The top of this week's Tennessee Journalist top 25 looks exactly the same as the top of the coaches' poll. However, after the first five teams things look radically different.
Tennessee used its victory over Memphis to become the unanimous top choice this week, while the Tigers fell to third after their first loss of the year.
The Big East provided the week's biggest winner for the second straight week as Notre Dame rose seven spots to No. 15 on the heels of home wins over Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Louisville had last week's biggest move up also rising seven spots.
Connecticut, Butler and Washington State had the biggest falls of the week, dropping nine spots. UConn had its 10-game win streak snapped at Villanova, while Butler's nine-game streak was snapped at home against Drake. Washington State also fell at home to Arizona this weekend.
Voting in this week's poll are sports editor Cliff Chartrand, assistant sports editor Clay Culp, and staff writers Chris Mitchell, Ben Dishong and Weston Wamp.
First place votes are in parentheses.
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | LW |
| 1 | Tennessee (5) | 25-2 | 125 | 2 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 26-2 | 119 | 3 |
| 3 | Memphis | 26-1 | 115 | 1 |
| 4 | UCLA | 24-3 | 110 | 5 |
| 5 | Texas | 23-4 | 103 | 7 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 23-4 | 96 | 8 |
| 7 | Kansas | 24-3 | 92 | 6 |
| 8 | Stanford | 22-4 | 88 | 9 |
| 9 | Duke | 23-3 | 87 | 4 |
| 10 | Indiana | 23-4 | 76 | 14 |
| 11 | Xavier | 24-4 | 71 | 17 |
| 12 | Georgetown | 22-4 | 61 | 12 |
| 13 | Purdue | 21-6 | 55 | 15 |
| 14 | Louisville | 22-6 | 54 | 17 |
| 15 | Notre Dame | 21-5 | 50 | 22 |
| 16 | Vanderbilt | 23-4 | 49 | 21 |
| 17 | Michigan State | 22-5 | 42 | 18 |
| 18 | Drake | 24-3 | 41 | 19 |
| 19 | Connecticut | 21-6 | 40 | 10 |
| 20 | Butler | 25-3 | 39 | 11 |
| 21 | Marquette | 20-6 | 36 | 23 |
| 22 | Washington State | 21-6 | 35 | 13 |
| 23 | Kent State | 23-5 | 9 | NR |
| 24 | Saint Mary's | 23-4 | 8 | 24 |
| 25 | Davidson | 21-6 | 6 | NR |
Others receiving votes: Miami 4, Gonzaga 3, Brigham Young 3, Mississippi State 2, Texas A&M 2, Arkansas 1, Clemson 1, New Mexico 1, South Alabama 1
Dropped from rankings: Texas A&M 20, Kansas State 25
Comments
buddy commented, on February 25, 2008 at 10:49 p.m.:
don't know why a close conference loss caused UCONN to drop 9 slots...same thing happened to Washington State...
jim commented, on February 25, 2008 at 10:52 p.m.:
And Washington State also dropped nine spots...what's your point?
bill commented, on February 26, 2008 at 1:29 a.m.:
I think buddy was trying to point out that wazzou also dropped nine spots and only lost once in a close conference game, not that they didn't drop as much despite doing the same thing.
The drops were probably more a case of WSU and UConn being too high last week. They're probably closer to the right spots now based on the resumes they have.
It also reflects having only five people voting. That makes teams move up and down much more freely because if one person drops the team a lot it will hurt a lot more overall.
alvin harris commented, on February 26, 2008 at 2:39 p.m.:
kansas should be ranked higher then they are, the desirve more credit for the victories
the have won.
luke marling commented, on February 26, 2008 at 2:42 p.m.:
kansas state and kanas university are two of the best teams in college ball. they should both be higher then they have previosly been ranked in the polls!
john brown commented, on February 26, 2008 at 5:53 p.m.:
Alvin and Luke you guys can not be serious.
Kansas has beaten zero teams who are ncaa tourney worthy at the moment. Their best wins are over arizona and usc, both of which are on the bubble. Their only real road wins are over Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado, none of which have a snowball's chance in hell of making the tourney. They have talent, but they've got to beat someone relevant before they have anything handed to them.
And Kansas State? They've lost four out of five and are only 2-5 away from manhattan this year. Come on fellas.