As I stated in the preseason rankings there appeared top be a few handful of great teams this year and a bunch that were all about the same. Now that we are in conference play that seems to be the case. I’m sure this will be the trend throughout the year. As with most years any road win is a good win this year. Check out the rankings to see where your favorite team comes in.
1. Syracuse – Two nice wins over Providence and Marquette. Its still hard to know what this team is all about until they have to play a tough road game.
2. Kentucky – Defeated Arkansas-Little Rock and South Carolina.
3. North Carolina – Two good tests this week against Miami and at Florida State.
4. Baylor – Another solid win over Texas A & M. If they win on Tuesday at Kansas State this team will have as good a resume as anyone.
5. Ohio State – Bounced back from the loss to Indiana with two Big 10 destructions over Nebraska and Iowa. They have a tricky game at Illinois this week followed by the rematch with Indiana on Sunday.
6. Duke – Do not drop from last week simply because Michigan State is the next team in line and they already beat them this season.
7. Michigan State – Its starting to look like Wisconsin is not as good as everyone thought but a win over them is still a good win.
8. Indiana – Nice win over Michigan at home this week. A tough week with a game vs Minnesota and the rematch in Columbus with Ohio State. If they stay close in Columbus this team is for real.
9. Missouri – Got man handled by Kansas State this week but they were due for a bad game especially on the road. They will need to play well to beat Iowa State on the road.
10. Kansas – Man handled Kansas State at home and followed it up with a huge second half to beat Oklahoma.
11. Georgetown – Had one of the great comebacks of the year from down 17 to beat Marquette. Followed it up with the typical let down game in a loss to West Virginia. Not many teams win in Morgantown and they were underdogs so its not a bad loss.
12. Connecticut – Boy was I wrong about these guys. There is clearly something wrong here as they are not playing anywhere near their talent level.
13. San Diego State – I think they will beat UNLV so they get this spot based on that alone.
14. UNLV – Have the showdown with the aforementioned Aztecs. If they keep it close or especially win they will validate thier high ranking.
15. Virginia – Get the big jump because they actually went on the road and beat a decent team (LSU) which is something none of the other previously ranked teams did. Have a showdown at Duke this week. Should give a good gauge of how good they are.
16. Michigan – Made a big jump depsite losing this week to Indiana. A two point loss at Indiana is a relatively good result this year. They followed it up by blasting Wisconsin.
17. Florida – The talent is there but they looked really bad at Tennessee.
18. Marquette – Took two tough losses this week to Georgetown and Syracuse. Any team that is good enough to go up 17 on Georgetown on the road and hang with Syracuse in the Carrier Dome is a good team this year.
19.Kansas State – Got blitzed by Kansas on the road and then destroyed Missouri at home. The matchup this week with Baylor should be a great one that they could easily win.
20. Louisville – Finally down to rankings that properly reflect the team this year after the bad to Notre Dame.
21. Murray State – Just keep winning.
22. Vanderbilt – They are finally healthy and should start hitting their stride to climb back to their preseason rankings.
23. Gonzaga – Id ont want to put them too high simply because I think they will lose this week at ST. Mary’s. If they win they game they will get a nice jump nice week.
24. Missisppi State – Ran into 40 minutes of hell in Arkansas but that was just a bad mathcup for them. Big SEC game with Alabama this week which I think they will win.
25. Seton Hall – Nice win over Connecticut gets them in the rankings.