College Basketball Rankings: Kansas Deserves No. 1, But What Next?

More like it now. Lots of conference games, great team play on the road, lots of upsets. Because that means my services are in particularly high demand. You guys love to get pissed off in the comments section (I don’t think the word “be nice” is very popular), but I want you to vote for me when you’re not talking about it at parties. I’m here. You need me on that ballot.

It’s rare to see so many changes to a leaderboard and a new #1 spot. I managed to understand everything. Here’s the correct order of the top 25 college basketball teams, as submitted to The Associated Press on Sunday night.

Dropped out: Indiana (13), Ohio (15), Duke (18), Miami (19), New Mexico (22)

Most Famous: Auburn, Clemson, Illinois, Iowa, Memphis, Missouri, Rutgers, UCF

Voting Notes

• Not only did my No. 1 team, the Purdue, lose at home to Rutgers (and nearly lose in Ohio State three nights later), but my heirs, Arizona, lost at home to Washington State, My No. 3 team, UConn, lost two in a row in Providence. This left me having to decide who to pick as the new number one and how far to drop those teams.

The first part was easy. My next team is Kansas. The Jayhawks certainly seemed to play a role when he demolished Virginia 76-62 in Morgantown on Saturday, but last Tuesday in Texas he was three points behind the Tech. I was lucky to win with the . Heck, they were lucky to be squeamish at their home in Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve. Considering Volunteers defeated Kansas in Battle 4 Atlantis, we considered leaping Tennessee to the top spot, but ranked Tennessee behind KU. (They also lost in Arizona, but that’s no big deal.)

As for where to rank the three teams that lost, the Wildcats punished Arizona the most as they lost at home to the team ranked 61st in KenPom. I also factored in the fact that the Cats were lucky two days ago to beat Washington at home at home where he was by three points. UConn’s loss at Providence is nothing to be ashamed of, but I thought the Huskies would have a better recovery from their loss at Xavier. Purdue has obviously made some adjustments going into league play and the team is doing everything they can to bottle up Zach Eady. Kudos to you for closing in and for handling a very good Pennsylvania State team at Palestra on Sunday.

Another factor in these decisions was the result of going head to head with some of my other top 10 teams. Purdue beat Gonzaga in a neutral his-court match, and Alabama, who won in Birmingham, won in Houston. It’s nice when things go that way, but the further away you get from those games, the less it all holds up. , I expect my voter turnout to rise, but the separation between Zags and the rest of WCC is clearly shrinking.

• It’s not often that a team goes from unranked to #12, but following victories in Texas and Baylor, one could argue that Kansas ranks too low. Looking at the work Jerome Tan is doing in his first season in Manhattan, one has to wonder why it took so long to hire him off the bench of Scott Drew. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, who coached Arizona for 20 years, is amazing to lead this team in scoring and rebounding, with 33 assists and eight turnovers in three Big 12 games. A notable turn was made by Markquis Nowell, a 5-8 super senior point guard who averaged 30.3 points. That’s right now, but for now, it’s one of the biggest stories of the season.

• Another big riser this week is Providence. The Flyers lost all five starts from last year’s Big East champions and the Sweet 16 team, but here he leads the Big East 6-0. Even KenPom, who generally doesn’t like this team, comes along. Monk has risen to 30th place in these rankings and in NET he is 34th. That doesn’t usually suggest a ranking this high, but the Flyers already have four quad 1 wins (he’s only three teams with more wins). They only have one game this week at Clayton Saturday, which should be a big challenge.

• I was ready to rank Rutgers by their Purdue win, but the Scarlet Knights failed when they lost at home to Iowa. So, we gave Michigan State the final berth. Michigan State is now on a six-game winning streak and is finally getting back on its feet with the return of Jaden Akins and Malik Hall. My rating of the Spartans Buy-Plus on the Hoop Thoughts Stock Report is based on their coming back, so I figured I’d invest my money where my stock is. The Spartans will play in Wisconsin and Illinois this week, so their stay may be short.

Deeper

Malik Hall reminds everyone how important he is to Michigan

• I voted Indiana out for the first time this season after the Hoosiers suffered two heartbreaking losses. They blew a 21-point first-half lead before losing to Iowa by two points on Thursday and losing at home to Northwestern University 84-83 on Sunday. , Indiana lost heart and soul guru guy Race Thompson to a foot injury in the first half. The school said he will be out indefinitely. Another senior starter, Xavier Johnson, was also lost to a leg injury that required surgery. There’s a long way to go, but things are definitely going in the wrong direction.

• Duke was also eliminated after an 84-60 loss to North Carolina State. The Blue Devils were lucky enough to win at Boston College on Saturday as well, and this week’s minutes include Pittsburgh and Clemson, the top two teams in his ACC standings. Point his guard Jeremy Roach is unlikely to make it to the Pittsburgh game, at least. Roach earned his BC win with a toe injury, a very tricky disease for basketball players. As such, the Blue Devils may be out of the ranks for some time.

• We lost the other 3 teams that ranked last week. Ohio State lost to Purdue and Maryland, Miami lost to Georgia Tech, and New Mexico lost to Fresno State and his UNLV. There weren’t any obvious large options to fill those slots, so we relied on metrics to find a medium replacement St. Mary’s in quad 3 he lost 2 but went neutral to San Diego State I won the court. 24 KPIs. Florida Atlantic has also quietly won 13 straight games, making them the only undefeated team in Conference USA. Owls is 13th in NET, 21st in KPI, 28th in BartTorvik, and 38th in KenPom.

• Finally, Charleston made it into the AP Top 25 last week, but I’m not ranking the Cougars or including them on the nearly-famous list. I love this team and think it’s great that they’re getting attention, but I’m a little perplexed as to why my fellow voters are ranking the Cougars. They have the longest winning streak in the country at 15 games, but only two of them have beaten KenPom’s Top 100 teams. He was the only game the Cougars had ever played against a Top 40 team on November 11 in North Carolina, where he lost by 16 points. It is also not a ranking metric. I’m a big fan of Pat Kelsey’s team, but I don’t see a case to include them in the top 25 at this point.

(Photo by Joseph Yesef of Kansas: Ben Queen / USA Today)