The Georgetown Hoyas are a Nationally Ranked Powerhouse, this much we know and is certain. This week the Hoyas held steady in the AP poll at 16th in the country and rose up one spot in the Coaches Poll from 17th to 16th.
The out of conference schedule is almost over and Georgetown is getting set to dive into the meat of the schedule. The next two games, a rematch with Memphis and a date at #4 Louisville are arguably Georgetown's toughest two game stretch of the season (although I'd put it second to at #15 Pittsburgh followed by hosting #8/9 Connecticut). However, before we move on to examining our upcoming games, let's take our weekly breakdown of how the voters view the Hoyas and the rest of the college basketball landscape.
More after The Jump:
Cynical Voter of the Week:
Jason Franchuk of the Provo Daily Herald. Last week, Jason had the Hoyas ranked 16th. Perfectly reasonable. This week, however, he dropped us 3 spots to #19 - the biggest drop by any voter. Who does he move ahead of the Hoyas to justify dropping us after a win? Well, first of all he wakes up and ranks Indiana 15th after not ranking them last week (even though their win over Kentucky happened the Saturday before the last rankings came out). I guess he just happened to miss arguably the biggest college basketball game of the year to date. Then, he also bumps Mississippi State who struggled to two wins over Florida Atlantic and Detroit, and Michigan for its two blowout wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alabama A&M over Georgetown. The only redeeming quality of Jason's rankings is he has Syracuse 3rd.
Delusional Voter of the Week:
Cormac Gordan of the Staten Island Advance. Cormac moved the Hoyas up all the way to #11 from #15 last week, the highest ranking for the Hoyas in both of the polls. But perhaps it is not that Mr. Gordan is delusional about the Hoyas rather he simply looked into the future and saw that both Kansas and Marquette would be upset last night and that's why he decided to rank the Hoyas above a team at the time was undefeated and another team that had handed the Hoyas their only loss. Well played, Cormac, well played.
- Props should also be given to another NY area newspaper man, Dick Weiss of the Daily News. Weiss is finally coming around on the Hoyas and moved the Hoyas from 20th last week up to 15th this week.
- What is to be done with our old friend Gary Laney of the Advocate? After consecutive weeks of not ranking Georgetown at all, he begrudgingly ranked the Hoyas 25th in his latest ballot.
With several losses by teams at the bottom of the polls this past week, the Polls welcomed UNLV back into the fold. The AP went with Virginia and the Coaches added Murray St and Harvard, which is still on the outside looking into the AP poll. Both Virginia and Harvard have 9-1 records. They both have wins over ranked opponents: Virginia over then #15 Michigan and Harvard over then #20 Florida State. However Harvard's one loss is at #8/9Uconn while Virginia's one loss is to TCU on a neutral court. Advantage Crimson.
Looking at those teams also receiving votes:
The AP included votes for California and Indiana State. California features no wins over NCAA tournament teams, a loss at San Diego State and a 40 point blowout loss to #8/9Missouri. Indiana State just knocked off #25 Vanderbilt. But is beating Vanderbilt, who already had 3 losses, enough to warrant a vote when you already have losses to Minnesota and at Boise State? Meanwhile, the coaches decided to show some love to St. Mary's and Seton Hall. St. Mary's is 7-1 against D-1 opponents. They have a nice win over Northern Iowa but a double digit loss at Denver, not rankings material.
Seton Hall has been having a better than expected season, though looked shaky and needed overtime to beat Mercer. The Hall is 9-1 with its lone loss to a respectable Northwestern. Seton Hall's win over St. Joesph's is starting to look pretty good, and a win at Dayton this week would give Seton Hall another credible win. Don't think they're a top 25 team, but I'm fine with them getting a little love.