AP College Basketball Poll 2014: Complete Week 20 Rankings Released
With the regular season in college basketball officially coming to an end to make way for the NCAA tournament, the Week 20 Associated Press Top 25 Poll has been released.
Here is a look at the entire Top 25:
| 1 | Florida (50) | 32-2 | 1,610 | 1 |
| 2 | Wichita State (15) | 34-0 | 1,571 | 2 |
| 3 | Virginia | 28-6 | 1,430 | 6 |
| 4 | Arizona | 30-4 | 1,422 | 4 |
| 5 | Louisville | 29-5 | 1,412 | 5 |
| 6 | Villanova | 28-4 | 1,231 | 3 |
| 7 | Michigan | 25-8 | 1,162 | 8 |
| 8 | Duke | 26-8 | 1,121 | 7 |
| 9 | Iowa State | 26-7 | 1,055 | 16 |
| 10 | Kansas | 24-9 | 1,045 | 10 |
| 11 | Michigan State | 26-8 | 950 | 22 |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 26-7 | 892 | 12 |
| 13 | San Diego State | 29-4 | 890 | 8 |
| 14 | Syracuse | 27-5 | 757 | 11 |
| 15 | Cincinnati | 27-6 | 720 | 13 |
| 16 | Creighton | 26-7 | 658 | 14 |
| 17 | New Mexico | 27-6 | 623 | 20 |
| 18 | Connecticut | 26-8 | 503 | 21 |
| 19 | North Carolina | 23-9 | 424 | 15 |
| 20 | UCLA | 26-8 | 413 | NR |
| 21 | Oklahoma | 23-9 | 265 | 17 |
| 22 | Ohio State | 25-9 | 167 | 24 |
| 23 | Baylor | 24-11 | 148 | NR |
| 24 | VCU | 26-8 | 140 | 23 |
| 25 | Saint Louis | 26-6 | 131 | 18 |
The poll at this point basically reflects where voters rank many of the decisions by the NCAA tournament committee. All four of the No. 1 seeds in the bracket are inside the Top Four of the AP poll, with Florida and Wichita State remaining in the top two spots.
Virginia, the surprise No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday, has moved all the way up to No. 3 in the poll ahead of No. 4 Arizona after winning the ACC tournament. The Cavaliers won both the regular-season and tournament championship, replicating what the Miami Hurricanes did during 2013.
Miami made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to Marquette and Virginia will be looking to make a deeper run than the Hurricanes given its lofty seeding.
Another surprise on Sunday was the fact that Louisville missed out on a No. 2 seed and fell all the way to a No. 4 seed in the same bracket with Wichita State, Duke and Michigan. The Cardinals were voted as the No. 5 team in the country by AP voters, clearly a reflection of their thoughts on the snub.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino spoke about his take on where the Cardinals should be ranked before Selection Sunday, per Jeff Greer of the Courier-Journal:
"I judge it from the eye test. Understand something: Every analyst has an agenda, every coach has an agenda…. That being said, if you ask me who is the best college basketball player in America, I would say Russ Smith.
If you ask me who is the best power forward, I would say Montrezl Harrell … I’m impressed with our guys and what they have done to win a regular-season and conference tournament [title]. The way we have done it, in the fashion we have done it, fits the eye test.
"
The Cardinals clearly have a chip on their shoulder going into the tournament as the defending champions, making them a tough out for any team come tournament time.
Eric Prisbell and Dan Wolken of USA Today let their thoughts be known about Louisville and the Midwest Region as a whole:
The Midwest Region actually has four teams inside the Top 10 in the poll, with Michigan coming in at No. 7 and Duke ranking as the eighth-best team in the country. Ironically enough, both teams were ranked as a higher seed in the tournament than Louisville, who was ahead of them in the poll.
With the NCAA tournament set to begin, it should be interesting to see if the committee or basketball voters were correct about the rankings in the bracket.
