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Despite winning both its games this week (one of which was a Q1 road win), and despite several other teams ranked ahead of the then-No. 20 Hawkeyes losing this past week, the Iowa men’s basketball team has dropped one spot to No. 21 in the AP Basketball Rankings.
POLL ALERT: Media panel sticks with Tennessee as No. 1 in AP Top 25, despite NCAA's pick of Duke as leader in tournament rankings: See the full poll: https://t.co/Bki4Cuzunw pic.twitter.com/mUugSrtmeL
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) February 11, 2019
The explanation here is simple: Voters had to send in their ballot by 8PM Eastern, which is 7PM Central and around the time Iowa was down a lot of points with not a lot of time left to a not very good Northwestern team. MONDAY MORNING. Well WE know how that game ended! (This doesn’t explain at all why Villanova climbed a spot despite taking Creighton to OT and then losing to Marquette, but whatever).
UPDATE: thanks to John Bohnenkamp for not giving sports journalists the benefit of the doubt:
Ballots don't have to be in until 9 a.m. Monday.
— John Bohnenkamp (@johnbohnenkamp) February 11, 2019
The Hawkeyes did climb three spots in the Coaches Poll, however.
The solution to this DISRESPECT obvious: just win, baby.