Apparently one voter in the USA Today-ESPN men’s poll doesn’t believe playoffs have merit.
The last poll of the college basketball season is out and the Connecticut Huskies received 30 of 31 first place votes in the Final USA Today-ESPN men’s poll.
Connecticut won the national championship on Monday night but that did not seem to determine the vote of one of the voters in the poll. The Huskies scored 773 points in the poll out of a possible 775 and that means that single voter that did not rank the Huskies first must have ranked them in third place.
The Ohio State Buckeyes, with their Sweet 16 appearance, impressed the voter more than the Huskies did in winning the national championship. Afterall, the Buckeyes had an incredible season as they went 34-3 and hey, UCONN only went 32-9.
That the Buckeyes lost to a Kentucky team that Connecticut beat didn’t seem to sway the voter.
Technically even if you adopt the point of view that the top team in the nation, after the playoffs, can be a team besides the one that won the playoff tournament then you still would not rate Connecticut third.
Besides Ohio State, Kansas had a better record and a strong schedule, and Duke had a better record and a strong schedule as well. That could put Connecticut in fourth spot, if you vote according to the entire season and not just playoff results.
However college basketball isn’t about November, December, January, and February that much. It’s about peaking in March and April and that’s what Jim Calhoun and this year’s Huskies did as they ran the tables in the Big East tournament and then in the national championship tournament.
Ohio State, all voters averaged out, finished fifth in the poll and maybe that was generous as 9th would have been about right given that they were the best team to get eliminated in the Sweet 16.
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