The Wildcats were the unanimous No. 1 pick in the Associated Press Top 25 for the second week in a row and have held the No. 1 spot since December 8. Arizona had no problems last week with victories over Cincinnati (77-51) and West Virginia (88-53).
Starting Monday, however, the Wildcats will play five of their next seven games — and seven of the next 10 — against teams ranked in the top 20 of Monday’s poll. Arizona travels to play No. 13 BYU (17-2, 5-1) on Monday. Between now and March 2, the Wildcats will play the Cougars and No. 14 Kansas twice, host No. 8 Iowa State and No. 11 Texas Tech, and visit No. 10 Houston.
No. No. 2 Connecticut, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Duke and No. 5 Nebraska made up the rest of the top five. For the Cornhuskers (20-0, 9-0 Big Ten), this is their highest ranking in program history – and a top-five matchup is set for Tuesday at Michigan (18-1, 8-1).
Arizona and Nebraska are two of only three undefeated teams in the country. The other, mid-major Miami (Ohio) (20-0, 8-0 MAC), moved up one spot to No. 24.
North Carolina (16-4, 4-3 ACC) was the biggest gainer, moving up six spots to No. 16 after beating No. 17 Virginia on Saturday. Purdue (17-3, 7-2 Big Ten), which lost games to UCLA and Illinois, was the biggest decliner, falling from No. 4 to No. 12.
Here’s the full poll, along with the vote from The AthleticsCJ Moore:
Rank | Team | File | Previous | CJ’s voice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20-0 | 1 | 1 | |
2 | 19-1 | 2 | 3 | |
3 | 18-1 | 3 | 2 | |
4 | 18-1 | 5 | 5 | |
5 | 20-0 | 7 | 4 | |
6 | 21-1 | 8 | 11 | |
7 | 18-2 | 10 | 7 | |
8 | 18-2 | 9 | 9 | |
9 | 17-3 | 11 | 6 | |
10 | 17-2 | 6 | 8 | |
11 | 16-4 | 12 | 12 | |
12 | 17-3 | 4 | 10 | |
13 | 17-2 | 13 | 13 | |
14 | 15-5 | 19 | 15 | |
15 | 15-5 | 20 | 18 | |
16 | 16-4 | 22 | 20 | |
17 | 16-3 | 14 | 16 | |
18 | 17-3 | 15 | 14 | |
19 | 14-6 | 16 | 17 | |
20 | 14-5 | 23 | 21 | |
21 | 19-1 | 24 | 19 | |
22 | 17-4 | 18 | 22 | |
23 | 13-6 | 17 | 24 | |
24 | 20-0 | 25 | NO | |
25 | 15-5 | NO | 25 | |
NO | 13-6 | NO | 23 |
Others receiving votes: Tennessee 88, Kentucky 51, Georgia 49, Iowa 30, Texas A&M 27, Auburn 15, NC State 8, SMU 4, Saint Mary’s 3, Utah State 2, Villanova 2, Wisconsin 1
Illinois’ midseason climb
The Illini made the biggest jump in my rankings this week – from No. 11 to No. 6. That’s because there are two Illini this year: pre-Keaton Wagler who plays point guard and post-Keaton Wagler who plays point guard. Wagler made the move after Illinois lost to UConn to fall to 6-2. Since then, the Illini are 11-1 and using Bart Torvik’s sorting toolare the fifth-best team in college basketball during that stretch, with by far the best offense. I’m not sure what was more impressive on Saturday: Wagler scored the most points (46) ever for an opponent at Mackey, or Illinois won that game without senior guard Kylan Boswell.
Why I moved Gonzaga
I have Gonzaga falling from No. 8 to No. 11 this week, despite the Zags not losing a game in that stretch. Gonzaga is currently playing without starting bigs Graham Ike (ankle injury) and Braden Huff (knee injury). Huff is expected to be out until March, and while Gonzaga deserves credit for winning all four games without him, that likely wouldn’t happen if Gonzaga were playing in the major leagues. I usually don’t like to chastise the Zags for that, but they have fallen to ninth Ken Pom12th in Torvik and have an average CV ranking of 11th between the KPI, record strength and wins above the bubble, all metrics that the tournament selection committee considers. Of the teams I ranked above Gonzaga, Houston is the only one with a lower average resume ranking (just barely 11.7), and Houston ranks higher in the predictive metrics.
Why I didn’t rank Miami (Ohio).
I love the story of Miami (Ohio). Great to see coach Travis Steele, formerly of Xavier, doing well. They are a fun team that plays fast, scores a lot of points and has found a way to win three times in overtime this season. It means a lot for a show like this to be ranked. I’m not mad at anyone who wants to rank them. You can vote any way you want, but I don’t agree with a vote for the RedHawks for a number of reasons. According to KenPom, they rank 332nd in strength of schedule and have only played one top-100 team (Akron) all season. Three of their wins have come against non-Division I opponents. It’s probably not their fault. High major teams hesitate to play good mid-majors, and this could have been the problem for Steele. But if you’re playing against weaker competition, there’s data that shows whether you’re still a team worth ranking on predictive sites like KenPom, which use a team’s efficiency margin and adjust the number based on the competition.
Miami (Ohio) is ranked 86th by KenPom, and if you look at the efficiency rankings without schedule adjustments, the RedHawks rank 20th in offensive efficiency and 88th in defensive efficiency. I’m ranking Saint Louis because the one-loss Billikens, who also haven’t played a great schedule (233rd in SOS), rank fifth in offensive efficiency and 11th in defensive efficiency. They dominate their opponents.
So it’s not that I hate mid-majors. Last year I mentioned UC San Diego as “watch” four times, and like SLU, UC San Diego ranked 21st in offensive efficiency and third in defensive efficiency. Unless Miami (Ohio) starts posting similar numbers, I can’t justify its ranking.
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