College Basketball AP Poll Week 14: Winners and losers
Week 14 of the college basketball AP rankings have been released on Monday afternoon and here are the biggest winners and losers.
We are now just weeks away from the postseason in college basketball. It seems like just yesterday we were tipping off the season with non-conference tournaments, such as the Battle 4 Atlantis or NIT Tipoff Classic, as well as the Champions Classic and other major showdowns between the country’s early-season elites.
Now we are eyeing the end of conference play, although it’s still about a month away, and a potential crazy finish to the regular season. Why do I say this? Well, because the last few weeks have been filled with upsets including the No. 1 teams in the country falling at a record pace.
In Week 13, five of the top 10 teams in the country fell and it was the second straight instance of the rankings getting a major shakeup. The Week 14 AP rankings have a different look to them, although the nation’s No. 1 team remains the same.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from the newest edition of the AP Poll.
Loser: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (No. 20 to unranked)
Notre Dame is in a serious slide and playing in the ACC won’t make matters any better. In fact, the Fighting Irish have lost four in a row and 5-of-6 since starting the season 16-2 and 5-0 in conference play and they have another tough game against Florida State this week.
The Fighting Irish have fallen from the top-15 range to unranked in the matter of weeks. There was chatter a few weeks ago about this team potentially making it into the top 10, but that seems like a distant memory now.
Mike Brey’s team lost to Duke at home on Monday and then closed out the week with a loss at North Carolina. Not the easiest of schedules to deal with, and the Fighting Irish suffered a couple of losses, dropping them from the rankings in Week 14.
Could they be out for good or will they upset the Seminoles this week and jump back in?