Hey folks, week 2 of my college basketball rankings. Enjoy

1 Duke 10-0 --
2 Ohio State 8-0 +1
3 Kansas 9-0 +1
4 Connecticut 8-0 +1
5 Syracuse 10-0 +2
6 Tennessee 7-0 +3
7 Pittsburgh 10-1 -5
8 Kansas State 9-1 -2
9 Missouri 8-1 +1
10 San Diego State 10-0 +5
11 Brigham Young 10-0 +8
12 Georgetown 9-1 -4
13 Baylor 6-0 -2
14 Minnesota 9-1 -1
15 Illinois 10-1 +3
16 Memphis 7-1 -2
17 Villanova 8-1 -1
18 Kentucky 7-2 -1
19 Purdue 9-1 +4
20 Michigan State 7-3 -8
21 Louisville +4
22 UNLV 9-1 -2
23 Notre Dame 9-1 -2
24 Florida 7-2 NR
25 Texas 7-2 -2


First Team Out
26 Texas A&M 8-1
27 Temple 7-2

Dropped
Washington 6-3

Closing In?   (in no particular order)
Wisconsin 8-2
Cleveland St. 12-0
Vanderbilt 7-2
North Carolina 7-3
UCF 8-0

Biggest Movers
Up: Brigham Young +8
Down: Michigan State -8

Notes
- Syracuse in my eyes proved that they are for real this week.
- Tennessee, although having played only 7 games, have some quality wins already
- Illinois might be a little too low in this poll, but i'm not sure how to judge teams like Villanova and Memphis and Baylor yet.
- Michigan State is looking like they will freefall out of the top 25 in a few weeks
- Louisville looks impressive. Watch out for these guys.
- Once again I don't know where to put Minnesota considering they keep winning.
- This is the week where I tried to start moving unbeatens together, hence why BYU and SD State were big movers.

Hey folks. Here's how these Mathematical Rankings are going to work this season. For no other reason than my interest in mathematically figuring out the best team in the nation, I have decided to compile only numerical data do come up with these Monday rankings. The formula is as follows:

AP+CO+RPI = x
where x is the numerical ranking value
     AP: AP Votes (25%)
     CO: Coach Votes (25%)
     RPI: RPI (50%)
In each category, the highest number gets 1, and each other value gets divided by that high value, then weighted.

We'll use Duke as an example from this week.

Duke (8-0) AP Votes: 1625  Coach Votes: 775  RPI: .7174

1625/1625 = 1
1*0.25 = 0.25

775/775 = 1
1*0.25 = 0.25

0.7174/0.749(TENN) = .95781
0.95781*0.5 = 0.478905

0.25+0.25+0.478905 = .978905, which is Duke's final ranking number and happens to be first place overall.

Rankings are formatted as follows: # Team Name (Rec) - #ranking value

THE ONLY TEAMS INCLUDED ARE TEAMS WHICH RECEIVE VOTES IN AP OR COACH POLLS!!! This means that there could be teams that fir mathematically in to the rankings above some teams who receive votes, but for my own purposes it is easier if I only include teams which receive votes in the polls.

Hope these aren't too complex for most of you, and are an interesting addition to the AP and Coach's Polls. I'll talk about each in my weekly rankings analysis post. Enjoy!

1 Duke (8-0) - 0.978905
2 Ohio St (6-0) - 0.954016
3 Pittsburgh (9-0) - 0.926112
4 Kansas (7-0) - 0.904704
5 Connecticut (7-0) - 0.865151
6 Kansas State (7-1) - 0.84182
7 Georgetown (8-0) - 0.824546
8 Syracuse (8-0) - 0.821732
9 Tennessee (6-0) - 0.760904
10 Michigan State (6-2) - 0.758624
11 Baylor (6-0) - 0.71381
12 San Diego State (8-0) - 0.678729
13 Missouri (6-1) - 0.66263
14 Villanova (6-1) - 0.655847
15 Memphis (7-0) - 0.63195
16 Kentucky (5-2) - 0.624034
17 Illinois (8-1) - 0.620416
18 UNLV (8-0) - 0.593503
19 BYU (8-0) - 0.5648
20 Purdue (7-1) - 0.537593
21 Minnesota (7-1) - 0.532932
22 Notre Dame (8-0) - 0.502494
23 Florida (6-2) - 0.488084
24 Washington (5-2) - 0.475812
25 Texas (6-1) - 0.468572

26 Louisville (6-0) - 0.458754
27 West Virginia (5-2) - 0.452034
28 UCF (7-0) - 0.451926
29 Cleveland St. (10-0) - 0.445986
30 Vanderbilt (7-1) - 0.443691
31 North Carolina (5-3) - 0.436899
32 St. Mary's (6-2) - 0.419594
33 Wisconsin (6-2) - 0.409412
34 Temple (5-2) - 0.40272
35 Wichita St. (5-2) - 0.398503
36 Texas A&M (6-1) - 0.390848
37 Arizona (7-1) - 0.38899
38 New Mexico (5-1) - 0.386036
39 Richmond (6-2) - 0.38488
40 Virginia Tech (4-3) - 0.376624
41 Cincinnati (7-0) - 0.376491
42 Northwestern (5-0) - 0.375121
43 Washington State (5-1) - 0.360002
44 Gonzaga (4-3) - 0.348992

If you for some reason would like an extended breakdown for a particular team let me know, or you could do the math yourself. Either way it would work. Enjoy!

Well folks, I told you they would come and here they are. Sundays will be my heartfelt 'this is how I see it' rankings while I have developed a mathematical ranking system which I will explain and leave for Mondays this year. Hope you enjoy.

1 Duke 8-0
2 Pittsburgh 9-0
3 Ohio State 6-0
4 Kansas 7-0
5 Connecticut 7-0
6 Kansas State 7-1
7 Syracuse 8-0
8 Georgetown 8-0
9 Tennessee 6-0
10 Missouri 6-1
11 Baylor 6-0
12 Michigan State 6-2
13 Minnesota 7-1
14 Memphis 7-0
15 San Diego St. 8-0
16 Villanova 6-1
17 Kentucky 5-2
18 Illinois 8-1
19 BYU 8-0
20 UNLV 8-0
21 Notre Dame 8-0
22 Purdue 7-1
23 Texas 6-2
24 Washington 5-2
25 Louisville 6-0

Notes:
- Yes, UNC's win against Kentucky was a big win, but I'm going to need to see another quality win before I put them in my rankings. 
- Vanderbilt is my 26th team for the week. Just missed.
- I don't necessarily think that Syracuse has won by enough in their games to justify a top 10 ranking, but the upside is there so I'm going to leave them at 7 for the time being. Could easily be down in the 15's but they just keep winning. We'll see how they do against Michigan State at the Garden on Tuesday.
- Butler put up more of a fight than I expected them to against Duke, but Duke is far and away the best team in the nation and I don't forsee them losing anytime soon.
- I am still very unimpressed with Baylor.
- Washington is still a quality team no matter how low they drop in the rankings. Losing to KTY and MST and blowing out other opponents by averaging 93.7 PPG.
- Anyone who thinks about giving Gonzaga a vote is a fool. 4-3 with an RPI ranked 143? I don't think so.

Best 2 conferences this year in no particular order are clearly the Big East and the Big Ten (12) this year. I don't want to hear the arguments for other conferences because they just aren't good enough. Sorry.

If you are a fan of college basketball, you'll know that we are entering those few weeks of the season before conference play when the absolute cupcake weeks of the schedule happen. Until Saturday, no ranked team plays another ranked team, making for a boring week of basketball. If you have the patience to wait until Saturday, however, you are in for quite a treat. Here is the listings of quality matchups for Saturday:

#10/10 North Carolina @ #2/2 Texas - 2:00 PM
ESPN

Xavier @ #21/17 Butler - 2:00 PM
ESPN2

#15/15 Gonzaga vs. #7/7 Duke - 4:00 PM
CBS - Game Played in New York City

Portland @ #24/21 Washington - 10:00 PM
all times Eastern.

The only reason I am including the Portland game is that they are one of those teams that you need to prepare well for and watch because if teams just brush them off they will come out to get you. Just look at the Anaheim Tournament, which earned them a spot in the AP Top 25 for one week.

Also, keep watching out for Temple in the future. They've got #1/1 Kansas coming in on Jan. 2, and that should be a pretty good game. They are in the area of 28-30 in both polls, so we could end up with a matchup of ranked teams. The A10 always has some sleepers in it, and by the way Temple beat Villanova and was close to taking down GTown, don't sleep on this team.

Early Saturday Picks:
Texas over UNC*
Butler over Xavier in a very very close one.
Duke over Gonzaga
Washington over Portland

*I am picking Texas here, but if there is a team that is going to get upset this weekend, I think that this is the game where we will see it.

My Pick Stats:
Overall: 5-4
Conference Games: 0-0
Ranked vs. Ranked: 0-1
Ranked vs. Unranked: 4-1
Unranked vs. Unranked: 1-2

To start off I am very excited that this week I'm going to come out with my first top 25 rankings of the season. The first few weeks are really hard to rank since no one really has a body of work, but with the preseason tournaments in full swing we are starting to see a few teams really separate themselves from the pack, and a few teams really start to falter.

Who's Hot?
#6/6 Purdue: 4-0 (0-0)
      - I get concerned with highlighting Big Ten teams because I'm not always sure that the conference has enough offense in it, but their win against #9/11 Tennessee was pretty big in the Paradise Jam. Look for Purdue to be a contender down the stretch.

#10/9 Syracuse: 5-0 (0-0)
      - Syracuse is arguably the hottest team in the nation right now. I can't say best, but in terms of body of work they certainly have the best wins around. Throttling #13/12 California and #6/4 UNC is no laughing matter. If the Orange stay consistent look for them to be dancing deep into March.

#23/NR Notre Dame 5-0 (0-0)
      - Notre Dame will be a disappointment if they do not run the table in their non-conference schedule. They are playing well, but I'm really interested to see what this team looks like going into Big East play. Their toughest non-conference opponent is a down-trodden UCLA team.

Cincinnati 4-0 (0-0)
      - If Cincy beats Gonzaga tonight there is absolutely no way they are not a Top 25 team. Wins against all ranked teams in the Maui Invitational should boost them to around 17-20 I would say.

Who's Not?
#21/22 Maryland 4-2 (0-0)
      - Just as quickly as they burst into the top 25, they are going to freefall right back out of them. Beating New Hampshire and Fairfield by 30 points is all well and good, but when you play the bigger boys, you have to show up and Maryland clearly has not, losing to Cincy and now Wisconsin.

#NR/23 California 3-2 (0-0)
      - Injuries have pestered the team so far this year, but losing twice to ranked teams isn't going to help them later on during the year. Are they still the favorites for the Pac-10? Who knows this year. Just remember when thinking about California is that teams that live by the 3 also die by the 3.

Dayton 2-2 (0-0)
      - Starting off the season ranked is pretty good for Dayton, being in a non-BCS conference, but their consecutive losses to Villanova and Kansas State have them reeling a bit. I still like Dayton, and I think they will make a splash this year in March. The good news is that their losses have been close.

Overrated
#5/5 Kentucky 5-0 (0-0)
      - Okay, don't get me wrong here, I think Kentucky has the potential to go very far this year, but they still need to prove that to me. If they beat UNC on December 5th or UConn on December 9th, Kentucky will not only be taken off of this list, they will shoot right up my rankings. I'm a big advocate of 'prove it on the court' and that is how I base my rankings, so until they do that against a quality opponent I don't think they should be anywhere close to #5 in the nation.

#8/8 West Virginia 2-0 (0-0)
      - More so than Kentucky, WVU not only hasn't played a quality opponent yet, they have barely played anyone yet! The 76 Classic in Anaheim will show what they are made of.. there are some good teams in that tournament. I fully expect them to get beaten by Purdue in December, and end up in the middle of the Big East at the end of the year. Please, Mountaineers prove me wrong.

#18/19 Georgetown 3-0 (0-0)
      - I'm worried that the Georgetown can't score. I've been worried that Georgetown can't score for the past 3 years. They always play great defense, but I don't think that they're going to be able to outscore opponents this year. Every team has bad games, but a 46-45 win over Temple? Just barely getting by Temple is one thing, but only scoring 46 points is absolutely abysmal.

** I would put Maryland on this list as well, but the new week's rankings don't come out until Monday, and I'm pretty sure they won't be in them, so I can't really say that they are overrated based on that.

Game of the Night - Wednesday

Maui Invitational - Championship Game - Honolulu, Hawaii
Cincinnati 4-0 (0-0) vs. Gonzaga 4-1 (0-0)
10:00 PM - ESPN

Game of the Night - Thursday

76 Classic - Quarterfinals - Anaheim, CA
#22/16 Minnesota 3-0 (0-0) vs. #12/10 Butler 3-0 (0-0)
8:30 PM - ESPN2

Game of the Night - Friday

Legends Classic - Semifinals - Atlantic City, NJ
#2/2 Michigan State 4-0 (0-0) vs. Florida 4-0 (0-0)
8:00 PM

My Picks 0-0 on the season, 0-0 in conference games

Cincinnati
Butler
Michigan State

- I know that's a lot to swallow for one post, but enjoy it, and expect to hear a lot more from me this year on college basketball.

The conference tournaments are a few weeks away, leaving teams about 4-5 games each left to help or hurt their seedings for the conference tourney. I'll be closely following the Big East tournament, as that I am currently in the heart of Big East country. Oh, and I go to Syracuse. That too.

Speaking of the suprising and absolutely terrifying Big East Conference, three teams stand out to me as the teams who could play their way out of the tournament easier than the rest.

1. Georgetown Hoyas 14-12 (5-10)
          The Hoyas, in my opinion, are already out of the tournament, pending that they don't win the Big East tournament, and I don't see how that could happen. They've gone from 12-3, nationally ranked in the top 10 to an abysmal 5-10 conference record, including a season sweep by the Cincinnati Bearcats. Some nights they come to play, but most nights they don't play the full 40 minutes. The Hoyas are probably the biggest suprise in the Big East this year, and if they get into the tournament it would be nothing short of miraculous.

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish 15-11 (6-8)
            The Irish have shown that they are capable of beating good teams, none more impressive than their absolute beatdown of Louisville not so long ago, but their terrible 7-game losing streak, in my opinion has them out of the tournament. The only way I see them getting an at-large bid would be by beating either UConn or Nova, AND making it to at least the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. That's probably a stretch.

3. Syracuse Orange 19-8 (7-7)
          Syracuse is a really interesting case. They played extremely well in their non-conference schedule, and the fact that Memphis and Kansas keep winning is really going to help them on Selection Sunday. In conference play, the Orange have looked as average as their record looks. The team has been mostly healthy, it's just a question of which Syracuse team will show up. Will the team that beat Memphis and Kansas come to play, or is this the team that showed up for the Cleveland State loss take the court. That being said, barring any major mistakes (like losing to Rutgers) I have Syracuse in the tournament. Seed will be interesting.

 

I'm going to be paying attention to the Big Ten tournament, because my good friend (Cyclops007) goes to school there. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend either of those conference tournaments this year.