College basketball rankings: SEC ranked clash results in new CBS Sports top 25 and 1

Posted by Admin January 23, 2025 Basketball

There was a slew of good college basketball games on Wednesday night, including a healthy dose of last-second finishes in the SEC. Enough to shake up CBS Sports’ Top 25 and 1 rankings yet again.

Ole Miss tumbles a bit in the middle of the ranking after dropping two straight games, including a heart-breaker on Wednesday evening against Texas A&M. Meanwhile, one new team from a power conference works its way into the rankings.

On3 takes a minute today to compile the CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 and provide some notes on some of the movers and shakers. Let’s begin.

Auburn is now on a 10-game winning streak and it lone loss is to Duke, the No. 2 team in the current CBS Sports Top 25 and 1. That’s about as good a resume as it gets.

The Tigers recently took down a ranked Georgia team on the road in a tight 70-68 affair. But any win in the SEC is a good win this year, and Auburn is starting to pile up a lot of them. Next up is a home date with Tennessee.

(Zachary Taft-Imagn Images)

Not to be outdone, Duke’s winning streak now stretches to 12 games. And the last loss was perfectly respectable, a 75-72 defeat at the hands of No. 1 Kansas.

And Duke isn’t just winning; it is winning comfortably. The last time the team was involved in a game decided by two possessions or fewer was that win over Auburn 10 games ago. Not too shabby.

Iowa State saw a 12-game winning streak snapped over the weekend when it lost on the road at West Virginia. But the team bounced back nicely in the middle of the week with a 108-83 win over UCF and remains near the top of CBS Sports’ ranking.

The Cyclones are being led by excellent guard play, with Curtis Jones averaging 17.8 points per game and Keshon Gilbert chipping in 15.7 points per game. When they’re on it’s tough to stop Iowa State.

Alabama has bounced back nicely from a loss to Ole Miss, securing a pair of wins while topping the century mark points-wise. One was a 102-97 win over No. 8 Kentucky on the road, a huge result for the resume.

The Crimson Tide need to keep stacking wins over the next three weeks, because the road is going to get a whole lot tougher in the final third of the season. How’s this for a closing stretch: Alabama will face seven straight currently ranked opponents to close out the SEC slate.

Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. (1) dribbles the ball against the North Florida Ospreys during the second half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. (Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images) — (Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images)

There’s a world of difference between 4-2 and 3-3 in SEC play right now, and Florida was lucky to stay on the front end of that equation on Wednesday night. The team trailed South Carolina from the opening tip but managed to pull out a late 70-69 comeback.

Unlike some of its SEC peers, Florida’s schedule is reasonably broken up in terms of the ranked games. The upcoming stretch will include a road trip to Tennessee, but first up is a home date with Georgia and former coach Mike White.

Tennessee is another team in that 4-2 boat in the SEC, having lost a pair of contests on the road. That’ll be the challenge for the Volunteers, who now travel to top-ranked Auburn this weekend.

The Volunteers are led by a trio of excellent guards, starting with North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier. Lanier is averaging 18.4 points per game and is coming off a 23-point outing in a win over Mississippi State.

The last time out Kentucky fell to Alabama in a close contest. The Wildcats won’t be thrilled with losing at home, but it’s a reasonable enough loss given where the Crimson Tide are ranked.

Kentucky got a little extra rest this week, not playing a midweek contest. That should help prepare the team for a two-game road swing that starts at Vanderbilt and then concludes at Tennessee.

Marquette HC Shaka Smart — Trevor Ruszkowski | USA TODAY Sports

Marquette fell to Xavier over the weekend but bounced back with a nice road win at Seton Hall mid-week. A Friday night contest against Villanova is next up, and the Golden Eagles need to take care of business over the next week before a pair of ranked games come.

Guard Kam Jones has led the way in scoring, averaging 19.1 points per game. The Golden Eagles have four scorers currently averaging double figures, while the rebounding load has been very evenly dispersed.

Tom Izzo‘s bunch has reeled off 11 straight wins now, including its most recent 80-78 win over a ranked Illinois squad. Guard Tre Holloman led the way in that one by scoring 17 points.

The schedule is going to get more difficult — there’s a stretch with six ranked opponents out of nine games coming up — but first a few manageable games. That starts with a road trip to run-of-the-mill Rutgers.

Since losing to Iowa State, Kansas has rung up two double-digit wins in Big 12 play. That’ll get you back into a groove in a hurry. Especially when one of the games included a comeback from 14 points down.

Kansas faces a pretty stiff test this weekend, taking on a top-10 Houston team at home. A second home game against UCF looms after that one.