Rank | Team | Reason |
---|---|---|
1 | Kansas | It's weird to say it, but they have simply looked the best so far this season despite the thin frontcourt. Will that hurt KU at some point? |
2 | Duke | 3 straight games trailing at halftime. They've managed to make some miraculous comebacks on two occasions. But that's not #1 worthy anymore. |
3 | Villanova | Tough luck on the quality win front with the chaos at B4A. Still, I think Nova has looked on par with Duke and KU thus far. |
4 | Michigan State | Michigan State looked like the team people were expecting to see. A tough, hard-nosed performance against UNC in the PK80. |
5 | Florida | Looked great for most of the game against Duke. This team is fun and can score in bunches. |
6 | Kentucky | Nothing significant this week. |
7 | Texas A&M | Great win at USC. Even if USC isn't as good as many thought to start the year, winning on the road is always tough. |
8 | Cincinnati | While the SOS isn't amazing by any means, Cincinnati has yet to allow more than .88 PPP in a game this season. |
9 | Wichita State | Tough loss to Notre Dame in a game they should have won. But a lucky win against Cal when they should have lost. Dropped just two spots. |
10 | Miami (FL) | La Salle and North Florida games didn't provide meaningful data points. Moved up due to others' drops. |
11 | Notre Dame | Great comeback against Wichita State. Moved up a few spots as a result. |
12 | Minnesota | Looked good against Bama until the game got weird as hell. Not sure what to think about that. |
13 | North Carolina | They looked better than I expected until the Michigan State debacle. That was ugly. |
14 | Virginia | Very good wins against RI and Vandy. Moving up significantly as their D has been great. |
15 | Xavier | I still believe in this Xavier team, but the Arizona State loss is definitely concerning. The win at Wisconsin has also lost some luster. |
16 | Gonzaga | Lots of OTs. Could have beat Florida, could have blown their lead against Texas and lost. Dropped them just one spot. |
17 | West Virginia | Didn't look good against Missouri, but made a big comeback to avoid the loss. |
18 | Louisville | Basically no meaningful data points here. Just keeping them roughly where I was expecting before. |
19 | TCU | In their first "test" against the Bonnies TCU looked good. Four more games in a row against at least okay competition should be telling. |
20 | Baylor | Two good wins against Wisconsin and Creighton. Excited to see how they do this next week against Xavier and Wichita State. |
21 | Texas Tech | Basically meaningless games after their dominating performance against Northwestern. |
22 | Purdue | At least they aren't Arizona? |
23 | Creighton | Don't love having Creighton ranked, but wins against Northwestern and UCLA is better than what many teams have done so far. |
24 | USC | Without Melton, I just don't have much faith in this USC team. |
25 | Alabama | Not sure I want to give Bama to much credit for coming back with 3 players when they were looking outclassed with 5. |