIS ^^^^^^^

Don't be so sure of that. We don't want to see Ohio State until the final game. We have nobody the equivelent of Sullinger. The guard play is probably a tradeoff. Right now I think we could be in trouble with them. End of the year might be a more favorable matchup, but I'd hate to bet it either way.

 

[PoppyHart]

Missouri beat Notre Dame before Abro got hurt. And they killed both ND and Cal.

Not sure if Missouri is the most impressive team, but they didn't beat ND post Abro.

To clarify, I'm not saying Missouri is the "best" team in the country. They may ultimately be, who knows? Just that they've been very convincing in every game they've played, winning each by double digits and all but one by 15+.

Thus, I used the term impressive. Baylor has also looked good every night out, for what it's worth.

 

[Madbiker]

The polls will want an undefeated team in the #1 spot so we'll be #1 but close over OSU who will get cut some slack. My guess for poll:

1.Syracuse
2.Ohio St. (won't drop but won't move up either)
3. Kentucky (1 pt last second loss on road to a team becoming more regarded)
4. Louisville
5. UNC (UK beat them last week and lost to better team than UNLV)

 

[OttoMets]

The polls will want an undefeated team in the #1 spot so we'll be #1 but close over OSU who will get cut some slack. My guess for poll:

1.Syracuse
2.Ohio St. (won't drop but won't move up either)
3. Kentucky (1 pt last second loss on road to a team becoming more regarded)
4. Louisville
5. UNC (UK beat them last week and lost to better team than UNLV)

This. Maybe Louisville's third and Kentucky's fourth.

 

[Flacusian]

Syacuse will be #1 in both polls tomorrow PERIOD.
Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[rstone7727]

To clarify, I'm not saying Missouri is the "best" team in the country. They may ultimately be, who knows? Just that they've been very convincing in every game they've played, winning each by double digits and all but one by 15+.

Thus, I used the term impressive. Baylor has also looked good every night out, for what it's worth.

Missouri is a good team, would love to see them match up with Florida. Two similar, guard oriented teams with the same weaknesses - lack of depth and bigs. But they both can shoot - lights out.

 

[Upstate]

Mizzou is terrific. They may be better defensively than SU is. The defense their guards play is out of this world

 

[AlaskaSU]

The vote could go either way. I guess it goes our way but i would not be surprised if it doesn't. A loss with Sully would have put us as number one, but now its more complicated.

Suppose we were numero uno and we had a dominant post player, say AO from two years ago, but we lost to Kansas at Kansas while AO was injured for a game. Would that mean that our team deserved a lower ranking?

Some voters will find rationale to vote for Ohio St and others for us. Both arguments have merit.

I'm not sold on Florida being a top 10 team and we played them on our turf. Our case is not bullet proof.

Number one ranking is nice but its too early in the season for the polls to be accurate. Sample sizes are too small.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I'm not basketball guru, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I was able to catch the Nova Mizzou game this week and also came away very impressed with Mizzou. Denmon is a hell of a shooter, and that English kid is shooting at an unreal clip as well. The Pressey kid is a nice little playmaker and floor general out there. The only thing they currently lack is size from what I saw, and could get beat up a bit in a physical contest.

I also like Missouri a LOT. To me Mizzou, Ohio St., and Kentucky have all looked better than SU. Dosn't take a genius to see this. Obviously the polls don't accurately represent the strength of a team. It represents who has lost the least amount of games. SU will be number one and deservedly so. Frankly, I can't believe there is so much discussion about the stupid polls and a potential number one ranking. Act like we've been here before!

 

[OttoMets]

The vote could go either way. I guess it goes our way but i would not be surprised if it doesn't. A loss with Sully would have put us as number one, but now its more complicated.

Suppose we were numero uno and we had a dominant post player, say AO from two years ago, but we lost to Kansas at Kansas while AO was injured for a game. Would that mean that our team deserved a lower ranking?

It wouldn't justify a lower ranking, but it sure wouldn't justify moving up in the poll, either. It'd be perfectly fair for OSU to sit at #2. Even though I think they're the best team in the country, that's not how the polls work, so it'd be odd for them to rise after a loss.

 

[llandz]

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2011/12/with_polls_to_be_released_this.html Seth Davis voted Ohio St. #1 and Syracuse #2.

 

[OttoMets]

Cue ad hominem attacks based on one sportswriter's vote in a meaningless subjective poll.

 

[Knicks411]

SETH DAVIS HAS ALWAYS HATED SYRACUSE!!!

(until the next time he says something nice about Seth Davis. Then it's "I always knew I liked Seth Davis")

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Not a chance in hell that OSU moves up to #1 with their loss...not a chance. I doubt they even get a #1 vote.

Syracuse will get 95% of the #1 votes come Monday...if not all of them.

I think you might be naive as to how much hate Syracuse gets in general in the rankings. We shall see.

We received 28 out of 30 first place votes in the Coaches poll. That's a grand total of 93.33%.

I will fully admit here publicly that I was obviously way off in my estimation of the proportion of #1 votes SU would receive.

 

[cusetown1]

We received 28 out of 30 first place votes in the Coaches poll. That's a grand total of 93.33%.

I will fully admit here publicly that I was obviously way off in my estimation of the proportion of #1 votes SU would receive.

go on..

 

[Orangeyes]

Niastri said:

"My bet is we wind up number two this week, as many pollsters aren't as dumb as we all think."

Orangeyes said:

"How much are you willing to put up? Ez-in-box me for a friendly wager."

I didn't get an easy in box message or a reply on the board so I easy inboxed him with a wager offer and never heard back so I'm assuming he was just playing devil's advocate.

 

[Niastri]

So, I am glad to say my worst case scenario of Syracuse not moving to number one did not occur. OE, I missed your EZ inbox until it was too late, but I knew it was going to be a sucker's bet. Your description of me as Devil's advocate would describe my thought process perfectly.

However, 21.5% (14/65) of the AP voters voted for someone besides Syracuse as number one, along with 6.7% (only 2/30) of coaches. My premise wasn't as far off as some would have hoped. I am glad that we are ahead with such a clear margin, I feared it would be much closer.

 

[PoppyHart]

I stand by my statement that Missouri has probably been the most impressive team thus far.

I still agree with me.

 

[netman99]

I think in spite of the loss, Ohio State may keep most of their number one votes and will wind up top ranked in spite of their loss.

I am not sure this would be a mistake.

Kentucky is a very talented, but not great team. Syracuse is very talented, but hasn't shown much, or beaten anybody yet. Louisville is fairly no name, and has rocketed up the rankings on a bunch of no name victories, except Vanderbilt, whom has proven very beatable.

Syracuse has beaten Florida and nobody else. RPI has us at 4 but with 19 SOS. Ohio State (RPI 20 SOS 134) has also played Florida and crushed Duke. They lose on the road to Kansas (47RPI 43SOS) tonight.

However, we all know the only rankings that matter are public opinion. With Sullinger out, and with Kansas being a very good team, I think both voting bodies give Ohio State a walk on their loss.

Kentucky clearly loses all their votes, since they lost to a non ranked Indiana team, and the pollsters won't admit they made a mistake on calling Indiana a bad team. Kentucky will lose all those votes. Those votes go to...

Syracuse: Undefeated and looking very good. Dominant defensive team, no half court offense. No great victories. (I am sure most of those who vote wouldn't know what I was talking about with my succinct opinion of our team)

Louisville, Baylor, Marquette, Xavier, and Missouri. I think the Polls will only want to choose Louisville out of these teams. The rest have no recent Top 5 history, and each of them will need another couple wins before they solidify their roles as top teams.

So, Ohio State steals some of Kentucky's votes, Syracuse steals some more, the ranks stack. Our boys UNC and Duke move back up, despite recent losses and with great name recognition. In the end, Ohio State keeps many of their votes, steals enough from Kentucky, and Syracuse bumps up only a notch. Not my choice, but sometimes injuries help the team who loses their guy. This will be one of those times.

Note, this is a guess how the voters will rank us, not what I think is fair. That said... Are we better than Ohio State with Sullinger, or Kentucky in spite of a bad loss to Indiana? Or even UNC with their lottery pick talent (and two losses)?

1) Ohio State
2) Syracuse
3) Louisville
4) UNC
5) Kentucky
6) Duke
7) Baylor
8) Xavior (Crushing Cincinatti would have gotten them more if Cinci hadn't sucked this year)
9 )UCOnn
10) Missouri

With a bunch of non power basketball programs, I wouldn't be surprised if Marquette's nice start takes them another two weeks of unbeaten ball to hit the top ten.

Syracuse might not deserve the top ranking, especially with Ohio State losing to a good team on the road without their best player.

My bet is we wind up number two this week, as many pollsters aren't as dumb as we all think.

Most senseless post of the week right here