Jan 07 2009
Texas, Purdue ranked too high? It looks that way
Being a Texas Longhorn fan probably is quite trying these days. You just never know which team will take the floor on any given night.
It could be the team that beat UCLA and Villanova. It could be the team that barely took care of business against Texas State and struggled for awhile against Texas Southern. Or it could be the team that lost to Notre Dame, Michigan State and Arkansas (67-61 Tuesday night).
Whichever team does show up on game night, my guess is it won’t be the Top 10 team that virtually every poll in the country says the Longhorns are. This includes CCH, where Texas is No. 8 this week.
Longhorn fans: Don’t count on a Top 10 ranking next week; your team is too inconsistent.
Purdue (No. 13), meanwhile, dropped a 67-64 decision at Penn State on Tuesday. The Boilermakers have started Big Ten play 0-2, losing to Illinois previously in their conference opener. Tuesday’s loss at one of the perennial conference doormats, a team that hasn’t beaten anyone better than Georgia Tech so far this season, could mean Purdue ends up being one of those bubble teams come March … a team that won’t get in the NCAA tournament without the Big Ten commissioner holding a gun to the committee’s collective head like he did in 2006 for the undeserving Boilers to get their ticket punched.
Like the Longhorns, look for the Boilers to drop considerably in the poll next week.
Just one day after proclaiming Illinois State “for real,” CCH is a little embarrassed at the Redbirds’ 56-52 loss at Bradley on Tuesday. Illinois State had been 14-0 before the game and had broken into the CCH Mid-Majors Top 10 at No. 9.
Of course, we’re not nearly as embarrassed as the folks over at CollegeInsider.com. It’s latest mid-majors poll has Illinois State at No. 1, ahead of the likes of Butler, Davidson and Gonzaga, which has struggled lately. Sorry, guys, but a couple of home conference victories over good teams doesn’t necessarily qualify a team to be No. 1 in all the land.
It’s the ability to win on the road that separates the wheat from the chaff in college basketball and Illinois State really hadn’t proven they are capable of beating good teams away from home. So, that No. 1 ranking might have been a little premature.
