Another week in college basketball presents voters in the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball rankings with a new dilemma over which team deserves the No. 1 seed. And after No. 1 Purdue’s 81-58 home loss to No. 10 Iowa State this weekend, the list of worthy contenders to replace the Boilermakers is especially long.
Will it be an 8-0 Arizona team now armed with four wins in the rankings after a 97-68 dismantling of Auburn on Saturday? The Wildcats have been ranked No. 2 in the poll for two weeks in a row.
Will it be 8-0 Michigan, which has had four straight wins of 30 or more, including Auburn and Gonzaga?
Could Iowa State, which leads the nation in scoring margin and is fresh off a road win over Purdue at Mackey Arena, make the nine-spot jump? It would be hard to find a better team.
Speaking of hot, there’s also 10-0 Duke. Matt Norlander argued that Duke has the best resume in college basketball after downing Michigan State in East Lansing Saturday. Maybe he’s right.
Oh, the excitement!
Here’s a snapshot of the resumes of some of the teams competing on Monday. There’s a good chance they can get all four first-place votes.
| TEAM | File | Ranked wins | Last week’s rankings | Scoring Margin Rank |
| Michigan | 8-0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Arizona | 8-0 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Duke | 10-0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| The state of Iowa | 9-0 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
We’ll officially find out Monday at noon ET when the AP Top 25 poll is released. But unofficially, my predictions for how I think voters will handle the rankings — not how I would rank the teams, to be clear, but how I think the rankings will evolve after voters cast their votes — are below.
How Iowa State, fueled by an underrated freshman, pulled off a historic upset of No. 1 Purdue
Isaac Trotter
And my guess for number 1? Voters — who gave Michigan the second-most first-place votes behind Purdue last week — will push the Wolverines from No. 3 to No. 1. The voting will be close and Duke, Michigan and Arizona could all be nearly identical in the final points. But the Wolverines held a lead in first-place voting over Arizona last week, and I suspect another drubbing of their opponent this week could provide more separation.
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