Men's college basketball Top 25: Why Auburn should still be No. 1, and a Duke-Alabama toss-up

Auburn lost to Florida 90-81 on Saturday, and when the top-ranked team in college basketball goes down, that usually means there will be a new No.

1 in the AP poll on Monday.

This time, it shouldnt.

The Tigers are still my No.

1, and even if No.

2 Duke had won at Clemson, I may have still kept my top three unchanged.

Moving teams down after just one loss is not always automatic.

Its worth taking a look at the entire picture, and Auburn has the best combination of resume and predictive (quality) metrics among the three teams most will be considering the top spot on this weeks ballot.

Lets take a look at Auburn, Duke and No.

3 Alabama, using Bart Torviks team sheets, which average three resume-based rankings and three predictive metrics.

Ill also include overall record, Quad 1 record and record against teams in my top 25: The only thing Duke has on Auburn is a head-to-head home win in early December, but Auburns resume is much stronger.

Auburn has played the fourth-toughest schedule in college hoops, per KenPom, while Dukes strength of schedule is 24th.

The quality of Auburns losses Duke and Florida, compared to Kentucky, Kansas and Clemson for Duke is better as well.

Advertisement Who should be No.

2 Alabama or Duke is now a good argument, but that one is close enough to a coin flip that I simply go with the eye test.

If they played on a neutral floor, Id lean Duke.

Reminder: Below my Top 25, I give nuggets on an unspecified number of teams each week.

So when a team appears in the table but not in the text below, thats why.

Scroll on for notes on Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Texas A&M, St.

Johns, Arizona, Wisconsin, UCLA, Kentucky and Creighton.

1.

Auburn Auburn is the fourth-most efficient spot-up shooting team in the country, per Synergy, and the Tigers often get great looks from the double teams that Johni Broome draws.

Florida made it a point to not bring any help and play one-on-one in the post: The Tigers shoot 63.1 percent at the rim, but they made only 15 of their 29 attempts at the basket on Saturday.

Most importantly, Floridas approach took away their easy catch-and-shoot opportunities from distance.

Auburn made 4 of its 12 catch-and-shoot 3s, and only two of those were stationary shots generated by plays that either drew two defenders to the ball or forced an extra defender to help tag a roller.

Both of those 3s (which missed) were attempted by bigs.

The Tigers still scored 81 points, and it was mostly Floridas offense that beat them, but this turned out to be a smart gameplan.

Auburn is really good at hunting those spot-ups, and Florida took them away.

And in a game where the Tigers needed 3s to rally from a big deficit, the Gators discipline staying home took those looks away.

4.

Tennessee With the super leagues conference realignment has created, could it make sense for the best high-major teams to start emulating the NBA and considering load management for their stars? Advertisement Some forced rest certainly appeared to help Vols point guard Zakai Zeigler in the last week.

Zeigler was in a shooting slump when he injured his knee on Jan.

28 against Kentucky.

In back-to-back losses to Auburn and Kentucky, Zeigler went 1 of 17 from 3-point range and was shooting 26 percent from deep in SEC play.

Zeigler sat out a win against Florida last Saturday, then returned for wins against Missouri and Oklahoma, averaging 19 points and 8.5 assists for the week and making 7 of 8 3s.

Its the best two-game stretch from 3 in his four-year career.

Floridas Walter Clayton had a similar situation.

He went 2 of 9 from 3 against Tennessee, sat out a midweek game against Vanderbilt with a sprained ankle and then came out hot on Saturday against Auburn, making 4 of 8 3s and they were deep bombs.

It might be a fun offseason project to dive into whether rest impacts shooting.

5.

Florida Florida became the first team to reach 90 points against Auburn this season by utilizing great spacing and wisely taking advantage of the knowledge that Auburn doesnt want to over-help.

Auburn holds opponents to the lowest assist rate of any high-major team in the country.

The Gators had success in two-man games on empty sides, using side ball screens or dribble handoffs to turn the corner and forcing the screeners defender to slightly lift upcourt.

Floridas guards then had faith in the speed and leaping ability of their bigs on the roll.

Watch how early Denzel Aberdeen throws this lob: What makes a Florida guard with a step even more dangerous is the assist from the bigs.

Notice on this next clip that when Clayton turns the corner, Sam Alexis gets inside position on Dylan Cardwell and sets a Gortat screen to shield off Cardwell from Clayton: Its that screen and Cardwell fighting over it that takes him away from trying to contest Alex Condon at the rim.

Floridas bigs are as good as anyone in college basketball at seeing opportunities to Gortat and executing it.

In the second half, Florida also took advantage of Auburn selling out to try to slow down Clayton, who was on fire from the perimeter.

The Tigers started sending two defenders at Clayton to make him give the ball up, so Gators coach Todd Golden began calling high ball screens for Clayton to lure Auburn into putting two on the ball, counting on his bigs abilities to facilitate in advantage situations: Again, watch whats happening in the paint.

Theres Rueben Chinyelu with another excellent Gortat.

The Gators finished with 22 assists.

The most assists Auburn had allowed before Saturday was 13 to Purdue.

No.

8 Texas A&M The Aggies won at Missouri on a last-second 3 from Wade Taylor IV.

Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams had called a timeout with 10.1 seconds left, and the expectation was that he would try to get something going to the basket in a tie game.

But the Aggies do not operate like most teams.

And to understand their thinking, go back a possession earlier.

After Mizzou took the lead in the final minute, Taylor came down and pulled a logo 3: Why would Taylor take that shot? For one, Williams said after the game that Taylors greatest gift is hes fearless, but Taylor also explained his thinking: (Our bigs are) the reason that I can shoot those type of shots, because I know that, one, they believe in me that Im going to make it, but they believe and I believe that if I do miss it that theyre going to get it.

Advertisement The data backs that up.

The Aggies rank No.

1 in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage for the second straight year.

So instead of a drive into the paint on the final possession, the play call was set up for Taylor to take the 3: The confidence in Taylor paid off, but this moment when the ball was in the air is worth a freeze frame: If Taylor misses that shot, who do you think gets the offensive rebound? Im betting on the Aggies, who then would have got their paint shot.

No.

9 St.

Johns St.

Johns is operating like no other team in college basketball.

Brendan Quinn explained why in his excellent story from Fridays win over UConn .

The Spark Notes version: Rick Pitinos team is not good at shooting 3s but is good in the midrange, so St.

Johns has opted to turn its nose up at analytics and let it fly from inside the arc.

Defense has carried the Johnnies, but their self-awareness on offense makes them difficult to deal with.

That played out in the final minute on Friday.

Trailing by two and facing a nine-second difference between the game clock and shot clock, UConn decided to try to get a stop instead of fouling.

When the ball went out of bounds with 3.1 seconds left on the shot clock, assistant coach Bob Walsh decided to run an inbounds play the Johnnies had scored on in November against Harvard.

Its a great late-clock play because its designed to get a lob at the rim: But Pitino had a twist.

Pitino told RJ Luis, who was already 4 of 4 from midrange, to fake like he was circling around to get the lob and pop back out, because UConn would expect the lob.

So Luis hit the Huskies with a little peek-a-boo move: Game.

The Johnnies continue to be the hardest team in the country to put away.

They won despite trailing by 14 in the first half, and theyre now 5-0 in games theyve trailed by double digits.

No.

11 Arizona Caleb Love is the most polarizing player in college basketball, and if he has an off shooting night like he did against Texas Tech, shooting 4 of 15 from the field most just assume its the same old narrative: Caleb Love, the reckless chucker.

Advertisement The box score doesnt always tell the story.

Love didnt shoot it great against the Red Raiders, but he impacted the game in so many ways, and its a sign of his maturity that his shooting isnt always impacting the rest of his game.

Texas Techs Chance McMillian came in as one of the hottest shooters in the country.

Love guarded him most of the game, and McMillian barely ever found light.

A sampling: McMillian scored just eight points, and only one bucket came with Love guarding him.

Love also made some excellent passes (he finished with six assists) and got to the free-throw line (where he was 7 of 9 en route to 16 points).

And a missed shot isnt always a bad shot; Arizona scored six points off his misses.

Oh, and Love played 39 minutes with great effort.

Also worth noting: Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd has found a defensive juggernaut lineup, which was the five that finished off the Red Raiders down the stretch.

Love, Jaden Bradley, KJ Lewis, Carter Bryant and Henri Veesaar are plus-53 in 58 minutes over the previous five games, per CBB Analytics, holding opponents to just 74.2 points per 100 possessions.

Whats awesome about that group is their activity level on defense.

This Saturdays game against Houston in Tucson will be must-see TV, especially if you love defense and effort.

No.

13 Wisconsin The Badgers are averaging 15.6 made 3s over their last five games, and theyve surpassed 2009 Michigan for the highest 3-point rate in Big Ten history.

Theyre attempting 48.1 percent of their shots from deep on the season, and that rate is up to 50.2 percent in Big Ten play.

Its working, too.

Wisconsins current adjusted efficiency is the second-highest for the program in the KenPom era, trailing only the 2015 team that lost in the national championship game to Duke.

What makes the Badgers so tough to guard is that all nine players in Greg Gards rotation are capable of making the 3.

Everyone is always shot-ready and willing to make one or two more passes to get an even better look: No.

21 UCLA Mick Cronin has been vocal about his displeasure with UCLAs travel, but he might be onto something.

The Bruins are on a seven-game winning streak in which theyve yet to leave the Pacific time zone.

And heres how theyve performed for the season by time zone: The Bruins still have two road trips east, but the furthest they have to go is Indiana.

Their recent success could also have something to do with their offense.

Since Jan.

17 when this win streak began, theyre the third-best offense in college basketball and performing as the best team in the country at Torvik.

Before that date, they ranked 110th in adjusted offensive efficiency.

Advertisement No.

22 Kentucky Before Saturdays 80-57 win over South Carolina, Kentuckys defense was tracking to become the worst defense efficiency-wise in SEC games in the KenPom era (dating back to 1997).

But after a game against the SECs worst offense, the Cats are on track to only be the fourth-worst defense in conference games during that timespan.

What certainly helped was the return of Lamont Butler, who is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country.

Not only is Butler a terrific defender, his presence allows coach Mark Pope to stagger the minutes of Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson, who were both starting.

Before Saturday, the Brea-Robinson combo was allowing 133.1 points per 100 possessions when on the floor together in conference games, per CBB Analytics.

Kentucky still ranks last in the SEC in defense during conference play, and thats obviously an area where it has to get better to have a chance at a run in March.

And its a good thing the offense is so good.

In the KenPom database, the SECs worst defense in conference play has never made the NCAA Tournament.

No.

24 Creighton There are 18 teams in college basketball with at least five Quad 1 wins and a winning record in the first quadrant, and all 18 are now in my top 25, with Creighton joining that group after beating Marquette on Saturday.

The Bluejays have won nine straight, and its a reminder that Greg McDermott is one of the best coaches in the game.

After the first day of the Players Era Festival, when the Jays lost 71-53 to San Diego State coming off a home loss to Nebraska, I was convinced McDermotts team was one of the worst teams in Vegas that week and was probably going to end the programs run of four straight NCAA Tournament bids.

And that was before losing Pop Isaacs, who scored 27 points in an upset win against Kansas on Dec.

4 and then shut it down for the season to have hip surgery.

But McDermott is always going to figure out how to build a productive offensive no matter the pieces, and over the last 11 games, Creighton has the 13th-best defense in the country, per Torvik.

Its built around center Ryan Kalkbrenner, who has been on all four of McDermotts highest-ranked defenses in his time at Creighton.

Dropped out: Illinois.

Keeping an eye on: Clemson, UConn, Louisville, Saint Marys, Drake, New Mexico.

(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images).

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