Note: Voters were instructed to not include this afternoon's La Salle-Valparaiso and St. Joe's-Texas results when casting their ballots.As I look at the results of this week's poll, I can't help thinking that Villanova, Temple and St. Joe's are going to be the top three teams for a while to come.
There is once again a big gap between the third-ranked Hawks and the fourth-ranked team, which this week is Penn State. Rutgers took a hit for losing to St. Bonaventure, though I'm a bit surprised that the Scarlet Knights didn't fall farther. Then again, Drexel's blowout loss at Georgetown made for a sizeable gap between the sixth- and seventh-ranked teams in the poll.
The big movers up are La Salle, which jumps to fourth after a week of good (albeit losing) performances in non-conference games, and Rider, which beat Lehigh and Lafayette this past week
Here are the rankings, with first-place votes in parentheses:
1. Villanova, 15 points (14)- "Villanova is ranked eighth in the Pomeroy ratings. Then again, Iona is third." (Zach Klitzman,
The Daily Pennsylvanian)
2. Temple, 32 points (1)3. Saint Joseph's, 50 points- "Tough for me to put them this high after losing to Holy Cross, but I don't know if I buy La Salle or Rutgers." (Rob Falcone, DAC Pack President)
4. Penn State, 71 points- "If Penn beats Penn State Tuesday, then will PSU students start wearing shirts that say "Not U Penn" on them?" (Zach Klitzman)
5. La Salle, 84 points6. Rutgers, 85 points- "St, Bonaventure. At home. Really? Fred Hill, meet paper bag. Now coach your way out of it." (Dave C.)
- "Rutgers might be 3-1, but we won't know much about them until Dec. 28 when they play a Division-I team for the first time." (Jeff Shafer)
7. Drexel, 104 points8. Rider, 109 points- "Your 2008-09 Patriot League champions, the Rider Broncs." (Jon Solomon,
princetonbasketball.com)
9. Penn, 130 points- "Tyler Bernardini: probably not wise to fire up an opponent playing on their home court." (Rob Falcone)
10. Delaware, 141 points11. Lehigh, 154 points- "Lehigh and Lafayette are basically tossups in my book. But hey, the Mountain Hawks did just win the 144th version of The Rivalry, so I'll put them ahead of the Leopards." (Zach Klitzman)
12. Lafayette, 159 points13. Bucknell, 167 points14. Princeton, 187 points- "Princeton wins a road basketball game for the first time in 23 months!" (Jon Solomon)
15. Monmouth, 205 points16. Delaware State, 211 points
IS ON THE TRADE RUMOR TRAIL
