clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Road loss to a team receiving first-place votes drops Xavier six spots in the polls

As usual, this makes no sense.

NCAA Basketball: Xavier at Baylor
This probably didn’t go in.
Sean Pokorny-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s get right to it!

RANK SCHOOL POINTS PREVIOUS RECORD
1 Villanova (57) 1,613 2 8-0
2 UCLA (2) 1,478 11 9-0
3 Kansas 1,458 4 7-1
4 Baylor (6) 1,437 9 8-0
5 Duke 1,389 5 8-1
6 Kentucky 1,274 1 7-1
7 North Carolina 1,234 3 8-1
8 Gonzaga 1,198 8 8-0
9 Indiana 1,103 13 7-1
10 Creighton 1,003 10 8-0
11 Louisville 901 14 7-1
12 Saint Mary's 899 12 6-0
13 Xavier 784 7 7-1
14 Virginia 758 6 7-1
15 West Virginia 729 25 6-1
16 Butler 691 18 8-0
17 Wisconsin 655 17 7-2
18 Purdue 485 15 6-2
19 South Carolina 476 20 8-0
20 Arizona 320 16 6-2
21 Florida 285 24 7-1
22 Cincinnati 258 NR 7-1
23 Notre Dame 197 NR 8-0
24 Oregon 175 23 7-2
25 Iowa State 95 19 5-2
Others receiving votes: Syracuse 45, Southern Cal 43, Ohio St. 40, TCU 33, Florida St. 18, Virginia Tech 11, California 10, Maryland 9, Valparaiso 7, Wichita St. 5, Temple 3, Michigan St. 3, Minnesota 1, IPFW 1, UNC Wilmington 1

Well this is kind of silly. The polls don’t matter at all, but it’s still lame to see the number by your team’s name get worse. Side note, do you guys all remember Tim Whelan? A shame he didn’t come around a bit later; he picked the wrong time to make bets about his teeth.

Also, voters consistently underestimate how difficult it is to get road wins. They also have really short memories, as evidenced by the fact that Indiana - whose road loss is arguably even worse than Xavier’s - is sitting in the top ten. Oh well. Win some, lose some, ignore everything until March.

You’ve probably noticed that there’s not the little .gif of the one guy yelling “DOOFUS!” this week. Brad usually runs that feature, but he’s sidelined for the moment. I’ll ask him to edit it in once he’s back in the loop.