2009 Week 2 Men's Basketball Poll Keeps Kansas at #1

The week 2 NCAA college basketball rankings still have Kansas at #1. The week 2 basketball rankings weren't as kind to the North Carolina Tar Heels though, dropping them all the way down to #12 overall after a loss to Syracuse. Due to it being very early in the men's college basketball season, there are going to be a lot of undefeated teams and voters that are much less likely to take risks when it comes to picking who the best teams in the NCAA are right now. Instead most of the votes will go to the safe choices, with very few surprises taking place in the NCAA Division I polls until something dramatic causes the voters to change their minds.

Kansas is still the #1 team in the land, receiving 28 of the 31 first place votes to lead the way. Michigan State sits at #2 in the rankings, despite a more impressive win over Gonzaga than any game Kansas has played, but again that is going to be because the voters aren't willing to take risks yet. Michigan State received two first place votes, and Duke received the only other first place vote that Kansas wasn't allotted. Duke however, is way down at #7 in the week 2 poll, with a tough game against Arizona State coming up later in the week. None of the teams have really proven themselves just yet, but many will have their chances in the out-of-conference tournaments taking place around the country right now.

The rest of the top five in the latest rankings include Texas at #3, Villanova at #4, and Kentucky at #5. It is expected that Kentucky could go up in the rankings as the young team gets more games under their belts. Rounding out the top 10 is Purdue, Duke, West Virginia, Syracuse, and Butler. Syracuse made the huge jump from being ranked #24 to sitting at #9 this week, fueled mostly because of their win over North Carolina on November 20th. That team looks pretty good, having also defeated California, a team that many consider one of the better teams in the Pac-Ten Conference.

There are only two new teams to the Top 25 this week, with Maryland taking the #22 spot and Vanderbilt taking the #24 spot. This is what we mean when we state that the voters aren't willing to take any risks yet, and that means that a number of teams will be sitting on the outside looking in until Sports Center or someone else forces people to take notice. The two teams that dropped out of the Top 25 to make room for those newcomers were Oklahoma and Dayton, both of which had rough weeks but could be heard from again very soon.

The week 2 NCAA Men's Top 25

1. Kansas
2. Michigan State
3. Texas
4. Villlanova
5. Kentucky
6. Purdue
7. Duke
8. West Virginia
9. Syracuse
10. Butler
11. Tennessee
12. North Carolina
13. Connecticut
14. Washington
15. Michigan
16. Louisville
17. Minnesota
18. Ohio State
19. Clemson
20. Georgetown
21. Illinois
22. Maryland
23. California
24. Vanderbilt
25. Georgia Tech

Source:

Week 2 Men's Top 25