willweaverrva's Week 4 Ballot

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Kansas	Still #1 on my poll, but Kansas is about to get a big, big test on Tuesday when they play Duke.
2	UConn	I should've given points off for UConn not beating Texas A&M-Commerce by enough, just to drive Dan Hurley's point home. ;)
3	Gonzaga	The Zags have just about obliterated almost every opponent they've faced this season, including Baylor. The Battle 4 Atlantis looms, though...
4	Auburn	Bruce Pearl once again has Auburn playing at a high level, but the unstoppable force meets the immovable object today when they face Iowa State.
5	Houston	Metrically speaking, the Coogs are the most well-balanced team in D1, but they'll be tested this week. First up: offensive powerhouse Alabama.
6	Iowa State	Iowa State has been ranked fairly highly based mostly on metrics since they've only played 3 games so far against low-end competition, but things ramp up big time this week.
7	Tennessee	The Vols already have a fairly impressive set of wins early on in the season, including wins over Baylor and a resurgent Louisville.
8	Alabama	This week is going to set the tone for Alabama's season. Despite losing to Purdue earlier, if they can get through the Players Era Festival, the sky's the limit.
9	Duke	Jon Scheyer has Duke playing extremely well. If they can knock off Kansas (and they have a pretty good shot), they stand to move way up.
10	North Carolina	UNC is looking good heading into Maui, and they'll already have gotten over any jet lag thanks to the game at Hawaii, but Dayton is a lot better than their #38 KP rating suggests.
11	Kentucky	This Kentucky team is so much fun to watch. Mark Pope has really put together a tough squad. Will they have anything for Gonzaga when they play in a couple of weeks?
12	Marquette	Shaka Smart is showing that Marquette doesn't need Tyler Kolek to play well.
13	Texas	After an early hiccup, the Longhorns have been playing very well against increasingly tough competition, including a great win over a resurgent St. Joe's team.
14	Purdue	No notes, Purdue has simply been solid despite their loss to Marquette last week.
15	Texas A&M	The Aggies are simply a solid team. UCF is definitely not a bad loss. Oregon and Creighton will definitely test them though.
16	Creighton	Creighton needs to find some consistency or they could fall out of the poll after this week.
17	Indiana
18	Wisconsin	Pitt is very good this year, and Wisconsin's win over them was very impressive.
19	Baylor	A rollercoaster week for Baylor - an incredible 2OT win in a thriller over St. John's, followed by a crushing loss to red-hot Tennessee. The Bears have some time to regroup before traveling to Storrs.
20	Arizona	I almost did not have Arizona on my ballot this week, but Duke is just that good. The Wildcats can't afford any more slip-ups though.
21	Illinois
22	Xavier	X is playing pretty well, though the level of competition gives me a little bit of pause.
23	Cincinnati	New to ballot. Cincinnati is pretty good, and the metrics suggest they should be ranked higher, but they haven't exactly played anyone yet.
24	Drake	New to ballot. Ben McCollum is one heck of a coach. Drake is a lot better than the metrics give them credit for, and they pass the eye test for me. They will contend for a MVC title.
25	Saint Mary's	Saint Mary's drops not because of losing (they went 2-0), their problem is the teams that jumped them had more impressive performances this week.

Overall Rationale

NEW TO BALLOT: Cincinnati, Drake. DROPPED FROM BALLOT: St. John's (15), Texas Tech (23). ALMOST FAMOUS: Penn State, St. John's, Dayton, Utah State, Loyola Chicago.