Check here each week for the latest articles during basketball season.  Past weeks' basketball articles can be found using the "Week" menu on the bar above.  The awards are defined on the Awards page.

Basketball Voting Officially Starts In Week 13 (posted 1/25/08)

The ability to vote for good and bad basketball voters has been part of Pollstalker for a few weeks now.  However, Pollspeak has not officially tracked the results.  That changes in lucky week 13 when Pollspeak begins naming Bad and Good Voters of the Week for basketball.  Several requirements have been met recently, which allows the official start of Voting Season:

• With the release of the Reports for College Football, Pollspeak can officially lay the 2007 football season to rest and concentrate on basketball.
• The AP seems to have worked out its initial technical difficulties with posting ballots.
• The new voting features of Pollstalker have been added and thoroughly tested
• There have been enough basketball games played to have educated ballots and educated opinions about those ballots.  Much like the BCS in football, there is no point in starting too early in the season.

AP Women's Poll Issues Resolved (posted 1/6/08)

Pollspeak has confirmed Vicki Friedman''s Week 8 and Week 9 ballots with both Friedman and the AP.  So both are now updated in Pollstalker.
 
We have also confirmed with the AP that Dan Fleser has been removed from the poll and replaced with Monte Hale, Murfreesboro Daily News Journal (Tennessee) due to illness.  Hale voted in Week 8 and Week 9 and his ballots have been updated as well.

AP Errors Fixed and Voter Replaced? (posted 1/2/08)

Vicki Friedman's ballot has been updated for Week 9.  Pollspeak is still trying to obtain her week 8 ballot from the AP so we can update our records.
 
As for Dan Fleser, it looks like he has been removed from the poll and replaced with Monte Hale, Murfreesboro Daily News Journal (Tennessee).  The reason at this time is unknown, but we have asked the AP for a comment.   We have also asked them to supply the unaccounted-for ballots from week 8.  Currently we only have record of 48 ballots and potentially only 49 voters in week 8.  We will keep you posted.

Basketball Week 9 Ballots Posted...But With The SAME Two Errors (posted 12/31/07)

Men's and Women's Basketball ballots for Week 9 are now in Pollstalker.  However, the AP has not corrected the two old ballots in the Women's Poll.  Vicki Friedman's ballot is actually her week 4 ballot and Dan Fleser's ballot is actually his week 7 ballot.  The AP has told Pollspeak that the errors are simply typos on their website and do not affect the actual polls.  The issue will be fixed shortly when the AP staff return from the holiday break.  As soon as they are updated,  Pollstalker will be updated as well.  We will keep you posted.

Basketball Week 8 Ballots Posted...But With Two Errors (posted 12/24/07)

Men's and Women's Basketball ballots for Week 8 are now in Pollstalker.  However, the AP has posted at least 2 incorrect ballots for the Women's Poll.  Vicki Friedman's ballot is actually her week 4 ballot and Dan Fleser's ballot is actually his week 7 ballot.  We have contacted the AP about these errors and will update you here when they are corrected.

Official Statement from the AP (posted 12/6/07)

Pollspeak contacted the AP regarding the issue below ("Still Some Kinks at the AP").  Here is their reply:

"Vatour's ballot changed online because we found an error in the way one of the name fields was mapping which was going back and picking up the previous year's ballot which was still in the system. We've taken steps to fix that."

In addition:

• "Two ballots were incorrectly counted in this week's Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll.  The errors affected only the point totals, not the rankings.
• The correct count gave North Carolina one additional first-place vote for a total of 46 and Memphis one less for a total of 21. Arizona State also had 13 points that should have gone to Arizona.
• The ballot of Ed Daigneault of the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American was inadvertently omitted from the tabulation and then was filed erroneously under the name of another voter.
• The ballot of Mark Berman of The Roanoke (Va.) Times also was not tabulated, causing the error in the first-place votes and omitting one point for Sam Houston State."

Pollspeak would like to thank its readers for helping to find some of these issues.  Without our help, it is possible that some serious mistakes might go unnoticed in the future.

You can discuss this further on our basketball FORUM.

Breaking News -- Still Some Kinks at the AP (posted 12/5/07)

Some people have pointed out that the data on the AP Basketball Site isn't matching the data in Pollstalker.  This is not the fault of Pollstalker.  The information on Pollspeak was correct....as of Monday.  It seems the AP is still working out the kinks in their basketball ballots.  Our data comes directly from the AP and that is what their records showed on Monday.  However, as they have been finding errors they have been correcting them.  Some that we have noticed:

• Ed Daigneault -- told us that there was a clerical error with his ballot.  It was swapped with somebody else's and also there was a mix up with Arizona and Arizona State.  See below for details.
• Matt Vautour -- his ballot has changed considerably since it was first released on Monday.  But notably, he had Ohio State #1...no longer.
• Mark Berman -- now has Sam Houston State #25 (previously nobody had voted for them as of Monday).

Just to reiterate, these are not Pollspeak errors, and we have just updated our database to match the updated AP ballots.  We have also asked the AP for a comment, and if they respond, it will be placed on our homepage.  If you notice any more changes in the AP ballots, please notify us at:  admin@pollspeak.com.

You can discuss this further on our basketball FORUM.

Message from AP Voter Ed Daigneault, Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American (posted 12/4/07)

It seems that some angry Arizona fans contacted Ed Daigneault about his Week 5 Basketball ballot.  However, it seems the main issue they have is not his fault.  He wrote Pollspeak with this message for our readers:

"Arizona fans, please stop emailing me. The AP has assured me I'm not as much of an idiot as you think. What appears to be my poll actually isn't. It is someone else's (name unknown) and was, by simple clerical error, credited to me. Another clerical error caused Arizona State to be placed at No. 13 in the other person's ballot when it was actually Arizona meant to occupy that spot. 
  
AP discovered the error after I called in a minor fit of disgust. The AP admittedthe honest mistake. Where it went from there, I don't know.  
  
Here's the ballot I submitted to the AP (without Arizona State and, alas, Arizona):"  
   
His correct ballot can now be found on Pollstalker HERE.   The AP has officially corrected his ballot and therefore Pollstalker has been updated accordingly.

You can discuss this further on our basketball FORUM.