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Polls are out for the week and hit a whole new level of stupid

The AP and USA Today polls provide yet another great argument for their own abolishing.

A 19 point win over a top 10 team definitely merits a significant drop in the polls.
A 19 point win over a top 10 team definitely merits a significant drop in the polls.
Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

The one problem with the KenPom rankings or the Massey Ratings is that they are compiled by unfeeling machines. The numbers simply tell the story regardless of any sort of human element. Factors like watching a teammate be knocked unconscious and be taken away by ambulance are allowed for. Nothing matters beyond the numbers. In this one regard, surely the human polls are better.

Except, they aren't. We have time and time again told you that human polls are a moronic way of basing your opinion on a team and time and time again they go out of their way to prove it. Xavier lost (to put it charitably) to Villanova, a team that has lost to only the first/second and fourth ranked teams in the nation and sits second in the KenPom, after watching their friend and point guard be immobilized and rushed to the hospital. Understandably distraught, the Musketeers couldn't regroup and lost the game. That same team then refocused and destroyed a full strength Butler team ranked, at the time, ninth in the nation and did it still without their incredibly talented guard.

For that, Xavier dropped from sixth to either tenth or 12th, depending on whether you prefer ill-informed team interns or ill-informed media hacks. Jumping ahead of the Musketeers are teams like UNC, who has lost to Northern Iowa (78th) and Texas (52nd), Kentucky, who has been beaten by UCLA (56th) and OSU (53rd), and a Miami team that sports the glittering 147th toughest schedule in the nation.

So well done, pollsters. In a land where it's occasionally difficult to convince people that you are utterly clueless and computer numbers are the way to go you have, for the countless time, provided the best possible argument against yourselves. Abolish these things and start using numbers that actually work. It's the only way to preserve any basketballing sanity.

AP Poll

RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Kansas Jayhawks (44) 12-1 1,598
2 Oklahoma Sooners (21) 12-0 1,574
3 Maryland Terrapins 13-1 1,459
4 Virginia Cavaliers 12-1 1,409
5 Michigan State Spartans 14-1 1,400
6 North Carolina Tar Heels 13-2 1,275
7 Arizona Wildcats 13-1 1,126
8 Providence Friars 14-1 1,108
9 Kentucky Wildcats 11-2 1,039
10 Xavier Musketeers 13-1 1,001
11 Villanova Wildcats 12-2 979
12 Miami-Florida Hurricanes 12-1 921
13 Iowa State Cyclones 11-2 844
14 Duke Blue Devils 12-2 830
15 SMU Mustangs 13-0 731
16 Louisville Cardinals 12-2 568
17 West Virginia Mountaineers 12-1 558
18 Butler Bulldogs 11-3 516
19 Iowa Hawkeyes 11-3 456
20 Purdue Boilermakers 13-2 450
21 Texas A&M Aggies 11-2 420
22 South Carolina Gamecocks 13-0 286
23 Connecticut Huskies 10-3 107
24 Pittsburgh Panthers 12-1 103
25 Dayton Flyers 11-2 100
Others receiving votes: Gonzaga 61, California 54, Texas Tech 40, George Washington 38, Saint Mary's 23, Baylor 22, Oregon State 4, Colorado 4, Seton Hall 4, Saint Joseph's 3, Wichita St 3, Utah 3, Cincinnati 2, Indiana 2, Michigan 2, Akron 1, Oregon 1


USA Today Coaches Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD PTS PREV
1 Oklahoma (20) 12-0 781 2
2 Kansas (11) 12-1 769 3
3 Maryland 13-1 732 4
4 Virginia 12-1 698 5
5 Michigan St (1) 14-1 676 1
6 Arizona 13-1 618 7
7 North Carolina 13-2 592 8
8 Kentucky 11-2 526 11
9 Providence 14-1 509 13
10 Duke 12-2 487 12
11 Miami-Florida 12-1 444 15
12 Xavier 13-1 442 6
13 Villanova 12-2 434 16
14 Iowa St. 11-2 402 9
15 West Virginia 12-1 350 17
16 Louisville 12-2 282 18
17 Texas A&M 11-2 265 19
18 Purdue 13-2 248 14
19 Butler 11-3 238 10
20 South Carolina 13-0 232 20
21 Pittsburgh 12-1 121 25
22 Gonzaga 12-3 112 24
23 Iowa 11-3 110 NR
24 Connecticut 10-3 81 26
25 Baylor 10-3 61 21
Others Receiving Votes: California 52; Dayton 28; George Washington 23; Cincinnati 19; Saint Mary's 18; Texas Tech 17; Vanderbilt 6; Oregon 6; Utah 5; Indiana 5; Colorado 4; Oregon State 3; Southern California 2; Houston 2.