Monday, November 30, 2009

Commodores Fall in Polls, Still Lurking Near Top 25

Not surprisingly, Vanderbilt was one of seven teams that were dropped from the Top 25 in both the AP and ESPN polls this week. The sports writers gave us the biggest hit, knocking us down from #24 to #33. Vanderbilt is hanging in at #29 in the ESPN/USA Today voting.

In related news, Florida (6-0) is showing the earmarks of a team that has bounced back from a couple down years, as they stormed into the rankings at #13/17 after a big week that included a win over #2 Michigan State. All signs point to the SEC East being one of the toughest divisions in college basketball this year.

Richmond beating Mizzou (holler at your boy, Spider fans) in the finals of the South Padre Invitational gives Wednesday's home tilt against the Tigers somewhat less celebrity appeal, but don't be fooled: this is a potentially pivotal momentum game against a very good team coming off an Elite Eight season. A win over former Vandy stud/Missouri transfer DeMarre Carroll's uncle, Coach Mike Anderson, combined with a W on Saturday against DePaul would put us right back in the Top 25 discussion. One game at a time...

7 comments:

Stanimal said...

Most thought that the loss of Calathes would hinder the Gators progress, including yours truly. A very impressive win over Michigan State to say the least, though I have to say I'm none too thrilled about seeing a Gator resurgence.

Aaron said...

Rich-what...Rich-mond.

Anonymous said...

The SEC East is going to be very tough this year. The UK fans thinking they are going 15-1 in the SEC or whatever are going to be in for a rude awakening.

Vandy will be back in the Top 25 a week from today after wins over Mizzou and Depaul.

Colin said...

Michigan State is over rated, as is the rest of the big ten. It's a good win for Florida, but will be less impressive come March, unless the big ten continues to fool everyone. I think we are currently appropriately rated, but what is Cal doing in a top25 poll at this point? There should be zero ranked pac10 teams currently, and we should all be moderately excited that Zona has a legit chance to win their conference. Looking forward to seeing us try and mediocrely press the fastest 40 minutes in College BBall on Wednesday, and even more excited for us to hopefully give up that game plan after 3 possessions.

Stanimal said...

Well put on the hopefully give up on the press gameplan. I'm fine knowing we can do it when we need to, but let's not do it ALL the time.

The Pac-10 truly is terrible and I don't know how Cal remains in the Top 25 either. The only explanation is their two losses came against Top 25 teams.

Anonymous said...

To your point, given the strength of the SEC East, Vandy may not be able to manage much better than .500 in conf. (8-8). In order to get to the magic # of 20 wins, we'll need 12 non-conference wins. That's not much room for error, e.g., probably a loss to Illinois and 1 other game.

DorePosts said...

It was really nice to see Portland get credit for making such a run. I always love seeing non-power conference schools get some love.