The college basketball season is rolling on, but injuries are shaking things up for top clubs. North Carolina's Seth Trimble is out indefinitely after breaking his left forearm in a weight room accident, while Darryn Peterson, Kansas' star freshman, is dealing with a hamstring injury that coach Bill Self has said will sideline the potential top pick in the NBA Draft for the "immediate future".
The loss of Peterson is ill-timed for No. 24 Kansas, who has to deal with No. 5 Duke in the Champions Classic this week as they begin a run of six consecutive games against power conference opponents. While it is clear the Jayhawks are on the downswing for as long as Peterson is out, let's take a look at the rest of the College Basketball Stock Watch, beginning with Purdue's ascent back to No. 1 in the polls.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Risers
Purdue Boilermakers
The pre-season No. 1 team dropped a spot after a so-so performance in Week 1, but the Boilermakers showed they deserve the crown as the nation's best team with an impressive road victory at Alabama on Thursday. The Crimson Tide played the game how they wanted, having the contest in the 80s, but Purdue put up 87 points and played tremendous defense without fouling, setting themselves up to earn the season's best victory to date.
The experience that Matt Painter's team retained will prove to be valuable in the early going, allowing them to focus on fine-tuning their roster instead of teaching mostly new groups to build chemistry in the non-conference portion of the schedule. With only a home date against Memphis on tap this week, there's a good chance the Boilermakers improve to 5-0 on the year and build a bigger margin atop the poll.
The ACC
It has been something of a running joke throughout college basketball the past few years about how overrated the ACC has become. While Duke remains a standard bearer for the league, the conference has seen the majority of its teams underwhelm, leading to mediocre bid totals to the NCAA Tournament with a few (Virginia in 2024 and North Carolina in 2025) being entirely undeserved.
Anyone joking about the ACC may have a rude awakening this year as the top of the conference looks stacked, with Louisville beating Kentucky in a signature game last week while North Carolina and NC State have looked impressive in their 4-0 starts. The ACC has also looked far more competitive in non-conference games, with Wake Forest taking a Top 10 Michigan outfit to overtime last week, so there's a chance the league can pick up some big wins to ensure more representation in March Madness.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
The Bulldogs were on the rise in last week's stock watch but we'll give them the spotlight again since poll voters have been incredibly slow to recognize how dominant Gonzaga has been. Mark Few's team is 5-0 and is annihilating its competition, winning by an average of 36.2 points per game, which is an extremely impressive figure since the Bulldogs have already played three power conference teams (Oklahoma, Creighton and Arizona State).
The advanced metrics are already very high on Gonzaga, who is the top team in KenPom and No. 5 in Torvik. With a week off before a showdown with No. 11 Alabama in the Player's Era Festival, perhaps more people will recognize how absurdly brilliant Gonzaga has looked so far this season.
College Basketball Stock Watch: Fallers
Kansas Jayhawks
The injury to Peterson is a killer for Kansas, which already has a loss to North Carolina in its only game against a power conference foe so far. Self built a challenging non-conference schedule for his team with the assumption Peterson would gain valuable experience against potential NCAA Tournament teams, and if he can't get back on the court quickly it could really damage the Jayhawks' resume.
After the Champions Classic against No. 6 Duke, Kansas' next six games are against Notre Dame and Syracuse at the Player's Era Festival, hosting No. 3 UCONN, taking on Missouri in a bitter rivalry game and traveling to newly-ranked NC State. There are certainly winnable games in that stretch, but the task gets much more difficult if Peterson misses a significant chunk of time.
Mid-Majors
The college basketball season has gone largely as the preseason polls have expected it to thus far, with only one new team (the aforementioned NC State) entering the rankings by Week 3. The chalk has been good for the power conferences, who have dominated the spotlight of the season, with the only team outside the 5 top conferences being Gonzaga, who is set to join the re-constituted Pac-12 next season.
Only three true mid-majors even received Top 25 votes this week: San Diego State, Utah State and Saint Mary's, with the first two teams also joining Gonzaga in the new Pac-12 next season. The new era of player movement has allowed the top programs to consolidate talent, making it very difficult for a dynamic mid-major to stand out, especially as fewer of them get opportunities to earn the Quad 1 wins necessary to reach the NCAA Tournament as an at-large.
The SEC
It was going to be hard for the SEC to top last year's record-setting showing, when Florida won the national title and 14 of the league's 16 teams reached the NCAA Tournament, but what we have seen this season is a sign that the road may be a bit bumpy for the league. The SEC took it on the chin in some huge non-conference matchups last week, with Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn losing to Louisville, Purdue and Houston respectively.
Factoring in Arkansas' Week 1 loss at Michigan State and Florida's sluggish start to the season doesn't make things much better for the conference, which does have six teams ranked and one impressive non-conference result in the form of the Crimson Tide's road win at St. John's in Week 1. Keep an eye on how the SEC performs in more marquee spots this week, including Kentucky's matchup with Michigan State at the Champions Classic and Alabama's trip to take on a Top 10 Illinois squad on Wednesday, to see if any early concerns about the quality of the league's top dogs are well-founded.