College Hoops Top 25 4th Edition: Here Comes Kentucky!
It was another busy week in the world of college basketball. For the most part, there wasn't a whole lot of movement in this week's rankings, especially toward the top. There was a little bit of reshuffling thanks to a huge win for Kentucky this past weekend over Tennessee, but other than that, the top 10 held firm. Duke continued to cruise along this week and the Blue Devils are now 23-2, and stay entrenched atop the rankings.
Behind the Dukies, Gonzaga was able to take advantage of Tennessee's blowout loss at Kentucky over the weekend and they slid up to the #2 spot. The Vols only dropped one spot to 3, and are followed by Virginia, who stayed put at 4, and Kentucky, who jumped into the top 5 following that impressive victory over Tennessee. Michigan and Nevada each slid back a spot to make room for Kentucky, and settle in at 6 and 7 respectively. Meanwhile, Houston crushed Tulane by 35 on Sunday and continue to dominant the competition in the AAC. The Cougars remain at #8 this week and are followed by North Carolina and Marquette, who both remained locked into the 9 & 10 spots, respectively.
Michigan State has rebounded from a couple of losses and are now 21-5 and knocking on the door of the top 10, as they remained at #11 this week. Kansas stayed put at 12, and are yet again right in the mix to capture the Big XII regular season crown. They sit in the middle of a jumbled conference picture at the moment.
Purdue took advantage of Villanova dropping one at home to St. John's over the weekend, and flipped spots with the Wildcats, moving up to 13. LSU got themselves a huge victory at Kentucky at the beginning of last week, and that helped propel them up a couple of spots to #15. The Tigers are now 21-4 and are tied with Tennessee atop the SEC at 11-1 in conference play. Behind the surging Tigers are Iowa State, up three spots after winning at Kansas State during the week, Florida State, up 3 spots as well to #17, the Wisconsin Badgers, who stayed firm at 18, and the Iowa Hawkeyes at #19, who also jumped up a couple of spots and are now 20-5 on the season.
Texas Tech is now 21-5 in the Big XII, and they remained locked into the #20 spot this week. The Red Raiders are followed by fellow Big XII foe Kansas State, who dropped six spots to 21 following their loss at home to Iowa State. Virginia Tech also slid back 6 spots this week and settle in at 22. Rounding out the top 25 are Louisville once again at 23, Buffalo, up a spot to 24, and Cincinnati & St. John's both jumped into the rankings this week, tied for the 25th spot. Maryland had an opportunity to get a resume building win this past weekend at Michigan, but lost by 13, and dropped out of the rankings this week to make way for St. John's after the Red Storm dispatched Villanova on Sunday. Without further ado, here is this week's updated top 25:
TOP 25
1 DUKE (23-2)
2 GONZAGA (25-2)
3 TENNESSEE (23-2)
4 VIRGINIA (23-2)
5 KENTUCKY (21-4)
6 MICHIGAN (23-3)
7 NEVADA (24-1)
8 HOUSTON (25-1)
9 NORTH CAROLINA (20-5)
10 MARQUETTE (21-4)
11 MICHIGAN STATE (21-5)
12 KANSAS (20-6)
13 PURDUE (18-7)
14 VILLANOVA (20-6)
15 LSU (21-4)
16 IOWA STATE (19-6)
17 FLORIDA STATE (20-5)
18 WISCONSIN (18-8)
19 IOWA (20-5)
20 TEXAS TECH (21-5)
21 KANSAS STATE (20-6)
22 VIRGINIA TECH (20-6)
23 LOUISVILLE (18-8)
24 BUFFALO (22-3)
T25 CINCINNATI (21-4)*
T25 ST. JOHN'S (19-7)*
* - new to the rankings this week
Dropped Out: 24 MARYLAND (19-7)
The next group of teams just outside of the top 25 are: Washington (20-5), Maryland (19-7), Mississippi State (18-7), Wofford (23-4), UCF (19-5), and Ole Miss (18-7). Washington continues to dominate the weak PAC-12, but it's not quite enough to burst through into the rankings. The conference is just really down this year, and quality wins are nearly impossible to come by within conference play. Maryland and Mississippi State continue to knock on the door, with a very solid Wofford squad lingering behind.
Looking ahead to this week, Maryland and Iowa square off in the Big TEN tonight, North Carolina visits Duke tomorrow night in a marque rivalry matchup in the ACC, and UCF is at Cincinnati in a big game in the American Athletic on Thursday night. This coming weekend has some huge showdowns in store, headlined by Tennessee visiting LSU in the SEC on Saturday, Virginia visits Louisville in the ACC, Kentucky hosts Auburn in the SEC, and Florida State heads to Chapel Hill for a showdown with UNC. This are plenty of big games this week, enjoy all of the action ahead of us, and be sure to check back again next week for another updated top 25! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! I've included a link to my youtube video discussing this week's rankings as well, feel free to check it out if you have time! Thank you all for the support and happy reading & writing!
https://youtu.be/i4I3krgeTM8
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