College basketball rankings: Week 9 AP Top 25 predictions
Week 9 will see some movement in college basketball’s AP Top 25.
Though college basketball has been wild this season, there won’t quite be as much movement in the Week 9 AP Top 25 as most other weeks thanks to lack of play due to holiday break.
Most teams saw just one game in Week 8 while there were a handful, such as No. 1 overall Duke, who didn’t play a single game and, therefore, shouldn’t move from that spot. The Blue Devils have been college basketball’s best team this season and that won’t change until ACC play starts — and even after.
Michigan will remain at No. 2 after beating Binghamton on Sunday in the AP Top 25’s only game to close out the week.
The top five should remain the same as well thanks to everyone taking care of business against lesser opponents.
Not everyone was so lucky, though. Wisconsin struggled against Western Kentucky and will fall from that No. 25 spot — but will the Badgers drop out completely? Arizona State, too, had a tough time against an unranked opponent, but the Sun Devils, unlike the Badgers, lost at home — to Princeton.
The rest of the AP Top 25 took care of business and should remain relatively similar to last week’s poll.
Here’s what the AP Top 25 should look like for Week 9:
- Duke
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Kansas
- Nevada
- Gonzaga
- Michigan State
- Florida State
- Virginia Tech
- Texas Tech
- Auburn
- Ohio State
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
- Marquette
- Mississippi State
- NC State
- Buffalo
- Houston
- Indiana
- Wisconsin
- Iowa
- Oklahoma
- Arizona State
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We probably won’t see any new teams in the rankings this week unless the AP voters decide that a Western Kentucky loss by Wisconsin or Princeton defeat by Arizona State is too much to forgive. Still, one loss like that is usually not that punishable.
Check back in next week for an even crazier shift in the polls as conference play is getting set to fire back up.