Conference play is underway, and it is the perfect time for the reigning national champions to re-emerge. After entering the season with a Top 10 ranking, Florida stumbled through a tough non-conference schedule as it tried to integrate Boogie Fland and Xavian Lee into its backcourt to replace March Madness heroes Walter Clayton Jr and Will Richard.
Seeing the Gators unranked in January after a loss to Missouri made it look as if this could be a down year for Todd Golden's team, but Florida responded with avengance. Two ranked wins later helped the Gators re-enter the AP Top 25 at No. 19 and move further away from the bubble. As we get ready to reset this week's Stock Watch column, fewer teams are on a bigger rise than Florida, who will lead us off.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Rising
Florida Gators
Earning two ranked wins wasn't enough to help Florida land here, but it was the dominant fashion in which they took those victories. The Gators laid a beatdown on No. 18 Georgia, winning by 15, before taking the souls of No. 21 Tennessee in a 91-67 blood bath in Gainesville.
It is fair to point out that both of those victories came at home but Florida looked far more confident in those games than they have at any point this season. With a two-game road trip this week to Oklahoma and undefeated Vanderbilt, the Gators have an opportunity to build on this massive week to re-insert themselves into the SEC title race.
Utah State Aggies
The hunt for a quality mid-major team to back as a potential bracket buster is well underway, and Utah State is certainly a worthy candidate. The Aggies are atop the Mountain West with a 5-0 record in league play and 14-1 overall record, with the lone defeat coming at South Florida in non-conference play.
Even though the polls have been slow on the uptake with the Aggies, who just entered the Top 25 this week at No. 23, KenPom is a big believer in Utah State, ranking them as the 20th-best team in the country as of Jan. 12. MJ Collins Jr averages 20.5 points per game for the Aggies, who score over 87 points per game and rank as a Top-15 offense according to KenPom, making them a team to track over the next few months.
The Big Ten
While Michigan remains the front-runner in the Big Ten despite a loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, the conference is poised to challenge the Big 12 for supremacy as the country's best league. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has 10 Big Ten schools projected to make the tournament in his latest Bracketology report, easily leading all conferences at this juncture.
The Big Ten has an unbeaten team in Nebraska, legitimate title contenders in Michigan, Purdue and Michigan State, and strong depth in the middle of the league with teams like Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and UCLA capable of winning at least one game in the NCAA Tournament. Much has been made of the league's title drought, which dates back to 2000 when the Spartans cut down the nets, but the Big Ten is well-positioned to end it this season.
Clemson Tigers
It feels like people always find a reason to doubt Clemson's ability on the hardwood but Brad Brownell finds a way to make the Tigers relevant every year. Saturday's 15-point victory over Notre Dame marked the seventh win in a row for the Tigers, who scored a notable victory for their resume when they upset No. 24 SMU 74-70 earlier in the week, helping them crack the poll for the first time this season at No. 22.
Clemson has also showed an ability to hang with tough competition in non-conference play, losing by six to Alabama and falling on a buzzer-beater to BYU at the Jimmy V Classic. Keep a close eye on the Tigers' matchup against Miami on Saturday as both teams are red-hot and could be vying to keep their perfect starts to ACC play alive.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Falling
Iowa Hawkeyes
A loaded Big Ten may swallow some teams alive if they aren't careful and Iowa learned that lesson the hard way. Ben McCollum's team fell out of the poll after a two-loss week to Minnesota and Illinois, dropping the Hawkeyes to 2-3 in Big Ten play with a tough week looming against No. 5 Purdue and Indiana.
The NET is still favorable for Iowa, which checks in at No. 20 there on January 12th, but their 0-3 record in Quad 1 games could get stretched further given the rugged nature of the conference. The best win Iowa has picked up so far has been against UCLA at home and they need to find a way to earn more significant results to avoid slipping into bubble territory.
Duke's Defense
The Blue Devils' offense has been explosive all season long, contributing to Duke's outstanding 15-1 record, but there has been some slippage of late on the defensive end. Opposing teams have put up an average of 79.2 points per game in Duke's last five games, a significant decline compared to the 60.8 points per game the Blue Devils allowed in their first 11 games.
The move to ACC play has brought more significant competition, but a drop off of that magnitude is a big problem that Jon Scheyer needs to correct in order to ensure his team wins the conference. There is enough talent on the offensive end for Duke to win shootouts regularly but that is not a recipe for success in March.
Michigan's Invincibility
The invoice for a loss to Wisconsin on Saturday was a two-spot drop in the polls for Michigan, which is now No. 4 on the strength of its strong body of work early in the season. No one will forget the beatdowns the Wolverines delivered in the non-conference schedule, especially the emphatic 40-point rout of Gonzaga at the Player's Era Festival, but a sluggish week has removed some of the aura of invincibility that had surrounded the program to this point.
The Badgers played an inspired offensive game to take down the Wolverines but Michigan was also sloppy against Penn State earlier in the week, winning by just a bucket against a team that is 9-7 overall and 0-5 in Big Ten play. Opposing teams will be able to look at the tape of those two games and see a blueprint to topple the Wolverines, something that would not have been as easy to envision at this time last week.
Kansas Jayhawks
It may be time to have a conversation about lowering the ceiling of Kansas. The Jayhawks needed overtime to beat a bubble team (TCU) at home before losing by 11 at West Virginia over the weekend, which is a bad result against a team that hasn't done nearly enough to be bubble worthy at this point of the season.
The lingering leg injury for Darryn Peterson has hamstrung (no pun intended) Bill Self's chance to build continuity with his rotation as they struggle to keep their star freshman on the floor. No. 2 Iowa State and Baylor are set to visit Allen Fieldhouse this week and if the Jayhawks can't secure a split of the home stand they will be in deep trouble in a stacked conference.