Live-Blogging the Week #16 Blog Poll Top 25 NHT Vote

We are "live-blogging" our vote and *gasp* thinking process for the BlogPoll Top 25 before we submit it. So without further delays, let's jump in!

While the mechanical process moves Tennessee to #1, the logic (if there's every such a thing with this field of top tier teams) glaringly points to Texas. They beat three of the top eight teams, one on the road, one at a neutral court by a blowout, and at home in-conference.

Compared to that, Tennessee beat #1 Memphis, an in-state rival at FedEx, and won at Xavier, but they were blown out by Texas. Texas won the head to head game, granted it was a long time ago, and has beaten three of the top eight teams. How can they not be the #1?

By the way, we look up all the RPI numbers at our favorite RPI site, Ken Pom RPI.

Tennessee grabs the #2 spot, and the UNC Tarheels by elimination grab the #3 spot. Memphis goes to the #4 spot, although you can easily make a case for them to be at #3 or even #2.

Next up, UCLA grabs the #5 spot, Kansas at #6 (a rematch of the Elite 8 game?), and evil Dookies Empire at #7, despite their two recent losses.

The #8 spot is wide open, we'll give it to the best available team, the Xavier Mouseketeers. The next best thing is Louisville, when you filter out the injuries and such. Rounding up the top 10 is the team they blew out in last year's NCAA tourney, the Stanford Trees.

Next up, Drake and Butler, the two new mid-major darlings du jour - and they have earned this spot with their play. Only one of the two could win the game they played on Bracket Buster Saturday, so Butler is not penalized for the loss.

Georgetown is not doing as well as they were supposed to, which is why they are outside the top 10. Is the #13 too generous for them? Well, maybe yes, maybe no...

The feisty Painters and Boilermakers grab the #14 spot, and we are lost at who to put at #15. Wisconsin will be at #17 - because we don't think they are a sweet 16 team. As simple as that. They have shown they can beat teams that are not as good as they are, but I don't think this team can beat a top tier team. The whole ceiling thing. But at least we are putting them in the top 20 now, so Badget fans don't be too disappointed :)

UConn feels like a Sweet 16 team, and the numbers don't lie. They beat eight RPI Top 100 teams in a row, and this includes four RPI Top 20 teams! That's before they beat South Florida, DePaul and lost to Nova. Hey, nobody's perfect!

So who's at #18? Well, we don't know yet, but we do know who is not in the top 25: Pac-10 teams! That's right, they are no more Pac-10 teams in our top 25. Why? USC: No Hackett, Arizona: No Nic Wise, Washington State: Ceiling (see Wisconsin above) and nine top 201+ wins. Providing we can find enough teams ahead of them. Otherwise they'll slide back in :) Also out of the top 25 is Indiana as this is a different team without The CellPhone Lover at the helm.

So we as again, who is at #18? Marquette? Notre Dame? Vandy? Michigan State? Mid-majors? Okay, Vandy grabs #18 by induction. How about #19? Let's give that to Izzo, and then feed the two aforementioned Big East teams. If Notre Dame had stronger wins away from their home court, I would have moved them higher.

How about Davidson? That's another team with the C-word. Ceiling! Despite the solid program ran by McKillop, they've never beaten a top 25 team!

Well, who is it then? We can't find enough teams to put in! So what to do, what to do? Let's put some of the teams we excluded three paragraphs above back in! Let's give Indiana and Washington State the benefit of the doubt and give them #22 and #23.

Two spots to go! Clemson you ask? Please point me to a solid win they had in the ACC... Waiting... Waiting... NONE!

Tempted to put Wake Forest at #25 to thank them for beating Duke, but they probably need a couple more wins before that. And to see how they respond to the loss at
UNC. But thank you Wake Forest for beating the sniveling Dookies!

Back to #24 and #25. Who can it be now? Who? Who? Who?

We'll follow the suggestion of Gopher Nation and put Miami at #24. Thank you Miami for beating the Dookies!.

So one spot left, #25... Let's give the mid-majors some love, since it's all spaghetti out there! Well, picking a mid-major out of all of them out there is no easy task either! There's the ones who won high profile Bracket Buster road games, like Creighton and Kent State, there's the venerable Davidson we mentioned above, the no-love South Alabama, St. Mary's and GoneZaga are no chopped meat either.

And how about Maryland? Kentucky? Arkansas? And how about Cornell, undefeated in the Ivy? Okay, that's a stretch... *Gasp* We even have to consider Pitt!

Okay, we have to pick something...

Don't want to stay up all night deliberating... We are so desperate we are even considering Southern Illinois with a #10 SOS, despite their dozen losses!

How about the leader of the Church League?

How about Robert Morris? They are 13-3 on road/neutral games. Syraucse doesn't play that many in three years :)

Well, we've found the #25, despite their loss a couple of hours ago, Anger Management Issues Billy Walker and B-EZ get the #25 spot...

And we are DONE!