Ole Miss Moves Up While AP Poll’s Flawed Logic Persists

Due to Winter Storm Fern wreaking havoc in Oxford, the Ole Miss women’s basketball team played just one game last week.

The Rebels’ second game of the week against Tennessee was originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The game was pushed back to Monday because of the winter storm and was postponed indefinitely once the situation began to come into focus.

The game against the Lady Vols hasn’t been rescheduled yet. So, all the AP voters had to go on for Ole Miss last week was an 82-61 win against Missouri that showed what we saw against Georgia two Sundays ago was a fluke.

Ole Miss moved up one spot in the latest AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll to No. 17. Tennessee also moved up in the poll, two spots to No. 15, after playing just one game last week, a 60-58 win against then-No. 11 Kentucky (now No. 18).

The top of the poll saw a small shakeup after South Carolina handed Vanderbilt its first loss of the season in a dominant 103-74 game. But as we all know, the voters tend to punish teams for losing games as opposed to move up teams after a big win.

So, the Gamecocks’ 94-82 overtime loss to No. 16 Oklahoma last Thursday carries more weight and they fell one spot to No. 3 in the ranking. UCLA moved up one spot to No. 2 on the strength of wins against Purdue (11-9, 3-6 Big Ten) and Northwestern (8-12, 2-7 Big Ten).

What Matters to Voters

By now it’s clear the AP voters don’t value wins as much as they look at losses as devaluing a team. Frankly, UCLA beating two teams who are nowhere close to even being in the conversation of bubble teams for the NCAA Tournament isn’t worthy of moving the Bruins over South Carolina.

The Gamecocks went 1-1 against a pair of ranked teams, both of whom you can find preseason predictions for deep tournament runs. Vanderbilt was one of two undefeated teams and South Carolina won by 29 points.

It’s disrespectful is what it is, but at least we have confirmed the worst thing team can do in the eyes of the voters is lose. Doesn’t matter to who. If you lose, you’ll be punished.

Here’s the full top 25 rankings released Monday.

AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll

1. UConn 21-0
2. UCLA 19-1
3. South Carolina 20-2
4. Texas 19-2
5. Vanderbilt 20-1
6. LSU 18-2
7. Louisville 19-3
8. Iowa 18-2
9. Michigan 17-3
10. Oklahoma 16-4
11. Ohio State 18-3
12. TCU 19-2
13. Michigan State 18-2
14. Baylor 18-3
15. Tennessee 14-3
16. Maryland 17-4
17. Ole Miss 17-4
18. Kentucky 17-5
19. Princeton 17-1
20. Duke 14-6
21. Texas Tech 20-2
22. West Virginia 17-4
23. Georgia 18-3
24. Alabama 18-3
25. Washington 15-4

Others receiving votes: North Carolina 47, Rhode Island 16, Nebraska 14, Minnesota 6, NC State 5, Illinois 3, Fairfield 2, Oklahoma St. 1.