How I voted in the AP college basketball poll: UCLA third

Nobody can call UCLA’s schedule soft after the Bruins paid a visit to Rupp Arena on Saturday. It didn’t hurt that Kentucky was No. 1 when UCLA took down the Wildcats, 97-92, but what most impressed me was that the Bruins did it in such a hostile environment.

In most cases, college-age athletes are far more susceptible to the affects of a raucous crowd than professionals. And this is a UCLA team with three true freshman playing large roles, including your starting point guard. I somehow still ranked UCLA lower than its landing spot in the AP poll, but we are now talking about Westwood being home to a national championship contender and one of the best teams in the country.

How I voted in the Week 5 AP poll:
1. Villanova
2. Baylor
3. UCLA

There is a good argument for UCLA to be ranked No. 1 in the country given that they beat Kentucky on the road and Villanova’s best win is at Purdue. But Baylor has played a tougher schedule than any of the top three.
4. Kansas
5. Duke
6. Gonzaga
7. North Carolina
8. Kentucky
9. Virginia
10. St. Mary’s

11. Indiana
Indiana is not making this voting thing easy. It’s got wins over two of my top five teams, but it also has a loss to Fort Wayne, which was actually ranked 25th by one AP voter this week.
12. Xavier
13. Louisville
14. Creighton
15. Purdue
16. Arizona
17. Wisconsin
18. South Carolina
19. Cincinnati

The Bearcats aren’t an easy team to wrap my head around yet. They lost to Rhode Island, which is now free falling after two losses last week. But Cincinnati deserves credit for a big road win at Iowa State this week and we’ll find out more about the Bearcats when they play Butler this week.
20. Iowa State
21. West Virginia
22. Butler
23. Michigan State

I am the only AP voter with Michigan State still in my top 25. I’m of the opinion that if other teams on this list had played Duke, Kentucky, Baylor and Arizona, they’d be lucky not to have four losses too. Michigan State is not a bad team, they’ve just played a stacked schedule.
24. Florida
25. Syracuse

The actual Week 5 AP poll:
1. Villanova (57)
2. UCLA (2)
3. Kansas
4. Baylor (6)
5. Duke
6. Kentucky
7. North Carolina
8. Gonzaga
9. Indiana
10. Creighton
11. Louisville
12. Saint Mary’s
13. Xavier
14. Virginia
15. West Virginia
16. Butler
17. Wisconsin
18. Purdue
19. South Carolina
20. Arizona
21. Florida
22. Cincinnati
23. Notre Dame
24. Florida
25. Iowa State
Others receiving votes: Syracuse 45, USC 43, Ohio State 40, TCU 33, Florida State 18, Virginia Tech 11, California 10, Maryland 9, Valparaiso 7, Wichita St 5, Michigan State 3, Temple 3, UNC Wilmington 1, Minnesota 1, Fort Wayne 1.