willweaverrva's Week Post-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UConn | UConn romped through the tournament to win back-to-back titles with little opposition. I'm not a Hurley fan but I can respect the man - he can build teams and he can coach. |
| 2 | Purdue | Purdue had a great redemption run going, they just ran into a buzzsaw with UConn. Still, remarkable after losing to FDU last season. |
| 3 | Houston | If I was just ranking teams based on recent performance, Houston would probably be lower. Still, they were high in the polls all year and only had one headscratching loss. They'll be back. |
| 4 | Alabama | Strong metrics + strong resume + Final Four run = high ranking. Alabama and Tennessee are basically tied but Alabama gets #4 via head-to-head. |
| 5 | Tennessee | |
| 6 | Duke | Okay, I admit it: Jon Scheyer can coach. Still, Duke is continuing their age-old tradition to losing to Cinderellas - at least this time it happened in the Elite Eight. |
| 7 | Arizona | |
| 8 | North Carolina | |
| 9 | Iowa State | |
| 10 | NC State | I'm expecting to get reamed for this: NC State has 15 losses. But they ended the season 9-1 with 4 KenPom top-15 wins and made it to the Final Four. They were underdogs in 8 of those. They're legit. |
| 11 | Illinois | |
| 12 | Creighton | I skipped week 20 (well, I forgot about it), so this is a smaller drop than it seems. I had Creighton #6 in week 19. Still, a solid showing and the game with Oregon was a classic. |
| 13 | Marquette | Props to Shaka Smart for getting out of the first weekend for the first time since 2011. Despite all of Marquette's talent, though, they had nothing for NC State. |
| 14 | Auburn | Auburn had great metrics and a solid resume, but losing to Yale in the opening round didn't do them any favors. |
| 15 | Gonzaga | |
| 16 | Baylor | |
| 17 | San Diego State | |
| 18 | Clemson | This seems low for a team that made the Elite Eight but Clemson wasn't even on my radar going into the tournament. |
| 19 | Grand Canyon | Grand Canyon ended the season with a strong win over a good Saint Mary's team and were one of only a few 30-win teams this season. |
| 20 | Kansas | If not for Kansas's metrics, they wouldn't be in the poll. They were incredibly inconsistent toward the end of the season (partially due to injuries) with 3 blowout losses in their last 4 games. |
| 21 | Kentucky | Maybe Kentucky will have better luck with a coach who cares about more than just cranking out NBA players. |
| 22 | Utah State | |
| 23 | Saint Mary's | Me being high on Saint Mary's all season basically became a meme. Grand Canyon brought them back down to earth. |
| 24 | James Madison | Welcome back, JMU. 32 wins on the season and dismantling Wisconsin in the Round of 64 gets you here. |
| 25 | Duquesne | This is 100% a respect vote - Duquesne made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1977 and got a win over a BYU team that should have destroyed them. Congrats, Coach Dambrot. |
Overall Rationale
ALMOST FAMOUS: Dayton, Utah, Indiana State, Oakland, South Florida. ALMOST "ALMOST FAMOUS": Texas Tech, Yale, South Carolina, Nevada, McNeese State. Special thanks to all the Redditors who provided both constructive and destructive criticism throughout the year, and to the r/CollegeBasketball admins for having me as an official voter in my first season. Looking forward to next season!