Can we please teach the media what an Upset is?

This is probably the 342134th time this is revisited, but there are so many clueless people in the media - including ESPN - that call everything an upset. If #4 team beats #1 team at their own home court, they call it an upset because it's #4 over #1. Even though it may be a conference game and at the home of the #4 team. That my friends, is NOT an upset.


What is an Upset?
An upset is Southwest Dakota Sister of the Poor Junior College beating Texas Tech in Texas!

An upset is Rutgers beating UConn at Gumbel Pavillion.

An upset is Oregon State beating North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

An upset is Penn State beating Michigan State at Izzo Dome.

An upset is the referees calling more fouls on Duke than the opponent.

The Madness of King Poll

The new ESPN/USA poll is out and it's a parade of oddities as usual, with both Duke and North Carolina finishing ahead of Wake Forest, despite the undisputed fact that Wake Forest beat both of them. Beat both of them. Granted, both victories were at their home court, but can Wake get some love?

Granted, all teams are flawed, there is no head-above-shoulders favorite. After all, UNC was crowned the preseason #1 when both super-defender Marcus Ginyard and game-changing 7-footer Zeller were factored in. It looks like neither one is a factor this season!

In other poll news, the Blog Poll is now going to be integrated into a bigger poll. More on that later.

Week #8 of the BlogPoll is out: new #1

There is a new #1 in the Blog Poll Top 25! Wake Forest jumped to the #1 spot, jumping over the Pukies. And while the Big East is a giant train, three of the top eight teams are from the ACC.

What could have gotten ESPN some big ratings is if they scrapped the watershed-beating ACC-Big10 "challenge" and replaced it with the "ACC vs Big East" challenge. Now that would have been FUN to watch! And Duke could have actually lost a game or two ;-)

Monty's surprise at Cal is the last team in the top 25 and it can possible get the Cal AD executives fired for keeping Ben Braun there for about six years too many :)

The pre-season Blogger's Poll is published!

A new season is indeed coming up! The Blogger's Poll is back with its pre-season edition. And yes, basketball fans, there was a unanimous #1! Will that remain the same after next Tuesday?

By the way, we are planning a big party after Duke's first loss this season and after every loss :-)

Pitino: ESPN Analysts instead of coaches should vote in the polls!

In this week's "Courtside with Rick Pitino" called the Coaches Poll "fraudulent" and recommended that ESPN Analysts should be voting instead of basketball coaches, because coaches don't have time to follow all teams across the country and they usually hand them off to assistants et al.

During the coaches show, there was an ad for Pitino's weight loss program ("urban active") for $1,800 per person. Very affordable ;-) Move over Jenny Craig, here comes Jenny Craigino!

Meet the BlogPoll Top 25 participating Bloggers!

You may have seen the preseason Blogger's Poll mentioned here and in other blogs. If you haven't, here it is!

Now let's meet the blogs who are participating in the poll. Forgive the awkward transitions and segways but I'm more of a reader than a writer. March to Madness is doing a great job in administering and organizing the blogger's poll. With Midnight Madness just hours away, the March to March has just began!

The good, the bad and the dirty of SEC Hoops covers SEC Hoops and beyond. Staying in the SEC, A Sea of Blue is a Kentucky blog but has stories of interest to all basketball fans.

March Madness All Season has an on-going magazine-size and beyond preview of the 2007-2008 season. No trees harmed and your wallet remains in your pocket. This time of the year is indeed College Hoops Heaven, a blog that covers Big 5 Hoops in Philly and beyond. A must read blog for Phil "Dave Letterman" Martelli fans.

We are just weeks away from fans Rushing the Court after a big home win. And I can guarantee you there will be quite a few, because there's almost 5000 regular season games per year. Shockers and surprises are statistically unavoidable!

The above were the blogs that were part of the Blogger's Poll IPO. Since then, a new wave of basketball investors have jumped in. No, unfortunately there's no Maria Bartiromo, not just yet, but don't lose hope! TarHeel Mania covers UNC sports, but they also have a very nice portrait of Coach K.

And beating Coach K's team usually guarantees that fans will be Storming the Floor in jubilation and Vitale will be crying in desperation. STF has an on-going season preview with previews of the Big 12, SEC, Pac 10 and the ACC.

Next blog is A Pudge is a Sandwich, a Wordpress sports blog. Find out what's in the sandwich! Next we have something that ESPN badly needs, West Coast Basketball bias, which is the subject of Pissken at the Buzzer.

And there you have it, an intro to the eleven blogs participating in the Blogger's College Basketball Top 25 Poll!

But wait there's more! A new wave of Bloggers have joined the BlogPoll Top25! Let's meet them:

Storming the Court is a college basketball blog covering the world of college basketball.

George Mason Basketball covers the world of George MASON college hoops and the CAA, because as they say "mid major fans are people too!". Tell that to Vitale!

Speaking of Vitale, Super, Scintillating and Sarcastic offers College basketball commentary that won't make your ears bleed.

Also joining in is College Hoops Journal, an all-inclusive college basketball news and opinion site.

Vegas Watch covers the world of sports including college hoops too!

If you are a blogger and interested in joining the BlogPoll Top 25, just let any of the participating bloggers know!

The pre-season Blogger's Top 25 Poll is revealed!

We have the firs Blogger's Top 25 Poll rolled out. A number of basketball bloggers withdrew in the cyber mountains and deliberated for weeks and weeks and came up with the preseason Top 25! Here is a visual representation of the top five teams of the Top 25, starting with #1.

6. Tennessee	11. Oregon	16. Gonzaga	21. Butler
7. Louisville	12. Indiana	17. Arkansas	22. Davidson
8. Michigan St.	13. Texas	18. Stanford	23. Mississippi St.
9. Washington St.	14. Duke	19. Texas A&M	24. VCU
10. Marquette	15. Kentucky	20. Arizona	25. USC

The blogger-participants in this poll are listed below in alphabetical order:

A Sea of Blue

College Hoops Heaven

March Madness All Season

March to Madness who deserves a big thank you for organizing and administering the poll.

NCAA Hoops Today

Rush the Court

SEC Hoops, the good, the bad, and the dirty

If you want to see how each voter voted, you have to wait 30 years for the freedom of blogger information act, or look at the spreadsheet on Google Docs.

Here is my vote, posted earlier on. So where do I disagree with the Blogger's Top 25 poll?

Clemson for one thing. After the colossal epic meltdown of gigantic proportions, I will only consider ranking them in February or March :)

Ohio State needs to be in. It's not who is gone, but who is playing and who is coaching. And oh boy, Ohio State is loaded there! Let's not forget how well Thad Matta did before, he did beat Duke in the Elite 8 when he was at Xavier but the NCAA-Zebras had a different plan.

I am not ready to consider Mississippi State a top 25 team just yet either. Yes, poor Rick Stansbury was the worse hit by highschoolers bolting for the NCAA, but what counts is results on the court. While not in the same boat as Clemson, they have to earn a top 25 ranking from me :)

Villanova is another team that is going to force its way in the top 25. Corey Fisher is going to wreak havoc, one way or the other. The four guard line-up is going to be back! Watch out!

UAB is my pet project for 2007-2008 in a more competitive on paper Conference USA, which by the way has its Media Days on Thursday October 11 on CSTV. They could be a top 25 team!

USC is certainly better than #25. OJ Mayo is a known more or less, but Devon Jefferson was a top 50 high schooler two years ago with an all star game selection. With two years of prep school seasoning, he could be a one-and-done type of player, and the Mayo/Jefferson duo could translate into a Final Four run (or selfish play?)

I could go on for ever, but eventually I have to stop. Stop!

But wait there's more! The readers can have their say by voting in the UnSpun Top 25 Preseason poll. This is open to everyone on the net!

The Blogger's Poll is coming, here are my votes!

There is a Blogger's Poll coming very very very soon! In the meantime, here is how I voted in the preseason Blogger's Poll 25. Let's not forget, Midnight Madness is just one week away! Get ready!

1 Memphis
2 North Carolina
3 UCLA
4 Kansas
5 Georgetown
6 Louisville
7 Washington St.
8 Marquette
9 USC
10 Arizona
11 Indiana
12 Tennessee
13 Kentucky
14 Michigan St.
15 Texas A&M
16 Texas
17 Oregon
18 Gonzaga
19 Stanford
20 VA Commonwealth
21 Ohio St.
22 Duke
23 Xavier
24 Villanova
25 UAB


Other receiving votes: Butler, Davidson, Notre Dame, UConn and DePaul.