I have been participating in The Big East's Blogger Poll this season. I debated whether to publish my ballot (or would that just take up time and space that could go to other more interesting topics) and initially decided not to. But in honor of Olean Times-Herald St. Bonaventure beat writer Vinny Pezzimenti, who casts a vote in the AP Weekly Top 25 poll, I decided that taking the high road by disclosing my ballot so my choices may be scrutinized and (if anyone cares) discussed/justified would the better course.
Vinny Pezzimenti according to CBS Sportline's Gary Parrish's blog (Parrish the Thought) Vinny left Villanova off his ballot this week but did include George Washington University (A10) at #25. Parrish was puzzled about this choice because Pezzimenti had not voted for GW before this week. And GW dropped a 10 point decision to University of Maryland - Baltimore County in their only game last week...
- Georgetown
- Pittsburgh
- Louisville
- Marquette
- Villanova
- Syracuse
- Connecticut
- Providence
- West Virginia
- Seton Hall
- Notre Dame
- St. John's
- South Florida
- DePaul
- Rutgers
- Cincinnati
- Down this Week:
- Louisville - dropped a game to unranked BYU. The long term prognosis without Padgett (and Palacios?) concerns me. Clark will be very good, but the Cards have lost Holloway and Goode in addition to Padgett and Palacios.
- Marquette - a silly loss to Duke.
- Notre Dame - I started them at #9 in the preseason. Those 2 close losses reminded me too much of that bad luck run they had in 2005-06.
- St. John's - How serious is Mason's injury? The official press release just before their season opener asserted he would be out for a single game. An NY Post story yesterday suggested it would be longer. Johnnies are pounding cupcakes right now & the freshmen all look good.
- Up This Week:
- Pittsburgh - they are feasting on pastries (except Rick Majerus' St. Louis squad...) at home, but there are a few points of comparison. Buffalo for example lost to UConn by 25, beat USF by 6 and lost to Pitt by 47. North Carolina A&T lost to Pitt by 25 and beat DePaul (at DePaul) by 3. The Panthers will see Washington (at Washington), Oklahoma State and Duke (in Madison Square Garden) over the next 3+ weeks. Their margin of victory will come down, and if they continue to win they will probably keep the #2 spot.
- Seton Hall - After an uncertain start the Pirates went into Penn's Palestra and took two games in the Big 5 Classic, the first from Navy, and the second from the ACC's Virginia. The Cavs were projected as middle of the pack finishers in the ACC. That's better than preseason predictions for SHU.
I did not vote for player of the week or newcomer (rookie/freshman) of the week. I will next week though. If I had the ballot back I would have voted for SHU's Brian Laing, who has stepped up in a big way for the Pirates. His line in Philadelphia was 19-33; 2-5; 12-13 for 52 points in 2 games. His rebounding was great -- 5-14-19. As for the freshman, I believe Donte Greene won. While Corey Fisher had a tremendous tournament in Orlando, Greene did have the better week overall. It is going to be fun to watch these freshmen.
Oh, and the three reasons I put Cincinnati as #16 instead of George Washington...
- 1. The Bearcats dropped those two games in the Peggy Cronin Invitational in front of a hometown crowd. At least Rutgers had the good judgement to stage their worst loss in a 100 year old gym in an East Jersey town 20 miles Northeast of New Brunswick in front of 900 witnesses (possibly the only people in New Jersey who knew how to get to the Jersey City Armory).
- 2. Cincinnati's loss to Bowling Green at home no less, was terrible. Bowling Green beat Belmont (which also beat Cincinnati) but went on to lose to Temple by double digits.
- 3. George Washington is not a member of the Big East Conference. I checked before I voted.
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