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College basketball rankings: Week 13 AP Top 25 predictions – Vols stay hot

By Connor Muldowney

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 26: Tennessee Volunteers forward Grant Williams (2) and guard Admiral Schofield (5) talk during a college basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and West Virginia Mountaineers on January 26, 2019, at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. (Photo by Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 26: Tennessee Volunteers forward Grant Williams (2) and guard Admiral Schofield (5) talk during a college basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and West Virginia Mountaineers on January 26, 2019, at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. (Photo by Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – JANUARY 26: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates during the 71-63 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Rupp Arena on January 26, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – JANUARY 26: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates during the 71-63 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Rupp Arena on January 26, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

The Big East is down this year, but the Marquette Golden Eagles might be the biggest threats to Villanova for the conference crown. They have been fantastic over the past month, or so, and beat DePaul and Xavier to improve to 18-3 on the year. Will the Golden Eagles rise into the top-10? Losses by Virginia Tech and Kansas ahead of them should put them right at the No. 10 spot.

I say it almost every week, but it remains true for yet another edition of our AP Top 25 projections, but North Carolina is arguably the toughest team to figure out in college basketball. One week the Tar Heels are losing at home to Louisville by 20 points and the next they are beating No. 10 Virginia Tech by 20. Roy Williams has a talented team, but they just don’t seem to know what the term “consistency” means. They’ll rise into the top-10 yet again, but will they stay for longer than one week?

There are a number of mid-majors that have a chance to earn a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and one of two favorites to be seeded that high has to be Nevada. The Wolf Pack are playing as well as any non-major conference team, sitting at 19-1 after beating Colorado State by 40 in Week 12. The Wolf Pack could make a perfect run to the end of the season in a weaker conference, but will it impress AP voters? Probably not this week.

One team that seems to be hitting its stride at the right time is Kentucky. If there’s any team that could upend the No. 1 team in the country, Tennessee, and the top team in the SEC, it has to be the Wildcats. They are coming off arguably their best win of the season against Kansas and they added a win over a ranked Iowa State team at home as well. The Wildcats should see a 1-2 spot jump this week thanks to the quality resume-building wins.

You would think that a loss at Purdue by 10 points to end the week would be enough to drop Michigan State out of the top-10, but that’s without considering how well it had been playing before that. The Spartans had a rare three-game week, beating No. 13 Maryland by 14 and winning at No. 19 Iowa by 15. It was a strong week and fatigue showed as the week closed, losing at Purdue and not leading the entire game. They did nearly pull off an incredible comeback, cutting a 23-point deficit to just four before ultimately losing by 10.