My ballot for the new AP Top 25, which was released this afternoon:

1. Kansas
2. Texas
3. Purdue
4. Kentucky
5. Villanova
6. Duke
7. Georgetown
8. West Virginia
9. Syracuse
10. North Carolina
11. Michigan State
12. Kansas State
13. New Mexico
14. Tennessee
15. Connecticut
16. BYU
17. Mississippi
18. Pittsburgh
19. Gonzaga
20. Miami
21. Florida State
22. William & Mary
23. Wisconsin
24. Clemson
25. Wake Forest

And the actual poll.

A couple of thoughts on my vote: I know, I know. William & Mary? Really, William & Mary? Well, yeah William & Mary.

According to the Web site realtimerpi.com, the Tribe entered today ranked No. 2 in the RPI. Not No. 2 in the CAA. No. 2 in the entire country. They’ve won impressive road games against Wake Forest and Maryland and opened league play with wins over VCU and at Hofstra, which is a tough venue to win at. I think the Tribe is one of the top 25 teams in the country, so that’s my vote.

I guess I like some of the ACC schools more than others. I’m still convinced Miami is a pretty good team, and I wasn’t going to drop Clemson entirely for losing to Duke. Wake looked really good last night against Xavier. Florida State is an impressive team. Virginia Tech is pretty close to being a ranked team after that excellent showing in Cancun Saturday night, beating a good Seton Hall team without its best player. Even Virginia had a solid week, beating a ranked UAB team. The ACC is just ridiculously deep this year. N.C. State had a win in the bag until Florida stole it right under the Wolfpack’s noses.

Check out the buzzer beater from yesterday here if you haven’t seen it.

The only ACC team that really looks shaky now is Boston College, which somehow just lost at home to Maine.

I don’t like Wisconsin as much as some of the pollsters do, and apparently I now have Gonzaga right where the Bulldogs should be. Good week for the Zags with impressive wins against Oklahoma and Illinois.

More YouTube fun from the OU-Gonzaga game, by the way.

Real quick Liberty-related notes:

* Flames G Evan Gordon earned Big South freshman of the week honors this week, and for good reason. His scoring was instrumental in Liberty’s win at VMI Saturday afternoon. He scored a career-best 24 points in that one, and he’s probably flying under the radar more than any little brother of an NBA player should.

* Radford’s Artsiom Parakhouski was the Big South’s player of the week. He averaged 26.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks as the Highlanders beat George Mason and UNC Asheville this week.

* I really wasn’t surprised as the result of Saturday’s LU-Gardner-Webb women’s game. In my two meetings with Rick Reeves last year, I got the impression that he and the Bulldogs really wanted to beat Liberty. I mean really, really, really, really, really wanted to beat Liberty. The Bulldogs’ motto for this season is “Just Two More Points,“ a reference to the Bulldogs’ one-point loss to Liberty last season in the Big South tournament championship game. I came away last year pretty impressed with Gardner-Webb, and I figured they’d be one of the top teams in the league this year. One thing is certain: The Big South won’t be the cakewalk for the LU women that is has been in years past. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Flames lose three or four games. The competition is much better.

* Some good Big South games tonight, as Radford hosts Gardner-Webb; Charleston Southern hosts Winthrop; Coastal Carolina gets Presbyterian in Conway and High Point hosts UNC Asheville. VMI and Liberty—league travel partners—are off. The conference moved to Thursday-Saturday scheduling, but with last Thursday falling on New Year’s Eve, the conference decided to give the Saturday-Monday rotation one more run. Games next weekend will be Thursday-Saturday.