corndogshuffle's Week 5 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | Michigan’s wins (four in the top 42) were already good enough to be in my top three. To win by 110 points in 3 days? How could I not put that #1? |
| 2 | Purdue | In a near tie with Arizona, a slight edge in KenPom is what made the difference here. |
| 3 | Arizona | Finishes out what I consider to be a clear top three. I didn't consider any team to be close to Michigan, Purdue, or Arizona this week. |
| 4 | Duke | A pair of wins over Kansas and Arkansas plus elite computer numbers put the Blue Devils at #4. |
| 5 | UConn | My top team with a loss, BYU/Illinois is a really solid pair of wins and their only loss was to one of the teams I considered for #1. |
| 6 | Michigan State | Has three top wins, no blemishes, strong computer numbers, and they just look really good on top of all that. |
| 7 | Louisville | The only thing holding Louisville back is their best win being against Kentucky at home. Louisville looks like a team that can climb in my ballot. |
| 8 | Iowa State | Flawless so far, elite computer numbers, they just need to get to the meat of their schedule. |
| 9 | BYU | A pair of top 40 neutral court wins against Villanova/Miami is a nice start. |
| 10 | Alabama | Has two top 20 wins away from home against St. John's and Illinois. |
| 11 | Tennessee | Beat Houston on a neutral court and lost to Kansas. |
| 12 | North Carolina | Beat Kansas at home and lost to Michigan State on a neutral court. |
| 13 | Houston | The reason Houston is at the back end of this group of teams (roughly starting at BYU) is they have the weakest win, according to Torvik. |
| 14 | Vanderbilt | Has a dominant neutral court win against Saint Mary's (24 in Torvik), no losses, and elite computer numbers. |
| 15 | Gonzaga | That win against Alabama looked great but I just can't get over the fact that they got 40-pieced by Michigan. They'd probably be around #8 if they had looked competent in that game. |
| 16 | Indiana | No blemishes so far but they haven'y played anyone better than 66 in Torvik. This is probably IU's ceiling until they get really tested by someone. |
| 17 | Illinois | No big wins yet but so far it takes a top ten team to beat the Illini. |
| 18 | Kansas | Pulled out a nice win over UNC to gain credibility back. |
| 19 | Iowa | Same as Indiana. |
| 20 | Arkansas | Same as Illinois. |
| 21 | Auburn | Buoyed by a top twenty win against St. John's on a neutral court. |
| 22 | Oklahoma State | No losses and a pair of top 50 wins against Texas A&M and Northwestern. |
| 23 | Kentucky | I'm honestly shocked I ended up ranking Kentucky, but strong computer numbers and both losses being away from Rupp against top ten teams kept the Cats on my list. |
| 24 | Florida | The win against 26 Miami was solid and Arizona doesn't hurt them much, but their loss to TCU (while not a disaster) is the worst loss of any team I have on my ballot this week. |
| 25 | Santa Clara | Beat 38 McNeese and lost to 33 Saint Louis by a point. A lot of teams, five of which I have ranked, don't have a win as good as 38. And a one point loss to the 33rd team in Torvik is no anchor. |
Overall Rationale
This is not a continuation of my last ballot - this is a brand new ranking. Nobody jumped anyone or lost spots, I started fresh. I’m mostly valuing top 50 wins, losses, and eye test for teams that I’ve seen. I consider computer rankings but those are mostly just a tie breaker. I use Torvik to decide things like “what’s a top 50 win”.