I Dislike Your Favorite Team

Up until now, we've had only the Rivals rankings, which were fun, but what we were hoping for was a second source to compare and contrast the Rivals rankings with. And now, today, we have the USA Today/ESPN/Coaches Poll. And a coaches poll is a powerful thing. For now on, we will pit these two lists against each other. But first, let's see if there is any big difference in the previously covered 1-5 and 6-10 teams.


Rivals #1: UNC. Coaches' Poll #1: UNC.
Rivals #2: Memphis. Coaches' Poll #2: UCLA. Oh my God! A huge swing here!
Rivals #3: UCLA. Coaches' Poll #3: Memphis. OK, not so much.
Rivals #4: Kansas. Coaches' Poll #4: Kansas. Like we said, agreement at the top.
Rivals #5: Louisville. Coaches' Poll #5: Georgetown

This is actually a pretty big departure. Rivals has Georgetown as a #10. Of course, this all preseason, and it doesn't matter for shit. But I thought Rivals had overvalued Louisville (so do the Coaches) and had undervalued Georgetown. Jeff Green was a hell of a basketball player, no doubt, but the Hoyas are returning the best Center left in the college game (No Fazekas, No Oden, No Aaron Gray). The Coaches are probably giving Georgetown's system more credit than Rivals is, and also, they know that DaJuan Summers is going to be Badass. It should be noted that our friend, Anonymous Commentor, sung the praises of Memphis freshman recruit Derrick Rose. So Did Rivals. Here's hoping Memphis plays a real schedule this year.

Rivals #6: Tennessee. Coaches' Poll #6: Louisville. (I think Tenn wins the SEC easy)
Rivals #7: Indiana. Coaches' Poll #7: Tennesseein' is Tennebelievin'
Rivals #8: Michigan St. Coaches Poll #8: Michigan State
Rivals #9: USC Coaches Poll #9: Indiana
Rivals 10: Georgetown Coaches Poll 10: Washington State

Out of 10 teams, the two polls have the same nine teams. The only difference are PAC-10 Rivals USC and Washington State. In both polls, the other team is ranked significantly lower. The coaches have USC way down at 18, and Rivals has Washington State barely clinging to the top 15. The difference seems to be the willingness to believe in OJ Mayo. I'm going to side with the Coaches on this one for now. OJ Mayo may be a fantastic talent, but he seems to have inherited a similar psyche as another famous OJ. Also, Washington State is returning a lot of starters from a very good team last year.