Below are my rankings for the Reddit User Poll following two weeks of games played. Pretty wacky week where a lot of the top teams stayed in their spots or close to them for me. Very cool that my personal rankings had both a #1/#4 and #2/#3 matchup actually get played on the same night. Note – the rankings in the “Last Week” summary are my own personal rankings, not the Reddit User Poll, Coaches Poll, or AP Poll.
- Gonzaga (–)
- Last Week: Def. #4 West Virginia 87-82
- A solid, gutsy victory over a team that I felt matched up well against the Bulldogs. In particular, the re-entry of Jalen Suggs as well as how Gonzaga stayed competitive while he was sidelined were both equally impressive. Hard for me to be convinced that this isn’t the best team and that won’t change with Gonzaga going into Covid protocol.
- Baylor (–)
- Last Week: Def. #3 Illinois 82-69
- Very impressed by the performance Baylor had on Wednesday. Illinois gave it their all for about the first 30 minutes before the Bears put the pedal to the medal and finished off a nice victory. I’d argue it was more impressive than Gonzaga’s performance but I do think Gonzaga is still a cut above for now.
- West Virginia (+1)
- Last Week: Lost to #1 Gonzaga 87-82 and def. Georgetown 80-71
- I’ve never been a fan of poll inertia and am certainly not going to start now. A road win at a Big East team, no matter how down Georgetown is, is a quality win but more importantly, I was extremely impressed by the resolve the Mountaineers had in taking Gonzaga to the final minute. So, I feel totally comfortable keeping the Mountaineers in the top 5 as well as leap frogging them past Illinois.
- Illinois (-1)
- Last Week: Lost to #2 Baylor 82-69
- Again, I didn’t feel like Illinois’ performance warranted any kind of major drop off. I was more impressed by West Virginia’s loss than the Illini’s which is why I flipped the two teams, but losing to my #1 and #2 teams is not worth moving either of these teams out of the #3 and #4 spots.
- Villanova (–)
- Last Week: Def. Hartford 87-53 and def. #12 Texas 68-64
- Nova bounced back from an upset loss with ease against Hartford then outlasted a tough, red hot Texas team in a thriller on the road. I felt that some polls overreacted to Nova’s loss to Virginia Tech and felt vindicated by their win on Sunday. While a win at a top 15 team is impressive, though, I felt there was a clear gap from the top 4 last week to Villanova so while they’ve closed the gap, I think they are just a skosh behind Illinois.
- Michigan State (+3)
- Last Week: Def. #13 Duke 75-69, def. Detroit Mercy 83-76, and def. Western Michigan 79-61
- It wasn’t a pretty finish to the week with a narrow escape against Detroit Mercy followed by Western Michigan keeping it within 5 points with just 8 minutes left before fading. But, a road win at a top 20 team, particularly one that exorcised a lot of demons (pun absolutely intended), was a big addition to the Spartans’ resume.
- Iowa (–)
- Last Week: Def. Western Illinois 99-58
- Luka Garza continues to be Luka Garza and do Luka Garza things. Other than that, there’s really not much to takeaway from blowing out three vastly inferior opponents. We’ll know a lot more after Tuesday night against UNC.
- Houston (+2)
- Last Week: Def. South Carolina 77-67
- In a vacuum, I really don’t see anything overly impressive about a 10 point home win over a middle of the road SEC team – solid but unspectacular. The circumstances, though, of doing it without multiple rotation players, the head coach, and an assistant coach, are VERY impressive. Houston has one of the best cultures going in the sport right now.
- Texas (+3)
- Last Week: Def. Davidson 78-76, def. Indiana 66-44, def. #20 UNC 69-67, lost to #5 Villanova 68-64
- Once again laughing at the concept of poll inertia here. Yes, the Longhorns lost at home narrowly to what I believe is a top 5 team. But at the same time, they also beat three quality opponents in the same week at the Maui Invitational of Asheville, including my #20 team and Indiana, who was and still is in my “Next 5” teams. Texas solidified themselves to me quite a bit this week.
- Creighton (+5)
- Last Week: Def. Omaha 94-67 and def. Kennesaw State 93-58
- For as much as I’ve lambasted the traditional moving up and down of teams, Creighton does benefit here from simply holding serve and blowing out teams they should have. Jumped them past Duke and Wisconsin who lost, Kansas and Virginia who looked very unimpressive, and Tennessee, who has yet to play a game and is still an entirely conceptual ranking.
- Wisconsin (-5)
- Last Week: Def. Green Bay 82-42 and lost to Marquette 67-65
- Tough loss for the Badgers this weekend on the road. In all honesty, I fully expected them to pull it out against a much less experienced Marquette team, at least less experienced compared to an all-senior starting lineup. Most surprising was that Marquette won from Wisconsin failing to box out. This team will be fine though.
- Tennessee (+2)
- Last Week: No games played
- Texas Tech (+3)
- Last Week: Def. Troy 80-46 and def. Grambling 81-40
- Not a lot to add here about Texas Tech doing what they were supposed to. Disappointed to not have the St. John’s game as a better indicator of where this team is at, but don’t sleep on this week’s potential matchup against a spooky Abilene Christian team.
- Florida State (+3)
- Last Week: Def. North Florida 86-58
- The Seminoles finally got their season going this week and performed as expected against an overwhelmed opponent. This already looks like the prototypical Florida State team we’ve all grown to love over the past several teams.
- Richmond (+3)
- Last Week: No games played
- Duke (-3)
- Last Week: Lost to #9 Michigan State 75-69 and def. Bellarmine 76-54
- Duke quickly got over the turnover bug they had against Coppin State and did a better job limiting themselves to just 12 turnovers against the Spartans. They struggled to shoot the ball though at just 32% from the field and 22% from three, which will need to improve for me to be higher on Duke.
- UConn (+2)
- Last Week: Def. USC 61-58
- It was one of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen and UConn didn’t look good against the zone, but they did just enough offensively and held things down on defense to get their best win of the year against a strong USC team led by a phenomenally talented Evan Mobley.
- UNC (+2)
- Last Week: Def. UNLV 78-51, def. Stanford 67-63, and lost to #12 Texas 69-67
- The Tar Heels did end up losing the Maui Invitational final, but losing to a borderline top 10 team on a buzzer beater shouldn’t discount the other work they did this week. More then anything, I think this week gives confidence that UNC is back to being the UNC we know they can be after the disastrous 2019-2020 season.
- Virginia (-11)
- Last Week: Def. St. Francis (PA) 76-51 and def. Kent State 71-64
- I gave the Hoos the benefit of the doubt this week, and still think this is a good defensive team, but yeesh, they are not giving me too much confidence. The offensive performance just leaves a lot to be desired and getting taken to OT on your home court by a MAC opponent is not what you expect out of this program.
- Kansas (-9)
- Last Week: Def. #25 Kentucky 65-62, def. DII Washburn 89-54, and def. North Dakota State 65-61
- Yes, the Jayhawks went 3-0, but it was one of the most underwhelming 3-0 weeks you could have. First, they defeated what has turned out to be (at least so far) a genuinely bad Kentucky team narrowly in one of the ugliest games I have ever witnessed, then needed a clutch late block to fend off a home upset bid from North Dakota State. I do think a lot of these pieces will end up working together, but Bill Self hasn’t appeared to have found the right formula just yet.
- Saint Louis (–)
- Last Week: Def. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 107-54
- Nothing new to add about the Billikens this week. Took care of business, though getting Hasahn French back healthy will help this team moving forward.
- Virginia Tech (–)
- Last Week: Def. VMI 64-57
- After a thrilling first week punctuated by an upset over Villanova, the Hokies appeared to come back to earth a bit with an unimpressive home win over VMI. Atrocious shooting, particularly from three, was the main culprit, so with Mike Young at the helm I’m not reading too much into this performance.
- Arizona State (–)
- Last Week: Def. Cal 70-62
- The Sun Devils bounced back in their Pac 12 opener with a solid road at Cal. In particular, Remy Martin stepped up with 22 points following an awful game against Villanova in his last game against a power conference foe, which will be key for Arizona State moving forward.
- San Diego State (–)
- Last Week: Def. DII St. Katherine 83-41 and def. Pepperdine 65-60
- The latter game may have been closer than the Aztecs would have liked but as I noted last week with UCLA, the Waves are a sneaky good team with a couple bonafide NBA prospects, so this is a respectable win in my book.
- Ohio State (NEW)
- Last Week: Def. Morehead State 77-44
- Nothing spectacular from the Buckeyes this week – they move up solely as a result of me giving up any hope of pretending Kentucky is solid right now. Which, speaking of…
Dropped Out:
Kentucky (was 25) – There’s no other way to put it – Kentucky is simply awful right now. While yes, I do think Kansas is still a top 25 team, that game on Tuesday night was a horrific display of basketball, if you want to call it that. Topping that off by getting blown out by a mediocre Georgia Tech team that was 0-2 with home losses to Georgia State and Mercer? Yikes.
Next 5: Florida, Rutgers, Louisville, Indiana, Oklahoma State