Poll Dancing

Questions?

Ummm, yeah, how come SDSU is ranked so far down with only two loses and there are other teams with more loses ranked above us? Our best wins are... well... we have no best wins really. Sure we have beaten St. Mary's, Gonzaga and Wichita State but no current teams in the top 25 to speak of. However Notre Dame, Texas and Pitt have multiple wins against current top 25 talent. Frankly we still feel we are a bit too high.

Hey, BYU leapfrogs from 7 to 3 and nearly 6 spots above us. Are they really THAT good? Are you kidding us? Granted we are not top 10 talent but the fact that they have an All American/All Wooden/All World/POY type player in James Taft Fredette AND the fact that even THEY have beaten current top 25 talent makes them deserving.

Why do they keep rotating the same three damn teams into the number one spot? Why won't they let another team have it? We dunno. Hard to let go of the ones you love? Ask Gary Parrish.

Will BYU get the number one seed come tournament time? If the Cougars can win their last two games and win the Mountain West tournament then yes. If not then no. If SDSU does the same then still no. Kansas and Ohio States are locks. Pitt and Duke need to have a good showing come their conference tourney time. BYU (if they do what we said) could knock off Duke from that final number one seeding.

More tea anyone? No? Then return to your posts, citizens.

Poll positioning

So the always amusing Gary Parrish is talking about how all these top 10 losses would (or should) affect the AP/Coaches poll this week and we came across this...

Now we appreciate it. Not saying there are a few of us here who aren't thinking about it. But look guys, if you were to think about all those teams ranked above the Aztecs (Duke, Ohio State, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Texas) can you truly say the following: "SDSU would beat any of those teams if they played them in San Diego."

We can't. We can't even say right now that we could beat BYU this Saturday. And that's all it comes down to. If Team A is ranked above Team B then it is assumed that Team A would beat Team B. To be honest there are a few teams ranked below us that could beat us at home.

It's about managing expectations and not getting caught in the whirlwind of excitement. Just be cool people. Five days and counting.

It's a new dawn, It's a new day

Sing it loud and proud Badgers fans...

So everyone predicted it, references were made to the Wisconsin/Ohio State football game last year and now it is here. There are no more undefeated teams as the Buckeyes lose to Wisconsin, 67 to 71.


Now now kids.

When all was lost with Ohio State up big in the second half Wisconsin came storming back big time. The Kohl Center is a rough place for visitors. We feel that Texas should be #1 on Monday (even after their close win against Baylor) but the pollsters will pick Kansas.

Poll Watching for Week 13

Notes are based on numeric ranking -

1) Until Ohio State loses they deserve to have da numba one spot!
4) Based on wins against quality opponents Pittsburgh should be ranked second. You telling us that the Big 12 has tougher opponents than the Big East? No? And Texas has more loses than Pitt. At the very least it should be Kansas at 2nd and Pitt at 3rd.
5) Dang, talk about name brand loyalty! Two loses, one in horrifying fashion and Duke is still in the top 5?
7) BYU losing to New Mexico keeps San Diego State above them even though we lost to the Cougars.
8) Beating SDSU moves BYU up 2 spots even though they lost to UNM.
17) Behold the power of 7! Pittsburgh and Villanova were mulligans but the voters are now starting to penalize Syracuse 7 spots for every lose thereafter (7 spot drop after Seton Hall and another 7 after Marquette).
20) Really? Over Penn State?
21) Really?! Over Penn State?!
22) Really... oh, you get the message.

Yes, we are on the Penn State bandwagon.

And our lead story (in case you haven't heard)

Kansas loses to Texas. Does it matter the score?

It was a not so happy night for Rock Chalk Nation. Despite being down 15 points at times, Texas did not get rattled at the Phog. Instead they concentrated on what got them the number 11th ranking in the country: Defense.

So, where does that leave us. There are now only two undefeated teams in the country, #1 Ohio State and us, #6 SDSU and come Friday there will only be one remaining undefeated team...

More on that Wednesday.

Almost only counts in...

We have to hand it to Penn State. Beating the 18th and 22nd ranked teams in the country is impressive. Then they go up to #1 ranked Ohio State and lose 66 to 69 on a last second 3 point shot by Buckeyes forward Jared Sullinger. Last night they go into 13th ranked Purdue and once again lose on a last second shot by Boilermaker forward JaJuan Johnson, 62 to 63.

If effort counted the Nittany Lions would be ranked 25th in the country!

But it doesn't.

Sad.

Poll Watch

We would like to pose 3 questions to you:

1) Is SDSU the best team in the Mountain West? Yes, right now.
2) Is SDSU the best team in the state of California and the four main Pacific conferences? Yes, right now.
3) Is SDSU the 6th best team in the nation?



Mrs. March to Madness said we are never satisfied. Maybe. Yes, we are happy to be ranked. But we feel we are possibly the 15th-20th best team in the country. This is too high for that inevitable fall. Why can't we embraced this ranking? Are we afraid of being hurt when we start to descend? That could be. Maybe this is part of being a fan of a decent basketball school. If Ohio State loses do you think the fans will say "Well, we were ranked too high anyways"? Hell no, if they fell they would scream bloody murder saying they STILL deserve to be ranked 2nd! Why can't we be like that? Are we realists? Are we masochists? Are we Eeyore? Will it be schadenfreude city when we lose?

Truth is this is still all very new to us. We are so used to bashing the Aztecs (as demonstrated here, here and here) that we don't know how to handle success as fans. So we downplay it. This is what we've dreamed about and when given that dream we violate it like that drunk girl at the party. But it is what it is right now. At least we are on record admitting as such.

Go Aztecs.

Welcome to the club

Welcome UCF to the world of the Top 25! With your shiny new ranking you are now afforded exclusive benefits not available to those who hold rankings outside the best college teams in the country. Like recruiting. You whip out that ranking baby and elite talent is yours. Like Michael Chandler. He is the 4th best high school center in the country and 47th best player overall. And he just committed to the Knights:

"They made me feel comfortable with going to UCF. There is no reason for me to look anywhere else."



Membership has it's privileges indeed.

CBS attack

We are starting to become fans of Gary Parrish's CBS Poll Attacks. Very thoughtful and insightful and more times than not right on the money. The only thing we disagree with in this installment is that Michigan State has a good win by beating Washington.

We wouldn't count any beaten Pac-10 team as a good win obviously.

Is this real life?

If someone would have come up to us after the 2007-2008 season and told us to close our eyes and imagine a season where San Diego State was ranked higher than North Carolina, Texas, Purdue, Kentucky and Louisville we would have responded in one of two ways:

1) Laughed them out of the room
2) Said "Yeah, in about a decade with a new coach"



We just opened our eyes to the tank cannon reality that it's really happening. Bocce balls, SDSU is ranked as one of the top 15 college basketball teams in the country!!! We're trying to keep the perspective of taking this one day at a time because... Well because it's SDSU. We've been here before.

But as long as it's an open bar we'll keep drinking.

Does UConn play like girls?

And when we say girls we mean these girls. The UConn men's basketball team are the media darlings of the moment. They went from unranked barrel scrapers to #7 in the country (2nd biggest debut in history) virtually overnight. Husky guard Kemba Walker is playing like Michael Jordan and all of Connecticut is buzzing with excitement and a major superiority complex.

Oh, there are Husky haters out there saying things ranging from "they're just lucky" to "they haven't even gone through their Big East schedule yet." But they obviously do not play like girls. At least not yet. Although they wish. They probably cuddle their pillows at night dreaming they were girls.

Celebration

In honor of SDSU being ranked for the first time in both the AP (#18) and coaches poll (#22), here are the Top 25 Cheerleaders in the AP poll!



In order from left to right (as of 11/22) - Duke, Michigan State, Ohio State, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Villanova, Kentucky, Syracuse, Purdue, Missouri, Baylor, Washington, Memphis, Minnesota, Florida, Georgetown, San Diego State, Illinois, Texas, Temple, Gonzaga, BYU, Tennessee, North Carolina

Which one do YOU like?

(HT: Bleacher Report)

UPDATE: Sad Temple. That cheerleader above seemed worried about the Cal game too.

By the power of Nevada

Will the Mountain West Conference have the power this season?

Simply a great game between Wisconsin and UNLV last night. The Running Rebels showed guts and determination against (in our opinion) a slightly better Badgers team. UNLV guard Chace "the poet" Stanback came through in the clutch with assassin-style three point shooting. The best part was that UNLV caused turnovers when Wisconsin was trying to make game winning shots in the final minute of the game. The result was UNLV beating the 25th ranked Badgers at the Thomas & Mack Arena. This is fantastic for two reasons:

1) Wisconsin is ranked #25 in the coaches poll. Their loss makes more room for SDSU next week.
2) The Mountain West Conference has now knocked off 2 top 25 teams. Excellent RPI builder.

Btw, did you notice the Wisconsin players were reliving the 70s and 80s?

<--- Mike Bruesewitz as Afro Man

<--- Ryan Evans as Play from Kid 'n Play.

The AP preseason poll is out and HOLY CRAP SDSU IS RANKED?!

After all the hand wringing and masochism San Diego State has it's preseason moment in the sun by being nationally ranked for the first time in school history.

And it can all come crashing down on ESPN November 16th when the Aztecs visits 12th ranked Gonzaga* in Spokane. Just remember that, citizen. So in the meantime, enjoy the exposure. We have Point Loma and Long Beach State in the between-time to chew on.

* EDITOR'S NOTE: We were going to liveblog the Gonzaga game but right now no just in case we get killed.

We're halfway there...

Hit it, Natalie...

(San Diego State has) all five starters returning from a 25-9 squad that reached the NCAA Tournament as well as the addition of a well-regarded group of freshmen and transfers. Already, SDSU has been included in several preseason Top 25 rankings. The university’s media relations department is calling it "the most anticipated season in Aztec basketball history."
- Sign On San Diego

From mainstream pundits like Katz and Vitale to bloggers like Collegehoops, almost everyone has the Aztecs ranked as one of the top 25 teams in the country. Even stalwarts such as the Associated Press Content has SDSU ranked at least a tad bit outside the top 25.

With their first ever national network prime time TV game on February 26th, 2011 these are heady days for the Aztecs.

We here at M2M have a new lease on life and a new mantra; We will not take failure. Not this time. Fuck you, failure.

We will also have a new addition to the M2M family. That's right, baby M2M. He should be screaming his way from Mrs. M2M's insides around mid December. Just in time for... SDSU vs. Wichita State? Yikes. Sorry kid.

All Hail Syracuse

With loses to Kansas and Kentucky we predict Syracuse as the new number 1 in the polls. While Kansas seems to be taking this new fact hard Kentucky seems to be shrugging it off.

Let the chaos begin

And then there were none. South Carolina beats team formally known as number one 68 to 62. At this point any team in the top 10 could take it all come March.

And let the campaigning for the Jayhawks begin..



LOL SUXRZ!

Oh brother

No big deal, North Carolina will be ranked 25th on Monday...

* - We like towel girls. Girls are soft. And so are towels. Perfect match.

We were thinking that as well

Seriously. We just didn't write about it. But after seeing the gang at The Dagger mention it we changed our minds. What in sam hell are we talking about?

How on earth is North Carolina still ranked?

"But that doesn't mean UNC should still be ranked in
both the AP (No. 24) and coaches polls (No. 23) this
week. If a .667 winning percentage, losses in three of
the last five games and a sub-.500 ACC mark were the
stuff of ranked teams, then North Carolina State should
be getting votes too."

This is what we call the Duke Effect. Name brand recognition makes pollsters give team mulligan after mulligan. We would really love to sit down in a room with one of these voters to get their thinking about this.

Fun with rankings

The AP Top 25 Poll this week:



What about the teams ranked 21-25? What about them...