Pale-Pay8772's Week 4 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas | (1 -> 1) The Duke game will be the turning point in their season, but they've performed solidly so far despite some close calls. |
| 2 | UConn | (2 -> 2) Nothing but domination so far, on both offense and defense. They would probably be #1 if they didn't start the season with a cupcake schedule. |
| 3 | Auburn | (3 -> 3) 30 AND 17??? Johni Broome is easily the NPOY so far this year, and the rest of the team has done a great job on supporting him on offense. |
| 4 | Gonzaga | (4 -> 4) You can't deny their offensive dominance so far, not much to really say, they've just looked solid, and finally showed defensive progress during the LBSU game. |
| 5 | Iowa State | (5 -> 5) Very small sample size compared to the others, but they've been great defensively as always. The next two games should be a good indicator of the season ahead. |
| 6 | Tennessee | (9 -> 6) Quite possibly the best defensive team in the nation. Watching them on TV with their smothering defense and creative offense is just amazing. |
| 7 | North Carolina | (10 -> 7) They played the best team in the nation very closely, but the Maui Invitational will be the time for us to truly evaluate them. |
| 8 | Kentucky | (13 -> 8) A crazy talented group who have proven themselves time and time again so far this season. |
| 9 | Houston | (8 -> 9) If they don't manage to beat Alabama, you can pretty much call them pretenders given the Auburn game. |
| 10 | Marquette | (15 -> 10) Marquette has so many players that can take over the game at any point. One game Kam Jones has a triple double and the next David Joplin drops a near 30 piece. An impressive start for sure. |
| 11 | Purdue | (7 -> 11) Defensive regression was always going to take place without Edey, but Trey Kaufman-Renn showed he could be the main guy during the Alabama game and that hasn't changed. |
| 12 | Duke | (12 -> 12) They were saved by the Arizona win. Overall they've looked fine, Flagg and Knueppel have looked really nice for pure freshmen, |
| 13 | Alabama | (6 -> 13) Alabama could reasonably be in some people's top 10 lists with 3 losses in mid-December. A brutal non-con schedule isn't gonna get easier for a while. |
| 14 | Indiana | (19 -> 14) A very solid start for Mackenzie Mgakbo and Indiana, and with Battle 4 Atlantis coming up they've put themselves in a great place. |
| 15 | Baylor | (14 -> 15) I'm struggling to understand what Baylor even is anymore. They haven't looked convincing at all and have been dominated for large periods, or even entire games. |
| 16 | Cincinnati | (17 -> 16) So far so good for Cincy, although they likely won't face anyone threatening until the Crosstown Shootout. |
| 17 | Florida | (18 -> 17) Mostly local games so far for the Gators. Alijah Martin and Walter Clayton are basically walking buckets. |
| 18 | Xavier | (21 -> 18) The Musketeers have looked awesome, especially against Vandy and Siena. With a horrible first two conference games they better keep this form up. |
| 19 | Arkansas | (24 -> 19) The Coach Cal experiment may be going well at first glance, but they've looked extremely shaky at many points so far in the young season. |
| 20 | Creighton | (11 -> 20) It's extremely alarming how easy Nebraska locked up Kalkbrenner, and without him the Jays relied heavily on Steven Ashworth and Pop Isaacs and couldn't get anything going. |
| 21 | Ole Miss | (N/A -> 21) A shaky start, sure, but I thought they looked great against Oral Roberts and especially Colorado State with how they were able to shoot threes and force turnovers. |
| 22 | Texas A&M | (23 -> 22) They're pretty much exactly where we thought they'd be at the start of the season, just good enough to be in the top 25. |
| 23 | Wisconsin | (N/A -> 23) They would've missed my list for the second week in a row because of the near loss to UTRGV, but the UCF win was enough for them to get into one of the final spots. |
| 24 | Pitt | (N/A -> 24) The surprise team of the season so far having beaten LSU and West Virginia, with their season being symbolized by Ishmael Leggett's senior breakout. |
| 25 | Illinois | (N5 -> 25) Eh... probably shouldn't be here, but they played well enough against Bama and I have no idea who else to put. |
Overall Rationale
Dropped: #16 Arizona, #20 Rutgers, #22 St. Johns, #25 Texas Tech / Next Five: Arizona, Michigan State, BYU, Ohio State, Oregon