Sixty-one people voted in Monday’s Associated Press Top 25 poll — and exactly 57 of them listed either Arizona or Michigan at No. 1.
Question: Should Duke be offended?
To be clear, I also have Michigan and Arizona in my top two, and Duke slotted third. So, I’m not complaining or criticizing. But it is interesting that the Blue Devils have largely been omitted from the No. 1 conversation even though they’re A) Duke, B) 10-0 with wins over Michigan State, Florida, Kansas and Arkansas, C) led by the best player in the sport (Cameron Boozer), and D) No. 1 at MasseyRatings.com.
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Duke did get first-place votes in this week’s AP poll from Chris Lea, Percy Allen and Seth Davis — but that amounts to just 4.9% of all first-place votes. Again, I’m not complaining or criticizing. Duke is No. 3 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings; that’s the same place Jon Scheyer’s team is in the AP poll.
I just think that if we would’ve known on the opening day of the season that Duke would start 10-0 with four wins over preseason Top 25 teams, and be led by a freshman who is running away with the national player of the year race, most of us would’ve assumed the Blue Devils would be ranked No. 1 heading into Tuesday night’s game with Lipscomb. — but they’re not, which is probably just a testament to the similarly impressive and undefeated starts Michigan and Arizona have also provided.
Either way, there are now seven undefeated teams remaining in college basketball — Michigan, Arizona, Duke, Iowa State, Nebraska, Vanderbilt and … Miami-Ohio! But the Redhawks’ perfect record could be in jeopardy late Tuesday considering they’re 1.5-point underdogs at Wright State.
