LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — This is how many teams from west of the Mississippi River have won college basketball’s national championship in the 11 seasons:
Zero.
Just seven west of the Mississippi programs have made the Final Four in the last decade. The game has been ruled by Duke, Villanova, Kentucky, North Carolina, the usual Eastern time zone suspects.
Check the latest AP college basketball Top 25. The Eastern time zone has been forgotten.
The top four teams, Baylor, Gonzaga, Kansas and San Diego State, do not compete in the ACC, Big East or Big Ten. Only programs west of the Mississippi need apply.
That’s merely the latest, greatest indicator of what a puzzling season this has been in college hoops. Every time I look at the poll that dropped Monday afternoon, I find another reason to howl.
Here are 10 Reasons to roll your eyes with me.
1. Liberty got 21 more votes than North Carolina’s zero. The Westminster Dog Show will get higher rating than the Carolina-Duke game, no matter what gimmick ESPN finds to promote it.
The Tar Heels (8-9) are ranked 91st by Ken Pomeroy. They’re on the fast track toward a 13-18 season. They need to beat Virginia Tech on Wednesday to climb out of last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
2. Duquesne earned as many poll votes as Virginia: 13.
The Cavaliers won six NCAA Tournament games (and the championship trophy) last spring. Duquesne has won four NCAA Tournament games in the history of the program — none since 1969.
3. East Tennessee State (six) earned more votes than Tennessee (zero).
The Volunteers are coached by Rick Barnes, the guy who uncovered Kevin Durant at Texas and had an offer to coach UCLA for $5 million per season last spring.
The Buccaneers are coached by Steve Forbes, who talked Will Wade into paying ETSU $100,000 to play in Baton Rouge — and walked away with the money and a 74-63 victory.
4. Ten teams that were unranked in the preseason poll are currently ranked, including two (San Diego State and Florida State) in the top five.
5. There are more ranked teams from the state of New Jersey (Seton Hall and Rutgers) than there are from North Carolina (Duke), Indiana (Butler) or Ohio (Dayton). Take a bow, Tony Soprano.
6. There are more teams ranked from Texas (Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston) than any state on the map. None of the three did it with the help of the Longhorn Network.
7. Fifteen seconds ago both Michigan and Ohio State were unbeaten and flashing Top Five credentials. Now they’re back to fussing about whether Jim Harbaugh will ever beat the Buckeyes in football.
Michigan has plunged from 7-0 and ranked fourth in Week Five to 11-6 and somehow still ranked 28th.
A week after that, the Buckeyes were 9-0 and ranked third nationally, behind Louisville and Kansas. The Buckeyes have lost six of their last nine. Jesse Newell, of the Kansas City Star, needs to explain why he voted Ohio State No. 14 this week.
He’s also the only guy in the country who voted Kansas No. 1, and I believe the team Newell covers is … Kansas.
Gary Parrish attacks one poll voter every week at CBSSports.com. I like Newell’s chances of earning more national publicity.
For some reason, readers at PollTracker.com, which tracks the ballots of every AP poll voter, have rewarded Newell with more down votes than anybody in the country.
8. How demanding has the Big Ten been?
Eleven of the league’s 14 teams earned at least six votes Monday.
Not that anybody is projecting a Big Ten team to win the national title. They’re not. The Big Ten’s top team, Michigan State, is ranked outside the Top 10. The Spartans have tumbled from preseason No. 1 to No. 11 and got whacked by 29 points by eight-loss Purdue.
CBS analyst Clark Kellogg analyzed the Big Ten with the perfect description. There many four-star teams but no five-star teams in the scrum.
9. There’s another Power Five conference also missing from the Top 10: Ed Orgeron’s league.
Kentucky fans aren’t happy with the four losses that John Calipari’s team has suffered, but at No. 15 the Wildcats are still the top ranked team from the Southeastern Conference.
Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology at ESPN.com has the SEC a five-bid league. We’ll see.
10. What do the pollsters think about Louisville and Kentucky?
Both were named on all 65 ballots. Louisville was voted as high as No. 3 by Stephen Means, of cleveland.com, and as low as No. 10 by Kevin McNamara, of the Providence (R.I.) Journal.
Kentucky’s fan club is led by Seth Davis, of CBS Sports and the Athletic. He voted the Wildcats No. 6 — ahead of Florida State, Louisville, Villanova and Duke.
Two voters do not believe that the Wildcats belong in the Top 20. That would be Luke DeCock, of the Raleigh (N.C) News & Observer, as well as Scott Wolf, of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Carry on.
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