Each week on Monday, I will be posting a breakdown of the AP Top-25, as well as other headlines from power conference teams around the country.
*AAC, A10, and WCC included in power conferences*
AP Top-25
- Villanova
- Virginia
- Purdue
- Oklahoma
- Duke
- West V
- Wichita State
- Texas Tech
- MSU
- Kansas
- Xavier
- Cincy
- Gonzaga
- Arizona
- UNC
- ASU
- Auburn
- Kentucky
- Seton Hall
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- TCU
- Miami
Top-25 Breakdown
I believe the Associated Press was spot on with their top-25 this week. Our two new teams are Ohio State and Michigan, which I think was the most accurate part of the poll. The Big Ten has four teams on top that are basically on an island away from the rest of the poor conference. #3 Purdue, #9 Michigan State, #22 Ohio State, and #23 Michigan have all set themselves apart, and this poll has really showed it. Ohio State and Michigan both upset MSU, which is the main reason they are both ranked.
Top-25 Notes
- #18 Kentucky just barely holds off Texas A&M on a crazy sequence to end the game. They also beat Vandy with ease.
- In a top-10 match up, #4 Oklahoma flexed its dominance once again to knock off #8 Texas Tech. Then, Oklahoma held off #24 TCU in overtime as the Sooners’ best player had 43 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists (You should know who it is). Texas Tech answered later in the week proving that they are still in the Big 12 race as they took out top dog #6 West Virginia at home.
- #17 Auburn trailed Ole Miss, but they erased the deficit and went on to win by 15. The Tigers did the same later in the week against Ole Misses rival Miss State. Auburn still holds just one loss as they hung on by a thread this week.
- #19 Seton Hall received an upset that many did not see coming as Marquette beat them by 20. Marquette is starting to look like a tournament team. However, Butler put out Marquette’s fire with an 11-point victory.
- #10 Kansas holds off late pushes from Iowa State and Kansas State in Allen Fieldhouse for a hectic week. Kansas can prove themselves as they travel to West Virginia this week.
- #4 Michigan State struggled in their two games with Rutgers, as this time Rutgers took them to overtime only to fall short once again. Rutgers has played very well this year when hot, and it should continue.
- #1 Villanova may have won in the most dominant win of the season as they beat #11 Xavier by 24 points. Xavier rebounds from their 24-point loss to Villanova by beating Creighton by 22 knocking them out of the poll.
- NC State grabs their second upset of the year as they hand #20 Clemson just their 2nd loss. Then, Clemson makes up the upset by beating #25 Miami.
- #14 Arizona is challenged heavily by Oregon in a win. The Ducks have started to turn their season around picking up solid wins.
- #21 Tennessee easily takes care of the very injured Texas A&M Aggies.
Other Headlines
- Penn State opens up week nine with a bad loss to Indiana, as they continue to drift away from playing in March on the big stage, but to close the week they beat Nebraska in overtime. Indiana has seriously turned their season around as they start to get better.
- St. Johns played well in non-conference, but in conference they have not won a game, and they have surprisingly hit rock bottom. Their last loss came to Georgetown at home, but they gave a real shot to #1 Villanova at home.
- Memphis has actually turned into a contender in the AAC, as they beat Tulane and Temple this week.
- Duquesne’s three-game win streak that opened eyes came to a close with a loss to VCU. However, Duquesne wins in one of the craziest games of the year in triple overtime over La Salle.
- Florida continues to improve, as they easily beat Mississippi State by 17. Later in the week though, Florida and Ole Miss who were both hot went to battle as Ole Miss remained hot in a great win over the Gators.
- Notre Dame had just beat Syracuse without their two best players, but this week they did the opposite as they fell to Georgia Tech. Also this week, ND misses at the buzzer in an attempt to make UNCs down year even worse.
- Kansas State and Oklahoma State met to see what team was more fit to be a tournament team, and Kansas State won the battle. In another battle of tournament contenders, Missouri grabbed a great win over Georgia to open eyes. I could not even imagine Missouri with Michael Porter Jr.
- Louisville comes out of no-where to upset Florida State, who was ranked at the time. Then, Louisville and VTech go head to head in a game of bubble teams as Louisville comes out on top.
- SMU takes a some-what bad loss to Temple by two. SMU does not seem like a tournament team in my eyes.
- In a heartfelt game in dedication to Texas guard Andrew Jones who was diagnosed with Leukemia, the Longhorns pulled off an insane upset of TCU in double overtime as Jaylen Fisher missed a wide-open lay-up for the win. Later in the week, Texas fell to Oklahoma State by one.
- Colorado pulled off two upsets in a row, only to fall to team that was struggling most in the PAC 12, USC.
- Houston puts up 104, as they throttled Tulsa by 33. They also beat ECU by 16.
- Oregon State challenges, but falls to both Arizona schools in the PAC 12.
- Dayton may have finally turned it around, as they took out A10 rival VCU by 27. Also, Rhode Island proves they are the clear favorite in the A10 with a win over St. Bonaventure.
- Georgia suffers a bad loss to the underperforming South Carolina Gamecocks.
- Stanford has won four straight out of nowhere, beating UCLA, USC, Washington State, and now Washington.
- Alabama ends another hot streak held by LSU, with a 74-66 win over the Tigers.
