TBI vs. AP vs. ESPN: Poll Dancing Week 2

We all have our various perspectives on how useful the polls are in college basketball since, unlike the sport that decides how everything in college athletics plays out, hoop actually makes teams play for a championship instead of awarding it to whichever SEC team is most popular that year.

Those who take some interest in the polls may also take some delight in savaging others for their opinions. Gary Parrish at CBS loves to take aim at people with his Poll Attacks, which is a not-even-thinly-veiled game of "I'm A Million Times Smarter Than You And I Can Prove It." (Usually, he can't.)

Poll Dancing is so much less violent than Poll Attacks, and it's merely an assessment of TBI's Top 25 side-by-side with the AP and ESPN, examining the three for differences.

There may be some pointing at outliers, thanks to the good folks at Pollspeak.com, but I don't really need the ego stroke that Parrish appears to.

We'll dig into the ballots post-jump.

The 2012 Bilas Invitational Tournament: Midwest Region Rounds 1 & 2

The fourth and final region in the first round of the BIT is upon us. Read the last several posts for details. And now to the games.

Play-In Game:
Oral Roberts 80, Akron 61
The Zips did a decent job of containing ORU scoring star Dominique Morrison, but Michael Craion's 24 points rendered the effort moot.

Craion drilled 10 of his 11 shots, also pulling down eight rebounds to headline a game in which the Golden Eagles never trailed. 14 of the 24 points came in the first half, helping Oral Roberts to a 38-27 lead at the break.

Akron was led by 14 points off the bench from Demetrius Treadwell. He was the only Zip in double figures. All-MAC selections Nikola Cvetinovic and Zeke Marshall combined for only 16 points and four rebounds, well off their season average of 20.3 and 10.8.

Damen Bell-Holter added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Eagles, while Morrison kicked in 11 points.

Morning Wood: January 5 (Temple of Doom Edition)

Some notes on last night's college hoop action:

• Perhaps this is why Duke doesn't play true non-conference road games. The No. 3 Devils traveled to Philly and got the No. 2 surprised out of them with a 78-73 loss to Temple. Whether Duke deserved their lofty ranking or not, this is a huge signature win for the Owls, and barring a clunker of a conference campaign, mark them down for an at-large spot if they don't claim the Atlantic 10 title. More on that later today. Duke, for their part, still doesn't have a point guard, and that will cost them in March. From Bobby Hurley to Jay Williams to Jon Scheyer, Duke's title teams have all had a steady hand on the rudder, and Austin Rivers' hand (1-8 from 2-point range, 2 assists and 3 TOs against Temple) is far from steady.