AP Top 25 Poll

Others Receiving Votes: Boston College 126, Missouri 116, Miami (FL) 91, Oregon 90, Alabama 74, Oregon State 41, Michigan 39, South Carolina 39, Brigham Young 27, South Florida 27, Florida State 22, Arizona State 19, Southern Miss 9, Wake Forest 7, Kansas 1, Washington 1

I’ve spent a day and a half trying to figure this out and I have failed to do so. This link lists the voters but still shows their pre-season ballots. Should this turn out to be a bandwagon-type season, I wanted to give credit to the media member who bought the first ticket.

Speculation: I figure Tom Keegan’s the most likely choice with Mike DeArmond edging out Chris Fowler as the least likely.

UPDATE: Cheers to gratefultyler for correcting my above snarky assumption. Media ticket #1 on the Kansas Football Bandwagon goes to Mike DeArmond, Missouri beat writer for The Kansas City Star.

FanHouse’s Nathan Fowler pens the Jayhawk entry in the Premature Hoops BlogPoll.

Why they should be ranked higher: There’s not much room to be ranked higher, but KU is a serious threat to win the national championship thanks to their backcourt, which is probably the best in the entire country.

Why they should be ranked lower: Not only is Rush the Jayhawks’ best player, he is also the one at the position with the least depth. If he returns from the injury as only a shell of himself, then KU will have to play a smaller lineup with three guards or use a much less skilled player (Roderick Stewart, possibly) in his place. Even totally without Rush though, this is a top 10 team.

UCLA, Memphis, and North Carolina appear to be teams 1-3 in the poll.

Behind Ohio State, UCLA, Pitt and Florida.

Link to poll here. Somebody ping me when the new AP poll comes out. I think we might be in the top 4 there.

We’ll be in a great position to be entrenched in the top 10 for the rest of season if we can match enthusiasm moving forward.

UPDATE: KU is also 5th in the AP poll.

It’s the day after a game, so it’s time to look at how KU is doing in the predictive power ratings, most of which I have become so fond of that I would happily let the whole lot of them live in a Utopian commune in my backyard.

Without further ado:

Let’s start with Pomeroy, whose statistical burgers are thick and plentiful. In his main Pomeroy ratings, we’ve moved from 14 to 13 after yesterday’s win. We’ve held our position as the 4th best team in the country over the last five games, but oddly, the company ahead of us is different - we’re now behind UConn, Georgetown and Oklahoma!

We’re also still 4th in the country in Pomeroy’s Pythagorean rankings and his efficiency numbers behind only Texas, Duke and UConn.

Dolphin hasn’t updated his stats since Friday, but we’re still 5th in the predictive ratings (it will probably be updated later today)

Sagarain hasn’t updated yet either, but I don’t expect a lot of movement, so we’ll still likely be 7th in that (pure points) rating. Update, we’ve moved up to 6th.

Dunkel hasn’t updated either, so we’re still 4th there.

So this meaningless exercise has proved to be nearly Ecclesiastically meaningless, quite nearly a chasing after a wind which doesn’t even end up being there. But that fact has never stopped me in the past, so you would be return-to-your-vomit foolish to expect that anything will change.

The long and short is that KU is a top 15, and perhaps a top 10 team in the country, right now. Given our youth, we may crash into some wall - physical or emotional - and end this season in a blaze of disappointment.

I don’t think that’s very likely though, because I’m not sure we’re old enough to have learned about walls, physical or otherwise. I expect this team to win out the regular season with the lone exception of our game at Texas, which I believe will be a great one.

Looking ahead, we will almost certainly be ranked for the first time this year when the polls come out tomorrow.

Here’s how the teams in front of us did:

#17/#18 Boston College Two wins on the road in the ACC this week should move them up a little.

#18/#19 Iowa - Lost to Northwestern, and deserve to plummet for that, but they’re leading the Big 10 and they knocked off Indiana in Bloomington, which should keep them from falling too much.

#19/#17 Ohio State Couple of wins this week, including one at Ann Arbor. They will probably creep up, and deservedly so.

#20/#20 OU They will probably stay where they are after two good wins this week, and I don’t think voters will count the KU loss against them.

#21/#23 Washington How on earth they stayed in the polls after losing three straight is beyond me, especially in the Pac-10, but two wins this week, including one over UCLA, should prevent them from falling out of the top 25.

#22/#22 Michigan Michigan can say good bye to their ranking after losing three straight by a combined 51 points. They will go down, and they will go down hard.

#23/#24 North Carolina For losing to Duke by 4, I don’t think they’ll get dropped. If they lose to Miami tonight, which is certainly possible, they will drop.

#24/#21 Indiana Like their B10 counterpart Michigan, Indy will fall after having lost three straight.

#25/#28 Northern Iowa A loss yesterday to Missouri State is plenty to drop them significantly.

#33/#25 Colorado That Colorado stayed ranked after getting run out of the gym by Iowa State is an embarrasment to the Coach’s poll. A loss to the Texas Aggies this week won’t help their case.

#26/#26 LSU LSU is a good team, but their loss yesterday to Florida will keep them out of the top 25.

I think three teams will drop in each poll, leaving the door open for up and comers like KU, Bucknell, Cal and UAB in the cool kid’s club.

I think KU will be ranked as high as #19 and as low as #22 in the polls. A lot more pundits began noticing KU this week and the fact that we’re 14-2 in our last 16 isn’t being lost on most folks.

Not a single vote for KU. Don’t get me started on the clowns in the media…sure Tejas is a safe bet at number two, but come on people, throw us a bone! Live on the edge! Vote Jayhawk! Vote for Change!

Feast your eyes:

1. Southern Cal (60) 13-0 1,619 1
2. Texas (4) 11-1 1,500 5
3. Tennessee 10-3 1,376 13
4. Michigan 9-3 1,329 14
5. LSU 9-3 1,291 16
6. Ohio St. 8-4 1,205 20
7. Oklahoma 12-1 1,204 3
8. Virginia Tech 10-3 1,184 10
9. Miami 9-3 1,142 11
10. Florida 7-5 1,080 –
11. Iowa 10-2 1,011 8
12. Louisville (1) 11-1 892 6
13. Georgia 10-2 869 7
14. Florida St. 9-3 764 15
15. Purdue 7-5 711 –
16. Auburn 13-0 650 2
17. Texas A&M 7-5 576 –
18. Boise St. 11-1 375 12
19. California 10-2 358 9
20. Arizona St. 9-3 313 19
21. Texas Tech 8-4 256 18
22. Boston College 9-3 232 21
23. Pittsburgh 8-4 211 25
24. Fresno St. 9-3 196 22
25. Virginia 8-4 153 23
Others receiving votes: Alabama 121, Oregon 97, Utah 77, Georgia Tech 62, Bowling Green 57, N.C. State 57, Colorado 38, UCLA 19, Iowa St. 18, Minnesota 18, Miami (Ohio) 15, Penn St. 11, UTEP 10, Oregon St. 8, Wisconsin 5, Clemson 3, Memphis 3, Nebraska 3, Colorado St. 1, Notre Dame 1, Southern Miss. 1, Toledo 1, West Virginia 1, Wyoming 1.

Whom they pick at #4 in the country, despite the fact that their experts think that KU will win in April. Some decent analysis and certainly worth a trip if you have an insatiable appetite for what the talking heads are saying about KU.

Some highlights:

And so it is that Miles, a fourth-year starter, will be attacking his senior season in Lawrence just as he has his previous ones: as though his reputation is on the line every time he handles the ball. That sense of urgency will be shared by three other seniors — forward Wayne Simien, guard Keith Langford and reserve guard Michael Lee — who reached the NCAA championship game two years ago (losing to Syracuse by three points) and made it to the Elite Eight last year, overcoming the departure of two lottery picks and adapting to the system of a new coach, Bill Self. “We have a good chance to win it all,” says Miles, “but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”

I like how Aaron and Russell will play together. I think they’ll be a powerful force, particularly if Aaron can get the hitch out of his shot and Russell can work his shot into the offense naturally

Last season Miles played longer than everyone else too, averaging a team-high 33.8 minutes. Now, at least, he has a reliable backup in 6′1″ combo guard Russell Robinson from New York City, one of five talented freshmen who give the Jayhawks enviable depth. “Aaron would never admit it, but I think he got worn out last year,” says Self. “Russell will be a guy who can take 10 minutes from him a game.”

Miles, of course, is more eager to play with the quick and defensively savvy Robinson than to be spelled by him. “He can change the game, especially when we’re on the floor at the same time,” says Miles. “He’ll allow us to pressure more and get out and run more.”

Defensively, these guys will be a real pain to opposing guards. Both are in many ways shut down defenders. Aaron recognizes he needs his shot to fall a little, at least to keep people honest.

Miles says he also will look to sharpen his shooting — in 2003-04 he hit just 40.2% of his field goal attempts — but dishing will remain his signature contribution. His 7.3 assists per game is the top returning average in Division I, and he is only 66 assists short of Jacque Vaughn’s school record of 804. “Someday I might appreciate that record, but right now it’s not important,” says Miles. “The record I want to get is 36-0.”

And wouldn’t we all be happy with those numbers.

And here it is. Syracuse and Illinois switch places for some reason.

I will be adding to this index as things change and as more rankings become available. If you have rankings that are not added feel free to send them to me at phog phogblog.com. For now…

Taken from:

Scout.com
USA Today

For the first time since Wilt the Stilt donned short shorts for the University of Kansas, the Jayhawks are Number 1 according to the Associated Press.

Whereas formerly, KU was 15-1 to win this year’s national championship, now KU is 7-1, and, as such, has ‘most favored’ status among all colleges.

UNC is second at 8-1.

Now I’m wishing I’d have laid a tenner down on the Hawks.

Actual Poll below…

From the USA Today:

For all the bumps in the road the Kansas Jayhawks faced last season, all of the transition issues in the shift from being Roy Williams’ team to Bill Self’s, they wound up one overtime defeat short of a third consecutive Final Four.

The remaining combination of talent and experience convinced voters in the USA TODAY/ESPN preseason coaches poll to select the Jayhawks as the No. 1 team.