Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 11
The national trend will be to put Baylor No. 1 after two quite remarkable road wins (at Texas Tech and at Kansas, the latter in the vein of Clemson winning at North Carolina) but if you look at the four candidates for the No. 1 spot -- Duke and Butler both actually have a better empirical case than Baylor.
Baylor does deserve some extra credit for that amazing week though, and was No. 2 on this ballot previously, so the Bears get the nod at the top ahead of Duke and Butler. Gonzaga slides to 4, which is harsh but fair. The Zags just don’t have the analytics or the resume to be ahead of any of those teams.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s precipitous fall continues. The Cavaliers dropped all the way out from the 11 spot, and there’s absolutely not one single indication that says they’re a top-25 team at this point. Just another arrow in the back of the ACC, enduring an absolutely brutal basketball season that only figures to get worse in March when the Big Ten gets 12 teams into the tournament and the ACC gets four or five.
The Southern Conference, relatively speaking, is having a much better year. East Tennessee State, which has an at-large worthy resume, gets a nod at 25. It’s possible, albeit extremely unlikely, the ACC and SoCon each end up with three teams in the tournament even with the SoCon going 1-7 head-to-head with the ACC. Who would have thought that in room 230 of the Sedgefield Inn in 1953?
THIS SEASON’S BALLOTS
Week 1 (Preseason) Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
THIS WEEK’S TOP 25 BASKETBALL BALLOT
1. Baylor (Last week: 2)
2. Duke (3)
3. Butler (7)
4. Gonzaga (1)
5. Auburn (5)
6. San Diego State (10)
7. West Virginia (13)
8. Florida State (8)
9. Kansas (4)
10. Dayton (12)
11. Oregon (16)
12. Michigan State (6)
13. Maryland (9)
14. Louisville (17)
15. Villanova (18)
16. Wichita State (20)
17. Kentucky (23)
18. Seton Hall (NR)
19. Colorado (NR)
20. Michigan (19)
21. Indiana (NR)
22. Ohio State (14)
23. Illinois (NR)
24. Iowa (24)
25. East Tennessee State (NR)
OUT Virginia (11), Penn State (15), Marquette (21), Arizona (22), Arkansas (25)
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 9:46 AM.
