College Basketball 2011-12 Rankings: Poll Analysis

by Glenn Logan on Jan 31, 2012 10:57 AM EST in Kentucky Wildcats Basketball

The polls are out and showing Kentucky once again at the head of the class. Syracuse moves up to second, and third belongs to the Ohio St. Buckeyes.

Despite some losses near the top, there was very little overall movement. Missouri dropped a couple of places due to a loss to the Oklahoma St. on the road. North Carolina has recovered nicely after a beat-down on the road at Florida St., and have won their last three by convincing margins.

Kansas takes the biggest drop of the top 5 to #8 after dropping a game to unranked Iowa St. The biggest drop in the poll was the Georgetown after becoming lowly Pittsburgh's second Big East win.

The conference distribution in this week's polls looks like this (note - both polls are considered together):

Conference	#
Big Ten	5
ACC	4
Big East	4
SEC	4
Big 12	3
Mountain West	2
West Coast	2
Ivy League	1
Missouri Valley	1
Ohio Valley	1

Here's the polls, with some commentary afterwards:

AP			Coaches
Rank	Prev	Delta	Rnk	Prv	Team	Wins	Losses	Votes	1st	SOS	SOS Projected	SOS Rank	SOS Proj. Rnk	Conference
1	1	0	1	1	Kentucky	21	1	1623	63	0.5399	0.5697	82	55	SEC
2	3	1	2	4	Syracuse	22	1	1550	2	0.5905	0.6003	9	15	Big East
3	4	1	3	3	Ohio State	19	3	1498	0	0.563	0.6004	46	14	Big Ten
4	2	-2	4	2	Missouri	19	2	1363	0	0.5259	0.5579	105	75	Big 12
5	7	2	6*	8	North Carolina	18	3	1331	0	0.5644	0.5966	40	16	ACC
6	6	0	6*	7	Baylor	19	2	1310	0	0.5819	0.595	14	17	Big 12
7	8	1	5	6	Duke	18	3	1250	0	0.6069	0.6113	1	3	ACC
8	5	-3	8	5	Kansas	17	4	1178	0	0.5928	0.6076	8	5	Big 12
9	10	1	10	11	Michigan State	17	4	1098	0	0.6032	0.6279	2	1	Big Ten
10	11	1	9	9	Murray State	21	0	979	0	0.4622	0.4563	265	257	Ohio Valley
11	12	1	13	15	UNLV	20	3	946	0	0.5529	0.5793	58	40	Mountain West
12	14	2	11	13	Florida	17	4	861	0	0.5426	0.577	73	41	SEC
13	15	2	12	14	Creighton	20	2	803	0	0.5229	0.5277	110	112	Missouri Valley
14	9	-5	14	10	Georgetown	16	4	762	0	0.5673	0.5907	33	24	Big East
15	17	2	15	18	Marquette	18	4	682	0	0.5759	0.5892	22	27	Big East
16	19	3	18	21	Virginia	17	3	578	0	0.5087	0.5448	131	89	ACC
17	13	-4	17	12	San Diego State	18	3	566	0	0.541	0.564	79	65	Mountain West
18	21	3	16	20	Saint Mary's	21	2	472	0	0.5132	0.5082	122	140	West Coast
19	25	6	20*	25	Wisconsin	17	5	415	0	0.577	0.595	20	17	Big Ten
20	16	-4	20*	17	Indiana	17	5	395	0	0.5623	0.5808	48	37	Big Ten
21	23	2	24	-	Florida State	14	6	375	0	0.5948	0.6012	6	13	ACC
22	18	-4	19	16	Mississippi Sta	17	5	329	0	0.5487	0.5645	62	63	SEC
23	20	-3	22	22	Michigan	16	6	305	0	0.5793	0.6042	15	10	Big Ten
24	-	-			Gonzaga	17	3	141	0	0.5415	0.5369	78	99	West Coast
25	-	-			Vanderbilt	16	5	102	0	0.5857	0.607	11	6	SEC
-	-		23	23	Harvard	18	2	-	0	0.4686	0.4787	250	191	Ivy League
			25	25	Louisville	17	5	-	0	0.5825	0.5922	47	21	Big East

Remarks:

I still think Duke is over-ranked in this poll. Their defensive efficiency is about 93rd in Division I according to Kenpom.com. That's lower than I can ever remember a Mike Kryzewski team.
Wichita St. lost a triple-overtime game at Drake, and they got dropped out. They should be in over either Louisville or Michigan.
How good is Florida St.? They beat Duke at Duke and UNC by 30 at home, and they still languish below the top 20.
Good to see Vanderbilt back in the poll.
Not sure why Gonzaga belongs here. I'd take Vandy over them 100% of the time. Heck, I'd even take Louisville over them.