The first of the year is always hectic for me, trying to close the books, deal with tax issues, budgets for the new year, yada, yada, yada. For this and other reasons, blogging has suffered a bit, and for that I do apologize. Today, I am trying to catch up on a couple of posts that should have been made earlier in the week
First, I will deal with the Basketball Blogpoll. My ballot will be first, and the final compilation ballot will follow.
A Sea of Blue's Ballot
| Last week | School | This Week | Delta | Direction |
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 1 | 0 | NC |
| 2 | Duke | 2 | 0 | NC |
| 5 | Wake Forest | 3 | 2 |  |
| 4 | Connecticut | 4 | 0 | NC |
| 3 | North Carolina | 5 | -2 |  |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 6 | 0 | NC |
| 9 | Michigan State | 7 | 2 | |
| 11 | Clemson | 8 | 3 | |
| 10 | UCLA | 9 | 1 | |
| 12 | Syracuse | 10 | 2 | |
| 7 | Georgetown | 11 | -4 | |
| 8 | Texas | 12 | -4 | |
| 14 | Arizona State | 13 | 1 | |
| 20 | Marquette | 14 | 6 |
|
| 13 | Xavier | 15 | -2 | |
| 17 | Notre Dame | 16 | 1 | |
| 18 | Butler | 17 | 1 | |
| 22 | Louisville | 18 | 4 | |
| 25 | California | 19 | 6 |
|
| 34 | Minnesota | 20 | 14 |
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| 23 | Gonzaga | 21 | 2 | |
| 16 | Purdue | 22 | -6 |
|
| 26 | Baylor | 23 | 3 | |
| 24 | Memphis | 24 | 0 | NC |
| 15 | West Virginia | 25 | -10 |
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| Dropped out: | Villanova (21), Tennessee (19) | |||
| New in poll: | Minnesota (20), Baylor (23) | |||
Comments
- Who would have figured UNC would start 0-2 in conference?
- Wake Forest, Duke and Pitt are all getting it done.
- West Virginia is the most up and down team I have seen all year. Right now, they are pretty much down, but still on my ballot.
- California is really playing well for Mike Montgomery.
- Marquette is finding a way to win against good teams.
- What a week for Tubby Smith's Minnesota team. They are 4-1 in the Big Ten and are playing good basketball.
- Texas is playing poorly lately, losing 2 out of their last three.
- FYI, Kentucky is currently 44th in my list prior to the Tennessee win, but you can expect them to be in or near the top 25 next week.
Final Aggregated Poll
| Avg. Vote | Last Week | This Week | Team (first place votes) | Delta | Direction |
| 1.25 | 1 | 1 | Pittsburgh (9) | 0 | NC |
| 2.17 | 4 | 2 | Wake Forest (2) | 2 | |
| 3.33 | 3 | 3 | Duke (1) | 0 | NC |
| 4 | 5 | 4 | Connecticut | 1 | |
| 5 | 2 | 5 | North Carolina | -3 | |
| 5.33 | 6 | 6 | Oklahoma | 0 | NC |
| 7.92 | 9 | 7 | Michigan State | 2 | |
| 8.75 | 12 | 8 | Clemson | 4 | |
| 9.5 | 10 | 9 | UCLA | 1 | |
| 10.08 | 11 | 10 | Syracuse | 1 | |
| 12.67 | 8 | 11 | Georgetown | -3 | |
| 13.33 | 7 | 12 | Texas | -5 |
|
| 14 | 17 | 13 | Marquette | 4 | |
| 14.58 | 13 | 14 | Notre Dame | -1 | |
| 15.08 | 15 | 15 | Arizona State | 0 | NC |
| 15.25 | 16 | 16 | Xavier | 0 | NC |
| 17.75 | 19 | 17 | Butler | 2 | |
| 18.83 | 21 | 18 | Minnesota | 3 | |
| 19.25 | 14 | 19 | Purdue | -5 |
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| 19.92 | 20 | Louisville | NPR |
|
|
| 21.25 | 24 | 21 | Gonzaga | 3 | |
| 21.83 | 22 | Cal | NPR |
|
|
| 22.75 | 23 | Baylor | NPR |
|
|
| 23.42 | 25 | 24 | Illinois | 1 | |
| 23.58 | 18 | 25 | Villanova | -7 |
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| Note: # in parenthesis indicates votes as #1 team. | |||||
| Dropped out of poll: | West Virginia (20), Tennessee (22), Boston College (23) | ||||
| Entered poll: | Louisville (20), California (22), Baylor (23) | ||||
Comments
- Illinois needs to do something against Michigan State to stay in.
- Notre Dame is getting exposed for a lack of depth and athleticism.
- Expect Miami to be in the running next week. They have run off 6 in a row, including an upset of Boston College. Miami gets to find out how good they really are at UNC today.
- Louisville has a huge opportunity today against #1 Pitt at the Hall.
Comments welcome.