Syracuse Basketball No. 2 In Polls, Were You Expecting Something Else?

You're never gonna believe this but the Syracuse Orange are still No. 2 in the polls heading into the Big East Tournament. Shocker!

In the AP, Kentucky remains No. 1 with 63 first-place votes and Syracuse got it's usual two first-place votes. Kansas, UNC and Mizzou round out the top five.

In the Coaches Poll, Kentucky remains the clear No. 1 with Syracuse the obvious No. 2. Kansas, UNC and Mizzou round out the top five.

Big East squads in the rankings include Marquette (9/9), Georgetown (13/14) and Notre Dame (23/23). Louisville was knocked just outside the Top 25 at No. 26.

Syracuse remains No. 1 in the RPI with a SOS of 28, followed by Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and UNC. SU finished the regular season 1-0 against the RPI Top Ten, 2-0 against the RPI Top 20, 5-0 against the RPI Top 30 and 10-1 against the RPI Top 50.

The Sagarin Ratings continue to dislike the Orange, posting them in fifth. Kentucky, Ohio State, Kansas and UNC are all ranked higher.

The Massay Ratings have Kentucky No. 1 and Syracuse No. 2.

In the world of bracketology, SB Nation continues to have the Orange No. 1 in the East, though this time we're playing something called UNCA (which I'm assuming is UNC-Asheville). They have Duke at the 2-seed in the East, followed by 3-seed Michigan and 4-seed Temple.

Lunardi also has the Orange in the East playing UNC-Asheville. He also has Duke as the 2-seed and Michigan as the 3-seed but Wichita State is his 4-seed. Incidentally, I heard Lunardi on the radio Sunday and he was adamant that he thinks Syracuse is just as worthy of the No. 1 overall seed as Kentucky. He said the only reason he put UK on top is because "they lost first."