Early in the season, we saw a few top-10 teams suffer consecutive losses. That kind of thing might happen once in a while, especially in situations where a team is playing other highly rated teams, but that wasn't what happened.  

  • Kansas lost two in a row to Washington and Arizona State at home.  
  • Arizona lost three straight, and the only ranked team to beat the Wildcats was Purdue, which was not nearly as high as the Boilermakers are now.  
  • Florida also lost three straight, and while the first of those was to Duke, the last of them was at home to Loyola-Chicago.  

Things had been quiet on that front since then -- until this week, that is.  

Oklahoma -- No. 4 in last week's AP Top 25 poll -- No. 6 West Virginia and No. 7 Wichita State each lost a second consecutive game last week. The Mountaineers were No. 2 when their mini-skid started. They dropped to sixth after losing at Texas Tech, then lost at home to Kansas on Monday. Those losses will not do too much damage to West Virginia, which followed up with a win over Texas on Saturday.

However, Oklahoma lost back-to-back road games to unranked Kansas State and Oklahoma State and it has cost them two seed lines. It does not get any easier for the Sooners, who play host to Kansas on Tuesday night.  

Wichita State also lost back-to-back games to unranked teams. The Shockers lost at home to SMU on Wednesday night and they got blown out at Houston on Saturday. The nature of those losses, and the fact that their résumé is otherwise relatively thin, has Wichita State as a No. 7 seed in Monday's updated bracket. That is a borderline Top 25 placement, since the No. 25 team is the top No. 7 seed.

With seven weeks until Selection Sunday, there is still plenty of time to bounce back. Kansas already has. The Jayhawks start Monday on top of the Big 12 standings and as a No. 2 seed in the bracket. Oklahoma and West Virginia have the advantage of playing in the Big 12, which affords them high-quality opponents on a regular basis.

The SEC is having a better year this season, with several good teams, but none that truly seem great. Florida has been starting to climb back, but it is a little slower without the higher-quality wins available.

Arizona has only lost once since its streak ended, but it has been a slow climb for the Wildcats because they are the best team in the Pac-12 and it does not appear that there is a close No. 2. The league does not have the depth of quality of the SEC, so it is tougher to rebuild the résumé.

Wichita State is in a similar position to Arizona, although it has a peer at the top of the league in Cincinnati. The Shockers and Bearcats play each other twice still this season and they will get another shot at SMU. Wichita State and Houston are done with each other, having split the season series.

The inability of top teams to bounce back after a bad outing has some of them doing some damage control, but one of the qualities of a top team is the ability to do just that. We will see if these teams can get back into contention for high seeds