College basketball rankings: West Virginia surges, Kentucky bounces back

5. Oregon

Payton Pritchard is another player that should be in the player of the year conversation as we head to conference play. The senior guard leads a red hot Ducks team in both points and assists. The Ducks will go undefeated in the month of December with five wins including a 71-70 victory over Michigan earlier in the month. They get a tough one to start conference play on Thursday though, as they travel to Colorado.

4. Auburn

It is time to give Auburn the respect they deserve as they are the only major conference school without a blemish on their record. Yes, the schedule has been lackluster, but the recent win over N.C. State is enough to put them in the top five this week. Samir Doughty is a budding star on offense for the Tigers and definitely is the type of player that can carry a team come March.

3. Kansas

Kansas bounced back from the loss to Villanova with a convincing win over Stanford yesterday. There shouldn’t be any cause for concern for Jayhakws fans as they head into conference play as this is sill clearly one of the better teams in the country. That being said, the Big 12 is better than it has been in recent years and Kansas will kick Big 12 play with a game against red hot West Virginia.

2. Duke

What do you know? Despite the crushing loss to Stephen F. Austin earlier this season, Duke finds itself all the way back at No. 2 in our rankings. You can thank the unpredictable nature of college basketball season for that. Still, this is undoubtedly one of the best teams in college basketball with the best coach in college basketball history at the helm.

1. Gonzaga

After the revolving door that had been the number one spot in college basketball, Gonzaga could hold the spot for a while as they head into conference play in the lackluster West Coast Conference. The level of competition doesn’t really matter though, as the Zags would be one of the best teams in college basketball no matter what conference they played in.