bkervick's Week 19 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | -- Took care of business on road at UCF (which has tripped up Tech, Okie and Kansas) and then blasted Kansas at home. Outright Big 12 champs. |
| 2 | UConn | Up 1. See below. Outright Big East champs by 4 games. |
| 3 | Purdue | Down 1. I swapped UConn and Purdue this week, Similar resume, but UConn's recent scoring margin vs. expectations has been much stronger than Purdue's and they've separated themselves in most metrics. |
| 4 | North Carolina | Up 2. Won ACC outright, up to 4th in WAB. |
| 5 | Tennessee | Down 1. They had gained some clearance last week, but home loss pulls them back to the pack. Outright SEC champs. |
| 6 | Arizona | Down 1. 99 game score in one away win this week, and 49 in the away loss this week. Outright Pac 12 champs. |
| 7 | Creighton | Up 5. With tough matchups saved for the end of the year, every team between 4th and 14th in my poll last week lost at least once except UNC and Creighton. Top 10 in WAB, KenPom, T-Rank, and EvanMiya. |
| 8 | Iowa State | -- 2 pretty mediocre performances this week, but losses abound around them. |
| 9 | Illinois | --. Kept it pretty tight with Purdue and strong win at Iowa this week. |
| 10 | Marquette | Down 3. Just not the same team without Kolek, despite putting up a strong fight. |
| 11 | Kansas | Down 1. 97 game score against KSt, 19 against Houston. Would have dropped more if teams behind hadn't also lost. |
| 12 | Kentucky | Up 6. Played with their food a bit with Vandy, but a really strong win at Tennessee. Most metrics don't have them quite this high, but you can just see it with them. Top 12 over last month on Torvik. |
| 13 | Auburn | Up 2. 2 decently strong scoring margin results this week. |
| 14 | Alabama | Down 3. Even though they went 1-1 this week, 2 pretty poor results in general. |
| 15 | Duke | Down 2. Home loss is a home loss, even against a top 5 team. |
| 16 | Utah State | Up 1. Outright MWC champs. |
| 17 | Baylor | Down 3. Good win and then tough double digit loss on road to Tech. |
| 18 | South Carolina | Up 3. No idea who to put at 18 this week. All of the teams in the final 8 either didn't play or lost this week except Dayton. South Co lost at home to Tenn, but nice bounce back road win at Miss St. |
| 19 | Saint Mary's | -- Didn't play. |
| 20 | BYU | Up 2. Tough road loss at Iowa St, then decent home win. 2 90+ game scores moves them up 2 in this week. |
| 21 | Dayton | Up 3. 2-0 week is enough, despite unimpressive result with OT win at home vs. VCU. |
| 22 | Texas Tech | New. 2 strong (99 and 98 game score) performances this week slots them into #22. |
| 23 | Gonzaga | -- The only way to win is not to play. |
| 24 | Nevada | New. 7 game win streak in MWC including 4 road wins in a row in that conference is impressive, even dealing with some injuries. |
| 25 | Nebraska | New. Fairly quiet week, but resume is strong and last month has been terrific from a margin perspective (helped by easer schedule).. |
Overall Rationale
Out: Washington St (from #20), home loss to Washington is an oof and 4 straight sub 80 game scores have caused their predictive metrics to take a tumble. SDSU (from #16), 2 loss week including a home loss to Boise. Dropped a full point of WAB. Just missed. Florida (from #25), I like this team a lot, but you cant lose to Vanderbilt from #25 and stay ranked. Considered (no order): The three above, Clemson, Wisconsin, Texas, Drake, South Florida.