AP Poll Week #13 | Page 4 | The Boneyard

AP Poll Week #13

This is absolutely a warning shot that voters (and by extension the Selection Committee) are not impressed with our resume compared to others at the top. We're probably the 4th #1 seed at the moment, behind Arizona, Michigan, and Duke.

The question is, how close do they consider the teams behind us -- Houston, Iowa State, Purdue, Gonzaga, Illinois?

I used to think that we're safe on the #1 line with two more losses, but even that might put us in jeopardy. The Big East is costing us big time this year.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
This is absolutely a warning shot that voters (and by extension the Selection Committee) are not impressed with our resume compared to others at the top. We're probably the 4th #1 seed at the moment, behind Arizona, Michigan, and Duke.

The question is, how close do they consider the teams behind us -- Houston, Iowa State, Purdue, Gonzaga, Illinois?

I used to think that we're safe on the #1 line with two more losses, but even that might put us in jeopardy. The Big East is costing us big time this year.
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We're safe with 2 more losses if the other teams lose multiple games as well.

I would prefer to keep on winning and take any consternation out of it.
 
jibsey said:
OK, here is the issue, they are not scrub teams. The Big East may not be great with consistent good and ranked teams BUT many of these teams have players who will play at the next level and on any given night keep their team hanging around in games. Particularly when we have a horrible shooting night, or we don’t have our lottery pick playing.
If you need confirmation of that just ask someone who actually knows, Dan Hurley. He has said it over and over again that BE games are not easy. We had the best team ever a couple years ago we were challenged and lost games, right?
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Providence is absolutely a scrub team, yes they have talent but objectively they are not a good basketball team. Only on Planet Boneyard is a 9-13 team not considered a scrub team.
 
KingAG said:
Which all circles back to it’s the BE fault. UConn will never have the opportunity that Michigan had this week. They barely beat these teams and it’s “they can’t even blow out bad teams”. They blow them out “ it doesn’t matter because they suck”. You can start to see why a competitor would begin to get disinterested. Which is what I think the majority of out January problems stemmed from.
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This is a bad year for the BE. If this becomes the norm, then it's a problem. We need to get out anyway. You won't get any disagreement from me over that.

But if the BE has a good year, then we definitely can have great weeks during conference play.
 
It's a shame that there isn't something like an end of season tournament to determine who really is the best team.

I know some here are petrified of having to face a top five team before the regional finals (that wouldn't bother me, but I guess that's just me), but fortunately we won't need to worry about that this year as we would need to tank in order to drop below a two seed.

Let the voters view us however they want to. They don't have a say in much of anything beyond silly little polls like this one. When the dust settles we could well be the only one still standing. I'll take enough from that to completely dismiss this poll.
 
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nomar said:
This is a bad year for the BE. If this becomes the norm, then it's a problem. We need to get out anyway. You won't get any disagreement from me over that.

But if the BE has a good year, then we definitely can have great weeks during conference play.
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I guess I don't know how we fix it if we aren't recruiting at a high level. I've been saying this for a couple years now. The BE as a whole doesn't recruit well at the HS level, so how do we miraculously turn it around?

Latest mock has Zubi, and then Dillon Mitchell back end of 2nd round. The entire first two rounds is made up of SEC/B12/B10/ACC. It's nothing but a talent shortage because we can't recruit. Who do we have in this league next year that has a chance to be special? Gtown has a fairly high kid coming in. No one really mopped up in the portal this past go outside of UConn & StJ.

Go look at the B12 - it's a lot of star power through HS recruiting, mixed with high end returners.


Best HS class after us is Creighton at 37. The BE is cooked. It's just not a draw anymore for top kids, and gets second rate transfers.

247sports.com

2026 Recruit Basketball Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
247sports.com 247sports.com
 
upstater said:
Yes, it depends on how you look at things.

UConn has wins over 5, 11, 16 and 17. Only loss is the #1.
Michigan has wins over 6, 9, 10. Only loss is to UNRANKED team.

The metrics put Michigan on top.
Recency bias puts Michigan on top.
What I just wrote above puts UConn on top if only by virtue that they were on top last week.
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There is also something to the ranking when you played them.

Creighton was ranked when Michigan beat them
Creighton was unranked when UConn beat them
 
Tenspro2002 said:
This is absolutely a warning shot that voters (and by extension the Selection Committee) are not impressed with our resume compared to others at the top. We're probably the 4th #1 seed at the moment, behind Arizona, Michigan, and Duke.

The question is, how close do they consider the teams behind us -- Houston, Iowa State, Purdue, Gonzaga, Illinois?

I used to think that we're safe on the #1 line with two more losses, but even that might put us in jeopardy. The Big East is costing us big time this year.
Expand ...
The CBS Sports guys just dropped UConn to a 2 seed and elevated Iowa State to the 4th 1 seed. So is this what people were saying about the Big East not helping UConn this season?

Iowa State supplanted UConn on Monday in the updated CBS Sports Bracketology model as the fourth No. 1 seed, bumping the 21-1 Huskies to a projected No. 2 seed on the heels of ISU's fourth consecutive win over the weekend. The. Cyclones (20-2) and Huskies each have a 5-1 record in Quadrant 1 opportunities, and while the former ranks higher than the latter at KenPom, BartTorvik and the NET, the latter has a better Wins Above Bubble (WAB) metric -- which is results-based and generated to quantify how many more or fewer wins a team compiled compared to what a bubble team would average against the same schedule -- as well as a perfect 8-0 record vs. Quad 2 foes.

All that to say: the margin between ISU and UConn is obviously razor-thin. And the change coming after ISU's 95-61 win on Sunday suggests it did well for the Cyclones particularly in the NET, which factors in scoring margin. It should be a tight race for the final couple spots on the No. 1 seed line all the way into March.

www.cbssports.com

Bracketology: Iowa State jumps UConn for fourth No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament bracket projection

The Cyclones join Duke, Arizona and Michigan on the top line of the CBS Sports Bracketology model
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
superjohn said:
We're safe with 2 more losses if the other teams lose multiple games as well.

I would prefer to keep on winning and take any consternation out of it.
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Yes, it depends on how other teams do, but I have a hard time seeing us with 3 losses ahead of hypothetical 3-loss Houston or 3-loss Iowa State (Illinois they'd probably give to us based on head to head).
 
HooperScooper said:
The CBS Sports guys just dropped UConn to a 2 seed and elevated Iowa State to the 4th 1 seed. So is this what people were saying about the Big East not helping UConn this season?

Iowa State supplanted UConn on Monday in the updated CBS Sports Bracketology model as the fourth No. 1 seed, bumping the 21-1 Huskies to a projected No. 2 seed on the heels of ISU's fourth consecutive win over the weekend. The. Cyclones (20-2) and Huskies each have a 5-1 record in Quadrant 1 opportunities, and while the former ranks higher than the latter at KenPom, BartTorvik and the NET, the latter has a better Wins Above Bubble (WAB) metric -- which is results-based and generated to quantify how many more or fewer wins a team compiled compared to what a bubble team would average against the same schedule -- as well as a perfect 8-0 record vs. Quad 2 foes.

All that to say: the margin between ISU and UConn is obviously razor-thin. And the change coming after ISU's 95-61 win on Sunday suggests it did well for the Cyclones particularly in the NET, which factors in scoring margin. It should be a tight race for the final couple spots on the No. 1 seed line all the way into March.

www.cbssports.com

Bracketology: Iowa State jumps UConn for fourth No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament bracket projection

The Cyclones join Duke, Arizona and Michigan on the top line of the CBS Sports Bracketology model
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
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Yup, you can see the groundwork being laid already for them to take it from us regardless of our performance.
 
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KingAG said:
I’m not saying it’s weird. It’s just the BE’s fault. We’ll never have that opportunity this season in conference. We can win by 50 and it won’t matter so long as teams in better conferences continue to win. If Duke beats NC and Clemson they’ll jump us too.
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True - even though we could theoretically beat Villanova and St. Johns back to back, 21st and 25th of Feb are different weeks. That is just scheduling, not BE's fault for lack of teams.

But mental exercise. Had we beaten Arizona would we be #1 now or knocked to #2 given Michigan's double top 10 wins?
 
Lafayette said:
There is also something to the ranking when you played them.

Creighton was ranked when Michigan beat them
Creighton was unranked when UConn beat them
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When did Michigan beat Creighton?
 
Why is anyone surprised by M passing us in the rankings?!!! They just beat Nebraska and MSU. We beat Providence and Crayton. Im fine with it. We are still in the hunt for the #1 seed. Thats what matters.
 
aceboon said:
Providence is absolutely a scrub team, yes they have talent but objectively they are not a good basketball team. Only on Planet Boneyard is a 9-13 team not considered a scrub team.
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Tell Hurley to his face that he is playing scrub teams every night. You wouldn’t dare.
 
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jibsey said:
Tell Hurley to his face that he is playing scrub teams every night. You wouldn’t dare.
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if you want to continue to deflect and not admit a 9-13 team is a scrub team then you are not to be taken seriously
 
WhereistheDove? said:
It’s not a knock on UConn. They are 8-0 vs our 5-1 in quad 1 wins and have blown out teams far more than we have. I still think we’ve seen their peak but haven’t yet really seen UConn’s but they have a better resume. A lot of that is just based on the conference we play in but still.
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Not a challenge at you, but I would genuinely like to know how often a top-3-ranked Gonzaga team would get leapfrogged and everyone shrugs their shoulders because of SoS. It just doesn’t happen with poll voting in the regular season. The precedent has generally been that, at the top of the poll, unless a team loses and a spot opens up, there isn’t any leapfrogging.

Not that I care too much about 2 vs 3. It means nothing for tournament seeding.
 
I think many on this board are placing far too much importance on the first February rankings of this season, but that is your right so I won't push this much further.

As these polls go, there obviously is a recency bias built in with most voters which would not be in our favor due to when we played the best O-O-C schedule i I can remember us playing.

While many will still argue, there is also a bias against all but perhaps a few teams in our conference, which will allow us to lose ground in polls like these without losing games.

Accept it and realize that there is a bigger prize out there and that is what we are after. We have quite a few national championship banners hanging. We don't have one that says "ranked second in early February".
 
Rocktheworld said:
Not a challenge at you, but I would genuinely like to know how often a top-3-ranked Gonzaga team would get leapfrogged and everyone shrugs their shoulders because of SoS. It just doesn’t happen with poll voting in the regular season. The precedent has generally been that, at the top of the poll, unless a team loses and a spot opens up, there isn’t any leapfrogging.

Not that I care too much about 2 vs 3. It means nothing for tournament seeding.
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I mean #6 22-1 Gonzaga literally got leapfrogged this week and everyone shrugged their shoulders because of SOS.

5-0 Arizona also jumped 5-0 Houston back in week 4 to get to number 2.
 
Last edited:
Lafayette said:
There is also something to the ranking when you played them.

Creighton was ranked when Michigan beat them
Creighton was unranked when UConn beat them
Expand ...
When you drop down below the Feb. rankings and look earlier, you notice a lot of things that really shouldn't count because these were all lesser teams. Like, for instance, Seton Hall was ranked when UConn played them. Or, if someone wants to criticize UConn for going to OT with PC, they might notice that PSU had Michigan dead to rights and that only PSU brainfarts produced a 2 pt Michigan win. Who beat PSU? PC.

Now, those aren't the kinds of arguments I would make. I'm only pointing out that if you dropped down to that 50-100 range of teams, it's all a mixed bag. Heck, at one point, Georgetown was ranked.
 
HooperScooper said:
The CBS Sports guys just dropped UConn to a 2 seed and elevated Iowa State to the 4th 1 seed. So is this what people were saying about the Big East not helping UConn this season?

Iowa State supplanted UConn on Monday in the updated CBS Sports Bracketology model as the fourth No. 1 seed, bumping the 21-1 Huskies to a projected No. 2 seed on the heels of ISU's fourth consecutive win over the weekend. The. Cyclones (20-2) and Huskies each have a 5-1 record in Quadrant 1 opportunities, and while the former ranks higher than the latter at KenPom, BartTorvik and the NET, the latter has a better Wins Above Bubble (WAB) metric -- which is results-based and generated to quantify how many more or fewer wins a team compiled compared to what a bubble team would average against the same schedule -- as well as a perfect 8-0 record vs. Quad 2 foes.

All that to say: the margin between ISU and UConn is obviously razor-thin. And the change coming after ISU's 95-61 win on Sunday suggests it did well for the Cyclones particularly in the NET, which factors in scoring margin. It should be a tight race for the final couple spots on the No. 1 seed line all the way into March.

www.cbssports.com

Bracketology: Iowa State jumps UConn for fourth No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament bracket projection

The Cyclones join Duke, Arizona and Michigan on the top line of the CBS Sports Bracketology model
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
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It almost makes a team like UConn do what Gonzaga does, which is schedule 1 or 2 tough OOC games, and then coast, rather than schedule 5 or 6 tough OOC games.

If you're not going to get credit for a tough OC, you might as well rely on your inflated record.
 
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Hans Sprungfeld said:
A major theme in the Hurley years before NCAA Tournament invitations was "excruciating losses," and then it carried over to opening round disappointments. And then there were back-to-back championships.
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If you look back, there are several excruciating losses during the back-to-back championship years.

So fans and pundits are knocking UConn for needing OT to beat PC. Did they like it better when UConn lost to PC and then destroyed the entire B1G conference in one of the most memorable March Madness humiliations on record?
 
aceboon said:
Providence is absolutely a scrub team, yes they have talent but objectively they are not a good basketball team. Only on Planet Boneyard is a 9-13 team not considered a scrub team.
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But that's not even the issue. Michigan scraped by a team a couple weeks ago that LOST to PC.
 
When does the NCAA selection committee release the top 16? After super bowl?
 
upstater said:
But that's not even the issue. Michigan scraped by a team a couple weeks ago that LOST to PC.
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the voters bumped them up based off of two top 10 wins THIS WEEK
 
ucp990411 said:
Only 1 poll matters to me. The one that comes out after the first weekend in April. You guys know the poll and so does the rest of the country. The one we of which have finished first 6 times since 1999. And the number I really care about is SEVEN. 7.
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This. This is the only thing that matters. It’s really lame to get worked up over polls. I just don’t understand the logic. We are going to get talked about less at #3 then #2?? First off, that makes no sense. And 2, who the hell cares. Just win games, that’s literally the only thing that matters.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
This is absolutely a warning shot that voters (and by extension the Selection Committee) are not impressed with our resume compared to others at the top. We're probably the 4th #1 seed at the moment, behind Arizona, Michigan, and Duke.

The question is, how close do they consider the teams behind us -- Houston, Iowa State, Purdue, Gonzaga, Illinois?

I used to think that we're safe on the #1 line with two more losses, but even that might put us in jeopardy. The Big East is costing us big time this year.
Expand ...
This is so far off the rails, omg
 
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