After two weeks of straight up chaos in college basketball, there has been a bit of sanity restored to the universe. Most of the top teams took care of business, although there were still a few upsets both expected (Michigan) and unexpected (Marquette) that will lead to a new shuffling of the AP Top 25 poll on Monday afternoon. Here’s an early look at the projected Top 25 following Week 6’s action.
1. Tennessee Volunteers
2. Auburn Tigers
3. Iowa State Cyclones
4. Duke Blue Devils
5. Kentucky Wildcats
6. Alabama Crimson Tide
7. Florida Gators
8. Kansas Jayhawks
9. UCONN Huskies
10. Oregon Ducks
11. Oklahoma Sooners
12. Marquette Golden Eagles
13. Houston Cougars
14. Texas A&M Aggies
15. Gonzaga Bulldogs
16. Purdue Boilermakers
17. Ole Miss Rebels
18. Michigan Wolverines
19. Michigan State Spartans
20. Cincinnati Bearcats
21. San Diego State
22. UCLA Bruins
23. Mississippi State Bulldogs
24. Dayton Flyers
25. Memphis Tigers
The most impactful game of the week from a rankings perspective was the big UCONN-Gonzaga showdown at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. The two perennial powerhouses waged an epic battle but UCONN prevailed in its home away from home, winning 77-71 as freshman Liam McNeeley had his coming out party with 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting to lead all scorers.
The result marked UCONN’s third straight win over a potential tournament team, further burying the sting of their flameout at the Maui Invitational and putting them inside the Top 10. Losing to the Huskies is nothing to be ashamed of for Gonzaga, but that defeat combined with the previous week’s collapse against Kentucky should cost the Bulldogs a few spots in the poll.
The Big East has hit a rough patch of late with just two teams in the rankings, and its most consistent performer hit a major road block on Saturday. Marquette, whose lone loss had come against Iowa State in the Big East-Big 12 Battle, played a true road game at Dayton and left with an eight point loss to slide out of the Top 10 in the projected rankings.
The victory was more impactful for Dayton, which has a perfect 8-0 home record and whose only two losses came by a combined seven points to North Carolina and Iowa State in Maui. Pairing this win over the Golden Eagles with a victory over UCONN in Maui should not only help Dayton land in the poll this week but also make their case for inclusion if the Big East ever decides to expand beyond 11 teams.
Reality has come hard for the Badgers over the past two weeks as a step up in weight class exposed that they weren’t quite ready for primetime. Tuesday’s loss to Illinois was the third straight for Wisconsin, which is enough to drop them out of the rankings for now despite a bounceback victory over Butler in the Indy Classic on Saturday.
The victory also showcased how dangerous Illinois is as they have played a very tough non-conference schedule and it has sharpened their competitive nature. Losing at the buzzer against Tennessee on Sunday will likely keep the Fighting Illini out of the rankings once again but don’t be surprised if Illinois sneaks into the back end of the Top 25 despite this defeat.
If you’re looking for a potential Jekyll and Hyde team to track during the conference portion of the season, look no further than Memphis. A home loss to Arkansas State in a buy game (by 13) took Penny Hardaway’s team out of the poll but they should be right back in this week after going on the road to beat No. 16 Clemson by five on Saturday afternoon.
Memphis can now add a third non-conference victory over a power conference team with this triumph against Clemson, which is good for their resume since the other two (UCONN and Michigan State) came in Maui. Losing to Memphis will likely take Clemson out of the rankings for now given the lack of major movement at the bottom, but a home win over Kentucky shows that Brad Brownell’s team means business.
