Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 1
It’s too easy to overreact to early losses. It’s OK to overreact to early wins.
Those are the rules for the first real AP ballot of the season. The preseason rankings still hold sway here, because one or two games usually isn’t enough information to tell us we were dramatically wrong about a team — usually — but a win over a quality opponent may tell us a team’s ceiling is higher than we thought.
Gonzaga, Kansas, UCLA and Duke all came out out of early tests looking particularly good, although it’s worth noting Gonzaga and UCLA were at home.
So there’s no point in dinging Villanova for an overtime loss at UCLA in the best game of the year no one saw because it started at 11:30 p.m. ET, or Texas for losing at Gonzaga. Most teams are going to lose those games.
There are exceptions, of course: Virginia wasn’t on this ballot, but losing to Navy would have knocked the Cavaliers off. Florida State lost on the road to Florida, not a terrible loss but one that requires some reassessment. And Belmont, sadly, exits early.
Please welcome Florida, which won a coin flip with USC, and Furman, which has one of the best wins in the country so far at Louisville and will be severely tested Monday night at Belmont. It could be a short stay for the Paladins.
THIS SEASON’S BALLOTS
THIS WEEK’S TOP 25 BASKETBALL BALLOT
1. Gonzaga (Last week: 1)
2. Memphis (2)
3. Kansas (3)
4. UCLA (4)
5. Michigan (7)
6. Purdue (8)
7. Duke (9)
8. Texas (5)
9. Villanova (6)
10. Illinois (10)
11. Baylor (11)
12. Tennessee (12)
13. Houston (13)
14. Alabama (14)
15. St. Bonaventure (15)
16. UNC (17)
17. Connecticut (18)
18. Maryland (19)
19. Kentucky (16)
20. Xavier (20)
21. Ohio State (21)
22. Arkansas (22)
23. Oregon (23)
24. Florida (NR)
25. Furman (NR)
OUT Florida State (24) Belmont (25)
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 8:29 AM.
