Syracuse, N.Y. - Auburn nearly upset the reigning No. 1 on Saturday.
But Houston prevailed.
How did that impact the way AP men’s basketball voters constructed their ballots? Well, Houston slipped from No. 1 to No. 2.
Here’s the Top 25, followed by the ballot I turned in late Sunday night. (Rank, team, record, total points, number of first-place votes in parentheses.)
1) Purdue 4-0 1502 (44)
2) Houston 4-0 1457 (12)
3) UConn 4-0 1389 (2)
4) Arizona 4-0 1314 (2)
5) Duke 4-0 1277 (1)
6) Louisville 4-0 1161 (0)
7) Michigan 3-0 1103 (0)
8) Illinois 1017 (0)
9) BYU 3-1 972 (0)
10) Florida 3-1 949 (0)
11) Alabama 2-1 928 (0)
12) Kentucky 3-1 798 (0)
13) Gonzaga 4-0 772 (0)
14) St. John’s 2-1 732 (0)
15) Texas Tech 3-1 678 (0)
16) Iowa State 3-0 664 (0)
17) Michigan State 3-0 585 (0)
18) North Carolina 4-0 516 (0)
19) UCLA 3-1 423 (0)
20) Tennessee 3-0 416 (0)
21) Arkansas 3-1 247 (0)
22) Auburn 3-1 188 (0)
23) Wisconsin 3-0 180 (0)
24) Kansas 3-1 132 (0)
25) North Carolina State 3-0 97 (0)
Others receiving votes:
San Diego St. 71, Indiana 65, Vanderbilt 57, Oregon 28, Ohio St. 21, Southern Cal 16, Georgetown 16, Creighton 12, Baylor 11, Saint Mary’s 8, Missouri 7, Mississippi 5, Iowa 3, Utah St. 2, Georgia 2, Virginia 1, Virginia Tech 1, Stanford 1, Kansas St 1.
We voters (or at least me) are not fond of late Sunday college basketball.
The Florida vs. Miami game started at 8:30 p.m. yesterday. Because the Gators are in the Top 25, that means having to wait until that game ends to fully complete a ballot.
At any rate, Florida beat Miami and can now claim wins over two ACC teams from its own state (FSU and the Hurricanes).
My preseason ballot was lower on Michigan than pretty much everybody else, but the Wolverines have done nothing to assuage my concerns about them. That’s taking nothing away from Wake Forest, which played them to overtime before losing in Detroit.
I have been consistently higher on Vanderbilt, a team that plays an interesting game vs. SMU in early December.
I’ve had Purdue as my No. 1 since the season started.
It’s still so early in the process to make any bold proclamations.
Here’s my ballot:
1) Purdue
2) Houston
3) UConn
4) Arizona
5) Louisville
6) Duke
7) Illinois
8) BYU
9) Gonzaga
10) Kentucky
11) Iowa State
12) Vanderbilt
13) Alabama
14) St. John’s
15) Florida
16) Michigan
17) North Carolina
18) Texas Tech
19) NC State
20) USC
21) Michigan State
22) Tennessee
23) Auburn
24) St. Mary’s
25) UCLA