SDFDuck's Week 15 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | Cougars ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (There's an epidemic happening in college basketball. No, not the death of the mid-range shot or black uniforms for teams that don't normally wear black.) |
| 2 | Alabama | *checks* Yep, still a basketball school. (I'm talking about coaches who engage in non-conference scheduling cowardice at the Power Six level.) |
| 3 | Kansas | Everyone ahead of them lost. (Coaches at P6 schools have started what I like to call "polar" scheduling, where they only put games against hapless low-majors...) |
| 4 | Purdue | Court Storm Magnets (... or other P6 schools on their schedules. Ostensibly they will say things like "our conference schedule is so punishing that we need time to gel as a team."...) |
| 5 | Texas | B12 fisticuffs (... or "we need to boost revenue by scheduling home games" - which is a load of codswallop at a school like Texas, where Chris Beard scheduled extra soft last season in non-conference) |
| 6 | UCLA | Why is nobody talking about this team?! (The reality is that those coaches are cowards. They don't want to have to play good competition outside of conference play, so they simply choose not to.) |
| 7 | Arizona | Azalea* (Take Rutgers, for instance. "Plucky underdog" Rutgers has a NCSoS of 342 this season, after having a NCSoS of 354 last season, and 294 the season before that.) |
| 8 | Virginia | (It was 309 in 2019-20, and 303 in 2018-19. Steve Pikiell is nothing if not consistent in his cowardly non-conference scheduling.) |
| 9 | Baylor | B12 fisticuffs (What this sort of scheduling does is lock non-P6 schools out of opportunities for quality wins outside of conference. It's downright infuriating.) |
| 10 | Kansas State | B12 fisticuffs (Schools in conferences like the A10 and MWC have to hope for invitations to non-conference MTEs, then they have one or two shots at best for those marquee victories.) |
| 11 | Marquette | (Coaches at non-P6 schools rail against the "scared" P6 schools that refuse to play them, then schedule that way once they themselves get one of those cushy P6 jobs. Because they are cowards.) |
| 12 | Tennessee | Oh it sucks losing on buzzer beaters, huh?! Yes I'm still salty about the 2019 Diamond Head Classic. (Sometimes they'll schedule H/Hs then back out when the non-P6 opponent lands a big recruit.) |
| 13 | Gonzaga | Their win over UK might be Q3 by season's end. (Or they'll make up excuses as to why they can't schedule on a certain date or figure out a return trip to a non-P6 school.) |
| 14 | Florida Atlantic | HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT (The list of P6 schools that have turned VCU down for H/Hs is staggering. Even one-way trips to their gyms are impossible.) |
| 15 | Iowa State | B12 fisticuffs (This scheduling cowardice can come back to bite coaches in the backside on Selection Sunday. But instead of scheduling tougher...) |
| 16 | Miami (FL) | Wooga Poplar. (... they whine and gripe and moan and bellyache about "the NCAA hates us!" Yes, Buzz Williams, I'm looking at you. That was embarrassing for everyone involved.) |
| 17 | Pitt | Frederiko Frederiko. (I lose respect for coaches who repeatedly schedule like that. I lose even more respect for the folks who defend that type of scheduling.) |
| 18 | San Diego State | The media talking heads refuse to acknowledge that this team even exists. (For the P6, scheduling tough is a feather in the cap.) |
| 19 | NC State | (For the 280 schools in the country outside the P6, it's the difference between an at-large bid and a trip to the NIT.) |
| 20 | Saint Mary's | Still not convinced. Good win over Gonzaga, but what else have they done? (And I have no sympathy for P6 schools who get left out of the dance for scheduling soft.) |
| 21 | Creighton | Oh hey there. (So if you see weird exclusions in my rankings that can't be explained by recent results, that's probably what it is.) |
| 22 | Xavier | (If your coach schedules like this, then demand stronger non-conference scheduling. Stop settling for inflated records built on sawdust and marshmallows.) |
| 23 | UConn | "Big East Brawl"? "Big East Brouhaha?" Let me know if you have any suggestions. (It's time we started expecting more competitive non-conference schedules at the highest levels.) |
| 24 | Indiana | I look at this team on paper and think they should be much, much better than they have performed recently. Their metrics line up with their ranking here. I dunno, I just can't put them higher. |
| 25 | Fordham | First 20-win season since 1991. It has been a pleasant surprise to watch what Keith Urgo has been able to do this season (see below) |
Overall Rationale
Fordham has been the A10's designated "punching bag" seemingly since they joined the conference 25 years ago. Fans of other A10 schools (yes, even ones like La Salle and Duquesne) joke about sending them back to the Patriot League. Over the years a loss to Fordham was an occasion for lament and calling for one's coach to be fired. But now that seems to be turning around - is what I said LAST season when they finished 16-16 under Kyle Neptune. That season prompted people around the conference to call for him to receive A10 Coach of the Year. And then Neptune tore out the hearts of Ram fans everywhere by jumping ship to Villanova. Keith Urgo was a very unheralded hire in a season when UMass landed Frank Martin and URI got Archie Miller, yet Urgo has had the best season out of all the new A10 coaches by far. Rose Hill is starting to come alive for the first time in two decades. One of the better stories in college basketball this season. || For some reason the "lenny face" doesn't show up properly on Mac. Very strange. || Free Louisville. Fire Kenny Payne.