The college basketball season is almost a full week old, so now is a reasonable time to look at the college basketball power rankings. Results are beginning to accumulate among teams across the country. A lot of teams are playing cupcake games against inferior opposition, but some of the top teams in the country have challenged themselves by playing ranked teams. A power ranking list basically comes from teams which have won big games against very good opposition. That’s the basis on which this list will evolve, provided that teams don’t suffer very many bad losses.
Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers have the best win of the season so far. They beat the Kansas Jayhawks in Hawaii last Friday. Since Kansas then beat Duke on Tuesday night, that win over Kansas became a lot better. Indiana shot the three extremely well and outworked Kansas on the boards. The versatility of the Hoosiers was enough to overcome the efforts of Kansas guard Frank Mason, who continuously got to the basket and was able to draw a lot of fouls. This win could be as good a win as any team grabs all season. For now, it should be good enough to put Indiana at number one.
Villanova Wildcats
If Indiana over Kansas was the best win of the season so far, a close second is Villanova’s win at Purdue. Kansas is a better team than Purdue, but that was on a neutral floor. The Boilermakers have one of the better frontcourts in the country, led by agile big man Caleb Swanigan. Villanova plays a guard-oriented lineup, so it’s impressive that the Wildcats could hang tough with their finesse-based approach against Purdue’s muscle and might. Villanova did figure to be very good this season, but taking the risk of playing a true road game (not a neutral site game) was substantial without Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, two of the senior leaders of last season’s national championship group. Don’t undersell the value of the win on Purdue’s home floor.
Kentucky Wildcats
The Kentucky Wildcats and the Arizona Wildcats both beat the Michigan State Spartans, but the difference is that Kentucky is healthy, unlike Arizona, and UK crushed MSU, whereas Arizona needed a last-second bucket to escape. John Calipari’s young backcourt was energetic – that’s no surprise – but it also seemed very poised and confident on the court against Michigan State. That’s a very encouraging start for a program which didn’t make the Sweet 16 last season and wants to get back to what it feels is its rightful place: the Final Four.
Kentucky is 3-0 and should have a relatively easy time of things until they face No. 16 UCLA on Saturday, December 3rd. They’ll play three home games (versus Duquesne, Cleveland State and Tennessee-Martin) before facing Arizona State on a neutral site. Then they’ll take on UCLA, which should be a very winnable game for them.
Baylor Bears
The Bears beat Oregon with an authoritative performance. Baylor might not stay in the top five, but being able to handle Oregon that easily sends a message that Scott Drew has another capable team which can rise to a relatively high seed in the NCAA Tournament in March of 2017. The Big 12 is consistently one of the best regular season conferences in college basketball, and Baylor put the league at the forefront of the national debate once again. Baylor didn’t lose a game the way Kansas did, so the Bears appear ahead of the Jayhawks.
Kansas Jayhawks
The Jayhawks didn’t get Indiana, but they did beat No. 1 Duke. Arizona did beat Michigan State, which is why the Wildcats would be number six on this list, but Kansas gets recognition for playing two top teams, splitting those games, and playing them thousands of miles apart. Frank Mason is playing like an elite point guard, and young Josh Jackson is already developing. The Jayhawks are going to be scary before too long.
Their upcoming schedule includes a number of easy games before they get to Stanford, which will be their next challenge. They’ll host Siena, face UAB on a neutral site, then come back home to face UNC Asheville and Long Beach State before taking on Stanford. The Jayhawks are hard to beat at home, so don’t expect them to stumble with Stanford in that college basketball matchup.
