Inaugural Local Top 11 Hoops Poll

Still nameless, pending additional discussion. And I really need that intern. And we were totally foiled by a tie, giving us an inaugural Top 12.

Without further ado....first-place votes are listed in parentheses.

1. Maryland (39) (8-1) 559
--Wednesday vs. Fordham, Sunday at Boston College.
--"I'd have voted them 1, 2, and 3 if they had won last night." (Jay Carini)
2. Virginia (18) (5-1) 523
--No games this week.
--"Cavaliers beat NC State. ACC's regular season now officially longer than NHL's." (Bill Fitzgerald)
3. George Washington (5-1) 400
--Tomorrow vs. UMES, Saturday at USC.
"Coleman Collins' missed dunk is a sure sign the Colonials are a team of destiny ." (Actual journalist Sean McLernon)
4. ODU (1) (6-2) 398
--Wednesday at No. 6 Virginia Tech.
--"I'm thinking that loss to Marist won't look so bad by March. Just a gut. Did you know Marist's team is known as the Red Foxes? I just keep picturing ODU's guards fending off a full-court press and a string of dirty one-liners." (Actual journalist Tim Lemke.)
5. Georgetown (1) (4-3) 380
--Tomorrow vs. James Madison, Saturday vs. Oral Roberts.
--"Losses to three moderately good teams so far this year is not a good sign, but they have talent (albeit in a stupid offense)." (Markus Videnieks)
6. Virginia Tech (4-3) 206
--Wednesday vs. No. 4 ODU, Sunday vs. Appalachian State.
--"They're the veteran team in the ACC so they know how to lose to Duke, UNC, Fla. State, etc." (Glenn Arnold).
7. VCU (5-2) 199
--Wednesday at Albany, Saturday at Richmond.
--"Bonus points for clobbering Houston and Tom Penders by 18." (Actual journalist Chris King)
8. George Mason (3-3) 168
--Wednesday at Radford, Saturday at Duke.
--"Did anyone else hear that they made the final four last year?" (Matt Mandel)
9. Navy (6-2) 167--Tonight vs. Howard, Thursday vs. Penn.
--"Only losses are to Big East schools, if you consider St. John's a legit Big East team." (Actual journalist Ira Weintraub)
10. American (5-2) 87
--Tonight vs. Longwood, Wednesday at Howard, Saturday at Yale.
"The only reason they're ranked here is everyone belong them pretty much stinks." (Actual journalist Adam Littlefield)
11t. Liberty (4-1) 33
--Tonight vs. St. Francis, Saturday vs. Longwood.
--"Kicked the crap out of Cincinnati Bible so watch out Southeast Kentucky Seminary!" (Jamie Paquette)
11t. Towson (4-3) 33
--Tomorrow at William & Mary.
--"Only losses are on the road: Kansas, W. Kentucky, and Tn. State by 2. We're talking about TOWSON!! Plus I
think Gary Neal is an awesome guard." (Sean Perkins)
Also receiving votes: Loyola 29, Richmond 20, Howard 12, VMI 9, Radford 7, Longwood 5, Coppin State 3, Hampton 1, Md.-Eastern Shore 1, UMBC 1.

Some additional notes:

1) We had 59 voters who listed their top 10 teams. The 27 Division I teams in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. were eligible.

2) Many of the voters are actual media members, hailing from The Post, the Washington Times, The Examiner, ESPN.com, Triple X ESPN Radio, FoxSports, Comcast SportsNet and newspapers in Newport News, Virginia Beach, Richmond, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Foggy Bottom. Sadly, we had not a single voter from SportsTalk 980. Where have you gone, Scott Linn?

3) I screened the random volunteer voters to make sure we had a fairly representative mixture of fans. I think I did ok, except for a glaring lack of MEAC fans, and probably not enough CAA fans considering how many CAA schools are eligible. But almost all our voters watch just a shocking amount of college basketball.

4) I would open this up to more volunteers, but golly that took a lot of time to compile, so for now why don't you submit your own thoughts below.

5) I asked for pithy comments, but there were so many that I'll have to include them in a follow-up posting. You people are funny. But don't you have jobs or anything?

6) Non-local schools receiving votes included Army and Kyle Whelliston.