College Basketball Rankings: Projected Top 25 for Week 6
A week after dropping out of the rankings with a loss to Seton Hall, Texas Tech bounced back with a victory over No. 22 Nevada. The Red Raiders are a strong shooting team, making 49 percent of their shots and average 83 points per game, but could defense be this team’s downfall? Absolutely not as the Red Raiders rank 24th in points per game allowed in the nation.
The Pac-12 might not have a ton of national contenders, but Arizona is back on track to looking more like one. The Wildcats are not far removed from losing three games in one week, but they have bounced back with four straight victories, including wins over Alabama and Texas A&M in Week 5. Arizona will bounce back into the rankings this week after a strong four-game stretch.
Even with all the upsets in Week 5, Tennessee isn’t going to make much of a rise because of the lack of quality wins. In fact, the Volunteers made their first appearance in the AP Top 25 last week but only had one game against Lipscomb. They won by 10 points and improved to 8-1 on the season, but will likely only move up a spot.
Florida State deserves to jump potentially even higher than this in the rankings this week, but I don’t see many AP voters moving the Seminoles over teams that were already in the rankings not named Tennessee. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Florida State made a jump into the top-20. They won three games in Week 5, starting with a 17-point road win over No. 5 Florida and easy victories over Loyola (MD) and Tulane.
It’s been difficult to really figure out what type of team Baylor is this year. Baylor began the season with a 5-0 record before losing at Xavier and against Wichita State last week. Despite the drop, the Bears still seem to have plenty of talent to contend in the Big 12, but not many teams could survive a stretch against Wisconsin, Creighton, Xavier and Wichita State unscathed. Wins over Sam Houston State and Randall aren’t exactly eye-opening, but it’ll be enough to move them up slightly.