Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 16
The unprecedented nature of Saturday’s top-of-the-poll bloodletting – the top five teams in the top 25 all losing, and six of the top nine – has been aptly documented and produced the usual wringing of hands about what it all means and sent clickbait bracketologists scrambling to shuffle the top seeds.
The reality is, at this point in the season, a single game doesn’t move the needle as much as people think it does or should, especially when it involves good teams losing to good teams on the road as analytic and Vegas underdogs, like Baylor at Kansas or Auburn at Tennessee.
So: On this ballot, there’s a minor reordering but that’s all it is. Baylor and Duke move up to the top two spots but the top nine remains the same overall. (Sorry, Houston.)
And, semi-unrelated, don’t miss UNC’s Armando Bacot being named the 2022 Caulton Tudor Award winner for media cooperation, an honor near and dear to our hearts at the N&O.
THIS SEASON’S BALLOTS
Preseason | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 15
THIS WEEK’S TOP 25 BASKETBALL BALLOT
1. Baylor (Last week: 5)
2. Duke (9)
3. Gonzaga (1)
4. Kansas (3)
5. Arizona (2)
6. Auburn (4)
7. Kentucky (6)
8. Villanova (7)
9. Purdue (8)
10. Houston (11)
11. Texas Tech (10)
12. Tennessee (13)
13. Wisconsin (14)
14. Providence (15)
15. UCLA (12)
16. St. Mary’s (20)
17. Murray State (18)
18. Illinois (16)
19. USC (19)
20. Texas (NR)
21. Arkansas (22)
22. Ohio State (17)
23. Connecticut (23)
24. Alabama (24)
25. Boise State (25)
OUT LSU (21)
