It seems like Grayson Allen has a new incident each game and the junior guard is letting his on-court issues get in the way of the team’s goals. The Blue Devils were shellacked by Florida State earlier in the week on the road and then they lost again to Louisville away from home. Duke will be happy to get back to Cameron Indoor this week and improve that atrocious 2-3 start to conference play. The Blue Devils also miss Amile Jefferson badly.
Why isn’t anyone talking about Arizona these days? The Wildcats are playing tremendous basketball, even without star guard Allonzo Trier. He’s been missing all season long and there’s no target date for his return to the lineup. However, the Wildcats have won 10 straight games since losing to Gonzaga by seven and no one seems to be giving them any love. They will make it back into the top 15 this week, though.
Butler lost a tough one to Creighton to start the week on the road and it seemed like the Bulldogs would have a tough stretch, hosting No. 15 Xavier over the weekend. However, they rebounded nicely to beat the Musketeers by five. Butler is showing an impressive ability to overcome adversity and that could carry them to a conference title over teams like Creighton, Xavier and Villanova. This week, I’d expect them to only drop a spot.
Like a number of teams in the Top 25 this week, the Oregon Ducks only had one contest, beating Oregon State by an incredible 42 points. The Ducks looked like the best team in the Pac-12 during that one and they remain red-hot heading into the meat of the schedule. People seem to forget that this is the same team that earned a No. 1 seed last year and made a serious run in March. The Ducks are starting to take that form again.
Just one week after making the jump into the top 10, Florida State now finds itself on the outside, looking in. The Seminoles had a big home win over Duke, 88-72, to start the week and then traveled to Chapel Hill on Saturday, losing to North Carolina by 13. It was a roller-coaster of a week, but any time you can play Duke and North Carolina in the same seven-day stretch and come away with a split, that’s an overall victory. Don’t expect much of a dip.