Tomorrow's Top 25 Today: Michigan expected to be No. 1 in college basketball rankings; Arizona, Duke make case
Several teams are positioned to supplant No. 1 Purdue in the AP Top 25 poll on Monday led by Arizona and Michigan
By
Kyle Boone
•
8 min read
Another week in college basketball puts voters in the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball rankings in yet another quandary about which team is deserving of the No. 1 spot. And after No. 1 Purdue's 81-58 home loss this weekend to No. 10 Iowa State, the list of worthy contenders to supplant the Boilermakers is especially long.
Will it be an 8-0 Arizona team that's now armed with four ranked wins after a 97-68 dismantling of Auburn on Saturday? The Wildcats have been No. 2 in the poll for two consecutive weeks.
Will it be 8-0 Michigan, which has four consecutive wins of 30 or more -- among them Auburn and Gonzaga?
Could Iowa State, leading the country in scoring margin and fresh off a road win over Purdue in Mackey Arena, make the leap up nine spots? You'd be hard-pressed to find a hotter team.
Speaking of hot: There's also 10-0 Duke. Matt Norlander argued Duke has the best resume in college basketball after downing Michigan State in East Lansing on Saturday. He might be right.
Oh, the suspense!
Here's a snapshot at the resumes for some of the teams entering Monday. There's a good chance all four could earn first-place votes.
| TEAM | Record | Ranked Wins | Last Week's Rank | Scoring Margin Rank |
| Michigan | 8-0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Arizona | 8-0 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Duke | 10-0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Iowa State | 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 projections on 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 settle after voters cast their ballots -- are below.
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And my guess at No. 1? Voters -- who gave Michigan the second-most first-place votes last week behind Purdue -- will bump the Wolverines from No. 3 to No. 1. The voting will be close and Duke, Michigan and Arizona could all be nearly-identical in final points. But the Wolverines had the edge in first-place votes last week over Arizona, and I suspect another drubbing of its opponent this week could give it more separation.
| 1 |  |
| Beat Rutgers 101-60. Michigan had the second-most first-place votes last week (15) behind Purdue's 40 -- but still was No. 3 in the AP poll because of total points. That, I think, changes Monday on the heels of Purdue's big home loss to Iowa State. Wolverines in line to be No. 1 for the first time since Jan. 28, 2013. Last week: No. 3 | |
| 2 |  |
| Beat No. 20 Auburn 97-68. Another week and another win for Arizona as it moved to 8-0 on the season. I expect the Wildcats to garner the second-most first-place votes this week, up from last week, but to remain at No. 2 in the poll. But no one should be surprised if Arizona is No. 1 come Monday. Last week: No. 2 | |
| 3 |  |
| Beat No. 15 Florida 67-66; beat No. 7 Michigan State 66-60. Matt Norlander made a strong case for Duke as owner's of the best resume in CBB after winning on the road at Michigan State over the weekend. I agree. But I'm skeptical voters push them up more than one spot in this week's rankings. It should garner first-place votes this week, though, and it has established itself in the upper tier of the sport one month into the season. Last week: No. 4 | |
| 4 |  |
| Beat Alcorn State 132-68; beat No. 1 Purdue 81-58. An 81-58 road win over No. 1 Purdue in Mackey Arena on Saturday -- yowza! -- will capture the attention of voters. I have the Cyclones moving up from No. 10 to No. 4 but even that might not be too conservative a guess. There's a real case to put them at No. 1. Last week: No. 10 | |
| 5 |  |
| Beat Rutgers 81-65; lost to No. 10 Iowa State 81-58. How far Purdue falls will be fascinating Monday. My gut tells me voters look at the 81-58 home loss to Iowa State as an outlier showing on a bad day. Nothing more. They could wind up anywhere from No. 5 to No. 10 Monday and it wouldn't surprise me. Last week: No. 1 | |
| 6 |  |
| Beat No. 21 Kansas 61-56; beat East Texas A&M 83-59. A quality road win over Kansas this week would be enough to push the Huskies up in the poll any other week. But ISU's win merits a huge boost and could push the Huskies down or at the very least neutral. Last week: No. 5 | |
| 7 |  |
| Beat Florida State 82-67. Houston handled business in its only outing of the week with a resounding home win over Florida State. It is 8-1 overall with its lone loss coming to Tennessee on a neutral floor. Last week: No. 8 | |
| 8 |  |
| Beat California Baptist 91-60. A good start for BYU got better this week as it extended its winning streak to four with a beatdown of Cal Baptist. BYU's only slip-up on the season was on the road at UConn in a game it nearly won. Last week: No. 9 | |
| 9 |  |
| Lost to No. 25 Arkansas 89-80; beat No. 22 Indiana 87-78. A road loss to Arkansas will push Louisville down in this week's rankings despite a bounce-back win Saturday over Indiana . The Cardinals have been No. 6 in the last three weekly AP Top 25 polls and should remain inside the top 10. Last week: No. 6 | |
| 10 |  |
| Beat Iowa 71-52; lost to No. 4 Duke 66-60. Tom Izzo's Spartans suffered their first loss of the season Saturday at home in a narrow 66-60 defeat to Duke. They are 8-1 on the season with three wins over ranked foes. That should be enough to keep them in the top 10. Last week: No. 7 | |
| 11 |  |
| Beat No. 18 Kentucky 94-59; beat North Florida 109-58. A humiliating 101-61 loss to Michigan in the Players Era was motivation enough to serve a dish of humiliation to its opponent this weekend as it thumped spiraling Kentucky with the largest margin of defeat for the Wildcats since losing by 41 to Vanderbilt in 2008. Last week: No. 11 | |
| 12 |  |
| Beat Clemson 90-84; beat UTSA 97-55. Alabama's winning streak improved to four games with a victory over UTSA. It faces Arizona on Saturday in a feature nonconference game from Birmingham with a chance to score its best win of the season. Last week: No. 12 | |
| 13 |  |
| Beat SMU 88-69. Vandy moved up to No. 17 last week and then beat SMU by 19 points at home two days later. A move up the ranks is again in order for the Commodores. Last week: No. 17 | |
| 14 |  |
| Beat No. 18 Kentucky 67-64; beat Georgetown 81-61 Perhaps the close road win over Kentucky this week doesn't look as good as it should've if Kentucky was the same Kentucky we thought it'd be. But it's still a road win over a ranked opponent. And UNC, after its win Sunday over Georgetown, is quietly 8-1, marking its best start to a season of the Hubert Davis era. Last week: No. 16 | |
| 15 |  |
| Beat No. 13 Tennessee 75-62. Illinois improved to 2-2 vs. ranked opponents this week with a 75-62 win over No. 13 Tennessee. The Illini's big win comes at an opportune time with Big Ten play set to start Tuesday at Ohio State . Last week: No. 14 | |
| 16 |  |
| Beat LSU 82-58. Losses by ranked teams ahead of it this week -- among them Florida and Kentucky -- and the Red Raiders' win vs. LSU should have Texas Tech rising in this week's rankings. A beatdown of LSU in Fort Worth on Sunday certainly helps. Last week: No. 19 | |
| 17 |  |
| Lost to No. 4 Duke 67-66. Florida fell for the second time in its last three outings and for a third time on the season Tuesday in a loss at Duke. The reigning champions are 0-2 on the season vs. ranked opponents heading into Tuesday's tilt vs. top-10 UConn at MSG. Last week: No. 15 | |
| 18 |  |
| Lost to Syracuse 62-60; lost to No. 14 Illinois 75-62. Tennessee's lost three-straight -- to Kansas, Syracuse and Illinois, respectively -- after a 7-0 start to its season. The good news: it finally returns home Tuesday for its first true home game in more than two weeks. The bad news: its opponent is a Louisville team fully capable of kicking the Vols while they're down. Last week: No. 13 | |
| 19 |  |
| Beat Texas 88-69; beat Dayton 86-73. Despite not even earning votes in the poll last week, Virginia could leap into this week's rankings after a big week with convincing wins over Texas and Dayton. First-year coach Ryan Odom has the Cavaliers ahead of schedule at 8-1. Last week: NR | |
| 20 |  |
| Lost to No. 5 UConn 61-56; beat Missouri 80-60. A narrow home loss to UConn -- and without Darryn Peterson -- will likely be looked on favorably by voters, especially without the services of Darryn Peterson. But it is still a loss. So will a 80-60 Border War win vs. Missouri Sunday -- with Peterson back in the lineup! -- be enough to keep the Jayhawks in the rankings this week? We'll see. My hunch is yes. Last week: No. 21 | |
| 21 |  |
| Beat North Carolina State 83-73, lost to No. 2 Arizona 97-68. A road loss to Arizona probably doesn't move Auburn in the ranks this week much after it entered the game coming off wins vs. St. John's and NC State . The Tigers are 7-3 but all three losses were to top-10 teams. Last week: No. 20 | |
| 22 |  |
| Beat No. 6 Louisville 89-80; beat Fresno State 82-58. I have Arkansas returning to its spot in the AP poll from two weeks ago after a week that began with a wire-to-wire win over Louisville and ended with a win over Fresno State . Last week: No. 25 | |
| 23 |  |
| Beat Washington 82-80; beat Oregon 74-63. UCLA received the second-most votes among unranked teams last week to position itself for a chance to move back into the top 25. It then went 2-0 on the week with wins over Washington and Oregon . Last week: NR | |
| 24 |  |
| Beat Northwestern 85-73; beat Marquette 96-76. Now perfect in the month of December with wins over Northwestern and Marquette, Wisconsin is firmly back in the mix to be ranked again. It is 7-2 on the season. Last week: NR | |
| 25 |  |
| Beat Ole Miss 63-58. Rick Pitino and his St. John's team responded after a 1-2 week in Vegas at the Players Era with an important, and necessary, bounceback home win over Ole Miss on Saturday. The win wasn't pretty but it was indeed a win. That counts. Next up: a home tilt vs. Pitino's former club, Iona, on Saturday. Last week: No. 23 | |
