ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan rose to No. 4 in this week's Associated Press college basketball poll after a sloppy victory over Western Michigan.
The Wolverines hosted the Broncos on Saturday afternoon after a full week off, and the rust was obvious. Michigan needed a 10-0 run in the final moments of the first half to take a 2-point lead into the break, and only won by 8 points.
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But in the end, Michigan improved to 11-0 and remained one of only nine undefeated teams in the country.
Michigan is ranked well behind No. 1 Kansas and just behind No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Tennessee.
The Big Ten has seven teams ranked in the Top 25: No. 4 Michigan, No. 10 Michigan State, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 16 Wisconsin, No. 22 Indiana, No. 23 Iowa and No. 25 Nebraska. Maryland, Purdue and Minnesota also received votes in the poll.
Michigan has one win over a currently ranked team: a 17-point blowout against No. 9 North Carolina. John Beilein's team also beat Villanova and Purdue teams that received votes, but neither made the Top 25 this week.
Michigan is only 22 points behind Tennessee and 46 points behind Duke in the current poll. Here's a look at the full voter breakdown:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 1:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 2:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 3:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 4:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 5:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 6:
Voters who ranked Michigan No. 8:
Voting outliers
Alexander and Bednarowski are the obvious outliers when it comes to ranking Michigan in this week's poll.
Alexander heavily rewarded undefeated teams in his poll. He has Michigan at No. 1, Nevada (11-0) at No. 2 and Kansas (9-0) at No. 3. He also has Buffalo (10-0) at No. 10.
Bednarowski was even more of an outlier when it came to Michigan, as 64 of the 65 voters had the Wolverines in the top six while he left them at No. 8. The KenPom, Sagarin and NET rankings all have Michigan in the top five.
In his poll, Bednarowski has Michigan ranked behind Kansas, Duke, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, Auburn and Florida State, in that order.
While Kansas, Duke, Nevada, Tennessee and Virginia joined Michigan as the consensus top six in the final poll, the placement of Auburn and Florida State is a bit of a head-scratcher.
Auburn's only loss came in a competitive game against Duke in Maui, but the Tigers don't have a single win over a team ranked in the AP Top 25, or even the KenPom top 50. Auburn also needed overtime this weekend to beat a 6-4 UAB team.
Florida State lost on a neutral site to a team that Michigan beat by 27 points on the road. The Seminoles beat Purdue by one point at home while the Wolverines beat Purdue by 19 points at home.
Alexander writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and Bednarowski writes for the Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia.