I cannot take credit for the Hampton pith. I'd like to, though.
And Maryland is overrated here.

I disagree. Hampton should be ahead of Morgan State, but only by 1 slot. Morgan State may have won at Hampton, but that's their only argument for being ahead of them. Look at everything else:

- RPI: Hampton 103, Morgan St. 145
- Strength of Schedule: Hampton 185, Morgan St. 277
- Loses: Hampton 7, Morgan St. 8
- Last 10 Games: Hampton 8-2, Morgan St. 7-3
- Hampton's Quality Wins: VCU, at Delaware (it's a stretch, I know), William & Mary
- Morgan St.'s Quality Wins: at Hampton
- Common Opponents: Even (8 schools in common), except Hampton beat Norfolk St. while Morgan St. lost to them.

They both have won 12 games and have played some decent/good schools close (Hampton lost to Maryland and GMU by a combined 9 points, Morgan St. lost to UConn and Miami by a combined 8 points) but I believe Hampton has the edge here.

I voted Maryland 2nd and will proudly defend them as the correct choice for that spot. The people who are quick to point out head to head losses versus VT and VCU have clearly been doing nothing more than looking at boxscores. The terps that lost to those guys in December are a totally different team than the Terps who are on fire right now. I've seen a lot of VT and some vcu lately -- those teams absolutely are not better than Maryland. Its not even really close.

I voted Maryland 2nd and will proudly defend them as the correct choice for that spot. The people who are quick to point out head to head losses versus VT and VCU have clearly been doing nothing more than looking at boxscores. The terps that lost to those guys in December are a totally different team than the Terps who are on fire right now. I've seen a lot of VT and some vcu lately -- those teams absolutely are not better than Maryland. Its not even really close.

Maryland is clearly a better team now then it was in December. A huge huge win over UNC and the first half success over Duke should be taken into account. Lets just see how they finish.

After a sharp-toned email, and a passive aggressive email in the copy, Its safe to say that Bogman is still suffering from a Super Bowl Hangover.

If we leave the Poll to the triumvirate, thats fine; it will just be self serving...to far less people.

In other news, I have spread the word about the poll, and the content seem to be a big hit.

what, no votes for american gladiator wolf?

I am outraged that I wasn't mentioned in your sensible voters rant.

*Note- Due to work constrictions, I submitted my vote late and without pith.

If Maryland is so good, they wouldn't have gagged on a nine-point halftime lead against Duke. I have them barely behind Tech because of the head-to-head loss as well as Tech winning road games at BC and UVA. The Terps are certainly better than they were in December, when they almost fell out of the Top 11.

The real crime of the poll is that Loyola had won six in a row before tonight to get to 13-10 and still got fewer votes than 11-12 ODU.

Interesting poll. I'm as lost as Steinbog on the rankings though.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a team in the country that is the same team it was in December, Markus V.. Some teams have improved as a team. Some players have improved. Some players have gotten sick, been injured, or had to face other types of adversities. I don't like all of the results for my Hokies and think could have/should have/would now, but that doesn't matter but so much(I was even thinking that tonight while watching the NC State game). Regardless of how fans, spectators, officials, and players feel about a game, the results are decided on the hardwood*.

*I know some schools, conferences, and the NCAA have changed the results of some games after the fact.

We want more Jon Forsythe!

Less grump - more Playboy party pics pls...

Absolutely pwned Monday night on AG by that hyper-caffeinated climber dude...

Remember before Dan went to the superbowl and wasn't all "I'm the best, I'm in charge, only 2 other voters are worth a darn". I miss that Dan.

Thanks Glenn for that excellent recital of the logic of the Pirates over the Bears. I looked at RPI, strength of schedule and the win over VCU (which will likely make the Tournament even if they don't win the CAA). It was a very tough call with the head to head loss but Morgan hasn't had another good win.

I beg to differ.

Morgan has knocked off in the last two weeks, the last two conference champions, and the top two teams in the conference to take first place. They haven't lost at home, and have had the conference Defensive Player of the Week for six consecutive weeks in Boubacar Coly.

Now, how close is it again between MSU and Hampton?

*Disclosure - SVPStyle.com is a 2003 graduate of Morgan State University.

Ok, jeez, I was just joking. Maryland is definitely hot hot hot, but if hot/cold were all that mattered, Virginia should be out of the poll. But then you'd be ignoring Virginia's wins over, for example, Hampton, and so Virginia gets to stay. By that logic, I'm unable to ignore Maryland's losses to VT and especially VCU, which was a virtual home game for Maryland.

Plus, they lost to, you know, American.

Morgan-Hampton is much much closer, and the RPI does matter, but with such similar records in an identical league I'll take a head-to-head result as a tiebreaker. Had the game been at Morgan, I wouldn't feel the same way.

I was just bitter yesterday over my $175 going-to-China vaccine.

China cheese is gonna be solid gold, Dan - well worth the shot in the kiester...

thanks for the love Dan, i'll happily play Pompey to your Caesar. or does that sound weird?

as for the voting, RPI is a bit of a joke. it overemphasizes strength of schedule and the basic version of RPI doesn't take home/road/neutral games into account, nor does it consider margin of victory. besides Hampton's loss to Morgan St, they barely eked out 2-point wins over Coppin St. (@home!) and Winston-Salem, both of whom are completely terrible.

the Maryland/VT/GM/VCU group is bit tougher to parse. Maryland has been much better recently, but their loss to Va. Tech wasn't all that long ago, and they have theloss to VCU and the other bad losses haunting them. Mason has been blowing people away other than a suspect loss to UNC-Wilmington (not their only bad loss), and VCU has also been dominant outside of losing at Mason. they should finish 16-2 in conference. i have it Mason/VCU/Maryland/VT right now and i think that if you had those 4 teams play a round robin, there's a good chance the standings might look like that at the end.

YES! Mason "hearts" Jamie!
"Mason/VCU/Maryland/VT": Agreed, agreed, agreed.
(Disclosure is good: I'm a Mason alum but I try to be impartial. Is it working?)

While the Maryland-VCU game might appear to be a virtual home game for the Terps, you have to remember that Maryland loses in the BB&T EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Or at least it seems so. There is no home-court advantage to speak of at Verizon for the Terps.

Interesting points about the round robin b/w MD, VT, GMU, and VCU. That's essentially how I construct my poll...I rank the teams in order from best to worst...so sometimes anomalies like MD > VT or VCU can happen. I still have UVA ranked because regardless of record, they are the best team left at some point.

One line I won't cross, though, is voting for a team with a losing record. It would be a sad statment about basketball in the greater DC/B'more/Richmond/Outer Mongolia (Blacksburg) to do so. So, sorry ODU.

I know I failed to vote this week, thanks to somehow being convinced I already had done so, but how does someone else get to make the Wu Tang-Morgan St. joke? I did that every single time I put Morgan St. in my top 10!

He had Dan at "sea shanty".

Dan,
How can Richmond not be in your top 5? They have defeated two teams (VT and W&M) in your top 10. They defeated #16 Dayton,road win at UNCC (votes for top 25 and 10-0 2 home),defeated Temple (votes for top 25), 4th right now at 5-3 in the very tough A-10, played Memphis very tough in opening game (trailed by 5 pts with 6 minutes to go).
There is a young coach named Chris Mooney who played at Princeton and is playing mostly Frosh and sophs at Richmond. He is doing a brilliant job and took over a team three years ago that was decimated by Jerry Wainwright's departure for DePaul

How about just a little bit better recognition!

thanks,

Spiderfan

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