CARDS #9 AND #10 IN EARLY WBB POLLS
As Louisville women's basketball continues their westward jaunt Tuesday with a game against Cal Poly, I thought today might be a good day to take a look at the top 10 rankings in two polls -- the AB WBB Poll and the NCAA Committee Top 10. The USA Today Coaches Poll hasn't been released since pre-season -- you know how busy the coaches are these days, and, in this one, a lot of coaches assign their vote to an assistant or other staff member.
In the AP Poll, we find the Cards ranked #10. Here's the rundown, as of Week 2:
1) South Carolina
2) UConn
3) Maryland
4) Indiana
5) NC State
6) Baylor
7) Stanford
8) Iowa
9) Oregon
10) LOUISVILLE
Here's the way the NCAA Top 10 Committee sees it:
1) UConn
2) Stanford
3) Texas A&M
4) South Carolina
5) NC State
6) Maryland
7) Arizona
8) Baylor
9) LOUISVILLE
10) UCLA
The difference between the two polls is striking. Despite being ranked higher in the NCAA Poll, Louisville will watch both closely, as Oregon went 1-1 over the last two days, beating Oklahoma but falling to South Carolina...and Baylor took a loss against Maryland. Hopefully, the pollsters will just look at Louisville's eight point win over Washington and not explore that the Cards had a 16 point lead shrink to three in the fourth quarter on Saturday. The Cards could move up in both polls because of the losses by teams ranked higher than them.
Despite a loss to South Carolina, NC State is still #5 in both polls. That raises an eyebrow. And Arizona, ho handed Louisville their lone loss so far, made the NCAA Committee Top 10 at #7, but is unranked in the AP Top 10. Another bit of a surprise is Texas A&M checking in at #3 in the NCAA Committee Poll but not making the AP Top 10. The Aggies are 4-0...
Iowa makes the AP Poll at #8, but is not in the NCAA Poll. The biggest discrepancy is South Carolina at #1 in the AP and #4 in the NCAA Committee Poll.
Looking at it by conference breakdown...in the AP, three Big 10 schools are ranked, the ACC and PAC 12 have two schools each and the Big East, SEC and Big 12 one school each
In the NCAA Committee Poll, the PAC 12 has three schools, ACC and SEC two schools, Big East, Big 10 and Big 12 one member each.
THE PAULIE POLL
My poll is a combination of what I, Sonja, the nice lady at the Gas N Go, my pizza delivery guy, two squirrels scurrying about my back yard and a disinterested phone solicitor who called me this morning when I was doing the article. Hoo, boy !!!
I give you my Paulie Poll Rankings:
1) South Carolina (5-0)
2) U Conn (3-0)
3) Maryland (6-0)
4) Indiana (4-0)
5) NC State (4-1)
6) Iowa (4-0)
7) Arizona (4-0)
8) LOUISVILLE (3-1)
9) Stanford (3-1)
10) Baylor 3-1
Let's point out a couple of things. Iowa is on COVID pause. South Carolina and UConn meet today in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas The AP delayed their weekly poll a day to consider the outcome of this one. It'll be on ESPN at noon.
Louisville returns to the court Tuesday against Cal Poly. Jared will get you ready for that one in Tuesday's Cardinal Couple.
paulie
