I don't know why one would call the current Georgetown offense stupid, especially when compared to the offense of the Esherick era, Marcus Videnieks must consider that offense retarded. Either tha or he just liked watching Braswell dribbling at the top of the key for 20 seconds before chucking an off-balance three.

My bad on Army. Its a time of war they need a little pick me up. And is it just me or are the vast majoirty of teams eligibale 4-3.

By the way G-Town is going down to the Dukes. Fear The Duke Dog.

so working at Comcast Sportsnet doesn't qualify one an "Actual Journalist"?

this makes me sad and blue :(

How about we call the poll the DCS? it doesnt have to mean anything. but if it does, say it is the DC Sports Poll. referring it to the DCS is ez to say and type.

Watching that sort-of Princeton offense at Georgetown is starting to feel a lot like it felt watching Herb Sendek somehow pull in really good recruiting classes at NCST only to see the players flounder in that system. Julius Hodge's minimal development in 4 years says hello.

I think the true test of the system will be with Freeman and Wright running the show starting next year, but color me suspect, obviously.

--Markus

Liberty was robbed

and justice for none!

As one of the volunteer voters, I'm just wondering what the thinking was of the "professionals" for voting UMD over UVA.

UVA has beaten a ranked team and lost away to the 2nd best team in Indiana (by 2 pts). UMD has beaten no ranked teams and has lost to the 4th or 5th best team in Indiana on a neutral court. Was ranking the Terps #1 based more on your projections of where they will be at the end of the year or based on their wins against Michigan St and Illinois?

I'm just curious about the huge difference in 1st place votes. I thought it would be closer (and no I'm not a UVA grad or fan)

Who put a 3-3 team with no big wins so high?

I also feel Liberty was robbed, and that UVa deserves to be ahead of Maryland.

Note to voters: Navy is NOT A GOOD BASKETBALL TEAM. Please stop voting them ahead of American. American will beat Navy by 20 come Jan. 24. Greg Sprink is soft. Also, the Mids' starting point guard is averaging 4.25 turnovers per game.

Dan,

It's probably worth mentioning that the Wizards were indeed eligible for this poll, but did not receive any votes.

I had Navy above American because they:
a) beat Army on Saturday,
b) have a better record,
c) lost to two Big East schools on the road, not A-10 schools.
d) have a better record.

Lastly, I agree with FS. I had Mason off my ballot with the knowledge they'd still get in (somehow).

American should be happy they're included in the poll at all. They only snuck in at #10 on my ballot b/c there was nobody else.

Neither team is amazing, but a simple glance at Ken Pomeroy's RPI rankings shows that Navy (45) is significantly better than American (119).

If you don't like the RPI, just look at who Navy lost to. Their two losses were to major conference opponents in St. John's (not having a great season) and Villanova (having a very good season).

American's loss to a really good Xavier team is acceptable. But their soft wins (avg. RPI 266! Navy's victims have an RPI of 190, btw) combine with their loss to a weak Richmond team (losses in their last three to ODU, Radford and Marist) to push them down on my list.

Not a sermon, just a thought.

Almost Ignatius J (and anyone else),

Could you please not cite RPI again in any situation, ever? RPI is an absolutely terrible rating system (if any one is interested in hearing justification for this statement, I'd be happy to provide a lengthy rant of everything wrong with the RPI). As long as you are at kenpom.com looking up RPI, why not look at the other rankings, which are of course not perfect, but are a ton better than RPI.

Navy's wins are better than American's, and their losses are also better than American's. I think American will end up beating them twice in league play, but I voted Navy ahead because I think right now they've played better. And I'm an American alum.

sw, I am in agreement that the RPI is a flawed forumla. I was merely attempting to present some sort of objective (?) statistical measure to Incredulous (who I believe has ranted on the American/Navy situation in the past).

Thank God big time college football doesn't have anything like the RPI to mess up 137 years of tradition (http://tinyurl.com/y6o62h).

HU got twelve votes? Wow after reading The Post of the last 25 years I forgot we had a sports program at Howard.

Steinberg - as a Mason alum, I'm a little disappointed I missed this poll. Timing aside, cast an extra vote for Mason, regardless of their recent losses (to pretty good teams).

How about we name the poll "Rank 'em, Dano."

Alright fine. I shall now bash my head against the wall as punishment.

Note to all Mason fans: This year's Bucknell team is not good so it doesn't qualify as a good loss. (Endnote).

Not a bad night for the pollsters, eh? Liberty, which I thought was a shaky No. 11, gets a convincing win over St. Francis. American, which I worried about at No. 10, easily handles Longwood. And Navy, which I really worried about at No. 9, escaped against Howard in double OT. A few pollsters thought Howard would win that game and enter the Top 11 next week.

Was it St. Francis PA that they beat? That one is, to uncomfortably paraphrase Larry David, "the good St. Francis."

watch out for radford. they beat richmond @ richmond by 17 points. plus they are hosting george mason on wednesday ... huuuge game!

I ranked Maryland ahead of UVa because of the win at Illinois and because of how good they looked winning the 2K PSP Thingamajig Classic. UVa has two good wins, both at home. Butler and Indiana might argue that Purdue is not the second-best team in Indiana, but even so, that's a pretty loose peg to hang an argument on. In fairness, I haven't seen UVa play and am saturated with Terpitude up here north of Baltimore, but right now I would still say the Cavs are a close second.

where is the JMU rep!
c'mon y'all..

I doubt I'll see many of you at the G'Town JMU game tonight, but we'll see.

Does it change any of the voters' minds that Navy barely beat Longwood (by two in overtime) and American beat the Lancers by 11?

Will it change anyone's mind after Navy barely beat Howard (by 4 in double overtime) and American plays them tomorrow night, with an outcome to be determined?

And to ES, "I think American will end up beating them twice in league play"? So you're saying you think AU is a better basketball team, but you vote them below Navy. Strange.

Perhaps we should stop leaving this up to voters and start letting Vegas decide ...

i'm a JMU rep, but you really can't make any case for them to appear in a Top 10 anything and that includes "Top 10 CAA teams". if thye beat Georgetown, we'll talk, otherwise we're still left pining for the glory days of 1994.

as for the American/Navy debate, i had American considerably higher, but even if someone thought they were a better team, i didn't see anything wrong with ranking them below Navy based on what has actually happened on the court. in my opinion the problem with many other polls is that they give too much credence to what someone thinks as opposed to what has actually happened (or they weight recent performance too heavily). thus you have Louisville ahead of Rutgers in polls just 1 week after Rutgers beat them, for example. if American beats Navy and someone still has Navy higher in the poll, then you can take issue. but complaining that because American beat Longwood by 11 and Navy only beat them by 2 and claiming that that proves anything is a bit silly. North Carolina A&T beat Longwood by 12, does that make them better than either of the other teams?

There is no way that American should be ranked below Navy. Generally you think that one team would beat the other then they are better. And how are Navy's wins any better then AU's? I didn't know U of M Eastern Shore, Brown and Stony Brook carried that much respect.

Their wins are comparable, but American lost to Richmond, and Navy lost at St. John's and Villanova. Seems fair to give Navy the edge.