So far, so good.

In Week 1 of the CBSsports.com college basketball BlogPoll, voters advised buying low on Missouri , who went on to hand Kansas their first Big 12 loss; Villanova , who dispatched of higher-ranked Marquette with the proverbial authoritah ; and Arizona St. (21 BlogPoll, 24/23 AP/Coaches), who swept UCLA and USC to thrust themselves firmly into the Pac-10 title race. Of course, BlogPoll voters were also slightly higher on UCLA than the mainstream polls ... but you can't win 'em all.

This week's results look like so:

BlogPoll Week 2

Rank Team PPB StdDev Delta

1 Connecticut (32) 24.9 0.4 --

2 North Carolina (2) 23.5 0.6 1

3 Oklahoma (2) 23.3 1.1 1

4 Pittsburgh 22.3 0.6 --

5 Memphis 19.8 1.7 3

6 Michigan St. 19.6 1.7 5

7 Louisville 17.0 3.1 1

8 Wake Forest 1

9 Duke 15.5 4.0 4

10 Missouri 14.5 2.9 7

11 Villanova 13.8 3.7 3

12 Clemson 13.6 4.0 3

13 Marquette 3

14 Arizona St. 11.9 4.1 7

15 Kansas 10.2 4.6 1

16 Illinois 9.0 4.1 3

17 Xavier 8.9 3.5 4

18 UCLA 7.8 4.6 6

19 Gonzaga 7.5 5.1 1

20 Purdue 6.1 4.3 --

21 Butler 5.3 4.4 6

22 Washington 5.1 3.4 1

23 Louisiana St. 2.4 3.4 3

24 Dayton 2.3 3.7 2

25 West Virginia 1.8 4.0 1

Also Receiving Votes: Utah St.(1.7), Syracuse(1.6), California(1.1), Brigham Young(0.8), Ohio St.(0.8), Texas(0.8), Utah(0.7), Arizona(0.5), Florida St.(0.5), South Carolina(0.3), Davidson(0.3), Minnesota(0.2), Arkansas(0.1), Boston College(0.1), Miami FL(0.1), Notre Dame(0.0), Siena(0.0), Kentucky(0.0), Wisconsin(0.0),

Total Ballots: 36

Votes by blog here , votes by team here .

Widespread losses in the 5-to-15 range led to some big jumps for the teams who escaped the week unscathed. Michigan St. rises five spots, Memphis three, Missouri seven, and Arizona St. seven. The week was much less kind to the reeling ACC triumvirate of Duke, Wake Forest, and Clemson, all of which drop at least one slot, and to mid-majors in general; Dayton used their big home win over Xavier to springboard into the poll, but the Musketeers slipped four spots while Butler's embarrrassing home defeat to Loyala-Chicago costs them six spots and Utah St. leaves the poll after falling at Boise St.

Wack Ballot Watchdog

The sudden descent of the SEC into glorified Atlantic-10dom has, without question, been one of the stories of the college basketball season. (Actually, "glorified Atlantic-10dom" may be overly generous, if Xavier's 10-point win in Baton Rouge is any indication). But after being shut out of the inaugural edition of the BlogPoll, the SEC sneaks into the nether regions of this week's poll on the strength of LSU's overtime win at Mississippi St. and a home victory over Ole Miss.

Tennessee blog Rocky Top Talk thinks this is only fair: LSU is for real, kids. The Tigers won a double overtime war against Mississippi State in a week where they moved to 9-1 in conference and continued to put a stranglehold on the rest of the SEC. Don't forget that some of these kids were on the team that played in the 2006 Final Four.

But a lot of bloggers from the rest of the country aren't so sure. Spartans Weblog notes that "there aren’t as many opportunities to pick up quality wins" in the SEC as in other conferences, so they remain skeptical. Villanova blog I Bleed Blue and White is more blunt: As for LSU, they’re out because their conference is awful. Just be happy you have football SEC guys.

Sadly, most of the Interwebs' SEC guys probably missed this taunt while they were busy looking up their team's 2010 football recruits' status on Facebook. Frankly, at this point the conference--and its collective one team in the Pomeory ratings' top-30 , wobbly Kentucky--should be approached much as we would approach a mid-major league; LSU's dominance deserves some kind of recognition, but exactly how much is going to have to be left in the eye of the beholder until the league can right itself.

While there's some consensus that UConn, Pitt, Louisville, and now Villanova have formed the upper crust in the Big East, there's some pretty serious debate going on as to what to do with Marquette and West Virginia. The former has a gaudy 10-2 Big East record but has yet to even play (much less defeat) the Huskies, Panthers, or Cards, leading Boston College blog BC Interruption to write: I watched the Golden Eagles fall apart on the road against South Florida on TV last Friday, and then Marquette got blown out on the road vs. Villanova. Marquette has an extremely backloaded Big East schedule and they may tumble down the stretch.

They rank MU 22nd. As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers have the fervent blessing of the computers and are ranked as high as 10th by one BlogPoll voter, but From Old Virginia says they're not sold on the Huggy Bunch just yet: (A)ll three rankings systems have West Virginia jacked up pretty high - Pomeroy has them 6th - but their resume consists mainly of beating Villanova at home, two other ranked teams (OSU and Georgetown) that got bumped from [the ballot] for the same reason (shaky records) and a lot of losses to good teams. That's way more bubblicious than their computer rankings say.

It's worth noting that WVU's Big East schedule -to-date has been murderous: four games total against UConn, Pitt, and Louisville to go with roadies at Syracuse, Georgetown, and Marquette. My personal guess? As these two teams' schedules even out a bit, they'll start to look a lot more similar resume-wise.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Highest stdev #

Team StdDev

1 Gonzaga 5.1

2 UCLA 4.6

3 Kansas 4.6

4 Butler 4.4

5 Marquette 4.3

Thanks to their usual rugged nonconference slate, the Zags' computer rankings are holding up. But their performance in their last three games--a blowout home loss to Memphis and wheezes past a Patty Mills-less St. Mary's and San Francisco--aren't exactly confidence-inspiring. Trying to balance the non-league Gonzaga that took UConn to overtime and beat Tennessee twice with the current edition isn't easy, and thus the widespread disagreement about what to do with them.

Ballot Math

First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold

#BlogTeam Avg Error

1 Rock Chalk Talk Kansas 4.28

2 The Aggie Hoops Report Texas A&M 3.54

3 3rd Saturday in Blogtober Tennessee 3.53

4 Gate 21 Tennessee 3.41

5 Colonials Corner Robert Morris 3.22

Kansas's Rock Chalk Talk takes an aggressively KenPom and Sagarin-centric approach, leading to votes like the aforementioned West Virginia No. 10, Arizona St. No. 8, Brigham Young No. 14, etc. It makes sense by the numbers, mostly, but even I have to wonder a little bit at the level of love for BYU--even the computers don't have the Cougars quite that high, and we are talking about a 19-5 Mountain West team whose best win is either Utah St. or San Diego St.

Mr. Numb Existence

#BlogTeam Avg Error

1 Card Chronicle Louisville 1.40

2 Flyers Fieldhouse Dayton 1.54

3 Friarblog Providence 1.56

4 Spartans Weblog Michigan St. 1.59

5 Inside the Hall Indiana 1.64

Last week a Notre Dame blogger took home Mr. Numb Existence. So it's only fitting that after the Irish finally woke themselves up by pounding a Louisville team that looked like it was playing through its own round of Novocaine shots, this week's award passes to go-to Cardinals blog Card Chronicle for their efforts in most-perfectly mimicing the final poll at-large.

Next we have the Coulter/Kos Award and the Straight Bangin' Award , which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your basketball team.

The Coulter/Kos Award

#BlogTeam Bias

1 Rock Chalk Talk Kansas 4.83

2 House of Sparky Arizona St. 4.11

3 I Bleed Blue and White Villanova 2.22

4 Card Chronicle Louisville 2.03

5 Making the Dance Illinois 1.97

In its first week of action, the basketball edition of the CK Award proved just as ill an omen as the football version. MAC leaders Buffalo saw its nine-game winning streak come to an end at 11-12 Ball St. , just as we warned last week. But it probably won't become a two-week streak; Rock Chalk Talk 's not exactly tempting fate by ranking the Jayhawks 11th--five different voters have them higher --and even the evils of the CK Award probably can't bring about a home loss to Iowa St. or Nebraska. Probably.

The Straight Bangin' Award

#BlogTeam Bias

1 Tomahawk Nation Florida St. -0.47

2 From the Barn Minnesota -0.17

3 RazorBloggers Arkansas -0.14

4 A Sea of Blue Kentucky -0.03

5 Hoops Marinara Wisconsin -0.03

Despite the struggles of so many high-profile teams last week, there wasn't much irrational self-flagellation in this week's poll. Florida St. blog Tomahawk Nation receives the SBA for leaving the 'Noles out of their ballot, but as the less-than-1 number on the right suggests, it's a decision that makes sense. Nothing to see here, move along.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive

#BlogTeam Swing

1 Maize 'n' Brew Michigan 164

2 3rd Saturday in Blogtober Tennessee 146

3 Gate 21 Tennessee 136

4 College Hoops Journal Yale 128

5 From Old Virginia Virginia 126

In Week 1 , Michigan blog Maize n' Brew ranked Kansas No. 18 and Missouri not at all. This week , the Jayhakws are No. 8 and the Tigers No. 9. Combine with other results like Wake Forest down 10 and Syracuse up 9 (maybe that home win over Georgetown in overtime was more impressive thn I thought) and you have a well-deserving Mr. Manic-Depressive winner.

Mr. Stubborn

#BlogTeam Swing

1 The East Coast Bias St. John's 28

2 A Sea of Blue Kentucky 66

3 Flyers Fieldhouse Dayton 66

4 Joe Cribbs Car Wash Auburn 68

5 Spartans Weblog Michigan St. 68

On the other side of the Spectrum, St. John's blog East Coast Bias left his top eight--including all three of Duke, Wake, and Clemson--unchanged. To his credit, he explains that he doesn't yet feel comfortable with any of the teams who would take the Blue Devils' or Deomon Deacons' places ... but when we're talking about one team that hasn't won in regulation in two weeks and another that hasn't won on the road since Jan. 17 despite shots at two of the ACC's worst three teams, it's time for a shake-up.

See you next week. 

The CBSSports.com College Basketball BlogPoll Breakdown is written by Jerry Hinnen. For questions or comments regarding the poll, contact Jerry at jerry -at- warblogeagle.com.