LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There was a time when my greatest fear was neither water nor driving on dark, icy roads.
It was Gary Parrish.
Not that Parrish was a particularly hostile or intimidating guy. Actually, he's quite pleasant, funny and insightful.
Until Parrish got behind a keyboard and took a look at the ballots in the Associated Press Top 25 basketball poll. Then he could take somebody down quicker than a left-jab from Muhammad Ali or full-body tackle from Dick Butkus.
Parrish called it his Poll Attacks column — and I once told him that on the day that generally weekly column posted at CBSSports.com, I held my breath in hopes that I was not the headliner for ranking a mid-major too high or a superpower too low.
I survived.
Not everybody did. At least one writer gave up her vote because of concerns about showing up in Parrish's Poll Attacks column. Parrish wrote that other writers expressed a similar fear to him.
Parrish said that his motivation was never to embarrass or be mean. His intent was simply to call attention to ballots that were difficult to understand and easy to question.
Several years ago, Parrish stopped writing the Poll Attacks piece.
Guess what has not stopped? Ballots that are difficult to understand and easy to question. They happen every week. As an AP voter, I check the landscape every Monday.
I'm not asking for a revival of the Poll Attacks column. I'm not volunteering to bring it back to life in Dr. Bo form.
But there are days when I look at ballots in the AP poll and wonder if voters have been watching games from this season or replays of games from last season or from 1976.
Every week there are questionable ballots in the men's AP college basketball poll.
Otherwise how can you explain ...
*A voter from Norman, Oklahoma, putting Indiana No. 19 on this week's ballot.
After watching the Hoosiers lose to Louisville by 28, to Gonzaga by 16 and to Nebraska by 17, Randy Heitz of 107.7 The Franchise in Norman voted Mike Woodson's team No. 19 this week, ahead of Purdue, one-loss Cincinnati, one-loss UCLA and two-loss Michigan State.
Maybe in football. Not basketball.
At this point, unless something radically changes in Bloomington, I'm not sure Indiana can finish 19th in the 18-team Big Ten.
*Oklahoma State is another program that was listed by one voter: Stephen Means of Cleveland.com.
Like IU, the Cowboys also carry three defeats: one to unranked Florida Atlantic, another to unranked Nevada and a third to No. 14 Oklahoma.
Eventually, I expect former Western Kentucky coach Steve Lutz to do big things in Stillwater. But the Cowboys are ranked No. 92 in the latest Ken Pomeroy numbers as well as No. 95 in the NCAA Net formula.
Looking at Means' ballot, my guess is that he accidentally slid the wrong Oklahoma team into the grid on the AP poll website ballot because he did not include the unbeaten Sooners. It happens.
But if it happens again ...
*CollegePollTracker.com is a one-stop shop where you can study the ballots from all the AP football and men's basketball polls.
Visitors have a chance to give a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down to every ballot. At the bottom of the primary CPT web page, you can find the three lowest rated ballots each week.
The winner (or would that be loser?) this week is Justin Jackson of the Morgantown (WV) Dominion Post with 63 down votes.
What fan base did Jackson likely perturb?
Kentucky fans figure to be high on the list. Jackson ranked the Wildcats at No. 7, the lowest ranking that Mark Pope's team earned from any voter. UK finished fourth in this week's poll.
Jackson had UK behind No. 2 Duke, a team Kentucky defeated on a neutral court. He also has them behind 2-loss Alabama and 2-loss Kansas. Maybe. Maybe not.
UCLA fans also have to wonder how their one-loss team is unranked and Oregon sits at No. 10 on Jackson's ballot, considering the Bruins beat the Ducks at Oregon on Dec. 8.
That's not a maybe or maybe not. That's head-to-head on the road.
Details, details.
*If you've followed the polls for years, you know that Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News is a weekly contender for the Most Extreme ballot.
Wilner leads in that category this week. He earned his way to the top. Wilner is the only voter in America with top-ranked Tennessee at No. 3. Wilner is the only voter in America to include 4-loss Creighton — and he's got the Bluejays at No. 14.
He also cast the highest votes for Purdue (10th) and North Carolina (20th) while also being in the group of eight voters who did not rank No. 15 Houston. Paging Kelvin Sampson.
Readers at CollegePollTracker liked the way Wilner thinks. He's the current leader in the Highest Rated Ballot category.
Which is better than being the subject of Poll Attacks.
College Basketball Coverage:
- BOZICH | My weekly AP men's college basketball Top 25 ballot
- BOZICH | The Butler (33 points) does it as Kentucky beats Louisville, 93-85
- Williams' season-high 30 points helps Nebraska pull away from Indiana late, 85-68
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