zags-not-zogs's Week 7 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purdue | (1) Haven't wavered on them at #1 since the preseason. An incredibly complete team. |
| 2 | Marquette | (2) Was in a relatively close one at home against St. Thomas. Didn't see any reason not to believe in them, though, |
| 3 | Arizona | (3) Not getting dinged for losing to Purdue. This team has everything it takes for a championship run, |
| 4 | UConn | (5) UConn is getting harder and harder to ignore as a potential #1 team after their smackdown against the Zags. Clingan made major strides in that game––look out! |
| 5 | Houston | (4) They were impressive this week too; only reason they slip a spot is because UConn is mind-bogglingly good. |
| 6 | Kansas | (6) Rallied to win @ Indiana. This team shouldn't have the amount of close calls that it does, but yet they still win every time. |
| 7 | Tennessee | (8) Their sustained success after a 4th place Maui finish has proven me right to still believe in them. |
| 8 | Kentucky | (10) The Cats showed incredible resilience and versatility against UNC. This does not seem like a team full of freshmen. |
| 9 | North Carolina | (11) No shame in losing to UK. Teachable moment for Cadeau at the end. Is Bacot good enough? |
| 10 | Florida Atlantic | (12) Continue to believe the Owls are absolutely legitimate. Good road win @ St Bonaventure. Next up is Arizona! That will be fun |
| 11 | Illinois | (13) Not much new to say. I like the pieces they have and hope they can make things work with their PG situation |
| 12 | Oklahoma | (14) Biggest surprise of the season? |
| 13 | Baylor | (7) Shocking result against the Spartans. Intriguing matchup against Duke this week. |
| 14 | Duke | (16) Proctor is still out, but let's see if they start figuring things out a bit more |
| 15 | BYU | (18) Still can't believe the team that got 5th in the WCC last year is a top 15 team this year. |
| 16 | Memphis | (19) Impressive home stand against Clemson. Will be interesting to see how Tomlin fits in |
| 17 | Clemson | (17) No shame in losing on the read to Memphis. This team looks quite good |
| 18 | Creighton | (9) At what point do head-scratching results become a pattern? One thing is clear: Creighton needs to stop scheduling MWC teams |
| 19 | Gonzaga | (15) Never really challenged against UConn. It's weird seeing a Gonzaga team struggle to generate offense. Right now, this appears to be a good-not-great team |
| 20 | Iowa State | (20) Not much new material |
| 21 | Colorado State | (21) Not much new material |
| 22 | Texas A&M | (23) Aggies showed some fight against Houston but came up short. Need to start getting good wins for seeding purposes. |
| 23 | Wisconsin | (24) Not much new material |
| 24 | Colorado | (25) Not much new material |
| 25 | Alabama | (22) Look good against good teams, but need to start getting some wins against them. |
Overall Rationale
NOTE: I did these rankings before CSU and ISU played their games Sunday. If either of them lost, I would not have had them in. My ranking philosophy: I try to put what I think are the 25 best teams (NOT best resumes) in order here. Dropped out: None Next-in-Line: Virginia, Ole Miss, New Mexico, SDSU, Ohio State, Auburn, Miami