College Basketball Rankings: Projected Top 25 for Week 4
Florida had the big lead against Duke in the second half, but the Gators couldn’t find a way to hold on as the Blue Devils stormed back to take the PK80 title. Florida still looked like a legit national contender despite blowing the big lead and they had a double-digit lead over the Blue Devils for a majority of the second half. Despite the tough loss, I don’t think the Gators drop in the polls. In fact, they might rise a couple of spots thanks to Arizona and Wichita State losses. Beating Gonzaga and leading Duke for about 39 minutes is enough to impress voters.
Villanova will move up slightly after a nice week with three wins to its name. The Wildcats finished with victories over Western Kentucky, Tennessee and Northern Iowa, improving to 6-0 on the year. The Big East powerhouse might be the runaway favorite to win the conference this season but it will be tested in a couple of weeks against Gonzaga.
Just a couple of weeks after losing to No. 1 Duke, Michigan State was able to suffocate the Blue Devils’ top rival North Carolina in the PK80 title game, the Victors Bracket, en route to an impressive win. Miles Bridges still isn’t clearly 100 percent, but guys like Josh Langford, Nick Ward and Cassius Winston continue to step up and make up for that lost production. The Spartans beat DePaul and UConn in the other two games to start the tournament.
The Big 12 has been owned in football by Oklahoma over the past decade and on the hardwood, it’s been Kansas’. There hasn’t been much in between, but the Jayhawks have dominated the conference and are a favorite to do so yet again in 2017-18. The Jayhawks have been perfect so far this season, going 5-0 after beating Texas Southern and demolishing Oakland in Week 3.
You can never count Duke out of any game. That was never more evident than in Week 3 as the Blue Devils battled multiple large second-half deficits against Florida and Texas in the Phil Knight Invitational to win both. They looked dead in the water against the Longhorns on Friday, but stormed back to win in overtime and then seemed lifeless against the Gators, but Grayson Allen, Marvin Bagley and Co. wouldn’t let the Blue Devils go down that easily. This team is resilient, but Coach K would tell you he’s not pleased with needing comebacks to win.