Everyone knew that we were going to drop in the polls after the upset loss to Arizona. They did indeed; down to 8th in the most recent Associated Press poll. The individual pollster results were finally released on the Internet, and once again the results are very interesting. Here is a little breakdown of the way the poll shook out:
- Gonzaga is now ranked 8th overall after being 4th last week
- People are still impressed! Gonzaga was ranked 4th by a voter in Tennessee and 5th by voters in New York City and South Carolina.
- 8 out of 72 voters ranked Gonzaga as the 6th best team in the nation or better
- 15 out of 72 voters ranked Gonzaga as the 11th best or worse team in the nation.
- The Husker state strikes again! Gonzaga received two #15 votes this week from our favorite voter in Nebraska and his new friend from Washington D.C.
continue reading after the jump to see the thoughts of individual voters...
I gave this fellow the benefit of the doubt last week but there is no way you can put Gonzaga below Tennessee at this point and have any knowledge about college basketball. Gonzaga beat Tennessee and then Tennessee lost to Temple which gives them two losses. Gonzaga has one loss to a Pac-10 team that is probably going to go to the NCAA tournament. Purdue's only good win has been against Boston College and got completely outclassed at home against Duke. UCLA has lost twice, once to Michigan and in a tough loss to Texas. I like Wake Forest and Notre Dame but I don't think they have the body of work to be ranked ahead of Gonzaga at this point. Wake has only beat Baylor and Notre Dame has a pair of losses but a nice win in Maui over Texas.
As I mentioned, our Nebraska buddy has a new friend from Washington D.C. This voter had the Zags at fourth last week but was so displeased by the Zags loss to Arizona that he dropped them 11 spots. It's the usual list of suspects ahead of the Bulldogs, but at least he has Tennessee below us. The Washington D.C. native ranked Navy as the 25th best team in the nation after a three-point victory over 3-6 Mount St. Mary's.
But it wouldn't be fair for us here at The Slipper Still Fits to focus on the negative pollsters that seem to dislike our Zags. There are also a few voters that still believe we are a top six team in the nation even after our loss to the Wildcats. In fact, our favorite voter from Tennessee only dropped Gonzaga one spot from 3 to 4 after the loss. Here is how he voted...
Obviously as a Gonzaga blogger and jaded fan, I love this poll! But, in an objective manner, there is no way we should be ranked ahead of Oklahoma at this point. I also think that Xavier deserves to be ahead of us right now but we'll learn more about them, and the Zags for that matter, on Saturday. Aside from that, there is about a group of four or five teams; Gonzaga, Louisville, Texas, Duke, Wake, and Notre Dame that could be ranked in any sort of order and you could argue one way or another.
Overall, I'm kind of bummed that I didn't get to see our favorite Nebraska voter's poll if the Zags had beat the Wildcats. I feel like he was smiling ear to ear when he saw the box score of the Gonzaga-Arizona game 10 minutes before he had to turn his poll in. It should be a very interesting week in the polls when we do this breakdown again next week because we are about to learn alot about our beloved Gonzaga Bulldogs. Connecticut comes calling so if Gonzaga wins they can reestablish themselves as one of the top teams in the nations but if they lose, expect the Nebraska voter to have them out of the Top 25.