How Does Duke Become A Top One Loss Team?

With full disclosure I am a Duke hater, and I have many reasons for it, that is a completely different blog post to be made at a later time. This post is not about my disdain for the Blue Devils, but rather for their position these days, days that are not really pertinent to where teams will be come late February. At this point it is just the audacity of their positioning, the idea of their stature being put in places that just do not seem right that has gotten me to write this post.

There is no denying the fact that Duke was worthy and deserving of their preseason number one ranking. Then there is no denying that they should remain in the top 10 with their loss, it was a tough game on the road. Top eight though? Top 6? Top 4? I do not know if those points are as clear cut as people want to make them.

There are two teams that have a gripe to keep Duke out of the top five, Syracuse and San Diego State, assuming that everyone agrees the top three, in some order, are Ohio State, Kansas and Pittsburgh. One of them with one loss similar to Duke, and the other without a loss.

So there sits San Diego State, 20 wins and zero losses. They have not dropped a game yet. This is not the BCS, it is a poll, why is a team that has a record of 20-0 not right there with the other undefeated teams. I would argue that Pittsburgh should be behind them as well, though that is not as much of an issue given their recent play, and win over previously undefeated Syracuse. That is just ridiculous, and the argument of competition is not valid, because their conference has a one loss team in the top 10 as well. It just does not make sense to me.

Then there is Syracuse, a team that it is not an issue of ranking at this point, and probably will not be, given that Saturday the Orange will be playing number seven Villanova, and that game will probably result in Syracuse being either ahead of, or behind Duke. If with a win Syracuse falls behind Duke in the polls then that is just absurd and almost that much more of an issue.

No, the issue with Syracuse, and again this is an issue in which the result does not matter at this point, it is not going to be this way by season's end, but the perception of it currently. It lies in Joe Lunardi's Bracketology and Duke having a number one seed ahead of the Orange, which is mind boggling to me, and just another frustration by what I can only understand as Duke bias.

Syracuse and Duke each have one loss, Duke at Florida State and Syracuse at Pittsburgh. You tell me, not even considering the home court advantage that Pittsburgh enjoys (one of the best in the nation, especially against top five teams, where they have never lost to one there). Compare the loss of Duke to the loss of Syracuse and tell me that one is not lightyears more understandable, acceptable, and for lack of a another term better than the other one.

Then you can look at the fact that Syracuse has the number two RPI, compared to Duke who falls in at number 11. They have a strength of schedule of 30 at Syracuse, Duke's strength of schedule falls in their at number 80. Duke has a non-conference strength of schedule of 179, but oh Syracuse has one that is 129. Finally in Joe Lunardi's own preferred RPI formula Syracuse comes in at number two ( that team they lost to, Pittsburgh, they were number one), and Duke is there at four.

Now I know both teams will probably lose again, they will go up and down in the rankings together, and fall out of those bracketology seeds they have now. But at this point in time, this frame of time, it is just extremely annoying, frustrating and typical for everything that happens with Duke. When does Syracuse get their respect? Their resume and year has been better than Duke's, period. And then there is that team who has not lost yet, yeah they have a gripe too.