Rank | Team | Reason |
---|---|---|
1 | Duke | +6. Easily the best set of two wins in the country. Unless you're hung up on poll inertia or the Campbell game, this is the pick. |
2 | Purdue | +1. Has looked dominant against weak opponents and solid against good ones. Victim of unlucky scheduling. |
3 | Gonzaga | -2. Could still be the best team in the country, but they're a lot sloppier than a year ago and don't have the same killer instincts. |
4 | Baylor | +2. Kendell Brown is the best freshman in the country outside of Banchero/Holmgren/Smith, and I'm not sold that he's far behind Holmgren. |
5 | Villanova | =. Had a better week than Kansas or UCLA by avoiding playing a game. Needs to find some depth. |
6 | Arizona | +3. Was high on them last week and nothing happened to change that. Koloko/Tubelis/Mathurin is one of the best trios in the nation. |
7 | Kentucky | +4. Haven't played a good team since the Champions Classic, but look dominant against everyone they play. |
8 | Kansas | -6. One loss shouldn't kill a team. But Kansas has serious defensive issues and David McCormack has taken a huge step back from last year. |
9 | UCLA | -5. Flawed team that's going to stay that way unless Cody Riley is a first team all-American. Too many top teams have great frontcourts. |
10 | BYU | +8. I had them too low last week, this is a great basketball team. |
11 | Texas | +2. Marcus Carr? Really bad at basketball. Timmy Allen? Really good at basketball. |
12 | Arkansas | +2. Three unconvincing wins in a row, but they're still wins! |
13 | Tennessee | +3. Uneventful week, took care of business. |
14 | USC | NEW. Soft schedule so far but this team plays great defense. And Chevez Goodwin is a revelation. |
15 | Wisconsin | NEW. Is this too high? I debated going even higher. Had the best week in the country aside from Duke. |
16 | Florida | +6. When do we start talking about whether Colin Castleton is better than Hunter Dickinson? |
17 | Houston | +4. Metrics love them but I'm not quite there. They beat up on bad Virginia and Oregon teams and lost to the only good team they've played. |
18 | Alabama | -6. Looked awful against Iona and pretty bad against Drake. Maybe the worst early-season coaching job outside of Memphis. |
19 | Iowa State | NEW. The greatest turnaround in college basketball history. |
20 | St. Bonaventure | -3. Hey Bonnies, you know the game starts in the first half right? |
21 | Auburn | NEW. Jabari Smith might be the most impressive freshman in the country right now, ahead of Banchero. |
22 | LSU | NEW. Darius Days. |
23 | Memphis | -15. This team almost convinced me it could overcome Penny. It can't. His inability to use Jalen Duren properly is pathetic. |
24 | Seton Hall | NEW. Dropped out: Virginia Tech (19), UConn (20), Michigan (15), Illinois (10), Maryland (24), Oregon (23), Xavier (25). |
25 | Ohio State | NEW. Also considered: Michigan State, Iowa, Utah State, Colorado State. |