Indiana and Florida both played extremely well this week, keeping themselves ahead of the rest of the pack as we head into the final month of the regular season. The rest of the top 10 was shaken up, but only one team dropped from the top 10, and that was Ohio State, which was blown out last night by the team that now replaces it at #10. Here are my current top 25 teams, with AP rankings in parentheses and teams grouped by similar level of performance.
TW. (LW) Team (Week) Overall (AP)
1. (1) Indiana (2-0) 23-3 (1)
2. (2) Florida (2-0) 21-3 (5)
3. (5) Louisville (2-0) 21-5 (10)
4. (6) Gonzaga (2-0) 25-2 (3)
5. (4) Duke (1-1) 22-3 (6)
6. (7) Pittsburgh (0-1) 20-6 (20)
7. (8) Syracuse (1-1) 21-4 (8)
8. (3) Michigan (1-1) 22-4 (7)
9. (9) Miami (2-0) 21-3 (2)
10. (12) Wisconsin (1-1) 18-8 (19)
11. (11) Michigan State (2-0) 22-4 (4)
12. (16) Kansas (2-0) 21-4 (9)
13. (21) VCU (2-0) 21-5 (24)
14. (13) Colorado State (2-0) 21-4 (22)
15. (10) Ohio State (1-1) 18-7 (18)
16. (20) Oklahoma State (2-0) 19-5 (14)
17. (14) Minnesota (1-1) 18-8 (27)
18. (19) Creighton (1-1) 21-6 (37)
19. (15) Arizona (1-1) 21-4 (12)
20. (17) Saint Mary's (1-1) 22-5 (35)
21. (24) Middle Tennessee (1-0) 23-4 (34)
22. (NR) Missouri (1-1) 18-7 (33)
23. (18) Kentucky (0-2) 17-8 (NR)
24. (NR) Illinois (2-0) 19-8 (29)
25. (22) San Diego State (0-2) 18-7 (NR)
Dropped Out
(25) Belmont (0-1) 20-6 (NR)
(23) Southern Miss (2-0) 20-6 (NR)
Ranked Teams by Conference
Big 10 - 7
Big East - 3
SEC - 3
MWC - 2
ACC - 2
Big 12 - 2
WCC- 2
MVC - 1
Atl 10 - 1
Pac 12 - 1
Sun Belt - 1
The Big 10 has started to dominate the rankings, with 7 teams in the top 25, and another, Iowa, in good position to make the NCAA tournament. The usually dominant Big East has only 3 teams in my top 25, but all 3 are in the top 7, and they also have 3 other likely tournament teams and 4 that are also on the bubble.
A dominant showing against the Mississippi teams gave the Missouri Tigers the boost they needed to climb back into my top 25, even with the loss to Arkansas that followed. This week will be one of the toughest they face all season, with the #2 Florida Gators coming to town and a trip to Kentucky following that. They could benefits from home court against Florida and Noel's injury for Kentucky, however, so don't count them out in either game.
Wisconsin lost on Valentine's Day to Minnesota in their 3rd straight overtime game, but they recovered in style, upsetting Ohio State by 22 points yesterday and moving into the top 10 for the first time since my preseason rankings. They do it with a balanced attack, with 6 players who play starters minutes each helping out with the scoring.
Illinois made a case for entering the rankings a week ago after upsetting Indiana and Minnesota, but they had to prove they could keep it up after losing 6 of the previous 7, and they did just that this week. The Illini beat both Purdue and Northwestern by at least 20 points, and an upset over Michigan this weekend would pretty much lock them in to a tournament berth.
VCU has re-entered the AP top 25, taken over the top spot in the Atlantic 10 standings, and made the biggest jump of any team in my rankings this week. The Rams will be facing the meat of their conference schedule over the next 10 days, travelling to Saint Louis and Xavier before hosting conference favorite Butler to open the month of March. If they can get past the Billikens, I think they should be able to win out and take the regular season conference title.
Predictions
Upset picks are in italics.
West Virginia at (13) Kansas State - Wildcats by 14
(25) Notre Dame at (20) Pittsburgh - Panthers by 15
Norfolk State at Hampton - Pirates by 2
Bucknell at Lehigh - Mountain Hawks by 6
Alabama A&M at Southern - Jaguars by 22
Prediction Results
College Basketball: 6-2 (.750) 763-187 overall (.803)
Upsets: 1-1 (.500) 74-59 overall (.556)
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