Georgia Tech may well make the Associated Press top 25 rankings before the end of the season. But it probably won’t be this week.
While the Yellow Jackets had arguably the best week of any team in the country this past week with wins over No. 6 Florida State on Wednesday and No. 14 Notre Dame Saturday, sentiment among AP poll voters surveyed by the AJC was that they won’t be making their first appearance in the top 25 since Feb. 2010 when the latest poll is released Monday.
“I think they’ll get some votes, but I don’t believe they’ll be ranked this week,” said Dave Borges of the New Haven (Conn.) Register in an e-mail. “They had a very good week, no doubt, but eight losses is a lot for this time of year.”
Out of 11 AP poll voters responding to e-mails from the AJC, eight said they would not or did not plan to include the Yellow Jackets on their top 25 ballots. Contacted late Saturday, two didn’t know at that point and one said he would consider Tech. The poll consists of 66 voters.
Borges’ stance was common. While the Jackets own wins over five RPI top-50 teams (and are 5-5 overall against that subset) and scored their two big wins this week, Tech is 13-8 overall. In last week’s poll, every team had five losses or fewer.
“The poll is about body of work, not which team is the hottest,” Jerry Carino of the Gannett New Jersey newspapers wrote in an e-mail. “Georgia Tech’s body of work is decent, but eight losses and a Kenpom (rating) of 71 isn’t getting on my radar.”
"Kenpom" is shorthand for the rating system of Ken Pomeroy, which measures teams by their per-possession efficiency in scoring and preventing scores. The top-25 team in last week's rankings with the lowest rating in Kenpom as of Sunday evening is Maryland at No. 40, and the Terrapins are now 19-2 and 3-0 against Kenpom top-50 teams.
Similarly, another voter noted Tech's RPI rating, which was No. 65 after Saturday's games. The AP top-25 team with the lowest RPI rating was West Virginia, No. 18 in the AP poll and No. 28 in RPI.
Tech’s non-conference losses – Ohio (No. 121 in RPI after Saturday), Georgia (No. 54), Tennessee (No. 41) and Penn State (No. 69), the first two at home – weigh heavily with voters.
“You can’t deny that Georgia Tech is beginning to play great basketball,” wrote Jason Butt of the Macon Telegraph. “Wins over North Carolina, Florida State and Notre Dame are evidence of that. But the whole body of work doesn’t suggest the Yellow Jackets are a top-25 team just yet, with losses to Ohio, Penn State, Tennessee and Georgia in the non-conference schedule. For me, Georgia Tech is definitely in that 30-35 range right now but I can definitely see why some voters would put it in their top 25.”
Those who have watched the Jackets develop over the course of the season would likely testify to their development over the course of the season and that they are a far different team than the one that lost to Ohio Nov. 18 in the third game of the season, but it’s Tech’s burden to bear with voters. More recent data doesn’t necessarily recommend the Jackets either, namely the 110-57 loss at No. 17 Duke and a 65-50 home loss to No. 13 Louisville earlier this month.
Stephen Schramm, who covers the ACC for the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, wrote that he had moved Tech into a pool of 35-40 teams that he keeps an eye on each week. He acknowledged the Jackets’ impressive ACC wins but also mentioned the non-conference losses.
“Not saying they can’t make it in there at some point, but for now, I feel O.K. leaving the Yellow Jackets out,” Schramm wrote.
Tech will have an opportunity to add to their case this week with road games at Clemson and Wake Forest. As of Sunday evening, Clemson had a Kenpom rating of 31, four ahead of Wake Forest.
That the Jackets are on the radar of voters is one more reality that would have been hard to believe even a few weeks ago. With little returning experience, Tech was considered one of the weakest power-conference teams in the country at season’s outset.
“I will say, in terms of teams I wouldn’t want to play right now, Georgia Tech definitely qualifies,” wrote Andrew Lopez of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “They are coming off of as impressive a week as anyone has had in the country so far this year.”
About the Author
