Week 18 of the college basketball AP rankings were released on Monday afternoon. Here are the biggest winners and losers.
Don’t look now, the college basketball regular season has drawn to a close and we are already headed to the conference tournament portion of the year. Some teams have already punched their tickets to the NCAA Tournament, but the real March Madness begins this week.
Some will be fighting for their tournament lives in the final conference action of the season while others are just hoping to improve their seeding.
With the latest release of the AP Top 25, fans got a good idea of which teams will earn No. 1 seeds and which will likely be in the 5-6 range. There was plenty of movement from last week’s poll, just like every edition of the rankings this season, and we have some new teams joining the No. 1 seed conversation.
Less than a week stands between us and Selection Sunday, the most exciting weekend of the season for college basketball fans.
Take a look at the biggest winners and losers from the Week 18 college basketball rankings release.
Loser: Florida Gators (No. 12 down to No. 17)
Florida took a big tumble from last week’s No. 12 spot after a loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday night. The Gators were looking to solidify a spot in the top 10 with the win, but losing on the road to the Commodores ruined any hope of that.
The loss was Florida’s second to the Commodores this season and you can bet the Gators want revenge in the SEC Tournament. However, AP voters weren’t all that kind to Florida, the second-best team from the SEC, as they dropped the Gators five spots to No. 17.
You hardly ever see a five-spot drop, at least not this season, for a road loss to a potential NCAA Tournament-bound team. Playing in a weak SEC will do that, though. Florida still has a lot to prove and by losing a crucial road game like that in the season finale will put doubt in the minds of voters.
Can the Gators rebound and get back into the top 15 with a deep conference tournament run?