corndogshuffle's Week 3 Ballot

RankTeamReason
1 Texas +12. Texas earned the most impressive win of the season (so far) by blasting Gonzaga.
2 Virginia +14. Virginia has the best pair of wins the country, against Baylor and Illinois.
3Kansas +1. Kansas had a really nice win against Duke despite missing Bill Self.
4 Houston +1. Houston continues to look really good (they lead Oregon 27-17 as I write this, I need to go to sleep so hopefully the Cougars don't make me look dumb tomorrow)
5 North Carolina -2. After a shaky first few games, UNC looked like a top five team against JMU.
6Gonzaga -5. After getting absolutely blitzed by Texas, Gonzaga took out their anger on Kentucky.
7 Michigan State +16. Sparty beat Kentucky on Tuesday, took out Villanova, and is one basket against Gonzaga away from being ranked 3rd at the worst.
8 Baylor -2. The Bears, like Illinois, beat UCLA and lost to Virginia. I let their KenPom numbers break the tie.
9Illinois +16. The Illini, like Baylor, beat UCLA and lost to Virginia this week. I let their KenPom numbers break the tie.
10Indiana -3. Indiana picked up a solid road win at Xavier.
11 Duke -3. Duke lost their first big contest with Coach Scheyer.
12 Auburn -1. Auburn begins a string of teams that have neither hurt nor helped my impression of them so far this season.
13Creighton -1. Same reasoning as Auburn.
14 Arizona +0. Same reasoning as Creighton.
15Arkansas +0. Same reasoning as Arizona.
16 San Diego State +2. Won at Stanford, now has two top 60 wins in KenPom.
17 Tennessee +2. Sorry about Hendon Hooker, Vols fans.
18 Kentucky -16. Should have beaten Michigan State, should have tried in the 1st half against Gonzaga. A solid effort in the second half against Gonzaga keeps the Cats in my top 20.
19 UCLA -10. Played very competitive games against two teams I have ranked in the top 10.
20Maryland UR. Maryland is 22 in KenPom, they slaughtered Saint Louis and then took out Miami, both teams that I was about to rank.
21 Alabama +0. Still waiting for Alabama to really get into the meat of their schedule.
22 Iowa UR. Iowa beat Seton Hall by sixteen this week.
23 UConn -1. Another team that I just don't know much about yet.
24 Texas Tech +0. See UConn.
25 Saint Mary's NR. Good efficiency numbers, no losses, the Gaels look solid so far.

Overall Rationale

I wasn't sure about jumping Illinois so far up, but it was either that or leave them behind the 12-15 gaggle of teams and I couldn't justify putting them so low. Texas and Virginia got rewarded for looking incredible against challenging schedules. I viewed Kentucky and UCLA as a bit of a pair, so I put them as low as I felt like I could really justify both teams being. Next five: Purdue, Utah State, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Toledo.