FanPost

ESPN/AP being ESPN/AP...Louisville shunned, I tell you!

Every weekend I watch sports center and say to myself "Well, surely Louisville moves up after this past week of mayhem." But then, at work...er...after work, I am surprised to see Louisville disrespected again. Last week was rough...Michigan and Miami? Seriously, we didn't put together the wins mixed with their LOSSES to pass them? Well, I have no doubt Louisville jumps Miami after a loss to Ga Tech, but Michigan will be another story. Apparently ESPN and the AP reward teams for winning a game at home during the weekend after a loss during the week. So, if Michigan beats IU, we'll have to see what happens. That'll be rant we all share in on the comment section of one of the new posts

My beef has to do with ESPN's current rankings (and the future AP rankings) of Kansas and GTown ahead of Louisville. CBS's Jeff Palmer has got it right. He has Louisville as a #1 seed in his latest prediction. But, yet again...ESPN being ESPN, and the AP being the AP, I can see into the future and will tell you what is going to happen. Louisville is shunned.

I realize predicting the Tourney seeding BEFORE the BE tournament is like doing a mock fantasy football draft week one of the preseason (with that said, every red blooded American should do a preseason draft and revile in the glory of their fake team of a fake game). There are so many variables unaccounted until selection Sunday mixed with this being arguably the closest the top 8 teams have ever been regarding seeding. Louisville wins the BE Tourney and we are a #1 seed, we lose to Nova in the first round...probably maintain our #2 seed...blah blah..etc etc..CANNOT WAIT FOR THE BE TOURNEY!

But, seeing as there is not too much to look forward to this morning regarding basketball, I wanted to complain about ESPN and the AP. Ultimately, the heart of this post is "Louisville is awesome, all other teams are inferior...go away NBA scouts and let us keep Gorgs!"

Lets begin with Kansas. For weeks we have all complained about Kansas. Yes, they have had some impressive wins, but how do they have a three game losing streak (against much worse competition, mind you) and remain in the top 4? Add on the fact the Big 12 does not stack up pound for pound with the Big East and one of those loses was to TCU! TCU!!!!!?? Really...seriously, TCU!? If we had lost to Depaul...ok...wait,what am I saying? That is cosmicly impossible...let me gather my thoughts... if Louisville had lost to a team with Depaul's record, not named Depaul, Louisville would have dropped out of the top #25. Not to mention Louisville is on a current seven game winning streak that ended with wins @cuse (projected 4 seed) , dismantled Cincy (projected 10 seed), and then just rightfully b*!@% slapped Notre Dame (a projected 5 seed). What does Kansas do? Gets blown out by 23 at Baylor. Rock Chalk Blow out!

Lets look at the numbers: Louisville: Pomeroy(3)---RPI(3)---BPI(1)---SoS(8)

Kansas: Pomeroy(9)---RPI(6)---BPI(6)---SoS(27)

In what world does Louisville NOT jump Kansas after this weeks results? I'll tell you, a world where ESPN and the AP lets the terrorist win!

On to GTown. I dont have as much heartburn about this because GTown is a special team. However, after the loss to Nova, Louisville should leapfrog them. I know Louisville lost to Nova and more importantly, Louisville lost to GTown (MIND YOU...UL lost by 2 AT GTown, Im not prepared to say they are a much better team than Louisville). Both teams have five loses, but take a look at GTown's losses. at home vs Pitt by 28? @USF (remember that team i discussed earlier that had Depaul's record but is NOT Depaul..yeah, GTown lost to them). So, because GTown went on an 11 game winning streak instead of only a seven game winning streak and because they beat Syracuse after a loss, GTown remains ahead of a HOT Louisville team? Statistically, it does n0t add up:

GTown: Pomeroy(13)---(9)---BPI(17)---SoS(24)

In conclusion, there are not a lot of situations where I can say "I'm not biased." This is not one. I am an officer in the USAF and a Lawyer, I'm trained to advocate facts in the favor of my client. However, this is definitely a situation where I AM BIASED. So, maybe this doesn't make sense, maybe I'm an idiot (fair assumption), or maybe I am overreacting, but I will curse ESPN and the AP tomorrow if these ranking remain the same. In protest, I will surf on foxsports.com for 10 minutes before I go crawling back to ESPN. That'll show them.

Louisville! 26-5! Hot at the right time! Bench players stepping up! This is our year! I love all of you, Card Nation!