Fansided

College Basketball Rankings 2016: Projected Week 8 Top 25

By Connor Muldowney

Dec 21, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Deng Adel (22) reacts after time expired in the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Kentucky 73-70. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 21, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Deng Adel (22) reacts after time expired in the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Kentucky 73-70. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
Dec 23, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Nigel Hayes (10) attempts to move the ball pasts Florida A&M Rattlers forward Derrick Dandridge (14) during the first half at the Kohl Center. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 23, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Nigel Hayes (10) attempts to move the ball pasts Florida A&M Rattlers forward Derrick Dandridge (14) during the first half at the Kohl Center. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports /

Caleb Swanigan has been a monster for Purdue. The Boilermakers, Matt Painter especially, can thank their lucky stars that the sophomore big man decided to put the NBA for at least one more year and dominate the post at the college level in West Lafayette. He recorded in second straight 20-20 game against Norfolk State and he looks like his old five-star self from the high school ranks. Purdue is clicking on all cylinders.

Florida A&M stood absolutely no chance against the red-hot Wisconsin Badgers last week and they couldn’t even muster 40 points at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin has been known to play stout defense and the Rattlers found that out the hard way. Returning basically everyone from last year’s team, there’s no question as to why the Badgers have such a steadily-improving squad.

Butler was coming off its biggest win of the season in Week 6, beating Indiana quite easily even though the final score didn’t reflect that. The Bulldogs looked dominant and it was clear that Brad Stevens built a long-term winner even though he’s been with the Celtics for a couple years. Butler followed up that big win over Indiana with a 12-point victory over Vermont before conference play.

Virginia might be in trouble during the ACC regular season. While the Cavaliers have been atop the conference standings throughout the Tony Bennett era, the young head coach may have found himself in a peculiar situation with no offense to speak of. Virginia has one current scorer in double figures after dismissing Austin Nichols from the program. Can it find scoring from other sources?

West Virginia won the border battle against Virginia a few weeks ago and the two are similar only in the fact that they only have two double-digit scorers. However, the Mountaineers have one of the most spread out and even scoring attacks in the country, averaging 92 points per game as a team with no one averaging more than 13. This team could very well contend with Kansas for the Big 12 title.