The college basketball season is steaming ahead into the middle section of January. The character and texture of the conference season are coming into focus. The irregular nature of non-conference play – with neutral-site games and holiday tournaments – is a distant memory, moving into a distinct kind of competition which knits together the whole of the season. Let’s see where the top teams in the nation stack up now. This should continue to change over the next several weeks leading up to the NCAA Tournament.
1. Villanova Wildcats
The Wildcats get this spot not only because Baylor lost, but because Baylor was blown out by West Virginia. Had Baylor barely lost at West Virginia, it wouldn’t have been a bad result at all, but since the Bears got run out of the gym, they have to take at least something of a tumble in the rankings. Villanova responded to its loss last week against Butler by beating Xavier and improving its resume. This jump to a higher level coincides with Baylor’s decline and positions Villanova as a clear No. 1 for now. This isn’t a dominant number-one position, but it is clear. Baylor doesn’t have quite enough of an argument to be seen on the same plane, which is what existed in previous weeks.
2. Baylor Bears
The Bears still rate ahead of UCLA, for the reason that they have acquired a large number of quality wins, and UCLA has not yet beaten Oregon or Arizona, the top teams in the Pac-12. Baylor’s win over Iowa State, a good team, gives the Bears a conference chip the Bruins don’t yet have on their own side of the ledger. As UCLA’s conference strength of schedule improves, though, that could change.
3. UCLA Bruins
Speaking of the Bruins’ strength of conference schedule, they play at Utah this coming weekend. If UCLA wins that game and Baylor loses another game within the week, the Bruins would then probably be able to leapfrog Baylor and move into the number two spot. What is of primary importance for the Bruins is to win the Pac-12. If they finish ahead of Oregon and Arizona, they should get the top seed in the West Region. For now, they are number three in the nation based on their body of work.
4. Kansas Jayhawks
This is a college basketball team which is not doing anything extremely impressive, but is not making any mistakes or doing anything to jeopardize its position in the rankings. The Jayhawks haven’t yet played a particularly daunting Big 12 game. They must go through Baylor and West Virginia and Iowa State, but that’s all in the future. Their league games thus far have featured the lower part of the league. Until they lose a game or beat a high-end team, they won’t move that much.
This week, the Jayhawks took care of business without being challenged much. They topped Texas Tech 85-68 last Saturday night, hardly breaking a sweat. Then the Jayhawks rolled up Oklahoma on Tuesday – on the road – beating them 81-70. Lastly, they had a little bit of a challenge from Oklahoma State on Saturday but still managed to win rather easily with an 87-80 margin.
5. Florida State Seminoles
The Seminoles have bounced onto this list, most deservedly, because they’re the best team in the ACC right now. They have earned that distinction because they have won high-level games against strong opposition. They beat Virginia a few weeks back, but now they’ve added Duke and Virginia Tech to the mix. That puts them above Duke, Virginia, Louisville and North Carolina in the ACC, the toughest and deepest college basketball conference in the country. The Seminoles ought to be here.
There will be some debate as to how the teams should line up after Saturday, but we’re not docking the Seminoles too much based on what happened. They went to North Carolina and ended up losing but remember that this was the No. 11 team in the country. Going to Chapel Hill and winning is never easy. On top of that, Duke – the No. 7 team in the nation – ended up losing to No. 14 Louisville. In that sense, that helps Florida State move up a little bit. Even with the loss in the tough spot, we like them as the fifth-best college basketball team in the country.
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