Poll Watch 2/18/2013

[RowdyZip]

Had some spare time, and I thought we could enjoy watching the Zips in the major polls while it lasts. Let's check what the other teams in the (RV) category of the AP top 25 did during the past week:

20: Wisconsin (1-1, W vs. Mich, L@Minn)

21: Notre Dame (1-1, W vs. DePaul, L@Providence)

22: Memphis (2-0 UCF, @Marshall)

23: Oregon (2-0, @Wash, @Wash St.)

24: Colorado State (2-0, vs. SDSU, @Airforce)

25: Kentucky (0-2, @#7 Florida, @Tennessee)

26. Minnesota (1-0, vs. Wisc)

27: Missouri (1-1, W@ Miss St., L@Ark)

28: Cincinnati (1-1, W vs. Villanova, L@Georgetown)

29: St. Mary's (1-1, L vs. Gonzaga, W@LMU)

30: Creighton (1-1, L@UNI, W@Evansville)

31: San Diego State (0-2, @Colorado St, @UNLV)

32: Louisiana Tech (2-0, @Seattle, @Idaho)

33: VCU (2-0, @UMass, @GWU)

34: Saint Louis (1-0, vs. Charlotte)

35: Illinois (1-0, vs. Purdue)

36: NC State (1-0, vs. VA Tech)

37: Akron (2-0, @EMU, vs. BG)

38: UCLA (1-1, L@Cal, W@Stanford)

39: UNLV (1-1, L@Airforce, W vs. SDSU)

40: Indiana State (0-2, @Missouri St, @Bradley)

41: Virginia (1-1, W vs. VA Tech, L@UNC)

42: Wichita State (1-0, vs. Drake)

43: Belmont (0-1, @Tenn St.)

44: Oklahoma (1-1, W vs. TCU, L@Ok St.)

45: Mississippi (1-1, L@TX A&M, W vs. GA)

Looking at teams 20-45, 15 teams lost at least one game. That's 15 out of 25. Zips have a real chance to gain some ground on ballots this week. It's not out of the realm of possibility with a big W on national TV Friday and a similar performance from the poll periphery that the Zips could eek into the 25 the week of the game in Athens.

[zippy5]

Nice work. I was gonna spend some time today checking out the teams ahead of us. Also, PSU is tied with Michigan at half time. A PSU win would be a nice bump for our RPI since we thrashed them in PR. As a Pitt fan I never thought I'd say it, but go Penn State.

[MontrealExposloveZippy]

Had some spare time, and I thought we could enjoy watching the Zips in the major polls while it lasts. Let's check what the other teams in the (RV) category of the AP top 25 did during the past week:

20: Wisconsin (1-1, W vs. Mich, L@Minn)

21: Notre Dame (1-1, W vs. DePaul, L@Providence)

22: Memphis (2-0 UCF, @Marshall)

23: Oregon (2-0, @Wash, @Wash St.)

24: Colorado State (2-0, vs. SDSU, @Airforce)

25: Kentucky (0-2, @#7 Florida, @Tennessee)

26. Minnesota (1-0, vs. Wisc)

27: Missouri (1-1, W@ Miss St., L@Ark)

28: Cincinnati (1-1, W vs. Villanova, L@Georgetown)

29: St. Mary's (1-1, L vs. Gonzaga, W@LMU)

30: Creighton (1-1, L@UNI, W@Evansville)

31: San Diego State (0-2, @Colorado St, @UNLV)

32: Louisiana Tech (2-0, @Seattle, @Idaho)

33: VCU (2-0, @UMass, @GWU)

34: Saint Louis (1-0, vs. Charlotte)

35: Illinois (1-0, vs. Purdue)

36: NC State (1-0, vs. VA Tech)

37: Akron (2-0, @EMU, vs. BG)

38: UCLA (1-1, L@Cal, W@Stanford)

39: UNLV (1-1, L@Airforce, W vs. SDSU)

40: Indiana State (0-2, @Missouri St, @Bradley)

41: Virginia (1-1, W vs. VA Tech, L@UNC)

42: Wichita State (1-0, vs. Drake)

43: Belmont (0-1, @Tenn St.)

44: Oklahoma (1-1, W vs. TCU, L@Ok St.)

45: Mississippi (1-1, L@TX A&M, W vs. GA)

Looking at teams 20-45, 15 teams lost at least one game. That's 15 out of 25. Zips have a real chance to gain some ground on ballots this week. It's not out of the realm of possibility with a big W on national TV Friday and a similar performance from the poll periphery that the Zips could eek into the 25 the week of the game in Athens.

Yea, nice work on putting this together I guess we want Ohio State to beat Wisconsin and if somehow Penn St can pull it out against Michigan

[ZachTheZip]

The Ohio State-Wisconsin game won't affect us too much.

What we really need is the ballots of the voters that already have us ranked, and which teams they had immediately ahead of us that have lost. The best way to pick up points is to make inroads on those ballots. Appearing on other people's ballots will happen eventually, but is less predictable. With our current voters, we can readily see where we should end up and how many votes that should get us. Anything else is a bonus.

[ZachTheZip]

Here we go.

On Seth Davis's (ESPN) ballot, Akron is #21. The five teams ahead of us are NC State (1-0), Kentucky (0-2), Oklahoma State (2-0), Georgetown (2-0), and Butler (1-1). I think we move up at least one spot here, thanks to Kentucky. That puts us at #20, which is worth 6 votes.

We're #24 on Mark Berman's (Roanoke Times) ballot. The five teams ahead of us are Indiana State (0-2), Notre Dame (1-1), Kansas (2-0), Oklahoma State (2-0), and Colorado State (2-0). We're definitely jumping Indiana State and maybe Notre Dame, but I wouldn't count on that one. I'll say we move to #23, which is worth 3 votes.

John Feinstein (NPR) has us at #25. The five teams ahead of us are Louisiana Tech (2-0), Notre Dame (1-1), Virginia (1-1), St Mary's (1-1), and Ohio State (1-1). Four teams lost, but the one directly ahead of us did not. I'll take a conservative guess and put us at #24 for two votes.

Kevin McNamara (Providence Journal) has Akron at #25 with VCU (2-0), Colorado State (2-0), Memphis (2-0), Marquette (1-1), and Kentucky (0-2) ahead of us. I don't really see us moving up on this ballot. One vote.

Lamond Pope (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette) has us at #25 with VCU (2-0), Cincinnati (1-1), Memphis (2-0), Marquette (1-1), and Notre Dame (1-1) ahead of us. We should move up a spot to #24 for two votes.

Ryan Thorburn (Boulder Daily Camera) has us at #25. The five teams ahead of us are Notre Dame (1-1), Georgetown (2-0), VCU (2-0), Memphis (2-0), and Colorado State (2-0). We should jump Notre Dame to get to #24 and two votes.

Steve DeShazo (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star) has us at #25 with New Mexico (2-0), Memphis (2-0), Missouri (1-1), Louisiana Tech (2-0), and Kentucky (0-2) ahead of us. We should move up a spot to #24 and two votes.

So, a conservative estimate puts us at 18 votes tomorrow, up from 12. It takes about 100 votes to get ranked.

[ZachTheZip]

No Akron on David Borges' AP Ballot.

Still waiting on others to submit. Brian Howell has submitted, but has not posted who he voted for. Kevin Brockway only tweeted his top 5.

[Dave in Green]

It's funny, because David Borges voted for Louisiana Tech as his #25, and I'm an LT grad. When I look at Tech's record, they have one less loss than the Zips and they're also undefeated in their conference (WAC). The only other thing I see in Tech's record other than one less loss is that the WAC is ranked slightly higher than the MAC. But comparing the two teams directly, UA ranks higher in RPI and SOS because the Zips have a stronger OOC SOS. Maybe when sportswriters get to #25 on their ballots they just flip a coin.

[ZachTheZip]

Not in the CBSSports Top 26

[ZachTheZip]

It's funny, because David Borges voted for Louisiana Tech as his #25, and I'm an LT grad. When I look at Tech's record, they have one less loss than the Zips and they're also undefeated in their conference (WAC). The only other thing I see in Tech's record other than one less loss is that the WAC is ranked slightly higher than the MAC. But comparing the two teams directly, UA ranks higher in RPI and SOS because the Zips have a stronger OOC SOS. Maybe when sportswriters get to #25 on their ballots they just flip a coin.

Or maybe they go by name recognition. The AP has so many oters because they each have their own methodology. Some only vote for schools they have already heard of. Some spend all week researching D-I from top to bottom and rank every team. Some throw a dart at a piece of paper with names written on it. In theory it all balances out.

[ZachTheZip]

Not on Brian Howell's ballot, or even his top 25 radar at this point.

I think the next two games are the major key. We have the stage to ourselves on Friday, and of course the game in Athens is the biggest game of the season by far.

[Zip76]

#24 on Seth Davis' ballot via Twitter

[zippy5]

Interesting. We were 21 on his last week.

[RowdyZip]

Interesting. We were 21 on his last week.

Shows you how subjective these polls are. He moved us from 24 to 21 after narrow victories in which we trailed most of the game vs Miami and CMU and then moves us down after games we won by an average of 12.5 and led virtually wire to wire against better teams.

[ZachTheZip]

#24 on Seth Davis' ballot via Twitter

With that news, I don't expect to gain any ground at all this week. Bummer.

We really, really need to beat NDSU on Friday on national TV.

[RootforRoo44]

I put together a twitter list of every AP Voter (55 of the 65 have twitter accounts) so everyone can either tweet at the voters or follow them and see their rationale for their voting.

LINK

p.s. I tweeted at a few of them and got a few funny responses. I may have at least got UCONN's local sportswriter's attention (Dave Borges). You can thank me if we're on his ballot next week lol.

[skip-zip]

Again, I am hoping that a combination of some teams dropping and the continuation of the "winning streak bandwagon" can move us up at least 5 spots this week.

If that happens, I think Top-25 is still a possibility by the end of the regular season, if we go unbeaten.

[Big Zip]

We're on this board talking about Top 25 if the team can go undefeated the rest of the way. Doesn't this point to a bigger problem? We are never going to become a high mid-major program playing in the MAC. I wish GT and/or Elton would interview the John Steinbrecker or Ricky Stokes and ask them what they think about having a team with the longest winning streak in the country/undefeated in Conference play and still not ranked. Ask them what are you doing to up the play of the conference? What do this guys do all day long to earn their money (not GT or Elton) but the guys in the MAC office.

[skip-zip]

We're on this board talking about Top 25 if the team can go undefeated the rest of the way. Doesn't this point to a bigger problem? We are never going to become a high mid-major program playing in the MAC. I wish GT and/or Elton would interview the John Steinbrecker or Ricky Stokes and ask them what they think about having a team with the longest winning streak in the country/undefeated in Conference play and still not ranked. Ask them what are you doing to up the play of the conference? What do this guys do all day long to earn their money (not GT or Elton) but the guys in the MAC office.

For me, the answer has always been the same: Significant upgrade of the non-conference schedule.

It's the only thing we have any control over right now.

As I've said many times, you can't expect to win all of your games in college basketball. This is a remarkable run, and it's still not good enough. I agree.

[RowdyZip]

Zips up to 32nd from 37th in the New AP Poll

Also 30th in New ESPN Power Rankings

[Staton14]

Up to 27th in coaches poll from 37th last week. Thats a huge gain

[RowdyZip]

Up to 27th in coaches poll from 37th last week. Thats a huge gain

A strong win on the deuce Friday and the Zips will crack the coaches poll. Impressive gains.

[MontrealExposloveZippy]

Yes very impressive- other teams will keep dropping this week, so if we can win Friday (especially if we can handle them on National TV) a top 25 ranking almost seems guaranteed. Now... what are we going to do til Friday?? Ugh..

[zippy5]

Yes very impressive- other teams will keep dropping this week, so if we can win Friday (especially if we can handle them on National TV) a top 25 ranking almost seems guaranteed. Now... what are we going to do til Friday?? Ugh..

As much as I'd like to think so.. we'd actually have to about triple our vote totals to get in.

[Dave in Green]

#27 in the Coaches Poll is extremely impressive. Zips (19 points) are only 4 behind #26 St. Louis (23 points). But most of the teams in the lower part of the top 25 are pretty big names, so it will take a big stumble from one of them for the Zips to break into the top 25. #25 Notre Dame has 50 points. Zips just have to keep winning.

[akronzips71]

#27 in the Coaches Poll is extremely impressive. Zips (19 points) are only 4 behind #26 St. Louis (23 points). But most of the teams in the lower part of the top 25 are pretty big names, so it will take a big stumble from one of them for the Zips to break into the top 25. #25 Notre Dame has 50 points. Zips just have to keep winning.

Creighton and MTS have dropped out, which probably hurts our SOS a lot.