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College Basketball Week 6 Power Rankings

By Matt Kobold

LAWRENCE, KS - DECEMBER 10: Remy Martin
LAWRENCE, KS - DECEMBER 10: Remy Martin /
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LAWRENCE, KS – DECEMBER 10: Remy Martin College Basketball
LAWRENCE, KS – DECEMBER 10: Remy Martin College Basketball /

College Basketball: Week 6 Power Rankings

The college basketball world got flipped upside down last week as five top ten teams were defeated with Kansas and Florida both losing twice. The Sun Devils of Arizona State moved up eight spots to #7 after a neutral site win over St. John’s and a huge upset over Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse. West Virginia also moved up, out of the honorable mentions to #13. Their defense led them to wins over Virginia and Pittsburgh. Florida had the biggest drop of the season in the College Basketball Week 6 Power Rankings. They dropped 12 spots after losses to Florida State and Loyola-Chicago.

This week, the schedule is somewhat of a snoozer until we hit Saturday. The annual Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis is this weekend. Butler and Purdue lead off the day followed by Indiana taking on Notre Dame. These should be two competitive games. The only game that sees two ranked teams playing against each other this week isn’t until Sunday. North Carolina will be heading to Knoxville to take on the Volunteers in a showdown that will be on ESPN.

Honorable Mentions:

Seton Hall

Virginia

Purdue

MORGANTOWN, WV – NOVEMBER 30: Sagaba Konate
MORGANTOWN, WV – NOVEMBER 30: Sagaba Konate /

College Basketball: Week 6 Power Rankings

  1. Florida Gators (PR: 4) 6-3
  • The Gators drop the furthest of anyone this week after losing to Florida State and Loyola-Chicago at home. Loyola-Chicago? The absence of senior John Egbunu was never more obvious than in these losses. The lack of inside scoring and rim protection finally caught up to Florida. They did have an impressive win over Cincinnati in Newark which just barely keeps them in these rankings.
  1. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (PR: 7)
  • The Irish suffered a program embarrassing loss this week that dropped them from the top ten. Ball State came into South Bend and shocked the Irish with a Tayler Persons 3 with 1.7 on the clock. Notre Dame hadn’t lost a non-conference home game since they lost to North Dakota State four years ago. The Cardinals were 0-9 all time in the matchup with the last meeting being 32 years ago. If Ball State can grab 13 offensive rebounds against the Irish, what will the powers in the ACC do?
  1. Gonzaga Bulldogs (PR: 10) 8-2
  • Gonzaga suffered their second loss of the season losing to Villanova in the Jimmy V Classic. They followed that up with a win at Washington who still must have been high off the big win over Kansas. The Zags are another team led by a veteran backcourt with Josh Perkins and Silas Melson fitting in nicely into their roles. Both are contributing in the scoring column, on the glass, and combine to average 7.5 assists per game.
  1. West Virginia Mountaineers (PR: Honorable Mention) 9-1
  • Bob Huggins has his 40 minutes of hell full court pressure crisp again this year. The Mountaineers force over 20 turnovers per game (6th nationally), own a 9.5 turnover margin (2nd nationally), and have 105 thefts on the season (6th nationally). They’ve ripped off 9 in a row after their beating at the hands of Texas A&M on opening night. This past week, they beat an impressive Virginia team and then went on the road and won at Pittsburgh. Could West Virginia challenge Kansas for the conference crown?
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 09: Hamidou Diallo
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 09: Hamidou Diallo /

College Basketball: Week 6 Power Rankings

  1. Arizona Wildcats (PR: 14) 7-3
  • The Wildcats needed a statement win and they got one over Texas A&M in Phoenix this week. They also got a boost from the return of starter Rawle Alkins who returned in the win over Alabama on Saturday. Alkins averaged 11 points with 5 boards as a freshman last year. Look for his return to boost the Wildcats back into the top 10 soon.
  1. Miami Hurricanes (PR: 11) 8-0
  • Miami beat their lone opponent of the week, Boston U, by 15 at home. The hurricanes get passed by a few teams in the rankings this week because of their strength of schedule. Jim Larranaga’s squad ranks an abysmal 297th out of 351 teams nationally. That number will improve with 4 consecutive road games on the schedule. If they come out of that unscathed, they could be looking at the top 5.
  1. Xavier Musketeers (PR: 13) 9-1
  • The Musketeers beat both Kent State and Colorado at home by double digits this past week. This is a veteran team led by upperclassmen who know how to get to and convert at the line having connected on 208 free throws this year (6th nationally). The wins over Baylor and Cincinnati aren’t as impressive as they were at the time, but they still give Xavier a top 50 strength of schedule.
  1. Kentucky Wildcats (PR: 12) 8-1
  • Calipari’s Cats handled Monmouth in their only game of the week. The schedule finally picks up a little bit with Virginia Tech, UCLA, and Louisville all on the slate for the rest of this month. We’ll see how much the freshmen have grown since their loss to Kansas in the opening week. This team has no seniors and the two juniors they do have, have appeared in 3 games apiece, each averaging less than a minute.
LAS VEGAS, NV – NOVEMBER 24: Tra Holder
LAS VEGAS, NV – NOVEMBER 24: Tra Holder /

College Basketball: Week 6 Power Rankings

  1. Kansas Jayhawks (PR: 3) 7-2
  • Kansas had the worst week possible. Washington came into the Sprint Center and thwarted the Jayhawks’ high-powered offense. First year coach Mike Hopkins used a 2-3 defense to handcuff Kansas’ outside shooting and lobs to big man Udoka Azubuike. They came into the game shooting 44% (8th nationally) from deep but got held to 25% in this contest. Then on Sunday the Sun Devils came into Allen Fieldhouse and pulled of a stunner. This was Hall of Famer Bill Self’s 11th loss in Allen Fieldhouse in the 14 years he has coached in Lawrence. This stat is even more impressive when you realize he has more Big 12 crowns (13 straight) than home losses.
  1. Arizona State Sun Devils (PR: 15) 9-0
  • Bobby Hurley has his Sun Devils off to their best start since the 1974-75 season. He rode his senior backcourt to a huge win in Allen Fieldhouse over the Jayhawks on Sunday. Tra Holder played all 40 minutes and dropped 29 points along with 7 assists. Both Holder and Shannon Evans are averaging more than 36 minutes a night. We all know an experienced backcourt can pay dividends come March. This offense is getting slept on. They score 91.8 points per game (4th nationally) while shooting 52% from the field (7th nationally). The Sun Devils are a legit Pac 12 title contender.
  1. North Carolina Tar Heels (PR: 9) 9-1
  • Roy Williams had one game on the schedule this week, hanging a 40 ball on Western Carolina. The Tar Heels have been getting work done on the glass (2nd nationally rebound margin) with four guys averaging more than 4 boards led by Luke Maye’s 10.5 (14th nationally). A tough game in Knoxville against a solid Tennessee squad just may be a statement game for these Heels.
  1. Wichita State Shockers (PR: 8) 8-1
  • The shockers rose into the top 5 after handling business at home against South Dakota state and on the road at Oklahoma State this week, winning both by double digits. This is a fundamentally sound basketball team that is very well coached; they shoot 50% from the field (25th nationally). Gregg Marshall has a deep rotation with ten guys averaging at least 13 minutes per game. Young guys are getting valuable experience while big dog Markis McDuffie remains out.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 10: Donte DiVincenzo
PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 10: Donte DiVincenzo /

College Basketball: Week 6 Power Rankings

  1. Texas A&M Aggies (PR: 6) 8-1

The Aggies split games this week with their loss being to Arizona in Phoenix. They played the Wildcats down to the last possession with Tyler Davis getting called for steps to end the game with roughly 8 seconds remaining. Speaking of Tyler Davis, dude is averaging 14 and 7 while shooting 67% from the field. You may ask, ‘how do the Aggies move up the rankings after losing”? Their only loss is a good one to Arizona who was playing in their back yard. Texas A&M also sports the 2

nd

ranked strength of schedule. That stat holds a lot of weight for me.

More from FanSided

  1. Villanova (PR: 5) 10-0
  • Jay Wright has his team looking solid. Villanova handled Gonzaga impressively in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison square garden and then avoided an early scare and pulled away within the last minute from La Salle to win by 9. The Wildcats are one of only a few unbeaten team remaining but they don’t jump to the top because of their strength of schedule. Duke and the Spartans both have played a top 20 schedule thus far while Villanova ranks 58th. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out if thus number was in the 100s before the big Gonzaga win. We won’t know everything about this team until Big East play begins.
  1. Michigan State Spartans (PR: 2) 9-1
  • Tom Izzo’s team went on the road and played big ten opponent Rutgers and then came home and beat Southern Utah by 25. Freshman Jaren Jackson is looking like a top ten pick in June’s NBA draft. He’s currently averaging 11 points to go along with 8 boards. Modest numbers but the stat that jumps out to me is his 3 blocks per game while playing less than 23 minutes per contest. This kind of length made Jackson a nightmare matchup two years ago when the high school team I coach in Indianapolis (Cardinal Ritter) faced his Park Tudor team. We didn’t have an answer for him on those nights and I doubt most Big Ten teams will either.
  1. Duke Blue Devils (PR: 1) 11-1
  • The Dukies’ freshmen finally showed their youth this week. They railed St. Francis (PA) at home by 57 early in the week but got upset by Boston College in Chestnut Hill on Saturday. The freshmen didn’t bring the energy needed to win a conference game on the road. BC shot a blistering 57.7% from downtown with juniors Jordan Chatman and Jerome Robinson connecting on 5 apiece. Duke stays at the top for me this week though because frankly, there’s no one to take their spot. They have the head-to-head win over the Spartans and there’s still no one as talented as the Blue Devils in the nation. I’m not going to drop a team just because they lost a game. There hasn’t been an undefeated team since 1976 when IU ran the table. Sometimes an early loss can pay more dividends down the road than a win can, especially with young teams. They have the potential to win the rest of their games in league play.

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