Big East Basketball Power Rankings Week 8

Welcome back to the 2010-2011 Big East Power Rankings. The rules are simple, we've invited the SB Nation (or friend of SB Nation) blog for each team to cast a vote. They rank the teams from one to 16 and then we bring you the results. Enjoy.

To get this out of the way up top: the votes for this week were cast before last night's Big Monday game, so while St. John's is sitting in 10th right now, I'm guessing they'll be moving up in the world soon (though how far up and for how long will be interesting to see -- their next seven games and nine of 11 come against ranked teams).

Our top five teams stayed the same, though Syracuse and Villanova were both able to jump up a spot (with the Orange grabbing a share of first-place). Notre Dame's knocking on the door though after an impressive win over Georgetown. Notre Dame is knocking on the door though, and has a great chance to bust on through with a win over UConn tonight.

Speaking of the Huskies, they're hanging on a dangerous ledge. They lost by double digits to Pittsburgh and needed overtime to beat South Florida. They have a rough week ahead too, with the aforementioned trip to Notre Dame, as well a sojourn to Austin to play No. 12 Texas. If they still want to be looked on as a dominant team in the conference, this would be a good time to start playing like it.

The only real major change is West Virginia falling from eight to 11th, thanks to opening Big East play with two losses. That's not the way you want to start with this conference.

Oh, and can anyone tell me what to think of Cincinnati? The Bearcats are 14-0, but have played absolutely no one this year. Their two Big East wins are over Seton Hall and DePaul and the game against the Pirates might be their best win of the year (the other contender: Dayton).

Now, as I mentioned above, UConn is in a dangerous spot this week after hitting a rough patch. I'm on record as being a giant UConn homer, and I honestly think the Huskies can turn this around. Though I recognize this pick could make me look really foolish in about 12 hours, I'm giving the Hater Vote of the Week to The East Coast Bias and Kevin Meacham from this site. TECB had UConn ranked 9th, and TheUConnBlog's ballot has UConn ranked eighth, and I had to fight tooth and nail to get them that high.

Again, ballots were due in before St. John's upset Georgetown last night, but even if the Hoyas had won, our Homer Vote of the Week would have gone to Casual Hoya, who put John Thompson III's crew in first. I think Georgetown has a lot of talent, but after the Notre Dame loss, it takes a real homer to put them above Pitt or Syracuse.

Tie-1. Pittsburgh (3) (13-1, 1-0): 138 points  -- Last Poll: 1

Tie-1. Syracuse (5) (13-0, 2-0): 138 points -- Last Poll: 2

3. Villanova (12-1, 1-0): 123 points -- Last Poll: 4 

4. Georgetown (1) (12-2, 1-1): 108 points -- Last Poll: 3

5. UConn  (11-1, 1-1): 105 points -- Last Poll: 5

6. Notre Dame (12-2, 1-1): 103 points -- Last Poll: 7 

7. Louisville (11-2): 94 points -- Last Poll: 6

8. Cincinnati (14-0, 2-0): 85 points -- Last Poll: 9 

9. Marquette (10-4, 1-0): 71 points -- Last Poll: 10

10. St. John's (9-3, 2-0): 66 points -- Last Poll: T-12  

11. West Virginia (8-4, 0-2): 53 points -- Last Poll: 8 

12. Providence (11-4, 0-2): 43 points -- Last Poll: 11 

13. Rutgers (9-4, 0-1): 36 points -- Last Poll: T-12

14. Seton Hall (7-7, 1-1): 33 points -- Last Poll: 14

15. South Florida (6-9, 0-2): 19 points -- Last Poll: 15

16. DePaul (6-8, 0-2): 9 points -- Last Poll: 16

Past rankings: Week 1 | Week 3 | Week 5 | Week 7

Individual ballots after the jump.