Poll Thoughts: Coaches remain confused

College hoops polls might be inconsequential noise, but that doesn't make them any less fun to argue about. In that spirit, I present the creatively named "Poll Thoughts," which you can expect every Monday until the season is over, or until the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll (and, occasionally, the Associated Press) voters stop being so dumb. (In other words, expect it until the season is over.)

If there have been any recurring themes in Poll Thoughts in the 2010-11 season, they've gone something like this:

1. Polls share minimal correlation with reality, and therefore are useful only as a broad snapshot of the college hoops picture.
2. Poll voters do lots of inexplicable things.
3. Outside the top, say, 10 teams, this season's top 25 feels awfully soft.

If ever there was a week to dive back into those themes, it's this one. The bottom half of Monday's new polls is as tinged with mediocrity as it's been all season long, and there are several places where the ordering of various teams seems wacky, given those teams' head-to-head results. Plus, Utah State: How high can it go? All that and more in this week's semi-coherent Poll Thoughts bullet points (trademark pending!):

• When you look at this week's coaches' poll, it's hard to argue that any team that was left in "also receiving votes" purgatory deserved to get in the top 25. West Virginia, Temple, Washington, Xavier, Coastal Carolina, George Mason, Wichita State and UCLA are all teams that basically deserve to be where they are: in consideration, but not in the poll. Nor are there too many teams in the 15-25 range that truly don't deserve their inclusion. That's kind of the point: Texas A&M, Saint Mary's, Vanderbilt and especially Minnesota -- which has lost three in a row, including a loss to Indiana on Wednesday -- are jumbled and muddled and every other adjective you can find that sounds more eloquent than simply saying "meh." But that ubiquitous and annoying term describes the lower part of the poll to a tee. It's just all very meh.
• Speaking of fringe top 25 teams, you may have noticed that Illinois, which inexplicably (and barely) survived in the coaches' poll last week, is still receiving votes from both the coaches and the Associated Press. Why? I don't know. Maybe some voters didn't see Illinois play this past week. But I'm not sure you even need to see Bruce Weber's disjointed team to know you shouldn't be voting for the Illini. Their loss to Northwestern Saturday gave them a fifth defeat in seven games and a second bad loss (the other being at Indiana) in that stretch. Isn't that enough?
• Other areas of confusion? Let's start with the Texas-Kansas-Pittsburgh dynamic in the top five. For the second straight week, Kansas was ranked ahead of Texas in both polls. For the second straight week, Texas was ranked ahead of Pittsburgh in both polls. I struggled to wrap my head around that logic last week, because if you think Texas is better than Pittsburgh (a two-loss team with a home loss to Notre Dame being its only conference defeat) you should probably think Texas is better than Kansas. After all, Texas beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse. There aren't many better ways to declare your superiority over another team than drubbing them in their own building. This week, after a thorough drubbing of Texas A&M in College Station on Wednesday, the Longhorns could argue they're the victims of even greater disrespect. The A&M blowout was the best and most impressive win any team got this past week. But because Kansas only has one loss, and it didn't lose this week, and it was ranked ahead of Texas last Monday, it retains its one-spot advantage over its impressive conference rival. This is how poll voting works, and that's why polls are so very weird.
• The same rule applies to Saint Mary's, which the coaches ranked ahead of Vanderbilt despite the fact that Vanderbilt beat St. Mary's 89-70 in Nashville two weeks ago. It also applies to Kentucky and Florida; UK is ranked one spot ahead of the Gators despite Florida's win over Kentucky this weekend and its much more impressive list of wins to date. The same goes for Purdue (No. 12) and Wisconsin (No. 14). Of course, you can't take head-to-head results as the be-all-end-all of balloting; if you do, you'll spin yourself into circles before you finish your top 10. But when the combination of prior ranking, reputation and general newsworthiness seems to trump actual on-court performance from the week before, it's hard not to take notice.
• A couple of intriguing teams keep moving up in the rankings. The first is No. 17 Utah State, which continues to roll through the WAC with relative ease, its most recent win being a 22-point drubbing of Boise State at home. The interesting thing here is not that Utah State is ranked and shouldn't be. It's not that the Aggies should be ranked higher or lower. No. 17 is probably just about right, actually. What's interesting is what happens in the coming weeks and where Utah State's ranking goes from here. Presumably, the Aggies are going to keep beating their WAC foes' respective brains in. Teams above them are playing much more difficult schedules. Given that dynamic, how far can Utah State climb? If they manage to finish the WAC season undefeated, it wouldn't be a surprise to see them hop all the way up to the top 10 before the year is out. But do the Aggies -- who missed both chances at big wins (vs. BYU and Georgetown) in the nonconference season -- deserve that much love? Are they that good? Is the WAC that bad? Both? I'm not sure, but that dynamic will be interesting to watch from here on out.
• The other intriguing team? No. 21 North Carolina. The Tar Heels have apparently put their early-season offensive struggles behind them, and in a big way. This week featured a 106-74 win at Boston College and an 89-69 win over Florida State, a win made all the more impressive given FSU's top-notch defense. In fact, it's hard to argue that 20 teams are better than UNC right now. But the Tar Heels are the Tar Heels, which means if they keep winning, they'll draw plenty of fawning poll admiration in short order. (Remember when they entered the season in the top 10? Exactly.) For now -- ahead of a major show-me-you're-for-real test vs. Duke Wednesday -- skepticism isn't the worst approach.
• Finally, it's good to see so many mid-majors getting votes, too. Wichita State, Coastal Carolina, George Mason, VCU and Valparaiso all show up in the "also receiving votes" category this week. I'm not sure any of them belongs in the top 25, but there's nothing wrong with giving the little guys a little deserved love, too.

Got poll thoughts of your own? To the comments, friends! (You can also email me and hit me up on your social network of choice. You know the drill.)

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/22687/poll-thoughts-coaches-remain-confused

Dwayne Wade Brian Wilson Eli Whiteside Mike Fontenot Brett Pill Pat Burrell