First Poll of the Year

[midwestfan]

USA Today/CSTV Top 15 Division I-II Men's Coaches Poll

POLL #1: Jan. 11, 2005 -

Schedule/Results for Jan. 10-16 (as reported by each institution)

Rank School (First-Place Votes) Total Points 2005 Record* 2004 Rank

1 Brigham Young (11) 233 3-0 1
2 UCLA (5) 229 3-0 3
3 Peppredine 187 0-0 4
4 Cal State Northridge 186 2-1 6
5 Long Beach State 184 2-1 2
6 Hawai'i 170 2-1 5
7 Penn State 140 1-2 7
8 Stanford 132 1-2 15
9 Pacific 115 3-1 14
10 Ohio State 71 1-0 11
11 UC Irvine 59 1-3 8
12 Southern California 56 1-2 NR
13 UC Santa Barbara 43 0-3 10
14 Lewis 41 0-3 9
15 Ball State 35 1-0 12

Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Loyola-Chicago 15, Rutgers-Newark 10, IPFW 8, UC San Diego 5

[midwestfan]

What do you guys think of this? Who should be higher and who's too high? Or, is it about right for the first poll of the season?

[puwave]

As to my humble opinion...

I'm always think it's hard to rank schools such as Penn St and Ohio St since they play such a small number of matches against top caliber opponents...

As for USC's ranking... I guess we'll have to see how their young talent pans out...


OFF TOPIC -- I'm stoked to see my fellow high school AND college classmate Jordan Winder holding strong at setter so far at Pepp !

[BBallking]

Too high:
USC
Ball State
Lewis
UCSB 0-3 with a loss to SC???

Too low:
UCLA (Yeah cougar fans TOO LOW at #2)
Pacific (tigfan weigh-in)
UCSD
Rutgers

[donkeykong]

BBall,
How many cougar fans were on hear proclaiming their team should be number one. NONE. I said in the end it will come down to Bruins and the Cougars in my opinion.

BYU is at top because they won last year and are returning some key guys. They lost some key guys also.
UCLA is going to be really good. I think BYU will also be good with some time.

Put UCLA at top. Who really cares at this point? Sort of sad that you actually do. The polls right now mean nothing more than someone having to actually do something at work.

[lalalaluuuke]

BBallking said:

Too low:
UCLA (Yeah cougar fans TOO LOW at #2)
Pacific (tigfan weigh-in)
UCSD
Rutgers

How about UCLA Bruins stay where they are until after January 28 & 29 when they play BYU. Then we'll get a better idea of whether they are TOO LOW. They are already #1 in the volleyballmag poll (last year it had LBSU over BYU even after BYU beat them twice on the road and had a 20+ game win streak--the voters have a strong SoCal bias). UCLA is a great team, I'm not saying that they're not, it's just difficult to determine a who is better until they play.

[tigfan]

BBallking said:

Too low:
UCLA (Yeah cougar fans TOO LOW at #2)
Pacific (tigfan weigh-in)
UCSD
Rutgers

Pacific is right where they belong @ #9 FOR NOW... they took 5th in the Elephant Bar, and had a pretty good pre-season beating UCSB and IRVINE (Which took 8th and 6th at the EB tourney respectfully)

The tigers will look to move up in the upcoming week/s... but they need to beat some good teams to do that.

[Spikerbiker]

Bball,
Lewis is the real deal!
Too low- you said Rutgers, Yeah right wait till they open against the Great Red Wall we call the Buckeyes.

You forgot that Ohio State is WAY too low.

[My2Sense]

RedYukon said:

How about UCLA Bruins stay where they are until after January 28 & 29 when they play BYU. Then we'll get a better idea of whether they are TOO LOW. They are already #1 in the volleyballmag poll (last year it had LBSU over BYU even after BYU beat them twice on the road and had a 20+ game win streak--the voters have a strong SoCal bias). UCLA is a great team, I'm not saying that they're not, it's just difficult to determine a who is better until they play.

I completely agree with this. I'd almost be happy with not having polls until everyone goes around once. But it does serve a purpose in marketing hype to fans and generating interest when two top teams meet.

[vb123]

1.UCLA
2.LBSU
3.BYU
4.Pepperdine
5.Hawaii
6.CSUN/PSU

[Odin]

Not sure how this got locked, but it should be open again. Sorry!

[beachman]

RedYukon said:

How about UCLA Bruins stay where they are until after January 28 & 29 when they play BYU. Then we'll get a better idea of whether they are TOO LOW. They are already #1 in the volleyballmag poll (last year it had LBSU over BYU even after BYU beat them twice on the road and had a 20+ game win streak--the voters have a strong SoCal bias). UCLA is a great team, I'm not saying that they're not, it's just difficult to determine a who is better until they play.

Not a West Coast bias, just a feeling that 26-28 year old seniors are a bit much!

[Mac]

Beachman said:

Not a West Coast bias, just a feeling that 26-28 year old seniors are a bit much!

I'm not a BYU fan, but your comment got me currious, so I've checked out their site, and I don't see any seniors nor juniors older than 24. But there are two foreign juniors who, for some currious reason, don't have their dates of birth in their bios.

www.byucougars.com/Roster.jsp?SP=201

Michael Burke, Sr. : Born July 1980
Rob Congelliere, Sr. : Born June 1980
Casey Patterson, Sr. : Born April 1980

Victor Batista, Jr. : Born in Tamayo, Dominican Republic, DoB ?
Taylor Evans, Jr. : Born June 1981
Danillo Lampariello, Jr : Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil DoB ?
Rob Neilson, Jr : Born October 1980
Brian Rowley, Jr : Born April 1981

[PukaPants]

BYU will drop in the next poll for sure.

But Mac, I noticed that too...maybe the don't keep records in other countries...hahahaa......OR maybe they both over 40.....who knows?

Very peculiar people indeed.......

[Mac]

I don't know if I can get through the season without having a Hillman to complain about.