Week 16 Rankings

1) UCLA
2) Wisconsin
3) Kansas
4) Ohio State
5) North Carolina
6) Texas A&M
7) Georgetown
8) Nevada
9) Washington State
10) Florida
11) Pittsburgh
12) Winthrop
13) Southern Illinois
14) Duke
15) Oregon
16) Maryland
17) Notre Dame
18) Memphis
19) Michigan State
20) UNLV
21) Texas
22) Butler
23) Louisville
24) Syracuse
25) Virginia

 

1. UCLA
2. Ohio State
3. Wisconsin
4. Texas A&M
5. Kansas
6. North Carolina
7. Georgetown
8. Florida
9. Nevada
10. Memphis
11. Washington State
12. Southern Illinois
13. Winthrop
14. Pittsburgh
15. Duke
16. Oregon
17. Louisville
18. Maryland
19. Michigan State
20. Notre Dame
21. Texas
22. Virginia
23. Southern Cal
24. Old Dominion
25. UNLV

Subject to change

 

1. UCLA
2. Ohio State
3. Wisconsin
4. Texas A & M
5. North Carolina
6. Kansas
7. Nevada
8. Georgetown
9. Florida
10. Washington St.
11. Southern Illinois
12. Memphis
13. Pittsburgh
14. Oregon
15. Winthrop
16. Butler
17. Duke
18. Notre Dame
19. Michigan State
20. Louisville
21. Southern Cal
22. UNLV
23. Texas
24. Maryland
25. Syracuse

 

1. UCLA
2. Ohio State
3. Texas A&M
4. Kansas
5. UNC
6. Wisconsin
7. Florida
8. Georgetown
9. Nevada
10. Southern Illinois
11. Oregon
12. Washington State
13. Winthrop
14. Pitt
15. Duke
16. Memphis
17. Louisville
18. Michigan State
19. Maryland
20. Notre Dame
21. UNLV
22. Texas
23. West Virginia
24. Southern Cal
25. Xavier

 

I feel ya Schad. I can't wait for this freaking season to end!

 

Damn, Schad, don't be such a baby. Your team was #1 this week for the first time in school history. Teams lose. That's life, that's the game. My team lost eight times already this year. We got blown the **** out by Purdue. We picked ourselves up and went out the next game with a chip on our shoulder though. Wisky's no exception, they'll do the same.

BTW - Maryland just beet the Heels, w00t!

 

I hate to come off that way man, and I apologize if I'm just whining. It's very frustrating to see what was such an excellent season tainted down the stretch...again...because of our guard play, coaching decisions and inability to hit perimeter shots...again. I know I gotta chill. Sorry guys.

 

Question to everyone who ranks OSU over Wisky (which is everyone except for me I guess): Why? The Badgers owned them in Madison (the score was not indicitive of the blowout it was) and then the Badgers lost by only one point in the Buckeyes' own arena today, not because the Buckeyes beat them but because they beat themselves. They split the season series, but the Badgers looked much better in the two matchups.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Question to everyone who ranks OSU over Wisky (which is everyone except for me I guess): Why? The Badgers owned them in Madison (the score was not indicitive of the blowout it was) and then the Badgers lost by only one point in the Buckeyes' own arena today, not because the Buckeyes beat them but because they beat themselves. They split the season series, but the Badgers looked much better in the two matchups.</div>

The Badgers' weaknesses have been exposed, and they're the same problem areas that Bucky had last year. It took a pair of our freshmen to keep this game close today; I think that even though Ohio State played sloppy basketball, the Badgers were simply inept at times. You can't count on freshmen who haven't played many minutes all season to just step up and carry us down the stretch - that's on Kam Taylor, who has now played back-to-boack terrible games. It's reminiscent of his fade last year. Bo Ryan has not made the type of adjustments he must to get Tucker more involved in the offense, and the guards haven't found him.

Is the sky falling? No, because Wisconsin is still a team that plays great defense and can exploit most teams in the paint. Losing two tough games on the road against the #2 and #3 teams in your conference? No shame. However, it doesn't inspire confidence in a team to see them limp into their conference tournament. And who knows - we've got a seriously tough game coming with Sparty at home. The Badgers need to step up down the stretch, because no matter how good we are, we just hit a rough stretch that showed we've got work to do before we're considered a Final Four team.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Schaddy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Badgers' weaknesses have been exposed, and they're the same problem areas that Bucky had last year. It took a pair of our freshmen to keep this game close today; I think that even though Ohio State played sloppy basketball, the Badgers were simply inept at times. You can't count on freshmen who haven't played many minutes all season to just step up and carry us down the stretch - that's on Kam Taylor, who has now played back-to-boack terrible games. It's reminiscent of his fade last year. Bo Ryan has not made the type of adjustments he must to get Tucker more involved in the offense, and the guards haven't found him.

Is the sky falling? No, because Wisconsin is still a team that plays great defense and can exploit most teams in the paint. Losing two tough games on the road against the #2 and #3 teams in your conference? No shame. However, it doesn't inspire confidence in a team to see them limp into their conference tournament. And who knows - we've got a seriously tough game coming with Sparty at home. The Badgers need to step up down the stretch, because no matter how good we are, we just hit a rough stretch that showed we've got work to do before we're considered a Final Four team.</div>

So they have a weakness. So does every team. Like I said, this is not a great year for college basketball. Michigan State is the most turnover prone team I remember seeing in recent memory, and they're completely stagnant on offense if Drew Neitzel goes cold. Not to mention that they have a history of playing unmotivated in the first half and only playing up to their potential when the game's on the line. I still rank them in my top 20 though. Why? Because they're better than all the other options. As such, I think that Wisconsin's better than all the other options out there. Their weaknesses were exposed from the start. You can't tell me that these are new revelations. Back to back losses at Michigan State and Ohio State are nothing to be ashamed of. I don't think any other team in the nation could have handled that stretch without coming away with at least one loss.

 

I do think that UNC's loss today makes things a bit better for us. You're right that there's no dominant team - there's 5-7 that are probably above the rest.

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I wouldn't be disappointed in Wisconsin's efforts. They lost Butch to injury, and they just couldn't convert wide open looks from the perimeter.

Kam Taylor hit some big shots to get Wisconsin back in the game, but his failed attempt at hitting a game winner must have had your blood boiling. He had a teammate wide open on the wing, and decided to take up against 3 defenders instead of kicking it out.

I thought Tucker played a bad game for Wisconsin. He took a lot of low percentage shots, and wasn't attacking the soft spots of Ohio State's zone, along the free throw line area.</div>

I've said enough about Kam Taylor. He's a stud against Northwestern and a dud against anyone worth a ****. There's a fundamental problem with the swing offense that reared its ugly head today. The offense isn't designed to get your star the ball - it's designed to get the open shot, no matter who has it. That makes it tougher for Tuck to get looks, and I think he's still a bit uncomfortable when he has to dominate the ball. Evidence? He flashed through the paint and couldn't get the ball where he's comfortable, so he'd take it on the wing and try to penetrate. That's not how our offense attacks a zone, which OSU played most of the game. He's not a zone buster, unfortunately. That's why we need Kam to just let other players handle the ball and knock down open threes. But instead, he gets it in his head that he's Stephon Marbury and just jacks up shots, or else penetrates but can't finish...I said I wasn't going to do this again!

Part of the problem is Bo. He doesn't want to break from his system, even if that's the only way we can effectively get our best player the ball. And he should figure out other ways to post people up, too, because we're just taking far too many jumpers the last couple games. Then again, part of that is we've played two teams with excellent interior defenses.

Needless to say, Bucky's offense needs to stop standing on the perimeter and get dirty inside. Otherwise, people are going to use this week's book to take us out in the tourney.

 

1) UCLA – 125 (5)
2) Ohio State – 117
3) Wisconsin – 113
4) Texas A&M – 108
5) Kansas – 106
6) North Carolina – 105
7) Nevada – 90
8) Georgetown – 89
9) Florida – 88
10) Washington State – 79
11) Southern Illinois – 74
12) Pittsburgh – 64
13) Oregon – 62
14) Memphis - 59
15) Winthrop – 55
16) Duke – 53
17) Michigan State – 34
18) Notre Dame – 30
19) Louisville – 29
20) Maryland – 27
21) Texas – 26
22) Southern Cal – 23
23) Butler – 21
24) UNLV – 16
25) Vanderbilt – 8

Others Receiving Votes:

Xavier (7), Virginia (5), Air Force (3), Syracuse (3), West Virginia (3), Old Dominion (2)