College Basketball Rankings: AP Poll Analysis for Dec. 19th

The newest AP Poll is out, and as you might expect, there was relatively little change at the top. The one major exception in the top ten is the Xavier Musketeers, who were drilled by visiting Oral Roberts at home. Xavier did have three major players suspended, including star point guard Tu Holloway.

But unlike the Ohio St. Buckeys, who lost to the Kansas Jayhawks on the road with star center Jared Sullinger out with an ailing back, the poll voters were not nearly as forgiving of Xavier's miscue. The Musketeers were pummeled by the poll voters, dropping 6 spots from #8 to #14.

Truth be told, Xavier was almost unquestionably over-valued from the beginning. Ken Pomeroy had them at #19 before the loss, and even though this is early in the season to over-rely on Kenmpom's ratings, the disparity can't be ignored. Pomeroy now has Xavier at 32, which probably understates them quite a bit. Realistically, they are probably overrated at 14 but definitely deserve to be in the top 25. Xavier is offensively challenged, but they defend pretty well.

Another big drop comes from the Illinois Fighting Illini, who were soundly defeated at the United Center in Chicago by North Carolina Tar Heels-killer UNLV. The Runnin' Rebels held Illinois to only 31% eFG%, either a killer defensive performance, or an awful offensive effort. Either way, that's a big hit.

Speaking of Dave Rice's team, UNLV moves back into the poll after being dropped out in early December due to an embarrassing loss at the hands of the Wichita St. Shockers. They slide in at #21.

Another team moving into the poll from outside this week is the Virginia Cavaliers on the strength of a win at Oregon. Oregon is not a great team, but Virginia's 9-1 record deserves some respect despite the fact they haven't played a great schedule so far. The Cavaliers slide into the #24 spot.

The two teams to get knocked out are the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Vanderbilt Commodores, both SEC disappointments so far who were mentioned prominently in this recent look at the SEC performance to date. Both teams dropped three of their last four -- Alabama two on the road and one at home, and Vandy two of the three at home including an embarrassing performance against the mighty Indiana St. Sycamores on Saturday. What made that performance doubly surprising is that it was the first game back for Festus Ezeli, long assumed to be the missing link in Vandy's team.

Here are the full poll results, courtesy of Statsheet.com:

Here is the conference breakdown:

What would you change?