Poll Attacks: Do you believe an AP voter has Arizona State behind Kansas and Xavier?
Arizona State won 15 games in Bobby Hurley's first season, 15 games last season and was picked sixth in this season's preseason Pac-12 poll. So if you didn't expect much from the Sun Devils, that's completely understandable. I don't guess I expected much from the Sun Devils, either.
But we are now a month into the season.
What you thought in October should barely matter anymore. A third of the regular-season is basically in the books. The results of games should be respected. And though basically everybody acknowledges as much -- it's why Arizona State is ranked fifth in the updated AP poll -- there are still a few holdouts, among them Scott Mansch.
Mansch is no stranger to the Poll Attacks column.
I've had to highlight his absurd ballots before. This column and this column are but two examples. Needless to say, this columnist for the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune is prone to silliness, for whatever reason. And he got super-silly with his Top 25 ballot this week.
He has Arizona State ranked 18th -- which is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and a disrespectful way to treat a team that's accomplished what the Sun Devils have accomplished. For those who don't know, ASU is 9-0 with four top-50 KenPom wins -- which leads the nation, by the way. Most notably, ASU owns a 102-86 win over Xavier and a 95-85 win at Kansas.
That is arguably, if not probably, the best resume in the country. It's also why, like I tweeted Sunday night, you can reasonably rank Arizona State No. 1 right now. As for me, I have the Sun Devils No. 2 in the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one). But that's really only because I already had Villanova No. 1. And Villanova has been awesome, too. And I don't like dropping No. 1 teams unless they do something to deserve it, like lose. So it's Villanova No. 1, and Arizona State No. 2, in my rankings -- which means I clearly think ASU should be higher than fifth in the AP poll. But ... whatever. Just because a Duke graduate is coaching Arizona State doesn't mean Arizona State will get treated like Duke -- proof being how the Blue Devils are still ahead of the Sun Devils in the AP poll even though they have fewer top-50 KenPom wins and are coming off of an 89-84 loss at unranked Boston College.
Again ... whatever.
I'm not here to quibble over whether Arizona State should be ranked first, second, third, fourth or fifth. I'm here to ask a simple question, and that simple question is this: How in the world can Mansch have Arizona State ranked 18th on his ballot?
Eighteenth!?!?!?!
(Before you say it, let me say it: Yes, I know Arizona State is slotted 36th at KenPom. But that's neither an excuse nor explanation for having ASU No. 18 on a Top 25 ballot, if only because some of that is tied to nothing more than that the Sun Devils began the season 100th in KenPom's rankings. Beyond that, Mansch clearly doesn't concern himself with KenPom. If he did, he wouldn't have Virginia, which is No. 3 at KenPom, No. 22 on his ballot. So pointing to KenPom doesn't rationalize things here.)
Obviously, having an Arizona State team with this resume ranked 18th on a Top 25 ballot is ridiculous in and of itself. But it's especially ridiculous when you consider that Mansch has the undefeated Sun Devils 12 spots below the Kansas team they beat by 10 points at Allen Fieldhouse, and eight spots below the Xavier team they beat by 15 points on a neutral court. Yes, you read that correctly. Mansch's ballot looks like this:
No. 6: Kansas (7-2)
Kansas (7-2) No. 10: Xavier (9-1)
Xavier (9-1) No. 18: Arizona State (9-0)
Kansas has one top-50 KenPom win, a 74-65 semi-home loss to a Washington team that's lost by 24 points to Virginia Tech and 27 points to Gonzaga, and a 95-85 home loss to Arizona State. Regardless, Mansch has Kansas ranked sixth in the country and 12 spots above Arizona State, which has four top-50 KenPom wins, zero losses and ... a double-digit win at Kansas!
Holy crap.
I didn't realize it until Eli Boettger posted a nice story about the Poll Attacks earlier Monday, but I've been writing this column for five years. Five freaking years. And when I started it I never assumed it would last this long because I figured AP voters would eventually start paying closer attention to avoid being publicly ridiculed, at which point I'd have to find a new way to spend my Monday afternoons. But here I am. All these years later, here I am. Still highlighting nonsensical ballots. Strong as ever.