Photo Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n6. Iowa State<\/h4>\n Right after I doubted them, Iowa State responded with two of its biggest wins of the season, picking off Kansas and Houston at home. The experience of Tamin Lipsey, Joshua Jefferson, and Nate Heise has shown up in these two wins, and they\u2019re going to be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
7. UConn<\/h4>\n Like Molly Hatchet, UConn was flirtin\u2019 with disaster this past weekend, narrowly escaping Georgetown with a 4-point victory. Tarris Reed, who has been instrumental to the Huskies\u2019 success this season, has now been called out by his coach. Let\u2019s see how he responds this week.<\/p>\n
8. Illinois<\/h4>\n Keaton Wagler has been on an absolute tear, but I think we\u2019re starting to see a blueprint for defending him. He lacks the high-end athleticism as some of the other top freshmen in the class. Now, we also have the return to the lineup of Kylan Boswell that also throws a wrench into how this team will operate, but may increase their ceiling in March.<\/p>\n
9. Purdue<\/h4>\n The Boilermakers are starting to heat back up, winners of their last four, including a road OT victory over Nebraska and road demolition of Iowa. This team will go as far as Braden Smith can take them, but getting an extra scoring punch of Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn will help go a long way.<\/p>\n
10. Texas Tech<\/h4>\n The ranking may seem high for Texas Tech\u2019s overall resume, but this team has high-end wins that no other team in the country can compete with. They\u2019ve literally beaten Duke, Houston, and Arizona, three teams in my top-4. They also boast my vote for National Player of the Year, JT Toppin.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nPhoto Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n11. Gonzaga<\/h4>\n Maybe Mark Few\u2019s team just needed a loss to kick it into high gear, as they have been absolutely rolling since their loss to Portland. With Braden Huff still out, Graham Ike has upped his game even more, tallying 21 and 15 in the most recent win over Santa Clara.<\/p>\n
12. Michigan State<\/h4>\n The loss to Wisconsin showcased one of my concerns with this Michigan State team \u2013 if another team has a really hot shooting night, they can struggle to keep up. When Wisconsin hit 43% from 3, Michigan State did not have the offensive firepower to keep up. Developing Kur Teng into their new shooting guard with the injury to Divine Ugochukwu will be something to monitor as the season goes on.<\/p>\n
13. Kansas<\/h4>\n I don\u2019t quite know what to make of this Kansas team. And of Darryn Peterson. But what I do know is that no one-seed or two-seed will want them to be in their bracket come Selection Sunday, because they have the high-end ceiling to beat anyone on any given night.<\/p>\n
14. Virginia<\/h4>\n Time just keeps going by, and Virginia just keeps on winning. Granted, none of the wins are all that impressive in a vacuum, but the nightly consistency in year one of the Ryan Odom era is what impresses me the most with this team.<\/p>\n
15. St. John’s<\/h4>\n The Red Storm withstood one of the most egregious fouls in the history of college basketball and a few ejections in their win over Providence on Saturday. The biggest development of this team is that they may have finally found their starting point guard \u2013 Dylan Darling has been electric in the last two wins.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
16. Vanderbilt<\/h4>\n What impresses me the most about this Vanderbilt team is their ability to learn from and mask their weaknesses. We know that Vanderbilt is a small team, with only one offensive creator (Tyler Tanner), and yet they\u2019ve been able to beat bigger opponents with elite defenses, like Auburn and Texas A&M.<\/p>\n
17. Saint Louis<\/h4>\n The Billikens are rolling through the Atlantic Ten. They have reached the point where they are a lock for an NCAA Tournament bid, even if they don\u2019t win the A10 tournament, which will be something that all bubble teams will have to pay attention to come Conference Tournament week.<\/p>\n
18. Nebraska<\/h4>\n A little bit of regression was to be expected after the dream 20-0 start to the season. But still, the Cornhuskers only have three losses, all to top-10 opponents. Getting Rienk Mast back from injury\/illness will only help them out the next time they have to play a top-tier opponent.<\/p>\n
19. Louisville<\/h4>\n Simply put, this team can absolutely bury you if it\u2019s a hot shooting night for them. Only three teams in the country take 3-pointers at a higher rate, and only 80 teams shoot them at a higher percentage. It\u2019s all systems go now that Mikel Brown is back in the lineup and 100% healthy.<\/p>\n
20. Arkansas<\/h4>\n This season may boast the best freshman class of all time in college basketball. One of the more under-the-radar freshmen is Arkansas\u2019 Darius Acuff Jr. For some reason, he\u2019s not talked about on the same level as a Kingston Flemings or Keaton Wagler, but he\u2019s going to have a chance to prove his worth this March.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nPhoto Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n21. Kentucky<\/h4>\n I can\u2019t really knock Kentucky too much for losing to Florida in Gainesville. It was a potential Denzel Aberdeen revenge game, and he scored 19 points, but it was on 8-21 shooting. Not exactly efficient. The Wildcats will need an efficient Aberdeen (and Otega Oweh) if they want to go far in March.<\/p>\n
22. Tennessee<\/h4>\n Nate Ament. Nate Ament. Nate Ament. The freshman almost single-handedly powered Tennessee\u2019s run of 6 wins in 7 games, and is now living up to the lofty expectations that were placed on him after his dominance of weak non-conference competition.<\/p>\n
23. Texas<\/h4>\n Sean Miller has gotten this team to turn the corner, and they will be someone that no top seed will want to play in the NCAA Tournament. Matas Vokietaitis is a physical presence who draws fouls at an almost unprecedented rate, and getting opposing frontcourts in foul trouble goes a long way in winning basketball games.<\/p>\n
24. Alabama<\/h4>\n This team has had to deal with a LOT this season. Granted, they brought some of it upon themselves with the Charles Bediako situation, but they\u2019ve dealt with an insanely difficult schedule (2nd-toughest in the country) while dealing with a myriad of injuries and never knowing who will be in the lineup. Last time out, it was Taylor Bol Bowen who was out, and London Jemison who admirably filled in during a win over South Carolina.<\/p>\n
25. BYU<\/h4>\n I am very concerned about the Cougars. Their second-leading scorer, and one of the nation\u2019s best 3-point scorers, Richie Saunders, is out for the season. His absence will change the entire gravity of BYU\u2019s offense, but it will funnel more usage and shots to AJ Dybantsa and Rob Wright. Dybantsa will have the ultimate chance to showcase his talents \u2013 if this team doesn\u2019t fall off and goes on a run, it will be because of him.<\/p>\n
For more great college basketball rankings and analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There aren\u2019t a whole lot of shake-ups in the top-half of the Top-25 this week, as we had an astoundingly unchaotic week of college basketball. This week, however, is shaping up to be a doozy \u2013 we have matchups involving the top 4 teams on Saturday afternoon, potentially giving us a preview of potential Elite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":178082,"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":[31322,826,1442],"class_list":["post-178078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-rankings","tag-march-madness","tag-selection-sunday"],"modified_by":"Doug Henderson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178078","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=178078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178086,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178078\/revisions\/178086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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