College basketball rankings: Week 5 AP Top 25 predictions – Michigan in Top 5?
Florida State had one of the better wins of the week, beating a tough Purdue team in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and that was the Seminoles’ only contest of the week. It was a nice way to rebound from a loss to Villanova and the Seminoles improve to 6-1 on the season. Florida State will have a relatively easy schedule, outside of Connecticut, before ACC play.
Listen, Kentucky hasn’t had the most impressive season to date, but the Wildcats are beating the teams that they’re supposed to. They have been lightly tested outside of a loss to Duke in the Champions Classic, but they’re handling the lesser opponents. In fact, John Calipari’s team dismantled Monmouth and UNC Greensboro in Week 4, which should be enough to vault them over Michigan State which lost to Louisville.
Not many teams have the type of resume Auburn has to this point in the year. The Tigers have wins over Washington, Xavier and Arizona with only a six-point loss against Duke. Bruce Pearl has his team playing well, beating Saint Peter’s by 50 points and the Tigers don’t truly have a tough game until they travel to NC State in two weeks.
Man, the SEC has some serious competition this year. Actually, this could be the strongest and deepest the conference has been in years as the Volunteers lead the way. Tennessee will remain the highest-ranked SEC team for another week after beating Eastern Kentucky and Texas A&M-CC rather handily. Like Auburn, the Volunteers have a six-point loss to a top-three team in Kansas.
One of the remaining undefeated teams in the AP Top 25, Nevada went on the road and beat the same Loyola-Chicago team that made a Final Four run last year. The Wolfpack then went out west to beat USC by 12. Caleb Martin is one of the best players in the country and he and his brother, Cody, are playing extremely well. Could we be looking at a team that could finish the season with a perfect record?