The Predictor Top 25: 1/26/09

Here’s my initial Top 25:

1. Connecticut (18-1): The victory at Notre Dame, which wasn’t really in doubt in the 2nd half, is probably the best road win for any team this season
2. Wake Forest (16-1): The loss against Virginia Tech was predictable. Still, they have wins over UNC, at Clemson and at BYU (which owned the longest home court winning streak in the nation at the time). Wake is for real.
3. Oklahoma (19-1): Any team with Blake Griffin inside is a really good team. Their beatdown of Baylor was the latest in a long line of good wins.
4. North Carolina (17-2): The Heels are still the best team in the country…when they want to be.
5. Duke (18-1): This is why I wait ‘til January to do a poll. Just because the Dookies’ loss isn’t as recent as other teams’, they are #1 this week. However, looking at the season long results, I don’t think they stand a chance against the four teams above them.
6. Louisville (15-3): I think that the Cardinals are also better than Duke, but three losses is one too many to slide them ahead of the Dookies at this point.
7. Pittsburgh (18-1): The Panthers are here because they already lost to Louisville. We know what Jamie Dixon’s team will do in March. Hint: it’s not winning basketball games.
8. Marquette (17-2): For the past couple of years, every time I get high on these guys, they manage to lose a couple of game they aren’t supposed to. They have a very favorable Big East schedule until mid-February. Let’s see if they can earn this ranking.
9. Clemson (17-2): Their two losses are to UNC and Wake. No shame in that. Still, I’d like to see them beat an ACC elite before moving them higher.
10. Xavier (17-2): Don’t know why they decided to travel to Baton Rouge in late January, but they came away with a win. This is the best mid-major in the country.
11. Michigan State (16-3): The losses to Northwestern and Maryland are troubling, but the wins Texas, Arizona State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Kansas and Illinois make up for it.
12. Texas (14-4): The Longhorns have a lot of good wins (UCLA, Villanova, Arizona State) and no losses that really stick out. So despite the 14-4 record, they stay here for now. At least they challenged themselves.
13. Arizona State (16-3): Really hesitant to put Little Herby’s bunch this high. Other than their win at UCLA (in OT), ASU doesn’t have much else on the resume other than a win against BYU on a neutral court. Still, they’ve shown flashes of being the best team in the Pac-10.
14. UCLA (15-4): With losses to ASU and Texas, I couldn’t put the Bruins ahead of either of those teams. Also, the loss to Michigan is becoming a bigger problem each week.
15. Purdue (15-4): Despite the four losses, I still really like this Purdue team. Only the loss at Penn State stands out as curious.
16. Butler (18-1): Best win was against Xavier. And that’s a good win. Other than that, their toughest games were against Ohio State and Northwestern. Then it goes further downhill from there. As usual, I’m just not impressed with Butler.
17. Illinois (17-3): Worst loss is at Michigan. The other two losses to Clemson and Michigan State are understandable. Wins against Missouri, at Vanderbilt and at Purdue help their cause. I think Illinois could legit. Tough game in Minnesota this week.
18. Syracuse (17-4): Despite a challenging non-conference schedule (about time Mr. Boeheim), I was never really convinced about the Orange. An early season loss to Cleveland State can’t be ignored. Neither can losing three of their last four.
19. Memphis (16-3): Even with the off-season defections, this is still a very talented team in a soft conference. The Tigers would be higher if they hadn’t lost to Syracuse.
20. Baylor (15-4): I’ll admit that these guys are probably too high at #20. Still, I love their fun-n-gun style. Plus, none of their losses are bad and they have wins against Arizona State and Washington State.
21. Kansas (15-4): Like Memphis, don’t let the defections fool you. They’ve lost to the teams they were supposed to lose to (with the exception of UMass). They are undefeated in the Big XII. Plus, they have a chance to move up playing at Baylor this week.
22. Minnesota (17-3): The 17 wins are a bit inflated with a rather soft non-conference schedule. Still, the win against Louisville sits well with me. The Fightin’ Tubbies get a chance to prove themselves this week with games against Illinois and Michigan State.
23. Missouri (17-3): Like rival Illinois, the jury is still out on these guys. However, the Tigers appear to finally be building up after the rough tenure of Quinn Snyder and his giant vat of hair gel.
24. Florida State (16-4): The more I see of FSU, the more I like. Will ranking Leonard Hamilton this high come back and haunt me? We’ll see what happens against UNC on Wednesday.
25. Washington (15-4): If Lorenzo Romar wasn’t the coach, I probably wouldn’t have the Huskies ranked. Still, UW is 6-1 in the Pac-10 and they own wins against UCLA, Stanford and Oklahoma State with a week long trip to the desert scheduled. As long as they avoid traveling to Portland (6-pt loss to Portland and 1-pt win over Portland State) they’ll be fine.

Next Up: Kentucky, Saint Mary’s, Utah State, Villanova, Florida