I Bleed Blue and White

The new writeup for the CBSSports BlogPoll is now up, and editors Jerry Hinnen and Brian Cook have done another fine job. Villanova came in at 10th place, which is up one spot from a week ago.

I was busy during in with the awards this week, winning 1 (I’ll give you one guess) and finishing in the Top 5 for 2 others. I finished in 4th place for Mr. Numb Existence, which is given to the voters with the most similar ballots to the final product. I had a feeling that I would be involved here for some reason, although I really can’t explain it.

Next up, I finished in my usual slot for the Coulter/Kos Award as the most biased voter. Horray for me. Jerry keeps warning me of impending disaster, but I’ll ride the hot streak as long as I can.

“Back for another week on top of the Coulter/Kos chart is Wildcat blog I Bleed Blue and White . For the past two weeks IBBW has tempted fate by running away with the CK Award, only to be curiously rewarded with a string of impressive and/or dramatic ‘Nova wins and now a cushy 3-seed for the ‘Cats at home in Philadelphia. So we’ll see if (or when) IBBW gets the usual brand of CK Award-based comeuppance, but you should know this: the last time ‘Nova received a 3 seed in the East Region was 1995, when the Kerry Kittles-led ‘Cats went down to 14th-seeded Old Dominion in three overtimes. Just sayin’.”

The ‘95 mention is completely uncalled for Jerry, but I doubt we’ll see much of a problem from American. At least I hope so. Okay, yeah, I’m a little concerned now.

Finally, I finished 2nd for Mr. Stubborn. The description of this award is “you’re damn sure you’re right, no matter what reality says.”

I should put that on my business card.

…Thanks to Jerry and Brian for doing this again…we’re off duty for the Tournament, but we’ll be back for one final g0-round after it’s all said in done…I still think we should do it monthly in the off-season…there’s comedy to be had…

As we approach the NCAA Tournament, here is my second-to-last ballot for the CBSSports BlogPoll. I don’t take conference tournaments too seriously, so my ballot isn’t going to have much movement save a few teams that I was impressed with. Here’s my take on things with some commentary below.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Louisville	4
2	North Carolina	1
3	Pittsburgh	1
4	Connecticut	1
5	Memphis	1
6	Duke	3
7	Villanova
8	Michigan St.	2
9	Oklahoma	1
10	Missouri	3
11	Gonzaga
12	Wake Forest	4
13	Kansas	1
14	Washington
15	Florida St.	4
16	Syracuse	4
17	Marquette	2
18	UCLA	2
19	West Virginia	2
20	Purdue	2
21	Butler
22	Xavier
23	Arizona St.
24	St. Mary’s	1
25	Louisiana St.
Last week’s ballot


Dropped Out: Clemson (#24).

I gave some bumps to the teams that managed to do enough to win to win the meaningless conference tournaments. I was rather impressed with Florida State’s run to the title game, and Toney Douglas is going to be a man on a mission in the NCAA Tournament. Watch out. As for Purdue getting bumped down after winning the Big 10 title, I’m sorry. I’m just not impressed whatsoever at that conference. The fact that they got the same amount of bids as the ACC and Big East is a travesty.

Villanova stays the same, but basically because I know everyone else is going to move them down for losing to the #1 overall seed. That way I’m locked in for the Coulter/Kos Award yet again. I’ve got to keep the perfect streak in tact. I’m an award fiend, don’t hate on me.

If you’re wondering how Saint Mary’s is still in my bracket despite missing the tournament, I left them in there and even gave them a bump because I think they should have been in. I understand it was a horrible bubble and some teams made a run and screwed a lot of bubble teams. And even though listening to Dick Vitale cry about them was like having teeth pulled I still feel for them.

Anyone think Syracuse is getting past Arizona State and James Harden in the 2nd round? Not after they basically amputated their legs this past weekend.

Why am I reading so much about Gonzaga being a Final Four team? They have to go through North Carolina and Oklahoma. Good luck with that Zags.

I love ‘Nova’s draw. Especially a potential Sweet Sixteen matchup with Duke. But Duke could go down before that, to Texas. If AJ Abrams can get something going, goodbye Dookies.

The latest CBSSports BlogPoll has been compiled and posted by Jerry Hinnen. Villanova comes in at #11, which is exactly where they were ranked last week. Despite my best efforts to move them up, it appears as if the bloggers still feel like Kansas and Duke are better options. Really guys? I thought we had an unspoken agreement on the ranking of Duke.

As promised, I finished first again for the Coulter/Kos Award for most biased voter, although the Illinois bloggers who run Making The Dance gave me a run for my money. Jerry provides some commentary on the action.

“Is it possible to jinx a jinx? Last week in this space I touted the dire power of the CK Award and boldy warned of a bad week on the court for I Bleed Blue and White -affiliated Villanova, only for the Wildcats to curb-stomp Notre Dame in South Bend and coast to a double-digit victory over Providence. Maybe by presuming to be so confident in the CKA’s cursing abilities, the curse cursed me by cursing the “runner-up” team in last week’s poll, Inside Creighton Hoops ’s Bluejays, instead? This week, I’d say both ‘Nova and second-place Illinois will need to watch their backs.”

A good read as always, and even though my fellow bloggers let me down this week, I forgive them. Now let’s start scheming on how to make Jon Scheyer cry.

With conference tournaments underway for the mid-majors and the tournaments for the majors set to begin, I’m not sure how many more of these polls we’re going to have. But I like them, and I’ll do them all through the off-season if we’re allowed.

(Actually, that would be great. Think of the reasons we could come up with to raise and drop teams. It’s endless. Make it happy Jerry.)

Below is my week 5 ballot. Commentary at the bottom.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	North Carolina	1
2	Pittsburgh	2
3	Connecticut	2
4	Memphis	1
5	Louisville
6	Michigan St.	2
7	Villanova	2
8	Wake Forest	2
9	Duke	2
10	Oklahoma	4
11	Gonzaga	3
12	Kansas	1
13	Missouri	1
14	Washington	10
15	Marquette	2
16	UCLA	6
17	West Virginia
18	Purdue	3
19	Florida St.	3
20	Syracuse	5
21	Butler	2
22	Xavier	3
23	Arizona St.	2
24	Clemson	4
25	St. Mary’s
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Louisiana St. (#18).

The latest CBSSports BlogPoll is the best poll that I’ve seen yet, proving yet again that we, the bloggers, are the smartest of the people who provide the commentary on college basketball, or in other words, the smartest of the idiots.

Villanova landed at #11, which was a one spot drop from last week. Editor Jerry Hinnen asked how this was possible, however, when going over the results for the Coulter/Kos Award for most biased voter. Friarblog tried to unseat me, but has much to learn in the ways of the unabashed homer. I finally placed #1 for the award this week, after 3 straight weeks of placing at #3. Regardless, my overall streak in the category is still intact, and I won’t stop ’til we take down Cal Ripken Jr.’s IronMan record. Anyways, here’s what Hinnen had to say regarding ‘Nova’s ranking.

“I’m frankly not sure how ‘Nova only managed to drop just one spot after squeaking past a truly abymsal DePaul squad and coughing up one at home to Georgetown this week, but aforementioned Wildcat blog I Bleed and Blue and White is one place to start. The ‘Cats dropped a single place to ninth on IBBW’s ballot, making them one of only four voters to keep ‘Nova that high and earning this week’s CK Award. Maybe IBBW should have picked a week when his team wasn’t about to play a desperate Notre Dame team on the road?”

Touche Jerry, touche. I probably should have been a little more humble in ranking Villanova, especially on the eve of their bout with the Fighting Irish. But I guess I’m just banking on Kyle McWeedsmoker…err McAlarney, being too high to find the Joyce Center. Either that or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sueing Luke Harangody for shot infringement.

Hinnen also discusses my hate for Memphis (I’m not the only one!) among other things in the latest entry. Make sure to give it a read.

I’m still mentally dealing with ‘Nova’s loss, but what better way to cope than to take out my anger on completely innocent basketball programs? With that said, here is my ballot for this week’s CBSSports BlogPoll.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Connecticut	1
2	North Carolina	2
3	Memphis	2
4	Pittsburgh	3
5	Louisville	1
6	Oklahoma	3
7	Duke	4
8	Michigan St.	4
9	Villanova	1
10	Wake Forest	3
11	Kansas	4
12	Missouri	5
13	Marquette	4
14	Gonzaga	6
15	Purdue	1
16	Florida St.	2
17	West Virginia
18	Louisiana St.	1
19	Xavier	2
20	Clemson	10
21	Arizona St.	5
22	UCLA
23	Butler
24	Washington
25	Syracuse
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Utah (#24), Ohio St. (#25).

I dropped Villanova just one spot because they’ve avoided that type of loss all season. Lose again at Notre Dame Monday night, and we have a problem.

The biggest victim this week was clearly the Clemson Tigers. Now, I really don’t hate them, because afterall ‘Nova already proved last year that they are better than Clemson. And I shouldn’t be one to talk because we just lost, but they are getting punished by way of a 10 spot drop after 2 straight losses to a doormat (Virginia Tech at home) and a more understanble road loss to Florida State. Speaking of the FSU, the Fighting Tony Douglas’ are growing on me.

I’m here to admit I drank the Missouri kool-aid for 2 weeks too long. I knew in my heart their exponential rise into the Top 10 happened too quickly, and wasn’t shocked at all when they got taken to the woodshed by Kansas on Sunday. They appear to be more in the ‘Paper Tiger’ mold.

Oklahoma, I know you lost Blake Griffin for a few games and that hurt you, but you get dropped because elite teams don’t lose two straight just because they lost one guy. I know Jerome Dyson isn’t on the level of Griffin, but notice how UConn rebounded. That’s why in my mind they are a National Title contender and you aren’t. Because apparently all teams need to do to beat you is stop Blake Griffin. Easier said than done of course, but now everyone has the blueprint.

It’s killing me to continuously bump Memphis. They have played nobody and have lost to the good teams they’ve faced. I’m telling you now, I don’t think they are a Sweet 16 caliber team, and will be the first high seed to go down. Tyreke Evans is heading for a 2-14 with 7 turnovers type of game in the dance.

I just realized I lifted Duke 4 spots and back into my Top 10. I think I’m going to be sick.

An especially comical CBSSports BlogPoll write-up this week from Jerry Hinnen. A definite must read. But first let’s congratulate the bloggers from around the country for their work in putting Villanova in the Top 10. Well done sirs.

If you missed it, here’s my ballot, and as you’ll see, there isn’t a ton of difference between mine and the actual poll. Most teams I have right in the general area, except for my harsh treatment of Illinois and my apparent undying love for the Seminoles.

As for the article itself, as I mentioned before, it’s phenomenal in my opinion, and has been getting better every week. I made my weekly appearance in the Coulter/Kos Award category for being one of the most biased voters. Even better, I made my inaugrural appearance in the Mr. Manic-Depressive Category, which is given out to those whose ballots change drastically week to week, or as Jerry so eloquently put it, “people who are obsessed with shiny things.”

But I made a strong headline for the second week in a row by abusing my power. Last week, LSU were the victims, but this week it’s the Illini. As you’ll see below, I was assisted by my good buddy from Friarblog.

“Elsewhere, Friarblog says what I think just about everyone was thinking: Hey other BlogPoll voters….raise your hand if you considered dropping out Illinois completely out of your poll for the sole fact that they only scored 33 points in their loss to Penn State.
There’s your call, and I Bleed Blue and White has your response: Illinois , you are gone. Probably forever. 33 points in the entire game ? Good Lord.”

Dave, if you throw the ball up there, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to flush it with authority. Good work pal.

Back for another round of this. I’m really beginning to like it. I feel like I have power. If I don’t like you, you’re getting nothing. And that’s what I did to a couple of teams this week. So here’s my ballot. As always, when the results are tabulated I’ll post the complete poll.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Pittsburgh	3
2	Connecticut	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	North Carolina	1
5	Memphis
6	Louisville	1
7	Missouri	2
8	Villanova	2
9	Marquette	2
10	Clemson	3
11	Duke	1
12	Michigan St.	6
13	Wake Forest	5
14	Purdue	1
15	Kansas	5
16	Arizona St.	1
17	West Virginia	4
18	Florida St.	6
19	Louisiana St.
20	Gonzaga
21	Xavier	5
22	UCLA	8
23	Butler	4
24	Utah
25	Ohio St.
Last week’s ballot

I think Pittsburgh is going to be a unanimous #1 this week (at least they should be). I know Oklahoma drew a tough hand when Blake Griffin was knocked out of the game, but a loss is a loss.

I dogged LSU pretty hard last week for playing in the SEC (it still sucks), but 8 wins in a row is impressive in any power conference, so they are back in. But that is the same line of reasoning I used in keeping Memphis at #5 even though teams in front of them lost. C-USA is even more embarrassingly bad than the SEC, and 100 straight wins in there isn’t making me flinch.

Duke won tonight, but they aren’t going back into my Top 10. Maybe for the rest of the season. Not impressed at all with them.

UCLA is in a freefall, but I’ll keep them in this week because they scored a nice win over Pac-10 leaders Washington. Gonzaga, I’m sorry about last week. Forgive me.

Oh, and Illinois, you are gone. Probably forever. 33 points in the entire game? Good Lord. And yes, I know Penn State only scored 38, but at least they won! And that’s why Ohio State sneaks in at the end. Because Illinois beat the Buckeyes today, but I’m personally spiting Cheif Illiniwek.

It’s time for the inaugural BlogPoll Roundtable, which is a discussion of sorts between all the blogs that are participating in the CBSSports BlogPoll. This week’s roundtable is being hosted by A Sea of Blue, a Kentucky blog. They pose a set of questions to all of us, and we all answer the questions.

If you head to A Sea of Blue, you can see the questions, as well as his answers. If you look in the comment section, you can see links to all the other blog’s answers. My answers are below.

1. Who really looks like the best team in college basketball this season?

I think right now, there are really only 4 teams that can even be mentioned in the elite category (UConn, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma), and if I had to say who the “best” is it would be Pittsburgh. They have a dominant low post player in DeJuan Blair, an matchup nightmare in Sam Young, and a steady, seasoned point guard in Levance Fields.

North Carolina is great on offense, but they aren’t anything special on the defensive end. We still don’t know about Oklahoma because the Big 12 is down this year, and the loss of Jerome Dyson is really going to hurt UConn. Pittsburgh is undoubtedly the most complete team in the country.

2. Is Blake Griffin the Player of the Year already, or can somebody catch him?

There are two others I would consider for this honor, and that is Luke Harangody and DeJuan Blair. I think you can kiss Harangody’s hopes goodbye because of how awful Notre Dame has been this season. Blair is an interesting case thought. Griffin hasn’t had a matchup like Blair had with Thabeet yet. And Blair treated Thabeet like he was a nobody on national TV, in a game that most of the country was watching. People are going to remember that. If Oklahoma loses a couple down the stretch and Pittsburgh can get to #1 and win the Big East, I think Blair can pull into the lead.

3. What currently ranked team is the biggest disappointment so far this year?

Since Texas got shut out of the polls this week, I think it has to be UCLA. You’re talking about a team that was a consensus Top 5 pick at the beginning of the year and just hasn’t seem to put it together. I think the Pac-10 has some underrated teams, but UCLA should have been breezing through that conference, especially with Collison and Shipp running the show. But it has been a struggle for them in conference play, and they really are nowhere near the team we thought they were going to be.

4. Predict the next team to beat Oklahoma.

This Saturday, at Texas. The popular pick here is going to be in their 2nd to last game at Missouri, but I’m just not totally impressed by the Sooners. Blake Griffin is a man-child, and they have some nice guards in Warren, Crocker and Johnson, but something about them doesn’t scream ‘elite’ to me. Texas is struggling, but they remain dangerous and there is a good chance that AJ Abrams have the best game of anyone on Saturday.

If they can get reasonable contributions from Damion James, Justin Mason and Dexter Pittman, I think the Longhorns could pull the upset. Never underestimate a rivalry game, especially when the underdog is at home.

…These will be fun as the season heads down the final stretch…thanks to A Sea of Blue and Jerry Hinnen for putting this together this time around…

Late last night I revealed my Week 2 ballot, and now the final results are up for this week’s CBSSports BlogPoll. Jerry Hinnen and Brian Cook have fixed the formula this week, and the new edition is very user-friendly and readable, so thanks guys.

Much to my surprise, the blogger’s DID take notice of Villanova’s strong performance against Marquette, moving them up to #11, while moving Marquette down to #14. The media whore Dukies are still in the Top 10. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I was pretty sure we all had an unspoken agreement to rank them as low as possible because we hate them. Maybe next week.

The voters weren’t as harsh as I was to the Zags, leaving them in the Top 25. Now I don’t feel so bad. On the other hand they were VERY harsh to Utah State, dropping them from the rankings into the back-handed compliment “Also Receiving Votes” category.

As for awards, don’t sweat it because yours truly made it onto the list of shameless homers again (The Coulter/Kos Award). Love that, but don’t understand it because I ranked ‘Nova 10th, while the bloggers averaged them out to 11th. But hey, I’ll take it!

Jerry Hinnen also gave me some mention for my bluntness on LSU’s ranking. I dropped them from my ballot because the SEC is plain awful this year (and maybe because I hate hearing about them all through football season).

Take a look at the write-up because Jerry put in a lot of work as always and it’s an enjoyable read. Well done again this week by all the bloggers involved. I can’t help but think that we the fans should be getting the votes for the real polls. I mean, all you have to do to get one is be an idiot. And who are biggers idiots than guys who write blogs?