How do the Duke Women lose a First Place vote?

[HellYeahHokie]

They finish the season undefeated 29-0, after knocking off UNC a second time. Five of their wins were against Top 5 teams, and 10 of their wins were against Top 25 teams. So some writer decides that Tennessee is better? The same Tennessee team that lost to both North Carolina and Duke? How does this writer justify this? I presume the writer is from Knoxville, but even if you are a local writer, you are still supposed to have some sort of journalistic integrity. If I were the AP, I would seriously consider removing this writer from the pool of voters. It's absolutely absurd.

Utimately it's irrelevant, because we're talking basketball that has a tournament, but the AP should want to maintain some level of credibility.

[footballfiji]

Maybe they felt the level of competition was better in the SEC and that UT's conference record meant a bit more. UT is hot right now and is always a tear in the tournamnet.

-writer's write and player's play

[Spice1]

3 of the AP top 5 are in the ACC. Besides, duke played Tenn and beat them.

[HellYeahHokie]

And not only did they Duke beat Tennessee, they beat them in Knoxville.

And what happened last week that would cause the voter to switch votes? Duke beat the #4 team in the country, and Tennessee beat the #12 team. Yes, they beat Vandy badly, but they always beat Vandy. This isn't even a rivalry game, like UNC-Duke.

It is just incomprehensible that anyone could vote UT over Duke in the country. This writer's credibility is worthless.

[Spice1]

And I am pretty sure that we are among the LAST 2 on this board to defend duke in any argument :eek:

[Hail to the Victors Valiant]

Stacey Dales-Schulman did not predict Duke to reach the Final 4 as recently as 2 weeks ago. If she has an AP vote, she might be the one who voted Tenn #1. If not, it might be another voter located within SEC country. Anyway, Duke needs to win the natl title to quiet any doubter and they along with Tenn have a good chance of doing that.

[H.I.]

what do you expect when these are the same people that tried to tell us ohio state and michigan were the two best football teams in america.

[Gilligan]

They finish the season undefeated 29-0, after knocking off UNC a second time. Five of their wins were against Top 5 teams, and 10 of their wins were against Top 25 teams. So some writer decides that Tennessee is better? The same Tennessee team that lost to both North Carolina and Duke? How does this writer justify this? I presume the writer is from Knoxville, but even if you are a local writer, you are still supposed to have some sort of journalistic integrity. If I were the AP, I would seriously consider removing this writer from the pool of voters. It's absolutely absurd.

Utimately it's irrelevant, because we're talking basketball that has a tournament, but the AP should want to maintain some level of credibility.

Tennessee does however have the best (And sexiest) player in college basketball in Candice Parker. Back on subject....I agree with you. Voting in all college sports appear to be corrupt. At least college basketball voting doesn't matter as much (if at all)

[Hail to the Victors Valiant]

I wouldn't say voting is corrupt. Teams are ranked around where they belong based on their yearlong and recent body of work, but once March Madness commences, the lose and go home scenario changes almost everything. College bball rankings are not about who is more likely to win it all, it's about rating a team's regular season performance.

However, I would say that voters have personal bias and that teams seems to get a surge (aka augmentation) just before they are scheduled to appear on national tv especially ESPN.

[HellYeahHokie]

I wouldn't say voting is corrupt. Teams are ranked around where they belong based on their yearlong and recent body of work...College bball rankings are not about who is more likely to win it all, it's about rating a team's regular season performance.

If this were the case, then there is even less of reason for Duke to lose a vote to Tennessee.

And I'm surprised that Stacey Dales-Schuman was not predicting Duke to the Final Four, because the history of the women's tournament has been pretty consistant. The Top 4 seeds almost always make the Final 4. It's nothing like the men's side. There are no Cinderella stories in women's basketball.

[Hail to the Victors Valiant]

Tenn is playing well now and much better than when Duke defeated Tenn in the early part of the season. One voter must think that the current Tenn is better than the current Duke despite Duke's yearlong body of work being better than any other teams. So, it's how one voter weighs current team performance against the yearlong success that could explain why Duke lost a vote. There could be more of the same even if Duke and Tenn win their respective conferences tourney titles.

[jeff4bucks]

The voting should be based on the teams 'body of work', not whether the voter (if it is this person in question) thinks that team will make the Final Four...

Re: OSU/Michigan. At the time they played, they were the two best teams. Who was better? Florida? Florida never played as good during the season as they did against OSU in the title game.