College basketball rankings – Projected AP Poll: Auburn, Duke make big moves up

March Madness is creeping closer as teams jockey for No. 1 seeds and NCAA Tournament bids, but first, here’s how the new AP Top 25 college basketball rankings should look on Monday.

Entering Week 13, college basketball fans were confused about the clear favorites to win the national title and nothing has changed after another slate of upsets.

Baylor will remain No. 1 after winning a couple of teams and Gonzaga escaped a couple of road upsets in West Coast Conference play. While the top-three should remain the same, the upset bug hit Florida State, Villanova and Seton Hall in the top 10 and each could find themselves dropping to the 10-15 range.

We will also see a couple of new teams in the AP Top 25 for Week 14 such as Creighton who downed Villanova on the road.

What will the rest of the rankings look like?

College basketball rankings for Week 14

25. Ohio State Buckeyes (14-7)

A couple of week after getting dropped from the rankings after losing six-of-seven games, Ohio State will be back in the rankings after beating Northwestern by 12 on the road and then Indiana by nine at home despite DJ Carton walking away from the team to better his mental health.

24. Arizona Wildcats (15-6)

Arizona was dropped from the rankings last week and it only took seven days but the Wildcats will make an appearance again with a couple of road wins at Washington and at Washington State. The Wildcats are as talented as any team in the Pac-12.

23. Colorado Buffaloes (17-5)

Again, the Pac-12 has been exciting this season despite a lack of elite teams outside of Oregon. Colorado has been a pleasant surprise but it lost at UCLA and then demolished a decent USC team on the road by 21 points.

22. Creighton Bluejays (17-5)

Creighton lost three of its first five Big East games this season and that led to the Bluejays getting zero consideration in the AP Top 25. Now, they’re riding a four-game winning streak which includes wins over DePaul on the road, Xavier and most recently a 15-point triumph at No. 8 Villanova.

21. Illinois Fighting Illini (16-6)

Illinois has been the hottest team in the Big Ten this season and they held sole possession of first-place after beating Minnesota and heading into Sunday afternoon’s matchup with Iowa. The Illini were unfazed in Iowa City, but they were unable to overcome Luka Garza, dropping their first game since a Michigan State defeat to start the new year.

20. Butler Bulldogs (17-5)

What do we make of Butler this season? The Bulldogs have been incredibly difficult to read and they had another up-and-down week, beating Georgetown on the road but playing a poor game at home against Providence and losing by 14. They’ll drop four-five spots.

19. Penn State Nittany Lions (15-5)

Penn State only had one game this week and it took care of Indiana which will be enough to vault the Nittany Lions into the top 20. It’s not that Indiana is a solid team but the Nittany Lions took advantage of a one-game slate with a handful of teams ahead of them losing.

18. Michigan State Spartans (16-6)

Disappointing doesn’t even begin to describe Michigan State’s loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, but that’s what happens when you get off to slow starts on the road. The Spartans climbed back from a 15-point first-half deficit and nearly pulled off the comeback, but lost by one to the Badgers which followed up a 29-point win over Northwestern earlier in the week.

17. LSU Tigers (17-4)

If I were to tell you before the season there’d be an undefeated team in SEC play with an 8-0 record, mounting a healthy two-game lead, you probably would have guessed it was Kentucky, Auburn or Florida. The answer: none of the above. LSU has an 8-0 mark in conference play after beating Ole Miss and Alabama and it looks like this team picked up where it left off last season.

16. Kentucky Wildcats (16-5)

It was one of those forgettable weeks for John Calipari and the Wildcats. They began the week struggling with Vanderbilt at home but ended with a tough loss at Auburn. They gave the Tigers a run for their money but came up short. Don’t expect a big drop here, though.

15. Iowa Hawkeyes (16-6)

Iowa had a rare three-game week and came out of it with a 2-1 record. Is it enough to vault them to No. 15 from the 18th spot last week? I think AP voters will be impressed with them beating Wisconsin, holding their own at Maryland and taking down a red-hot No. 19 Illinois team on Sunday. This team is turning some heads and will get a little bump.

14. West Virginia Mountaineers (17-4)

West Virginia got a taste of the unpredictable Texas Tech Red Raiders to start the week, losing on the road by eight points. The Mountaineers responded by downing Kansas State but even with the loss, the Mountaineers will take advantage of a number of top-20 teams losing by staying in the top 15.

13. Seton Hall Pirates (16-5)

When you lose at home to an unranked team by 10-plus points, there’s a good chance you drop drastically in the rankings, but luckily for Seton Hall, a number of teams behind them fell as well. While I expect the Pirates to slide out of the top 10, I don’t see them falling anywhere lower than the 12-13 range. This is still a really good team led by Myles Powell.

12. Oregon Ducks (18-5)

The Pac-12 is more tightly contested at the top this season than expected and Oregon is no longer the clear favorite. The Ducks got a good fight from Stanford on the road in Week 13 which led to a loss and that’s not ideal considering the Cardinal is right up there at the top of the conference standings. The Ducks are going to need more consistency, but they won’t drop far.

11. Villanova Wildcats (17-4)

One week after looking like a fringe-top five team, the Wildcats took a slight step back. Villanova kicked things off with a 20-point win over St. John’s and then had a major letdown at home against Creighton. While the Bluejays may find their way back into the AP Top 25 this week, losing by 15 points at home to an unranked team isn’t what you’d expect from a contender.

10. Auburn Tigers (19-2)

Jumping seven spots might seem drastic, but look at what happened ahead of Auburn this week. Villanova, Seton Hall, Oregon, West Virginia, Michigan State and Baylor lost whole the Tigers downed Kentucky at home. A ranked win, 2-0 week and devastation right ahead of the Tigers will lead to this major leap.

9. Maryland Terrapins (17-4)

Maryland will see one of the biggest jumps in the AP Top 25 this week because of losses to Villanova, Seton Hall, Oregon, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan State. It’s hard to say any of these teams will stay ahead of the Terrapins after they defeated a ranked Iowa team by 10. One week Mark Turgeon‘s team looks like a disappointment and the next they’re in the top 10.

8. Florida State Seminoles (18-3)

Florida State had two big road games in Week 13 and the first went poorly as the Seminoles struggled to score against Virginia. That’s not a surprise as the Cavaliers have the best defense in the ACC, but the Seminoles were still projected to win against a lackluster offensive team. They bounced back to beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and they should only drop a few spots.

7. Dayton Flyers (20-2)

Dayton didn’t exactly have one of those weeks that sells you on its status as a contender, but the Flyers still took care of business twice. They beat Duquesne by four and then Fordham by 14 to improve to 20-2 and despite the loss of Florida State, they will likely be passed up by Duke in the rankings for Week 14.

6. Duke Blue Devils (18-3)

Besides a Coach K meltdown directed at his own student section, it was a relatively normal week for Duke. The Blue Devils downed Pitt at home and then took care of Syracuse at the Carrier Dome but allowing 88 points to a mediocre Orange offense was less than ideal. This team will jump Dayton in the rankings as well as Florida State and Villanova to approach the top five once again.

5. Louisville Cardinals (19-3) 

It wasn’t long ago many were questioning the legitimacy of a top-10 ranking for Louisville, but after a nice little run over the past few weeks, the Cardinals look like more than that. In fact, they’ll be in the top five when the new rankings come out on Monday afternoon following wins over Boston College and at NC State. This team has played as well as anyone in the country lately.

4. San Diego State Aztecs (23-0)

Could San Diego State finish the 2019-20 season undefeated? If the Aztecs continue to play the way they have been through the first three months, the answer will be a resounding yes. The Mountain West hasn’t been putting up a huge fight against the now 23-0 Aztecs as they ran through New Mexico and Utah State in Week 13 and currently have a four-plus game lead in the conference. The Aztecs are currently 12-0 in league play and a title is all but guaranteed.

3. Kansas Jayhawks (18-3)

A week after getting into a huge brawl with Kansas State that led to the suspension of Silvio de Sousa, Kansas had a road game against Oklahoma State and came away with a 15-point win. They followed that up with a matchup against reigning national runner-up Texas Tech at home and the Jayhawks held on 78-75. This team has what it takes to be a No. 1 seed in March but for now, it must focus on the Big 12 title race.

2. Gonzaga Bulldogs (23-1)

Just when you thought the Bulldogs wouldn’t get any scares in the West Coast Conference this season, Week 13 happens. Gonzaga was pushed to the edge by Santa Clara on the road before winning by 10 and then had some trouble putting Santa Clara away on its home court, winning by four. Maybe the Bulldogs aren’t the clear No. 2 team in the country like we thought, but they’ll still get the nod this week.

1. Baylor Bears (19-1)

Another week, another couple of dominant performances by Baylor. The Bears are plowing throughout the Big 12 and are currently 8-0 with no signs of slowing down. No one could have predicted this type of start for the Bears this season and many believe if the regular season ended today, they’d get the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. For now, they’ll have to settle for the No. 1 ranking.

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