There’s a new No. 1 in college hoops, but there’s hardly a consensus. Not that it’s a bad thing.
In fact, I’m downright giddy about it.
Duke took the top spot in the both the AP and coaches’ poll this week, but the rest of the top six was jumbled. Kansas, Ohio State, Pitt, Texas and san Diego State made up those spots in two different orders in the polls – well, Texas was fifth in both – while BYU, Purdue, Notre Dame and Arizona rounded out the top 10.
So what’s happy about that? Check out the vote totals in the top 10. You’ll rarely see teams clumped this closely together. (Complete polls are here.)
Five points separate Kansas and Pitt in the AP, while there’ only eight points separating SDSU, Texas and Pitt in the coaches’ poll.
Perhaps that means the top four teams everyone anointed as true Final Four contenders the last month – Ohio State, Texas, Pitt and Kansas – now aren’t so different from Duke and San Diego State. Or BYU. Purdue. Maybe teams like Notre Dame, Kentucky, Wisconsin and North Carolina aren’t far behind.
That not a completely random idea, either. Smarter people than me were onto it weeks ago.
Want more? I’m also on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.
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- imwhitewolf - Feb 21, 2011 at 8:33 PM
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First off, I’m a hard core Blue Devil fan. Love the school, love the team. However, I’m not certain they are the top team in the country right now, esp w/o Kyrie Irving. My main complaint with these polls is if you lose you drop. I think the polls should take into acount a team’s entire body of work, who they lost to and under what circumstances. Example: Kansas lost at Nebraska by three points. Ohio State’s two losses have come on the road against the #10 and #11 teams. If I had a vote in either poll it would look like this (top 5): !. Ohio State, 2) Pittsburgh, 3) Texas, 4) Duke, 5) Kansas.
I think we have a very talented team that can play with anyone but our schedule this year’s been pretty weak by Duke standards. We do have an opportunity to showe how good we really are the final four games.
This NCAA tournament may be one of the best ever. There are some really, really good teams out there this year.
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- stevebs2003 - Feb 21, 2011 at 9:42 PM
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PULEEEASE! The growing East Coast bias against the MWC is even worse than usual. I wonder how well your darling teams would play at altitude. It’s a pity that the NCAA tournament isn’t taking place in SLC or Colorado Springs. SDSU, BYU and a couple of PAC-10 teams are going to rock your world in the tournament.
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- chiefjustice11 - Feb 21, 2011 at 10:53 PM
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You’re a little confused whitewolf. Kansas crushed Nebraska by 20 points in Lincoln.
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- imwhitewolf - Feb 22, 2011 at 12:46 AM
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You are correct on both acounts. I’m at work and I’m usually more than a little confused there. They lost to Colorado and evidently it was a home game. hank you for the correction.
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- davero12 - Feb 24, 2011 at 4:27 PM
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Kansas lost to Texas at home and Kansas State on the road
