Week 12 Rankings

1) Wisconsin
2) North Carolina

Any doubts about the capabalities of this young but talented North Carolina team were laid to rest as the Tar Heels, led by freshman phenom Ty Lawson, blewout #22 Arizona worse than any other team has in the Wildcat's own gym in the 24-season Lute Olsen era. What's even more impressive is that they won so convincingly without the help of neither Brandan Wright nor Marcus Ginyard, who were both sidelined with stomach ailments.

3) Oregon
4) UCLA
5) Florida

The Gators had another soft-scheduled week, facing Mississippi State (11-8) and Auburn (13-9), two of the SEC's weaker teams. Still, the Gators, ranked #1 in the AP polls, barely managed to escape from Starkville with a win, finally pulling it out by the score of 70-67. The Gators stand to face more difficult challenges in the upcoming weeks though, as they play a slew of teams from the SEC's more competitive Eastern division.

6) Ohio State

Greg Oden struggled offensively in his first few weeks with the Buckeyes because he hadn't had much time to practice with the team and because he couldn't use his right hand whatsoever. While he still can't use his right hand the way he'd like to, he's quickly gotten used to both playing within the Buckeyes' offense and using his left hand. Never has this been more apparent than in Ohio State's last three games, where Oden has shown what he's truly capable of offensively, averaging 21.7 ppg (on 73% shooting) to go along with 11.0 rpg.

7) Kansas
8) Texas A&M
9) Duke

The Blue Devils won at home against Clemson this past Thursday because of a mistake made by the officials, but regardless of how they won, they undeniably played like one of the top teams in the nation against the Tigers, spurred by McRobert's fourth double-double of the season, and while the reffs may have determined the outcome of the game, it's in the books as a win and Duke shouldn't be penalized because of it.

10) Butler
11) Nevada
12) Oklahoma State
13) Pittsburgh
14) Notre Dame

With the talent that they have, the Irish probably shouldn't be ranked as high as they are right now, but they have to be given credit for going out there and getting the job done, winning ball games while the rest of their more talented Big East peers have been dropping games against the conference's lower tier teams.

15) Marquette
16) Washington State
17) Indiana
18) Florida State
19) Stanford
20) Virginia Tech
21) Winthrop
22) Air Force
23) Clemson

The Tigers may not be quite as legit as their record may suggest. After all, their non-conference schedule was one of the most Charmin-soft of any team in the Top 25, but even though they're not elite, they're still a very good team, probably the third or fourth best team in the ACC at this point. That was never more evident than this past Thursday as they played #11 Duke down to the wire at Cameron Indoor Stadium, narrowly losing a game that some feel they would have won had it not been for an error on the part of the officials.

24) Maryland
25) Georgetown

 

1. Wisconsin
2. Florida
3. North Carolina
4. Oregon
5. UCLA
6. Ohio State
7. Butler
8. Duke
9. Kansas
10. Marquette
11. Pittsburgh
12. Texas A&M
13. Oklahoma State
14. Nevada
15. Memphis
16. Notre Dame
17. Virginia Tech
18. Vanderbilt
19. Stanford
20. Washington State
21. Air Force
22. Southern Illinois
23. Georgetown
24. Maryland
25. Southern Cal

 

<div class="quote_poster">UKFan33 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">
19. Stanford
</div>

How'd I skip over them?

I'm checking out their resume right now. I didn't realize they've only dropped five games on the season. That used to seem like such a high number, but now that everyone's dropping like flies during conference play, that looks a hell of a lot better, especially after the way they just blew out USC. I'm still trying to figure out that Santa Clara loss though...

 

Ok, I give up on the fucking MVC. Clearly, nobody wants to win that conference. I've never seen a league beat up on itself quite like the Valley this year. There are 7 teams with between 6 and 4 conference wins, and the top two teams are Creighton (almost all their losses have come to solid teams, but the fact remains that they are a veteran team that already has 7 losses) and Southern Illinois (losses to Evansville and Bradley). Fawk!

1. Wisconsin
2. UNC
3. Oregon
4. Florida
5. UCLA





6. Ohio State
7. Texas A&M


8. Kansas - ugh, the beginning of the undeserving high rankings
9. Dook
10. Pitt
11. Butler
12. Nevada
13. OK State
14. Marquette

































15. Notre Dame
16. Wazzou (yes, they stay here, because a loss to Oregon is better than many teams' wins this week )
17. Va Tech














18. Stanford
19. Hell, I don't know. How about Florida State?
20. Air Force
21. Clemson
22. Southern Illinois
23. Indiana
24. Virginia Commonwealth - take notice that they just beat everyone's sleeper pick, Drexel, and George Mason, on the road this week.
25. Southern Cal - one loss doesn't destroy them, but the Cardinal made them look like an AAU team.
...

26. Georgetown
27. West Virginia
28. Vanderbilt
29. Creighton
30. George Washington
31. Tennessee
32. New Mexico State
33. Michigan State
34. Virginia
35. UNLV


Arizona - so much talent, it's disgusting to see them lose like that to the Tarheels. Memo to the 'Cats - you aren't in the NBA yet. You still have to defend and play well on your home court, or you're going to get dumptrucked by the teams that actually care about winning, not draft potential.



































LSU

Alabama

 

No Clemson bro'?

And MSU doesn't crack your top 35 over LSU? **** you.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No Clemson bro'?

And MSU doesn't crack your top 35 over LSU? **** you.</div>

Come on, gimme a minute. I always slap up a preliminary top 35, then I look at it and realize the glaring holes in it, and fill them in (if you go back in my previous rankings, they're all edited about 10 times )

I must admit forgetting Clemson was bad I honestly did mean to rank them

 

<div class="quote_poster">Schaddy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> Come on, gimme a minute. I always slap up a preliminary top 35, then I look at it and realize the glaring holes in it, and fill them in (if you go back in my previous rankings, they're all edited about 10 times )

I must admit forgetting MICHIGAN STATE was bad I honestly did mean to rank them</div>

Fixed.

 

You already know I like Sparty more than I should Neitzel is a bad man.

If they win one of their games this week, I think they'll hop into my rankings (obviously if they beat Ohio St). I was impressed how they came back - after watching them lose those few games early in Big 10 play, I saw a lot of things symptomatic of a young team, and I thought it was happening again last night in Columbus. That rally was impressive. It seems like Sparty has yet to play a good game for a full 40 minutes, something the Badgers couldn't do last year. I know Raymo is still trying to get back in the swing of things, though. Who knows, they might yet become the desperately-needed third contender in the Big 10, because I still have major doubts about Indiana on the road - I think they'll give us a hell of a test in Bloomington this week, but that game at Illinois showed some weaknesses to me. I think they're a top 25 team, but I'm not ready to annoint them just yet. They beat us, we'll talk again. (I wouldn't be shocked at all if they beat us - aside from Tucker, the Badgers played like **** today - we fell back into the 'oh, let's watch Alando do everything and not worry about handling our own business')

 

1) Wisconsin
2) North Carolina
3) UCLA
4) Florida
5) Oregon
6) Ohio State
7) Kansas
8) Texas A&M
9) Pittsburgh
10) Oklahoma State
11) Butler
12) Marquette
13) Nevada
14) Duke
15) Notre Dame
16) Indiana
17) Air Force
18) Syracuse
19) Stanford
20) Washington St.
21) Texas Tech
22) Georgetown
23) Virginia Tech
24) Clemson
25) Florida St.

 

dont forget that Clemson lost to Virginia today.

 

I'm not arguing about the placement, because #5 is fair, but your explanation on the Gators is alright. Auburn is a damn good home team beating both Alabama(overrated as hell) and Tennessee(with Lofton) at their house. They were red hot entering that game. They are also #1 team in the SEC West(again not too much of an accomplishment), but you are acting like they are absolutely horrible(like USF)

For some reason the Gators always play mediocre at Miss State(in football and basketball). I can't really explain it, they always play us tough regardless(similar to Vandy in football). Of course I was disappointed that we only won by 3, but I truthfully wouldn't have been too surprised to see a loss just because of our past there.

The exhibition part of the SEC schedule is now nearing an end. We play Vandy(who has been playing damn good) and UT(possibly without Lofton) both at home next week then follow it with a game @ UGA and @ Kentucky the week after.

We'll all see what the Gators are really made of the rest of the season and it looks like we finally got into a rhythm. The Auburn game was the first time all season that we played a complete game from tip to the end.

 

I agree that the Gators are looking better - I toyed with the idea of moving them ahead of Oregon, too, but Oregon's win over Wazzou was on the road, which really impressed me.

Winning at Auburn by that big a margin is a step forward for Fla, to me, because my only thing against teh Gators is that they really haven't done much on the road. They've blown out a couple of NIT-type teams in Auburn and South Carolina, but no high-quality wins. UCLA, Wisconsin, UNC and Oregon all have statement wins on the road. That's the only thing keeping Florida from moving up on my list. Their next five games will give us a more accurate reading on just how good teh Gators are - Vandy, UT, @ Georgia, @ Kentucky and Bama.

 

Again, I'm not complaining about the ranking. I certainly understand seeing Wisconsin, UNC, Oregon, and UCLA ahead of us. It's just the way that Voodoo was saying it it sounded like we played Savannah State and Northeast Maine at home.

 

Quit your bitching. Those are two of the SEC's weaker teams, and I posted their records. Are you that uptight that you're bitching about me saying that you had a soft-scheduled week? Well, you know what? You did. Shut the **** up.

 

Dude, chill. I'm sure those kids in the Off Topic area pissed you off, but don't come in here telling Gators to STFU - I bitched about Wisconsin's football ranking, you bitched about Michigan's getting screwed out of teh Title game. It's not reason to come off that harsh on him. I don't mean to come back at you, but with all the idiots on this site, I don't want to see us (the good guys..lol) swearing at each other, ya know?

Maybe we should just drop the debating of Florida's ranking here for awhile, until something big happens. You guys cool with that? I'm only trying to play mediator here because I like both you guys, and I especially don't like to see the Florida fight all the time

 

Yeah I'm cool. Sorry for irritating you Voodoo.

 

Mine are now completed.

 

<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah I'm cool. Sorry for irritating you Voodoo.</div>



My bad, didn't mean to be so explosive - was in a horrible mood and was out of line...

And shape, are you looking for a video recap? Foxsports actually reruns those games.