How is March already arriving this Friday? It feels like yesterday we were in the early portion of the season, watching teams compete in their midseason tournaments that define the way we view which conferences are strong/weak. But here we are. Houston is my new No. 1 after a pair of fantastic wins, while UConn dropped to No. 2 with a road loss to Creighton. Purdue didn’t necessarily impress with a pair of mediocre wins, but those three teams have truly separated themselves.
A handful of teams picked up exceptional wins—think Creighton and Washington State over No. 4 Arizona—but they both followed them up with a disappointing defeat. The duality of these teams made moving squads in the 10-20 range very difficult, since they have such similar-quality resumes. That’s why No. 11 Illinois blowing a 7-point lead late against a poor Penn State team only dropped them three spots. Or No. 16 Baylor falling three slots after losing a pair. The top 25 is just a mess once you leave the top three–and even that’s not simple.
As a briefer, the SMP is a weekly basketball poll, voted on by student journalists from around the country from a variety of different college newspapers. Let’s take a look at the rankings and the six most interesting teams from this week’s action: two high achievers, two low and two wild card teams of note.
- Houston
- UConn
- Purdue
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- Marquette
- Kansas
- Tennessee
- UNC
- Auburn
- Illinois
- Alabama
- Duke
- Kentucky
- Creighton
- Baylor
- TCU
- South Carolina
- St. Mary’s
- San Diego State
- Washington State
- Utah State
- Oklahoma
- Texas Tech
- Gonzaga
HIGH ACHIEVERS
No. 1 Houston: It’s tough to argue against the Cougars as the team of the week and their pair of excellent victories propelled them past UConn and Purdue. They defended home court against No. 5 Iowa State and then survived No. 16 Baylor in overtime after blowing a 17 point first half advantage. Them jumping the previous top two teams is nothing against UConn and Purdue, but more of a nod to Houston’s recent surge. Their losses don’t raise any eyebrows and these two victories are their best of the year. The Cougs should be able to take care of business over the next few games against a trio of teams in the bottom half of the Big 12, before they host No. 7 Kansas in their finale.
No. 22 Utah State: The Mountain West has been a rotating door of teams succeeding, then falling to others within the conference. It seems that any team within the top five or six of the MW has a chance to go on a nice run in the NCAA tournament. But let’s focus on the Aggies. USU is now atop the conference, thanks to a convincing win over No. 20 San Diego State. Yes, they lost to Colorado State last week, but that was last week and it was an away game. The Mountain West is a brutal conference to try to compete in and they haven’t come out unscathed, but Utah State is battle-tested. Their reward for surviving several top teams is playing the league’s underbelly, with three easy games over KenPom sub-200 teams.
DISAPPOINTMENTS
No. 16 Baylor: Calling Baylor a disappointment this week might be a bit of a stretch. They played two games that are objectively tough to win. The first came on the road against BYU, a team that is just on the wrong side of my top 25. The other was at home against Houston, the best team in the country. That’s why I didn’t punish the Bears too much, only dropping a few slots. Last week Baylor beat No. 23 Oklahoma and West Virginia. If you swapped the BYU game and the WVU game, that’s one loss per week and people are hardly blinking. I don’t see Baylor winning a championship, but I’m not concerned about them long term.
Unranked Colorado State: The Rams were the latest victim of the gauntlet that is the Mountain West, traveling to a good New Mexico team and barely losing. Then a less solid UNLV team caught them as they were reeling from the defeat to the Lobos. An 0-2 week as a squad ranked No. 22 just isn’t enough to stay in the rankings, especially if both losses are to unranked opposition. The good news is that Colorado State isn’t in any danger of missing the NCAA tournament, but will need to rebuild momentum with just three games left.
WILD CARDS
No. 15 Creighton: With four teams in the 11-15 range plus No. 8 Illinois losing at least one game this week, Creighton looked poised to leapfrog many squads ahead of them after beating then No. 1 UConn. It was a commanding effort, dare I say a blowout, that came to the tune of 50% shooting from deep. A signature victory that they needed. All they had to do after was go to Madison Square Garden and best St. John’s, who is on the wrong side of the bubble. They lost by 16 instead, another great demonstration of how inconsistent college kids can be from one night to the next. As such, they move up just one spot to No. 15, missing a grand opportunity.
No. 21 Washington State: The Cougars put themselves in a near-identical position to Creighton, surviving No. 4 Arizona on the road even without much from star Myles Rice. Riding the adrenaline of their win, WSU broke their streak on the road against an Arizona State team that entered below .500. The Cougars reached highs this week that most teams never experience and also hit unthinkable lows given their highs. They ended up staying relatively stable in the rankings, missing a tremendous chance. With this said, don’t be shocked if Washington State makes a run in the tournament. They’re built like a team that has the tools to pull off some upsets and will be a sleeper to get to the Final Four.