Week 12 NCAA College Basketball Top 25
Another week of conference play down, another week full of upsets. West Virginia seemed to be headed toward a #1 or #2 seed in the tourney until this week when they lost twice to two unranked teams. The Pac-12 is also heating up with Arizona taking down UCLA and with the run of the red hot preseason favorite, Oregon, coming to a halt with their star Dillon Brooks likely out for a week or two with a sprained left foot. A lot of movement in our second week our bringing you the rankings so check out the movers here.
#1 Villanova: They went 2-0 this week with a dominating win against Seton Hall and a win against a decent Providence team. Easily still the best team in the nation for the second week in a row.
#2 Kansas: Kansas also went 2-0 this week against two pretty good teams in Iowa St. and Texas. Although they are definitely the second best team in the nation, with their upcoming schedule I would not be surprised to see them jump to the #1 or fall out of the top 10.
#3 Kentucky: Yet another top team to go 2-0 this week, only this time Kentucky has some better wins including one against #24 South Carolina. They also beat Mississippi St. away, which is another decent win. Don't be fooled by the rankings here, Kentucky could easily be the #1 team in the nation.
#4 Gonzaga: At 19-0, this squad deserves to ranked highly. Some people, including myself, think that they have barely been challenged but going 19-0 is tough to pull off in any conference. Even still, I need to see more from this team and I can't see them moving up in the rankings without a loss from one of the top 3.
#5 Baylor: 2 more decent wins by this squad against Texas at home and at TCU. Although I have them at #5, they are 100% a #1 seed in the tourney right now and I can't foresee them losing that placing baring a complete breakdown.
#6 North Carolina: Pretty easy week for the Tar Heels with wins against BC and Syracuse, but they benefited from a couple teams above them in the rankings taking losses. UNC is getting back to the state they were at in early December when they were the team to beat.
#7 Florida St: Huge week for FSU, beating Louisville and Notre Dame. The only thing keeping me from putting them past UNC is that UNC beat them just last week. All FSU needed was to get to conference play to really show how dominant of a team they can be.
#8 Arizona: Early in the season, it seemed as though Arizona wasn't going to be a top 10 team when they announced the Suspension of Allonzo Trier, but they didn't give up and in his first game back, Trier scored 12 points to help them take down the 1 loss UCLA to extend their win streak to 12. This was one of their first quality wins but their two losses are both quality as well, one being against the currently undefeated Gonzaga, and the other being to a very solid Butler team. I think Arizona is a #2 seed at the moment and if not, they are not any lower than a #3 seed.
#9 Oregon: Considering they only had one game against Cal, which they won, it doesn't seem like Oregon could have made much news. However, Dillon Brooks sprained his left foot, which is the last thing Oregon fans want to hear. His return to the court sprung Oregon onto this hot streak and without him they go from an elite team to a decent tourney lock. It remains to be seen how long Brooks is out for this time and it remains to be seen how Oregon will fair without him.
#10 UCLA: This squad has a fantastic resume for the tourney but a loss is a loss. Losing at home to anybody is going to cause you to fall in the rankings. Although they are rounding out my top 10 for this week, I still believe they are a #2 seed at the moment and I don't expect them to take another loss for a few weeks.
#11 Louisville: 1-1 on the week but their one loss was to a great Florida St team that was on fire. They benefit from some squads that fell out of the top 10 because they've been able to stay at #11 even with a loss.
#12 Butler: Not too much to talk about with this squad. 2-0 week against some bad teams. Only beating DePaul by 1 point is concerning but a win is a win and this team has been solid thus far in the season.
#13 Virginia: Another team with an under the radar week. 2-0 with wins against BC and Georgia Tech. Not too much to brag about but this preseason top 10 gets to benefit from the losses of teams ahead of them.
#14 Duke: 1-0 this week against a very solid Miami team. They won pretty handily and we could be starting to see the Duke that everyone thought they would be in the preseason. Even if they aren't doing as well as they should be, they still have the best roster in the basketball and one of the best coaches. They'll be back in the top 10 soon enough.
#15 Cincinnati: Cincy went 2-0 against a couple of bad teams but it does extend their win streak to 10. They have a tough matchup against Xavier this week so if they want to continue this win streak they're going to have to play bring their A game.
#16 Wisconsin: Arguably the best team in the Big 12 went 2-0 this week against two good teams in Michigan and Minnesota. They have a few easy games until Indiana on February 5th so expect them to climb this list over the next couple of weeks.
#17 Creighton: Creighton had an odd week. They started it off with a big win against Xavier but then they went on to lose to Marquette in a complete shootout with a final score of 102-94. This is still a great team but they have ground to make up resume wise after this bad loss.
#18 West Virginia: Last week I had this team at #3 in the country because of how great of a resume they had but they fell apart this week with two losses this week. Granted, when you play in the big 12 you have a chance to lose two games in any given week but this team needs to sort some things out. I still have them as a #3 seed but they did not look great last week.
#19 Notre Dame: They got beat by a red hot Florida St team this week but they closed the week off with a win over Syracuse. It's a good loss by the fighting Irish but it was a pretty big win for their tourney resume.
#20 St. Mary's: This senior heavy squad bounced back from a loss to Gonzaga with two easy wins. Losses wise they have a pretty good resume but they need some better wins. Regardless, St. Mary's is one of the most talented teams in the country and I have no doubt they'll do well in March.
#21 Purdue: Purdue had an easy schedule this week but they came out and did the job. 2-0 on the week with wins against Illinois and Penn St. Not too much has changed with this Purdue team but they are continuing to prove they they deserve to be considered one of the best teams in the Big Ten.
#22 Maryland: Another team that is wanting to be considered one of the best teams in the Big Ten. Maryland only had one game against Iowa and they came out and won. That extends their win streak to 4 and improves their Big Ten record to 5-1. This is a team on the rise and Trimble is leading the way.
#23 Kansas St: K State had a huge week with two wins including a win away against a decent Oklahoma St. team and of course, a win at home against WVU. They bounced back from their 0-2 week 11 with a decent win and a huge win. Kansas St is definitely proving to be a team to beat in the Big 12.
#24 South Carolina: The 1-1 record that the Gamecocks finished the week with does not tell the story of how good of a week they had. They took down a once ranked Florida at home and they lost to Kentucky at Rupp Arena. Kentucky won pretty handily but it's a tall task to beat Kentucky at home. South Carolina, even with a 1-1 record, built up their resume this week quite a bit.
#25 Xavier: Another team with a 1-1 record but they didn't have the luxury of building their resume. They lost to a great Creighton team at home but they closed the week off with a win
against Georgetown. Their Georgetown win broke a 3 game losing streak but those three loses were all to arguably the top 3 teams in the Big East.