College Basketball Rankings: Projected Top 25 for Week 6
Despite losing their first game of the 2017-18 season, you can’t look at the Aggies as a major upset victim even though the defeat came against an unranked foe. In fact, Texas A&M hit the road to take on the preseason No. 3 team in the country, Arizona, but lost in the final minutes by three points. The Aggies also beat Prairie View by 20, but won’t drop far thanks to Arizona proving itself as a Top 25 team.
Arizona State is in the discussion of teams with the best performance of Week 5. The Sun Devils may not have been on many radars to begin the year but have slowly become the favorites in the Pac-12. That became more evident in Week 5 as the Sun Devils took down St. John’s before upsetting No. 2 Kansas in Lawrence, 95-85, on Sunday. Tra Holder looks like a player of the year candidate and this team might just be for real.
Don’t tell the casual college basketball fan, but the Big East is slightly loaded this year. Teams like Seton Hall, Villanova, Creighton, Butler, Georgetown and Xavier have been impressing through the first month, but time will tell if that can hold up. The Musketeers continued their strong play with blowout wins over Kent State and Colorado and they look like contenders to Villanova’s throne.
North Carolina will make its first appearance in the top 10 since Michigan State defeated the Tar Heels by 18 points in the PK80 title game. Although their only win of the week was against West Carolina, the defending national champs continue to improve and Roy Williams might just have himself another championship contender. Will they be able to take down Duke in the ACC, though?
Speaking of strong ACC contenders, the Miami Hurricanes look like a team that can contend with the Blue Devils and Tar Heels. The Hurricanes’ balanced scoring and strong shooting will lead them throughout conference play and there’s a good chance they could surprise some people just like Mark Richt and the football program did in 2017. Right now, the Hurricanes are 8-0 after beating Boston University in Week 5.