Polls don’t phase me too much. Pitt is the #1 team. A few absurd votes shouldn’t bother me. Unanimous vote seems nice, but I fully expect/expected at least one coach or writer to vote for Memphis or Michigan State. And while I would totally disagree, it would at least have some flawed logic behind it. I can even get that Oklahoma might get a couple #1 votes with the rationalizing about not having Griffin (as some writers did).
Someone voting for UConn as #1, though? After Pitt beat UConn in Hartford? After UConn lost their second-leading scorer for the year?
One of these coaches is responsible:
Mike Adras, Northern Arizona;
Dana Altman, Creighton;
Tommy Amaker, Harvard;
Tevester Anderson, Jackson State;
Ronnie Arrow, South Alabama;
Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s;
Eddie Biedenbach, North Carolina-Asheville;
Jim Boeheim, Syracuse;
Rick Byrd, Belmont;
Charles Coles, Miami (Ohio);
Steve Fisher, San Diego State;
Tim Floyd, Southern California;
Greg Graham, Boise State;
Tom Green, Fairleigh Dickinson;
Rob Jeter, Wisconsin-Milwaukee;
Jeff Jones, American;
Billy Kennedy, Murray State;
Dan Leibovitz, Hartford;
Fran McCaffery, Siena;
Mike McConathy, Northwestern State;
Bob McKillop, Davidson;
Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s;
Ron “Fang” Mitchell, Coppin State;
Matt Painter, Purdue;
Tom Pecora, Hofstra;
John Pelphrey, Arkansas;
Doc Sadler, Nebraska;
Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts;
Bob Williams, UC-Santa Barbara;
Gary Williams, Maryland;
Doug Wojcik, Tulsa.
None of them jump out as me as being the stupid coach. Off the top of my head, I don’t see any of these coaches with direct coaching ties to UConn or Calhoun. Of course, since they don’t have to reveal their votes we may never know.
As for the writers, the stupid ones are known. George Geise voted for UConn. He’s from Montana. Apparently they don’t have ESPN on weekdays.
With Oklahoma at #1 I’m stunned at one of the voters. Seth Davis at SI.com picked Oklahoma. His vote had some oddities. Syracuse at #16? Arizona at #18?
Ron Morris at The State (South Carolina) also went with Oklahoma. I won’t even pretend to make sense of his, other than this guy likes to group his votes by conference/region.
They’re not great, but they’re respectable, and it’s a road game.
If we win all of our “non-UConn” regular season games, we shouldn’t need too strong of a performance in the Big East tournament to get a #1 seed.
Any suggestions on the best way to get tickets to the Big East Tourney?
Thanks.
Greetings from the Planet Panthoorah, Pitt is number 1!
Replay on ESPN2 at approx 6:40
I saw Coach K’s remarks and it is interesting that he went that far, since he is usually an ACC homer. he did give props to NC as well, but not the same as Pitt and Uconn.
I wonder if this would change his recruiting — he gets a lot of blue-chippers but but none seem very physcial — the ast I remember was Sheldon Williams
must proceed with caution, however — I’m sure Jamie is highest paid Pitt employee
Perhaps they’re trying a bit too hard to be creative–I don’t think their energy (or lack thereof) upsets the other team as much as it rallies the Panthers.
Either way, the final two games should be rocking like few others, a great way to send off these three seniors.
Fran McCaffery, Siena;
Bob McKillop, Davidson;
Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts;
Call it a hunch; I’ve nothing entirely factual to go on. The above, however, have reason to grudge or hold bias against the Panthers
You can vote for the Zoo as the toughest place to play here:
I’m sure Carolina could lose every remaining game by 20, and they’d still get a #1 seed. It must be nice to be from tobacco road!
The good part about Jokelahoma (Chokelahoma?) losing is that Kansas is now in first place in the Big XII, so even if we don’t end up on top of the conference standings or there is some crazy 4 way tie, they can’t use the Sooners’s first place finish to distinguish them from us.
Some poor National writer apparently doesn’t like bruising basketball…wah!
