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College basketball power rankings: Ohio State on fire, North Carolina has issues

By Shayne Nissen

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 04: Alonzo Gaffney #0 of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates as he leaves the floor after a win against the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Dean Smith Center on December 04, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Ohio State won 74-49. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 04: Alonzo Gaffney #0 of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates as he leaves the floor after a win against the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Dean Smith Center on December 04, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Ohio State won 74-49. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – DECEMBER 03: Steven Enoch #23 of the Louisville Cardinals celebrates during the 58-43 win against the Michigan Wolverines at KFC YUM! Center on December 03, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – DECEMBER 03: Steven Enoch #23 of the Louisville Cardinals celebrates during the 58-43 win against the Michigan Wolverines at KFC YUM! Center on December 03, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

5. Michigan

After being scorching hot the week prior in their big wins over Gonzaga and North Carolina, the Wolverines were just the opposite against No. 1 Louisville. The Wolverines were held to just 43 points on 25 percent shooting as the offense couldn’t find any offense vs. the Cardinals defense. They were able to bounce back in a big way with a 103-point outing to get their first conference win over Iowa. Franz Wagner led the team with 18 points but it was a well-rounded scoring outing as a whole as six players scored in double figures.

4. Kansas

The Jayhawks got another win over a Top 25 opponent in Colorado by a score of 72-58. That makes it back-to-back wins over Top 25 teams with a win over Dayton coming in the week prior. The Jayhawks have looked every bit the part since the season-opening loss against Duke. Kansas is 7-1 and looks primed to continue that run over a few lackluster opponents this week.

3. Maryland

The Terrapins had a bit of a scare in their first conference game as they escaped with a 59-58 win over Illinois on their home court Saturday. It was more than a scare in the second half in fact as Maryland found themselves trailing by 15. It just wasn’t to be though as Anthony Cowan scored 20 points to lead the Terrapins to the come-from-behind victory. Next up is Penn State on Tuesday.

2. Ohio State 

If you are a college basketball fan and you haven’t watched this Buckeye team play yet, you are doing something wrong because they are all kinds of fun to watch. Ohio State got a blowout win over North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and backed it up with a high-scoring showing vs. Penn State. Kaleb Wesson is a star and not only is he infinitely more mobile in the post, but he has also developed an outside game as well, raining down four threes en route to a 25-point, 10-rebound outing against the Nittany Lions. We knew Ohio State would be the best we’ve seen in a while, but we didn’t know they would be this good.

1. Louisville 

Speaking of stars, Jordan Nwora might be the best player in the country so far as he has Louisville out to a 9-0 start. The Cardinals got two big wins over the hottest team in the country coming into the week in Michigan and conference foe Pittsburgh. Nwora led the charge in both matchups as he had 20 points against the Wolverines and 19 against the Panthers. It was the defense that helped the Cardinals in both as they held both teams below 50 points and are the No. 14 team in the country in opponent points per game.

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