Joe Lunardi released his Bracketology this morning and had the Coogs slipping to the 3-line. That makes sense with UH only playing one game in the last few weeks and falling to 11 in ESPN’s BPI.
Imagine if that bracket actually happened. Just the number of blue bloods UH could potentially knock off: Kansas, Syracuse, Louisville, North Carolina, and UCLA. Getting revenge against Michigan? Quentin Grimes facing his former team? That could be fun.
AP Voters & Their Ballots
This week, the Coogs held firm at #6 as Michigan State fell and Villanova jumped UH. The Nova move is completely justified but the Cougars will have an opportunity to move up this week with wins over Temple and UCF.
This week, 48 voters moved the Cougars up while 3 dropped them a spot (Cecil Hurt), two spots (Jesse Newell), or 3 spots (Doug Doughty). Some voters, like Newell, use predictive analytics tools like KenPom and BartTorvik to structure his vote. I don’t have an issue with his vote changing as the ratings shift.
Jon Wilner’s ballot continues to mystify: he has UH at 13 which is an “extreme pick” according to CollegePollTracker.com. Wilner has many other extreme picks: no one ranks Duke higher than he does (9th – they’re actually 20th) or VT (12th – they’re 24th), Minnesota (23rd – they’re 40th in points), and Northwestern (25th – they’re 38th). And no voter ranks Tennessee lower (20th – they’re actually 8th). He’s an extreme pick 8 times.
This table might be best in landscape mode on a device.
| Pollster | Organization | 12/21 | 12/14 | 12/7 | 11/30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Ballou | CBS Austin | 6 | 7 | 6 | 12 |
| Chris Basnett | Lincoln JS | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| Mark Berman | Roanoke Times | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Sam Blum | Dallas News | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| David Borges | Connecticut Insider | 7 | 8 | 8 | 23 |
| Rick Bozich | WDRB (KY) | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Jeff Borzello | ESPN (NYC) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Kevin Brockway | Gainesville Sun (FL) | 4 | 6 | 9 | 10 |
| Lauren Brownlow | WRAL (NC) | 4 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Joe Buettner | Norman Transcript | 5 | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Jeff Call | Deseret News (UT) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
| Jerry Carino | Gannett (NJ) | 5 | 7 | 11 | 11 |
| David Cloninger | The State (SC) | 5 | 6 | 8 | 11 |
| Clayton Collier | WATN (TN) | 6 | 7 | 11 | 11 |
| James Crepea | Oregonian | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Seth Davis | The Athletic (NYC) | 15 | 18 | 17 | 18 |
| Luke DeCock | News & Observer (VA) | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Donna Ditota | Syracuse P-S | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Doug Doughty | Roanoke Times | 9 | 6 | 5 | 17 |
| Jack Ebling | WSYM (MI) | 7 | 8 | NV | 13 |
| Wayne Epps | Richmond T-D (VA) | 5 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| Marcus Fuller | St. Paul PP (MN) | 6 | 8 | 14 | 14 |
| Geoff Grammer | ABQ Journal (NM) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 |
| Adam Grosbard | Orange County Register | 5 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Jordan Hansen | Missoulian (MT) | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| Steve Hewitt | Boston Herald | 7 | 9 | 12 | 13 |
| Brian Holland | WVLA Baton Rouge | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Bob Holt | Arkansas D-G | 8 | 9 | 13 | 13 |
| Donald Hunt | Philly Tribune | 4 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
| Cecil Hurt | Tuscaloosa News | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| David Jablonski | Dayton News | 8 | 8 | 7 | 17 |
| Justin Jackson | Morgantown DP | 6 | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| Ethan Joyce | W-S Journal (NC) | 3 | 5 | 5 | 11 |
| Joe Juliano | Philly Inquirer | 6 | 7 | 10 | 12 |
| Lauren Kirschman | News Tribune (WA) | 8 | 10 | 11 | 13 |
| Paul Klee | Denver Gazette | 6 | 6 | NV | 6 |
| Zach Klein | WSB (Atlanta) | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Chad Leistikow | DM Register (IA) | 6 | 6 | 5 | 10 |
| Dave Matter | St. Louis P-D | 6 | 7 | 7 | 11 |
| Kevin McNamara | Providence Journal | 8 | 10 | 13 | 13 |
| Stephen Means | Cleveland.com | 4 | 10 | 10 | 15 |
| Craig Meyer | Pittsburgh P-G | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
| Sheldon Mickles | BR Advocate (LA) | 5 | 7 | 11 | 14 |
| Chris Murray | Nevada Sports Net | 5 | 7 | 6 | 10 |
| Matt Murschel | Orlando Sentinel | 4 | 6 | 7 | 16 |
| Jesse Newell | KC Star | 9 | 7 | 6 | 10 |
| Bruce Pascoe | Arizona D-S | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| Dave Preston | WTOP Radio (DC) | 8 | 9 | 12 | 18 |
| Troy Provost-Heron | Knoxville DT | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Jeff Rabjohns | 247 Sports (IN) | 5 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| BJ Rains | Idaho P-T | 5 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Scott Richey | News Gazette (IL) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Jon Rothstein | CBS Sports (NYC) | 4 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| Shannon Ryan | Chicago Tribune | 7 | 8 | 11 | 12 |
| Ben Steele | Milwaukee JS | 4 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| Nick Suss | Clarion Ledger (MS) | 6 | 8 | 7 | 11 |
| Edgar Thompson | Orlando Sentinel | 4 | 9 | 7 | 7 |
| Stephen Tsai | Honolulu Advertiser | 8 | NV | NV | NV |
| Dick Vitale | ESPN (FL) | 7 | 8 | 9 | 12 |
| Josh Vitale | Mont Advertiser (AL) | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Ken Weinman | 105.7 The Fan (MD) | 4 | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| John Werner | Waco T-H | 4 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| Scott Wolf | LA Daily News | 7 | 9 | 11 | 11 |
| Jon Wilner | San Jose MN | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| Point Total: | 1272 | 1169 | 1090 | 949 | |
| Total Voters | 64 | 62 | 61 | 63 | |
| Final Ranking: | 6 | 6 | 7 | 10 |
NV = voter did not cast a ballot that week
Stephen Means of Cleveland.com moved UH six spots from 10th to 4th while Edgar Thompson from Orlando moved UH from 9th to 4th just in time for the Coogs to play UCF. In all, 18 voters moved UH up two or more spots this week.
John Feinstein continues to honor his commitment to Cougar fans – he did not vote.
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