Surprisingly got jumped by Texas Tech. I did a little digging and it turns out this was almost entirely thanks to Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal. He has Texas Tech at 6 and VT at 19. He doesn't even have Duke in the top 25 at all.
The rest of the ACC:
#1 Duke
#4 UVA
#12 UNC
#13 FSU
#15 NCSU
Purdue is hanging around just outside the top 25, in Others Receiving Votes.
EDIT: Meanwhile, VT jumps up to #7 in the Coaches' Poll, which I believe is the highest ranking the men's team has ever had in either poll
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Exhibit 1a on why the AP needs to look into revoking voting privileges when someone is trying so obviously to game the system
Great intel and totally agree if they are not going to be objective at all (I mean Duke not in the top 25 is crazy) they should have their voting privileges removed - FOREVER.
Counterpoint:
The AP rankings don't really mean diddly squat. They're not used for tournament seeding or anything, are they? Does it matter if some wierdo in Michigan has some very strange ideas on who's good an who isn't in college basketball? Let's not forget that back in 1999, when the polls actually were meaningful in football, some reporter from a paper in Michigan, IIRC, put the upstart Hokies at #1 on his ballot pretty much all year, taking much criticism in the process. Had it not been for that attention, it's concievable (though not likely) that the Hokies would not have ascended to #2 by season's end and would not have had Beamer's one shot at a championship.
He's trying to make some kind of a philosophical point about Duke not scheduling OOC road games and trying to half-ass justify it by saying without a road record it's too difficult to tell how good they are.
Basically he knows Duke is a top 5 team but he won't rank them there because they haven't played any "true road games". Total B.S.
Lol, I'd like to see him try that on some SEC teams in football and see how far he gets.
I agree with you on what he is doing. I'm just saying it's not appropriate to do it. I don't like the rankings, but to say they don't mean anything isn't true.
Rankings are listed on every advertisement, lead to all the hype, social media coverage and have a verifiable impact on program perception. They may not be real like Kenpom or old RPI, but they do matter even if they are dumb at times.
Here is his justification for leaving Duke out:
Reading further down, it looks like in his rankings, teams who have not played a true road game are not yet eligible to be ranked.
Yes, he will not rank teams that have not played true road games. However, once that team has played a true road game, they don't have to earn their way up the ranking, so Duke will enter his rankings as a top 5 team.
As a former sports reporter I would say he should have his AP voting privileges revoked. He's making himself the story, which is a big journalistic no-no.
Rankings are supposed to be how good you think a team is, with a balance of their record and the eye test, not what they've accomplished based on your personal subjective criteria.
If Duke played the other top 10 teams at Cameron and won all 9, they still wouldn't be ranked by this clown's logic.
🤔
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2019/january/4/join-our-team-recruitin...
We. Are. BAK!!!
Too soon...
I really want to see more of this GIF
Ask and ye shall receive.
LOLOLOL, I would give you more than one leg if I could.
quadbox train point stops
Screw you and the leg I also gave you.
I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or proud that my most legged comment is one where I'm being a smartass.
I'm leaning proud.
How are we bak when we've never been?
Couch is one of those dudes who is not ranking Duke because they haven't played a true road game. I agree it's dumb that they haven't but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be ranked.
He's showing he thinks his own opinion is more important than the game. Its grandstanding for the sake of attention. Manipulating the polls for his own personal gain.
He should be barred from voting because of it.
It becomes even more rich when you read his last sentence regarding Buffalo:
Personally, I absolutely love it. He's doing something absurd to bring light to The Rat / Duke's shitty scheduling. I never knew that about their schedule, now I do, and I've got less respect for Coach K now.
More people should call out Bama and Florida in the polls for not playing any road games in football.
Technically we have only had 1 road game this year to date, Penn State, and we lost. Like Duke we have also played in several neutral site games.
And I'm fine with getting called out too. I think #9 is way too high. He's probably more correct at #19 for VT.
Literally all the advanced stats (at least that I've seen) say this is wrong
The PSU game gives me pause and if we go cold on 3s, we are not going to be very good IMO.
We went cold on 3s against BC and tore them a new one in the paint because of our speed.
That's going to be a huge advantage for us over the duration of the season. Speed neutralizes size on the offensive side. We may have a game here or there where things just go sideways, but literally every team has games like that. We are a team who has 4 shooters on the floor at at time who can hit at >40% from behind the arc. The odds are very much in our favor that we aren't going to all go horridly cold at the same time. And when we are hitting shots, there aren't many teams that can go blow for blow with us.
We have the 31st ranked schedule-adjusted defense in the nation and the 4th ranked schedule-adjusted offense. We really are that good.
emphasis on "schedule adjusted" for anyone who is going to bring up having played UMES and SCST
I'm not any sort of basketball expert, but I checked out VT's stats on ESPN a few days ago and couldn't believe the 3-point shooting % of almost all of our contributors.
We have 5 guys shooting better than 44% from 3-point range. By comparison, the Golden State Warriors have 2.
UVA has pkayed two true road games, one scheduled by the ACC/B10 challenge.
So did you learn a lot from the UVA/USCe game?
Quick question: what's the highest we were ever ranked with Greenberg???
Couch was interviewed about his ballot on One Shining Podcast a few weeks back. Basically, he wishes he didn't have a ballot so he turned it into a weekly article and it is based almost entirely on results of playing true road games. It's a very stupid gimmick and I regret giving him the click.
Graham Couch pours his cereal and then his milk.
Isn't that how anyone that isn't mentally unstable does it?
...dammit...
*drink*
I can't believe I'm bitching about our #9 ranking and the fact that we didn't jump Kansas in basketball, but here I am.
Times they are a changin'
Dats cuz we's a roundball skool.
I believe you mean "roundball big dog".
I was guilty too of thinking we would jump them after them losing to Iowa State. Iowa state was 11-2 and riding a 4 game winning streak before the game, even through they haven't really played anybody... but only dropping 2 spots after losing to an unranked team by 17?
Udoka Azubuike didn't play and out for the year.... (most likely) RIP NCAA Championship dreams
I'm cool with 9. I still remember the days when we looked like we belonged at 309, so I won't complain.
Also, re: Graham Couch - I hate Duke but wat
A little known fact about Graham Couch is that his name actually anagrams to "Graham Couch".
Big if true
It also anagrams to Gaucho March, who parodied a famous comedian.
now I'm just picturing a parade of South American cowboys
all wearing these
we call this one The Anagraham
For the Edit to the OP. It is the highest ranking.
We are also #9 in the NET rankings as well
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net...
I would really like to know how that one loss, on the road, to now #70 ranked PSU hurts us in the NET system. Would we be #7? #5? Higher?
I am keeping my excitement for these rankings in reserve for the time being. The next two games (first ACC road game and then LOLUVa) will give me a better feel of if this team can sustain, or if they will find a way to stumble. Do note, though, that a loss to UVa wouldn't necessarily shatter my hope. There can be a good loss to them, but they better effin' win!
Excellent. Hopefully we can get our first true road win of the season on Wednesday so that we can take a 3-0 record into Charlottesville
I'm honestly not gonna worry about the nitty gritty of our rankings. It could all come crashing down on us soon honestly. This is the ACC. I'm still not convinced we are a true top10 team. We've been burned by hype in the past before.
but but but it's different this time?
You mean a 4 seed isn't going to happen?
https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/01/07/bracket-watch-ncaa-tour...
Still sitting at #9
Was hoping we'd get to that #8, but I'm sure with the sub-par shooting at GT, they kept us right there. Still a top 10 battle between us and the Wa-boo's.
If we can beat UVA tomorrow then we have not only earned our rank but will see it go up a nice little bit in reward.
Meanwhile UNC gets blown out by unranked Louisville and drops one spot.
Just going to copy this comment from Reddit. Not trying to defend UNC, just had the same thought as you. Alot of losses on the back end of the Top 25 last week
early conference season 4 loss UNC that just got spanked by unranked UofL probably shouldn't still be Top 15.
The ranking is fine because it applies not only to athletes, but non-athlete students as well, duh.
Yeah I saw this on reddit and still don't agree. UNC is one of only 2 4 loss teams in the top 25. They've got home losses to Louisville, Texas and UK. Then a blow out loss at Mich. Sure they have some impressive wins but that consistency doesn't scream top 15 team to me.
I hate to be THAT guy in the room, but until we play UVA, WHO have we really played of notoriety besides Purdue? I think we're a top 25 team, but I don't think we're a top 10 team. I think we are the byproduct of a high pre-season ranking, and a lot of teams losing above us. After the conclusion of the UVA game I'll be better suited to gauge what this team is.
#TryingToTakeMyO&MGlassesOff
I don't disagree with you but we're a 1 loss team, they've lost 4.
UNC has one of the hardest schedules in the country. They have multiple road wins and multiple top 25 wins including over then #1 Gonzaga and a rivalry road win over #15 NC State. They would've moved down if other teams had been more consistent, but nobody in that range has been consistent and UNC has the best schedule and wins so they didn't move much.
We'd still have to beat Wake Forest on Saturday and avoid a letdown
I know Duke was missing two players last night but they got absolutely drained at the end of that Cuse game and shot awful all game. Can easily see that team losing to UVA. Granted they'll have at least one of those two guys back by game time. We could really use a W tonight to take #1 overall in the ACC.
I have been saying all season Duke has the best players, UVA might have the best TEAM. That said, article on ESPN this morning if we pull the upset tonight, our chances of being a #1 seed in the Tourney are 47%.
I still cannot fathom a world were we stand a real chance of getting anything better than like a 5 seed.