The CougCenter blogpoll ballot: Week 2

I had designs on posting this in the FanPosts first to get feedback, but after dealing with a sick kid all weekend -- who's still sick -- I didn't submit my ballot until the very last minute. And in this case, the very last minute was yesterday morning at about 10 a.m. -- before UConn lost to Pitt, and before Purdue whipped Michigan State. So take that into consideration.

The full blogpoll, along with the poll coordinator's breakdown (which I actually find highly interesting), can be found here. The link to all of the voters' ballots is here.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Connecticut
2	North Carolina
3	Pittsburgh
4	Oklahoma
5	Memphis	3
6	Michigan St.	3
7	Duke	2
8	Louisville	2
9	Missouri	3
10	Clemson
11	Villanova
12	Washington	7
13	Arizona St.	7
14	Wake Forest	1
15	UCLA	8
16	Kansas	3
17	Marquette	3
18	Xavier	2
19	Arizona
20	Illinois	3
21	Utah
22	Purdue	1
23	Syracuse
24	Louisiana St.	1
25	Butler	7
Last week's ballot

Random thoughts:

• I'm still thinking UConn is the best team in the country. There's one simple reason why they lost last night: Their defense let them down, especially in the rebounding department. Pittsburgh posted an absurd 43.0 OR%, doing a lot of that damage while Hasheem Thabeet was on the bench. Thabeet also wasn't real good while he was in the game, and that was the difference.
• I gave the Pac-10 some love this week, boosting UW and ASU, who I think aren't getting the recognition they deserve, and putting Arizona in the polls. Not sure how they're not getting recognized for their play right now. I think people who underestimate the Pac-10 come tournament time are going to be sorry.
  
• Big drops for UCLA and Butler. I'm pissed at the Bruins for getting swept in the desert, and my drop of the Bulldogs is due in part to me going against my better judgment and ranking them too high last week. I just knew they weren't that good.
• I feel good about not putting Utah State in the poll last week!
• I almost put Gonzaga at No. 25 instead of Butler. But the Zags barely survived two games against teams they should have handled easily. Something just isn't right up in Spokane. Hasn't been since that UConn game, really.
• But, that loss to Utah by the Zags looks better all the time.
• Just one SEC team in the poll again -- LSU at No. 24. That is downright pathetic. I gave Kentucky some thought, but I need to see something this week to convince me they're a top 25 team.