Following 16-point loss at Iowa, Michigan basketball team falls hard in national rankings
The Michigan basketball team was tracking toward the top 10 one week ago.
Now, the Wolverines find themselves toward the bottom of the rankings.
Following Michigan's ugly 16-point setback at Iowa on Saturday, the Wolverines dropped seven spots in The Associated Press Top 25 poll, and six spots in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.
The Wolverines, who were No. 13 in both polls last week, are No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 19 in the coaches poll.
Every Big Ten team that sat inside the rankings a week ago suffered a loss last week, and the pollsters noticed.
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In the AP poll, Ohio State (16-3) fell one spot to No. 6, Michigan State (15-3) dropped three places to No. 9 and Indiana (15-3) fell four spots to No. 11.
In the coaches poll, Ohio State sits at No. 6, Michigan State at No. 9 and Indiana at No. 13. Illinois (15-3), who knocked off the Buckeyes at home last week, returns to both polls — entering at No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 25 in the coaches poll.
Syracuse (19-0) remains locked in as the No. 1 team in the country in both polls. Kentucky, Baylor, Duke and Missouri round out the AP's top five, while Ohio State, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State and Georgetown round out the top 10.
Michigan (14-4, 4-2 Big Ten) returns to the floor Tuesday when it hosts rival Michigan State (7 p.m., ESPN).
Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.
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Comments
UofMbeBetter
Tue, Jan 17, 2012 : 9:33 a.m.
In football and Basketball, When we have a + week everything is awesome and when we have a - week the polls mean nothing and its a bad system overall........... Just sayen
Billy Bob Schwartz
Tue, Jan 17, 2012 : 2:25 p.m.
Nope...The rankings are useless in any case. Year-end rankings might make sense. Early March rankings do make sense. This early, and changing every week? Nope.
bigblue
Mon, Jan 16, 2012 : 8:25 p.m.
rankings mean nothing in college b-ball
XTR
Mon, Jan 16, 2012 : 8:18 p.m.
For the past 2 games, it was a very poor showing by Michigan. No go to guy and no leadership. The team played well below expectations like the Michigan team in Manny Harris' last year. Of course a good win against the Sparties will be good, a bad loss will boot them out of the rankings.
heartbreakM
Mon, Jan 16, 2012 : 6:28 p.m.
I have conflicting thoughts about this. I personally don't care about rankings this time of year--does 20 or 10 even make a difference? But at the same time, how does a loss at Iowa hurt us way more than a Northwestern loss hurts MSU? What about UNC? They lost by more than 31 at FSU--not a great team by any measure. They don't drop all the way down, do they? It just looks to me that rankings are based on past results and respect as much as current status. Even if that Iowa loss was ugly.