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Projected college basketball rankings after UNC gets upset by Iowa State

By Cody Williams

Nov 7, 2022; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis reacts against the North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks during the first half at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 7, 2022; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis reacts against the North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks during the first half at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports /
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No. 1-ranked UNC had played with fire already and finally got burned on Friday with a loss to Iowa State, turning college basketball rankings upside down.

The North Carolina Tar Heels made a surprise run to the National Championship Game last season as a No. 8 seed before falling narrowly to Kansas. But with their core returning, they earned favor as the No. 1 team in the preseason college basketball rankings. To start the year, though, UNC had not totally looked the part.

Whether it was allowing teams like UNC-Wilmington or Gardner Webb to hang too closely or even getting a scare from Portland to start the Phil Knight Invitational on Thanksgiving Day, the Tar Heels had been shaky and were in danger of being usurped at No. 1 in the rankings at any rate.

On Black Friday, however, the Iowa State Cyclones ensured that would be the case.

Behind a heroic effort from Caleb Grill as the senior guard dropped 31 points on UNC, the Cyclones pulled out a 70-65 win over the Tar Heels on Friday in the semifinals of the Phil Knight Invitational to stay unbeaten and their own right.

And now we’ll have a new No. 1. But what will the rest of the Top 10 of the college basketball rankings look like? Let’s see what our projections say.

Projected college basketball rankings after No. 1 UNC upset by Iowa State

  1. Houston Cougars
  2. Kansas Jayhawks
  3. Texas Longhorns
  4. Virginia Cavaliers
  5. Gonzaga Bulldogs
  6. Baylor Bears
  7. Duke Blue Devils
  8. Arizona Wildcats
  9. UNC Tar Heels
  10. Indiana Hoosiers

Considering that the Tar Heels were already in danger of dropping out of the No. 1 spot prior to losing against Iowa State, they are going to drop quite a bit. At the same time, however, UNC went down at the hands of an undefeated Cyclones team that is most definitely going to be ranked in the next AP Top 25. So that does lessen the blow and keeps the Heels inside of the Top 10.

One thing that’s for sure right now is that there is a ton of parity right now in college basketball and the rankings are going to be shuffled throughout the season. Feast Week has had a big hand in that already and that only was made more so the case on Black Friday with the No. 1 team in the country going down.

Next. College basketball power rankings: Kentucky takes a tumble. dark

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