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It has been a few weeks since I last wrote about our ballot for the Sport Tours International/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll following a busy holiday season. This is quite a week to make a return. In the course of four days this week, the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 teams in our rankings all lost.
Only five teams stayed in the same spot from last week to this week. Nine teams moved two or more spots. One new team joined the rankings for the first time all season, and another jumped seven spots in the ballot thanks to their big win paired with timely losses by other teams.
Below is the ballot that we submitted to the Sport Tours International/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll, which included games played from Tuesday, January 7 through Monday, January 13. Movement up or down from last week’s ballot is denoted in parentheses.
1. South Carolina (↑2)
2. Baylor (↑7)
3. Stanford (↑1)
4. Oregon State (↓3)
5. UConn (↓3)
6. Louisville
7. UCLA (↑4)
8. Oregon (↓3)
9. N.C. State (↓1)
10. Florida State (↓3)
11. Texas A&M (↓1)
12. Indiana (↑1)
13. Arizona (↓1)
14. Gonzaga
15. Missouri State (↑1)
16. Maryland (↓1)
17. DePaul
18. West Virginia (↑1)
19. Kentucky (↓1)
20. Northwestern (↑2)
21. Mississippi State (↓1)
22. South Dakota (↓1)
23. Iowa (↑3)
24. Princeton
25. Rutgers
Iowa, which is one of three teams to jump three or more spots in the ranking, is one of the fastest rising teams in college basketball after some key wins in a wide-open Big Ten. The Hawkeyes, led by guard Kathleen Doyle, have won five of their six games against teams currently ranked in the top 40 of the Her Hoop Stats Rating. That includes three such wins in their last three games. Those wins over Northwestern, Maryland, and Indiana have skyrocketed them into the rankings, jumping Princeton and Rutgers.
Baylor was the biggest mover this week, jumping seven spots up to No. 2 after a win over UConn and losses by Oregon State and Oregon against unranked teams. The only thing that stopped the Lady Bears from moving into the No. 1 spot is that South Carolina owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with their 15-point win in late November. The other big mover this week was UCLA, who survived as the last remaining undefeated team. The Bruins jumped from No. 11 to No. 7, including passing Oregon and NC State who both lost for the first time last week.
Two notable omissions in our ballot are Arkansas and Arizona State. Arkansas has been off of our ballot the entire season, while they have been in the AP Top 25 in each of the 11 rankings. They are a great team with very talented players, but their resume is lacking a win worthy of passing teams like Princeton or Rutgers.
Arizona State is much trickier to gauge. On one hand, they have two incredibly strong wins in the past week—Oregon and Oregon State. On the other hand, outside of those two games, they are just 1-3 against teams in the top 50 of the Her Hoop Stats Rating. Comparing that to a team like Rutgers who has only two losses but no marquee wins, I was put into a tricky situation. In the end, I opted to give the slightest edge to Rutgers for losing fewer games. The Scarlet Knights are on thin ice, however, because Arizona State will have plenty of opportunities to prove me wrong in a very strong Pac-12.
How do you think we did with our ballot? Who did we miss? Who’s too high? Too low? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@herhoopstats), and keep an eye out for our rankings on the Hoopfeed website throughout the season.
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