After noting that Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News had ranked Syracuse 10th on his ballot in the Associated Press college basketball poll, I reached out to him.

Wilner had the Orange ranked lower than any other voter in this week's AP poll. In fact, Wilner was one of only two voters who didn't have Syracuse in their Top 5.

Syracuse wound up tied for third in this week's poll.

Wilner noted that he moved Syracuse up to 10th from 18th where he had the Orange a week ago. Here is Wilner's explanation on how decided to put Syracuse at No. 10 in his poll, which he offered via email:

I moved Syracuse up 8 spots after the Louisville win, which was a far bigger jump than the Orange experienced in the overall AP Poll.

The question, I suppose, is: Why was Syracuse ranked so low on my ballot the previous week? The answer: Strength of schedule. That's an essential component to my evaluation and Syracuse, on the whole, has played a fairly soft schedule. Prior to Louisville, it had just one quality win, San Diego State, and a non-conference SOS ranked No. 122 (according to CBS Sports' RPI).

The Cincinnati win was a good one and will be factored into next week's ballot. But Alcorn, Central Connecticut, Detroit, Canisius, Monmouth, EMU, etc., etc., ... gimme a break!

I thank Jon for providing an insight into his ballot.