College Basketball Rankings: Projected Top 25 for Week 17
West Virginia Mountaineers
23-6, Last Week: 12
Two weeks ago, West Virginia blew a 14-point lead at Kansas with under three minutes to play and that looked to doom the Mountaineers. What is even more impressive is that they didn’t let that define their season. Since that heartbreaking defeat, the Mountaineers are 3-0 and they remain in second place in the Big 12. While Kansas is going to run away with the conference title yet again, West Virginia exceeded expectations this season and looks like the league’s second-best team.
Louisville Cardinals
23-6, Last Week: 7
Louisville opened the week with a tough loss at North Carolina, but the Cardinals rebounded on Sunday afternoon with a nice victory over Syracuse, a team that had surged. The Cardinals’ loss to the Tar Heels may have essentially destroyed any hope they had for a conference regular season title, but the team fared well in a tough ACC this season, especially after losing a couple of top players from last year’s team. Let’s hope Rick Pitino doesn’t have any more run-ins with boisterous fans moving forward like he did at North Carolina.
Kentucky Wildcats
24-5, Last Week: 11
Kentucky is starting to get back on track after a few hiccups in SEC play. While everyone expected the Wildcats to run away with the conference title in a down year for the SEC, they didn’t exactly do so in dominant fashion even with elite players such as De’Aron Fox, Bam Adebayo and Malik Monk on the team. Kentucky did exact revenge on Florida in Week 16, beating the No. 13 Gators by 10, putting the Wildcats one game up in the conference standings with two remaining.
Arizona Wildcats
26-4, Last Week: 4
The Pac-12 has been one of the tightest conference races near the top with Arizona, Oregon and UCLA, but it seems to be down to the two former teams. Arizona lost a tough one to UCLA on Saturday evening, though, and it was especially hard to swallow because it was a home game and a win would have kept the Wildcats one game up in the conference title race with one left. The Wildcats will travel to rival Arizona State this week to close the regular season.
North Carolina Tar Heels
25-5, Last Week: 8
North Carolina is one win away from officially winning the ACC regular season title. However, the Tar Heels have yet another tough week of play coming. The Tar Heels won a crucial game against Louisville last week and then followed that up with a blowout win over Pittsburgh. They will look to take down either Virginia on the road or top rival Duke at home. A win in either of those contests will give them the No. 1 seed in the conference tourney and a chance to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.