Rank | Team | Reason |
---|---|---|
1 | Kentucky | Clearly #1 and still undefeated |
2 | Virginia | Clearly #2, only one loss. |
3 | Villanova | Moving up after Wisconsin loss |
4 | Duke | Played very well other than one bad stretch, and beat #2 Virginia |
5 | Arizona | Swept Utah and beat Gonzaga. This gets them over Wisconsin |
6 | Wisconsin | No real quality road wins. Thus they fall behind Arizona. |
7 | Gonzaga | Gonzaga showed their true colors losing to BYU at home. They still only have two losses, so they stay fairly high. |
8 | Wichita State | Quality win against UNI and only three losses. But it really drops off after #6. |
9 | Northern Iowa | Loss to Wichita State doesn't hurt them that much. Again, it's really starting to drop off now. |
10 | Maryland | Good win against Wisconsin. |
11 | Notre Dame | Five losses overall in a tough conference. |
12 | Kansas | Good team, but with six losses they can't be any higher. |
13 | Louisville | I expect them to drop with Chris Jones out, but until they lose, they won't. |
14 | Baylor | Good win over Iowa State. |
15 | Utah | Loss to Arizona won't drop them too much. |
16 | Dayton | Quality A-10 team who could surprise again come March. The A-10 is underrated. |
17 | Arkansas | Loss to Kentucky won't hurt them too much. |
18 | SMU | They lost to UConn, but they're still a very good team. |
19 | Murray State | Only four losses so far and playing very well, but with their SOS, they can't be any higher. |
20 | Stephen F. Austin | 24-4. Two of those losses were to Top 15 teams and one was to Xavier. Won @Memphis, took UNI to OT before losing by two. |
21 | Davidson | Again, the A-10 is underrated and Davidson only has six losses. They beat Dayton and narrowly lost @VCU. |
22 | West Virginia | Loss to Baylor drops them. |
23 | Iowa State | Bad week almost drops the Cyclones out of the Top 25. |
24 | Texas A&M | A&M is the third-best team in the SEC and took Kentucky to the limit. They could win in a rematch. |
25 | Butler | Bulldogs climb into the top 25, barely, thanks to a lot of low-ranked teams losing. |