\n
College Basketball Top 25 Rankings<\/h2>\n1. Duke<\/h4>\n
The Blue Devils rolled over North Carolina and are heading into the ACC Tournament on a 7-game win streak, but it came with a cost. Starters Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba have sustained injuries, and their status is unknown moving forward. We\u2019ll see how it impacts them (and their future ranking) this week in Charlotte.<\/p>\n
2. Michigan<\/h4>\n
The longer the season goes on, the harder this team looks to beat. You either have to match their size and physicality (like Duke did), or go nuclear hot from 3 (like Wisconsin did). The injury to LJ Cason does hurt the depth of this team, but Roddy Gayle Jr has stepped up and filled the void nicely to this point.<\/p>\n
3. Arizona<\/h4>\n
Only Kansas, who doesn\u2019t lose on Big Monday at Allen Fieldhouse, has beaten this Arizona team while fully healthy. If they can maintain the health of Koa Peat and company. Throughout the Big 12 tournament, you have to feel pretty good about their chances of winning the whole thing. Of the top-4 teams, I do worry about an upset the most for this group because of their lack of 3-point shooting if they run into an opponent who gets hot.<\/p>\n
4. Florida<\/h4>\n
The Gators have lost only one game since January 4, and just completely ran roughshod over the best that the SEC had to throw at them. The development of Thomas Haugh into one of the biggest wing mismatches in the sport has been fun to watch, and they have a chance to give us a pair of back-to-back champions in the last four seasons.<\/p>\n
5. Illinois<\/h4>\n
The Illini head into postseason play boasting the most efficient offense that the KenPom database has ever seen. However, will they be able to get enough stops to truly contend for a national championship? Their defense sits at only 26th nationally in defensive efficiency. Either way, I will be watching, as Keaton Wagler is one of the most entertaining players in the sport.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The Cougars have righted the ship after their 3-game slide in February, but I still have a little bit of concern. They currently own zero wins over the top-15 teams on KenPom, and rank 2nd-to-last nationally in average 2-point distance, trailing only Mississippi Valley State. Anytime you\u2019re in the same conversation as MVSU, that\u2019s not a good thing. There does exist a path for them to win a National Championship, but it\u2019s a narrow one.<\/p>\n The Spartans get this spot by virtue of beating Purdue in Mackey Arena. This team, to me, has the feel of one that will not lose to an inferior opponent before the Sweet 16, but lacks the true upside to win the National Championship unless Tom Izzo pulls some March magic out of his hat.<\/p>\n The Cyclones get this spot by virtue of beating Purdue in Mackey Arena. The most interesting development for this team has been that TJ Otzelberger has seemingly finally realized that his team needs more shooting and spacing, and has been giving more minutes to freshman flamethrower Jamarion Batemon. Will this continue into the postseason?<\/p>\n Man, the Boilermakers lost a lot of games at Mackey Arena this season. Potentially good news for them is that they won\u2019t play again in their own arena this season. I would love to see Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn go out with a Final Four run, but I worry about them running into a team that can bury them with athleticism and length at all 5 positions.<\/p>\n The Zags can answer a lot of questions about them with how they perform in the WCC Tournament over the next two days, as well as who they have available to play in this tournament and beyond. Braden Huff has still not been ruled out for the season, and would provide a big lift if he can return to the lineup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, it was without Nate Ament, but the Commodores answered a lot of my questions in their 86-82 win over Tennessee on Saturday. They proved that they can deal with size, and their offense excelled at getting downhill and getting to the free-throw line. Guard play rules in March, and the Commodores have one of the nation\u2019s best backcourt tandems in Duke Miles and Tyler Tanner.<\/p>\n It was no Darius Acuff, no problem for Kentucky this weekend in a hostile environment at Missouri. What an incredibly impressive win for a team that is peaking at the right time. John Calipari is the master of this \u2013 he compiles together a roster of mostly freshmen and transfers, and plays just enough games in the regular season for them to get it all figured out by tournament time. This is a team no one wants to see in their bracket.<\/p>\n Would you look at that \u2013 Darryn Peterson has now played 29 minutes or more in the last five games. The Jayhawks have already shown that with Peterson in the lineup, their ceiling is as high as anyone\u2019s, and he\u2019s now logging enough minutes so that they can really learn how to play with him and reach their maximum potential.<\/p>\n Am I being too harsh on UConn? I don\u2019t think so, but I\u2019m also not within range for Danny Hurley to berate me in the same way that he did with the officials last Saturday. You simply can not lose to Marquette at this point in the season. Marquette is not good. This is supposed to be a 1 or 2-seed come Selection Sunday, and they\u2019re going to be one that I am picking against if they don\u2019t show me some rapid improvement in Madison Square Garden this week.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t look now, but the Crimson Tide are as healthy as they have been at any point this season and are playing their best ball at the right time. Nate Oats\u2019 vision with how he schedules difficult games and plays with all different kinds of rotations has finally produced a battle-tested, optimized version of this roster that is ready for postseason play.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Volunteers are expected to get Nate Ament back before the NCAA Tournament \u2013 and they need him. If Ament were in the lineup, it\u2019s quite likely that the Vols would have beaten both Alabama and Vanderbilt, and they\u2019d have an entirely different postseason outlook.<\/p>\n This team is one that I will look to be picking against in their first round of the NCAA Tournament. They aren\u2019t overly big or athletic, aren\u2019t an elite rebounding squad, and force teams into shooting a lot of 3-point shots. This is a recipe for a plucky underdog to come in and have a hot shooting night to deny Fred Hoiberg and the Huskers their first-ever NCAA Tournament win.<\/p>\n After going 3-0 in their first 3 games without JT Toppin, the Red Raiders have fallen back to Earth just a little bit, losing their last two. They are going to need to get a little more offensively from anyone not named Anderson or Atwell if they want to make a deep tournament run, and I just don\u2019t know if that\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n The giant killers of the Big Ten put another notch in their belt with a road victory over Purdue to close out the regular season. They\u2019ve beaten Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, and now Purdue. Guard play rules in March, and the Badgers have one of the nation\u2019s best backcourt tandems in Nick Boyd and John Blackwell.<\/p>\n This is one of those teams that seems to be unlikely to be upset early in the NCAA Tournament because of their size, defensive intensity, and domination of the glass. And they\u2019re a well-coached team with Ryan Odom at the helm. But I have not seen a ceiling from them that makes me think they can legitimately make a Final Four.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Red Storm have only lost once since January 3, but it was an absolute demolition at the hands of UConn, and it\u2019s difficult for me to unsee that ugly loss. Zuby Ejiofor has been outstanding, but how much this team can get out of Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins, as well as new starting point guard Dylan Darling, will determine how far they will go in March.<\/p>\n So the Gaels ended the season on the highest of notes by beating Santa Clara and Gonzaga in the final week of the regular season. A big reason why is that they finally unleashed guard Mikey Lewis, who combined for 52 points in those massive victories.<\/p>\n It was no Mikel Brown Jr, no problem for the Cardinals against Miami to close out the regular season. They got 24 points from Ryan Conwell and a few huge shots from Aly Klahifa off the bench. This team\u2019s ability to get hot at any time gives them a ceiling that can compete with anyone.<\/p>\n The Buckeyes may have finally gotten off the bubble for this NCAA Tournament thanks to beating Indiana to close out the regular season on a 3-game win streak. It\u2019s fitting for Bruce Thornton, who\u2019s been a quality player for four straight seasons, to finally reach the NCAA Tournament and get to showcase his talent on a national scale.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t look now – but the Bulldogs bounced back from a midseason skid and have beaten Kentucky, Alabama, and Texas in the last three weeks to seal an NCAA Tournament berth. Given how he has played in the last week, I now finally feel confident that Kanon Catchings can actually beat his aunt (Tamika) in a one-on-one game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This will be the penultimate top-25 of the season for us. Next week, we\u2019re opting to go the route of a more of a power rankings format for the NCAA Tournament, and then we will have the final top-25 after all the dust has settled in the NCAA Tournament. Conference tournament week is going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":180659,"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-180654","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\/180654","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=180654"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180662,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180654\/revisions\/180662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28428241_168419650_lowres-1024x683.jpg\")
6. Houston<\/h4>\n
7. Michigan State<\/h4>\n
8. Iowa State<\/h4>\n
9. Purdue<\/h4>\n
10. Gonzaga<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/12\/USATSI_27826527_168419650_lowres-1024x682.jpg\")
11. Vanderbilt<\/h4>\n
12. Arkansas<\/h4>\n
13. Kansas<\/h4>\n
14. UConn<\/h4>\n
15. Alabama<\/h4>\n
![\"Tennessee](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/02\/USATSI_28277095_168420457_lowres-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\n16. Tennessee<\/h4>\n
17. Nebraska<\/h4>\n
18. Texas Tech<\/h4>\n
19. Wisconsin<\/h4>\n
20. Virginia<\/h4>\n
![\"St.](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28392608_168420457_lowres-1024x682.jpg\")
21. St John’s<\/h4>\n
22. Saint Mary’s<\/h4>\n
23. Louisville<\/h4>\n
24. Ohio State<\/h4>\n
25. Georgia<\/h4>\n