{"id":173613,"date":"2026-01-21T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=173613"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:24:13","slug":"college-basketball-top-25-rankings-1-21-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/21\/college-basketball-top-25-rankings-1-21-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Top 25 Rankings 1-21-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think this week is a good time to clarify what the goal for this ranking is. Each week, we are ranking the 25 BEST teams in College Basketball. If a game were played on a neutral court tomorrow, I would take #1 over #2, #2 over #3, and so on. This is in direct contrast to the AP Top-25, where I genuinely don\u2019t know what the goal is. This week, they have Miami (Ohio) ranked 25th. While they are still unbeaten, and a great story at this point in the season, they\u2019re objectively not one of the best 25 teams in college basketball. They have only one win against a team that ranks in the top-100 in KenPom. To be the best, you have to beat the best.<\/p>\n

Top 25 College Basketball Rankings<\/h2>\n
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Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Arizona<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s right, we have a new number one in town. The Wildcats are starting to show the versatility and ability to win in different ways that I had previously thought they didn\u2019t have. Orlando has turned into a tough place to play in the Big 12, and Arizona made it look like no problem with an 84-77 victory. Tommy Lloyd has to be in consideration for the best coach in the sport who has never reached a Final Four.<\/p>\n

2. Michigan<\/h4>\n

The Wolverines haven\u2019t quite looked like a buzzsaw in recent weeks, at least not to the degree that they did earlier in the season.They are still ranked #1 on KenPom, and still have the best frontcourt in the nation, but they\u2019re starting to show some cracks in the armor. Rebounding, which has been one of their strengths to this point in the season, is starting to regress. Which is inexcusable with a frontcourt of Aday Mara and Yaxel Lendeborg.<\/p>\n

3. Houston<\/h4>\n

I have turned a complete 180 on this Houston team from two weeks ago. I now think they are a genuine contender to win a national championship. And a big reason why has been the continued growth and development of big-time freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac. They will only continue to get better. Watch out for Houston.<\/p>\n

4. Purdue<\/h4>\n

The Boilermakers have been as steady as any team in the country this season, spending every day of the season ranking between 1st and 7th on KenPom, and still only having one blemish on the season as a whole. If they keep things up, they have a great chance to get Matt Painter to his second Final Four.<\/p>\n

5. Duke<\/h4>\n

Road trips in the ACC are hard \u2013 just ask North Carolina, who lost back to back games in their California road trip to Cal and Stanford. Duke just had the same trip, but beat both opponents by a combined 45 points. Cameron Boozer is going to be a difficult matchup for anyone.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6. UConn<\/h4>\n

It hasn\u2019t always been pretty, but the Huskies currently sit at 8-0 in Big East play, and their only loss on the season is to Arizona. That\u2019s a solid resume, even if they\u2019re not really blowing out their opponents. This is an experienced group, with seniors like Alex Karaban, who just find ways to win.<\/p>\n

7. Florida<\/h4>\n

Arguably, no team has had a better last two weeks than the Florida Gators, who have beaten Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt consecutively. The biggest question for this team had been their lackluster guard play, but Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee have really upped their game during the win streak, and the Gators are looking like they\u2019re going to make a serious run at back-to-back National Championships.<\/p>\n

8. Gonzaga<\/h4>\n

How big is the injury to Braden Huff? Well, it was no Huff, no problem for the Zags against both Washington State and Seattle, as Gonzaga cruised to 21-point victories in each. We may not know to what extent this injury matters until a January 31st meeting against Saint Mary’s, where Gonzaga\u2019s frontcourt will really be put to the test.<\/p>\n

9. Illinois<\/h4>\n

Even in a week where David Mirkovic was playing through an illness, the Illini came out 2-0 against Northwestern and Minnesota. This team just has so many different players who can take over a game and beat you that an illness or injury to one is not a massive detriment.<\/p>\n

10. Nebraska<\/h4>\n

The longest win streak in college basketball rolls on, as Nebraska shellacked both Oregon and Northwestern last week. And if I was a betting man, I would bet on it to continue this week as well, as only Washington and Minnesota stand in the way. The addition of Pryce Sandfort from Iowa has been an incredible natural fit in Fred Hoiberg\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

11. Iowa State<\/h4>\n

I am not concerned just yet for Iowa State. Obviously, a week with back-to-back road losses against Kansas and Cincinnati, where guards Tamin Lipsey and Kilyan Toure played poorly, is not a positive sign. But they\u2019ve got a soft schedule against the bottom of the Big 12 coming up and have a great opportunity to bounce right back.<\/p>\n

12. Michigan State<\/h4>\n

To this point in the season, Michigan State ranks #1 in defensive efficiency, per KenPom, and only has losses to Duke and Nebraska. So why am I not higher on them? I just can\u2019t envision this team winning a National Championship with the offense that they run. Coen Carr is absolutely must-see television, though.<\/p>\n

13. Texas Tech<\/h4>\n

If I had to pick a National Player of the Year right this second, my vote would be for JT Toppin. He carried the Red Raiders to a victory over BYU on Saturday. Having the best player on the floor gives you a chance to win any game you play.<\/p>\n

14. Kansas<\/h4>\n

Much has been made over the injury to Darryn Peterson and the handling of it by both Peterson and Kansas. But make no mistake, when Peterson is out on the floor, this team looks like a National Championship contender, as evidenced by their recent hot play<\/a> with resounding victories over Iowa State and Baylor last week.<\/p>\n

15. BYU<\/h4>\n

The Cougars finally suffered their second loss of the season last week to Texas Tech. I\u2019m not going to panic over that result on BYU, as it was AJ Dybantsa\u2019s first game seeing heavy drop coverage, and the team shot a combined 5-22 (22%) from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

16. Vanderbilt<\/h4>\n

I love Vanderbilt\u2019s guards. Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles are electric with the ball in their hands and very crafty in how they can score and distribute in a variety of ways. But this two-game losing streak made me realize that Vanderbilt is not going to win a National Championship with this frontcourt. They simply have to be better.<\/p>\n

17. Alabama<\/h4>\n

As analytically oriented as Nate Oats runs his offense, you would think he would have a similar approach on defense. An easy way to turn the math in your favor is to not allow offensive rebounds and force turnovers defensively in order to limit your opponent\u2019s shot attempts. But Alabama has no interest in doing either of those, ranking outside the top-250 nationally in offensive rebounds allowed and turnover rate forced.<\/p>\n

18. Virginia<\/h4>\n

I think more programs are going to look back at this hiring cycle and wonder why they didn\u2019t take a deeper look at Ryan Odom. What he has done with this Virginia program has been impressive, considering where they were last season and the mass exodus of players to the portal. Road wins over Louisville and SMU could prove huge come ACC Tournament time.<\/p>\n

19. Iowa<\/h4>\n

Playing basketball against a Ben McCollum-coached team just can not be fun to do. They slow the game down to a snail\u2019s pace, and play super physical on defense. There is only one team in the nation that plays at a slower tempo and is better on defense than Iowa, and that is Houston.<\/p>\n

20. St Johns<\/h4>\n

After a disappointing start to the season, Rick Pitino\u2019s crew is starting to look like a buzzsaw in conference play, now victors of four straight (three of which were away from home). I am still concerned about their lack of a traditional point guard, but are any of their opponents going to be able to make them pay for this?<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

21. Arkansas<\/h4>\n

One thing that I am going to be interested to see down the stretch of the season is the distribution of minutes in this Arkansas frontcourt. We really know what Nick Pringle is at this point in his career. I really like the upside that Malique Ewin can provide. Will Cal turn the starting job over to Malique Ewin at some point?<\/p>\n

22. Kentucky<\/h4>\n

The Wildcats are coming off of a 10-day stretch that may have saved their season, and may have saved Mark Pope\u2019s job. They beat Mississippi State, LSU, and Tennessee all while trailing by 12 or more at one point in the game. That\u2019s not easy to do. This team is trending upwards.<\/p>\n

23. Louisville<\/h4>\n

Is Mikel Brown Jr ever going to play basketball again? The Cardinals are fundamentally a better team with him on the floor, but they\u2019re still pretty good without \u2013 as evidenced by a 100-58 walloping of Pitt, in Pittsburgh, this past Saturday.<\/p>\n

24. Georgia<\/h4>\n

Mike White has these \u2018Dawgs running \u2013 they currently rank 2nd in the nation in adjusted tempo, per KenPom. But as conference play has rolled on, White has given more and more minutes to his Starting 5, and less to the reserves. Is it sustainable for these guys to play this load of minutes at that tempo? We\u2019ll find out.<\/p>\n

25. Saint Louis<\/h4>\n

The Billikens continue to roll through the A10, with Josh Schertz deploying a balanced scoring attack in a rout against Richmond. Side note: the A10 is looking like the best Mid-Major conference this season, and has 4 teams that are very clearly at the top (SLU, VCU, George Mason, and Dayton). Yet, this conference is looking like a one-bid league, unless someone knocks off Saint Louis in the A10 tournament. The conference as a whole needs to re-evaluate how they do non-conference and intra-conference scheduling to get its better teams into the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think this week is a good time to clarify what the goal for this ranking is. Each week, we are ranking the 25 BEST teams in College Basketball. If a game were played on a neutral court tomorrow, I would take #1 over #2, #2 over #3, and so on. This is in direct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":173683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[50346,31322],"class_list":["post-173613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-2025-26-college-basketball-season","tag-college-basketball-rankings"],"modified_by":"Doug Henderson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173613"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173689,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173613\/revisions\/173689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}