Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 4
First of all, the most important thing, the single critical overriding factor, is anyone hurt? Because we learned this week that a key injury, regardless of how the team continues to perform on the field, requires mandatory disqualification from championship consideration.
The NCAA basketball committee, thankfully, has yet to make an egregious error of the kind N.C. State’s Boo Corrigan and his conclave of meddling mavens did Sunday to overrrule an entire season of performance, but it’s yet another reason why postseason qualification should have defined and objective criteria.
You know, like every other sport on the planet. They all seem to survive without the needless intervention of “committees.” College hockey does it, and only has the sky yet to fall, the folks on that committee still have plenty to do to administer that tournament.
We were also reminded, returning to hoops, just how hard it is to win on the road as Auburn went to Boone — as a narrow single-digit favorite — and lost to Appalachian State. As a society, we don’t give enough credit for true road wins, and penalize true road losses too harshly. That said, there’s absolutely no excuse for Duke losing at Georgia Tech.
There were two teams in contention at the top this week, with the analytics arguing for Houston (and, still, Purdue, despite the loss to Northwestern) but it’s impossible to overlook what Arizona has done. Houston has a better collection of wins, overall, but Arizona’s top-line wins over Duke (in a true road game) and Michigan State get the nod. Being willing to play those games should matter a little bit.
Several teams knocking at the door this week, but Clemson and Oklahoma stood out from the group.
This season’s ballots
Preseason | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3
Luke DeCock’s Week 4 AP Top 25 basketball ballot
1. Arizona (Last week: 2)
2. Houston (4)
3. Purdue (1)
4. Kansas (5)
5. Connecticut (3)
6. Creighton (7)
7. Gonzaga (11)
8. Baylor (19)
9. Marquette (8)
10. North Carolina (12)
11. Florida Atlantic (16)
12. San Diego State (18)
13. BYU (23)
14. Colorado State (24)
15. TCU (15)
16. Clemson (NR)
17. Texas A&M (14)
18. Tennessee (9)
19. Texas (21)
20. Kentucky (17)
21. Oklahoma (NR)
22. James Madison (22)
23. Alabama (20)
24. Duke (10)
25. Michigan State (25)
OUT Villanova (6), Mississippi State (13)
Under consideration Cincinnati, Illinois, Nevada, Northwestern, Ohio State, Princeton, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
This story was originally published December 4, 2023 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Luke DeCock’s AP Top 25 basketball poll ballot: Week 4."
