Butler deserves a top 10 NCAA ranking, and Southern Illinois is finally getting some love, but Memphis and Nevada are overrated by NCAA voters.
The NCAA Top 25 was shaken by some great upsets last week. North Carolina fell to NC State, Duke fell at home to Florida State, and Oklahoma State lost to lowly Colorado.
So, the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Cowboys fell in the AP and ESPN college basketball rankings, as they should have.
Florida is the obvious choice to head the top 25, and UCLA is a solid number 2.
Butler, which is 22-2 and the winner of the pre-season NIT is a very deserving top 10 team. And, finally, the pollsters gave some respect to Southern Illinois, a top 10 team in the RPI and from a top 5 RPI conference.
How, we wonder, can the voters place Memphis as high as 8th and Nevada at number 12?
Memphis has nothing more than a nice overall record of 19-3. Like Nevada (21-2), the Tigers have beaten absolutely no one. Memphis plays in Conference USA, the 11th-ranked league by the RPI, and the Tigers have not beaten a ranked team all season.
Similarly, Nevada plays an awful schedule. The Western Athletic Conference is the 9th-ranked league, and the Wolf Pack also has no top 25 wins to its credit.
How college basketball voters can put these teams ahead of teams with higher RPI rankings and from tougher conferences – teams like Marquette, Washington State and Florida State – is unfathomable.
It makes any astute college basketball fan wonder on what exactly are the pollsters basing their votes.
