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Iowa pounds Michigan to move to 12th in the Top 25 (and one) rankings
February 9, 2014 10:53 am ET

The Top 25 (and one) updates every morning and also on Sunday nights.

Here's the latest version:

(Click this link to view each team's previous ranking, recent results, future schedule, etc.)

Syracuse (22-0)
Arizona (21-1)
San Diego State (21-1)
Florida (21-2)
Villanova (21-2)
Wichita State (25-0)
Michigan State (20-3)
Kansas (18-5)
Iowa State (18-4)
Cincinnati (22-3)
Duke (19-5)
Iowa (18-6)
Saint Louis (22-2)
Creighton (19-3)
Michigan (17-6)
Louisville (19-4)
Connecticut (17-5)
Virginia (19-5)
Memphis (18-5)
Kentucky (18-5)
Texas (18-5)
Ohio State (19-5)
Oklahoma (18-6)
SMU (19-5)
Gonzaga (21-4)
Pittsburgh (20-4)
In: Pittsburgh
Out: Oklahoma State
Topics: Top 25 (and one), NCAAB
ABOUT GARY PARRISH
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author photoGary Parrish is a senior college basketball columnist for CBSSports.com and frequent contributor to the CBS Sports Network. The Mississippi native also hosts the highest-rated sports talk radio show -- The Gary Parrish Show -- in the history of Memphis. He lives in that area with his wife, son and dog.

We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

GRGB wrote:We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

Cincinnati staying at #10 is respect for SMU. Assuming you guys move into the polls, we'll be 6-1 vs top 25 teams. If you guys could string together some roads wins you'll be in good shape.

UCincinnati wrote:

GRGB wrote:We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

Cincinnati staying at #10 is respect for SMU. Assuming you guys move into the polls, we'll be 6-1 vs top 25 teams. If you guys could string together some roads wins you'll be in good shape.

Don't read anything negative about UC into the post. I am merely pointing out how hard it is to "move" in these polls at this point, barring a collapse (e.g., Cincy losing to UCF). Cincy didn't move (much) despite the loss. Supports my contention.

The truth is Cincy is still a scary team to face. They ran into a bit of a buzz saw with SMU, who is simply getting better. We shot what 56% ? And 88% FT? Significantly above our average.

The question is, and as I read Larry Brown's quote, he was concerned that his kids get too worried about making mistakes while focusing on Defense, especially early on (something like that).

It could mean our poorer shooting earlier in the season was attributable to the kids learning the system, focusing on defensive assignments and not making mistakes, and now are relaxing back to their shooting "norm"...I hope so.

I think we shot like 13 of 28 from the FT line in the first game vs. Cincy, and lost by 6 or 7?

Is that who we are? Or is 88% who we are?


I am curious as to why Cincy stopped their press after we started re-gaining ground (they closed it to 7, then we broke it back the other way -- but it seemed like they abandoned the press).

I have to think they you can only do that so long, and we broke it a few times (meaning, made them pay, not just get it to the front court), and you can't press for too long or you wear your guys out ... I am just proposing, don't know the answer. But they seemed to abandon it.

GRGB wrote:

UCincinnati wrote:

GRGB wrote:We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

Cincinnati staying at #10 is respect for SMU. Assuming you guys move into the polls, we'll be 6-1 vs top 25 teams. If you guys could string together some roads wins you'll be in good shape.

Don't read anything negative about UC into the post. I am merely pointing out how hard it is to "move" in these polls at this point, barring a collapse (e.g., Cincy losing to UCF). Cincy didn't move (much) despite the loss. Supports my contention.

The truth is Cincy is still a scary team to face. They ran into a bit of a buzz saw with SMU, who is simply getting better. We shot what 56% ? And 88% FT? Significantly above our average.

The question is, and as I read Larry Brown's quote, he was concerned that his kids get too worried about making mistakes while focusing on Defense, especially early on (something like that).

It could mean our poorer shooting earlier in the season was attributable to the kids learning the system, focusing on defensive assignments and not making mistakes, and now are relaxing back to their shooting "norm"...I hope so.

I think we shot like 13 of 28 from the FT line in the first game vs. Cincy, and lost by 6 or 7?

Is that who we are? Or is 88% who we are?


I am curious as to why Cincy stopped their press after we started re-gaining ground (they closed it to 7, then we broke it back the other way -- but it seemed like they abandoned the press).

I have to think they you can only do that so long, and we broke it a few times (meaning, made them pay, not just get it to the front court), and you can't press for too long or you wear your guys out ... I am just proposing, don't know the answer. But they seemed to abandon it.

Quick turnaround after an emotional game on Thursday. It seemed to me the team simply ran out of gas mentally after a few backbreaking lay-ups you guys made. I think it showed on the steal when no one even ran back to challenge the dunk. That is not how UC got to #7 in the nation because we are clearly not the most talented team in America.

GRGB wrote:We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

This is one guy's ranking. Not sure if you knew that since the way you mentioned it relative to the AP poll made me think you might have thought it was the coaches poll.

Cincinnati shouldn't fall too far. They did beat UConn in the same week

Grant Carter wrote:

GRGB wrote:We were 25 last week, now with a Top 10 win, we move up 1. Hard to move in this late in the season unless a lot of the lowers lose (bad losses).

Cincy is still 10 in this rank.

I bet we do better in the AP though. Again, teams like Texas, if ranked say in the 20s would likely drop out, with that loss, but they were 15. So we aren't likely to "replace" a Texas (not saying we wouldn't enter tomorrow ranked ahead of them, if there are enough teams to re-arrange).

This is one guy's ranking. Not sure if you knew that since the way you mentioned it relative to the AP poll made me think you might have thought it was the coaches poll.

No, it's just the CBS rank. I understand. But, that's about what the AP polls is, 75 guys like this...what's the chance that most do major jumps relative to this guy? I don't think very high.

Having said that, it's hard to ignore 3 top25 wins plus Memphis ought to bump up too...UConn was ranked and almost ranked in Coaches poll.

SMUstang07 wrote:Cincinnati shouldn't fall too far. They did beat UConn in the same week

And UConn shouldn't be punished too much for losing at Cincy to #7.

I predict (with no training whatsoever):

AP: #22 SMU (Memphis, UL, Cincy, Uconn also ranked, but who is "Out"? Gonzaga and OSU perhaps)

USAToday: #24 (Memphis, UL, and Cincy ranked, Uconn just outside, TEXAS OSU GONZAGA some are out, some move lower)

We should be ranked higher than either UConn or Memphis, IMHO.

GRGB wrote:

SMUstang07 wrote:Cincinnati shouldn't fall too far. They did beat UConn in the same week

And UConn shouldn't be punished too much for losing at Cincy to #7.

I predict (with no training whatsoever):

AP: #22 SMU (Memphis, UL, Cincy, Uconn also ranked, but who is "Out"? Gonzaga and OSU perhaps)

USAToday: #24 (Memphis, UL, and Cincy ranked, Uconn just outside, TEXAS OSU GONZAGA some are out, some move lower)

Seth Davis voted for the AP Poll: #10 Cincinnati, #11 Louisville, #17 UConn, #19 Memphis, #25 SMU

mustang1992 wrote:We should be ranked higher than either UConn or Memphis, IMHO.

I [sort of] agree. But see: Seth Davis voted for the AP Poll: #10 Cincinnati, #11 Louisville, #17 UConn, #19 Memphis, #25 SMU

All those teams have "better" win(s) that we do excepting us v. them. And we have a bad loss, excepting UConn vs. Hou (I think that's about all).

I'm not going too deep here, but here's a quick look (some of my "good" may not be great teams but quality wins vs. an ACC or SEC or something)

UConn (5 losses):
"good" wins vs. FLA, Indiana, BC, MD, Memphis, Wash
"bad" losses: Hou (better loss than USF, on paper)
close loss: Stan (2pt)

Cincy (3):
wins: NCSt, Pitt, Memphis, Louis, SMU, UConn
losses: none

Memphis (5):
w's: Louis, OState (1-1)
bad l's: none
close loss: Fla

Louis (5):
Good w's: Uconn, SMU, USM
Bad L's: none
Close L's: UKentucky

I'm least impressed with UL's resume.


One thing that is not quantified, and this goes for FB also, is that people want to look at Strength of Schedule - but that is often misleading.

Using FB as an example, what if Team A played 5 gimmes that happened to be 20 spots lower on average than Team B who played 4 gimmes (but ranked higher). Team B wins the SoS battle, but so what in those games, they were both GUARANTEED to win them regardless. Shouldn't we then winsorize the lower part and just compare the top 6-7 games for SoS purposes?

SID/Hart should keep contacting ESPN, CBS etc. and have them put us as SMU and not Southern Methodist. It's starting to tick me off everytime it says "Southern Methodist"




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Big12Mustang wrote:SID/Hart should keep contacting ESPN, CBS etc. and have them put us as SMU and not Southern Methodist. It's starting to tick me off everytime it says "Southern Methodist"




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I prefer Southern Methodist. It's much classier.

SMU to me sounds like "the alphabet schools" of the by-gone Wac-16.

Having said that, it's pretty common nationally to refer to us as Southern Methodist, and regionally as SMU. Whatever, I don't care that much.