While it remains to be seen if the Player's Era Festival is a good thing for college basketball, the effects of this year's event could linger throughout the season. While 18 teams entered Las Vegas looking to make a statement, Michigan put on a clinic, dominating their three wins by a combined 110 points to surge to No. 3 in the newest AP Top 25 poll.
The Wolverines racked up 15 first place votes this week, but still trailed Arizona and No. 1 Purdue atop the poll. The Boilermakers and the No. 7 Michigan State Spartans join Michigan as undefeated Big Ten teams in the Top 10, with the proud basketball league firmly on the upswing in the latest college hoops stock watch. Here's who's rising and who's falling in college hoops.
College Basketball Week 5 stock watch: Risers
The Big Ten
It has been a long time since the Big Ten cut down the nets, with Michigan State's title in 2000 marking the last time the conference claimed the March Madness crown. But that could change this season. Purdue has looked brilliant so far, Michigan is the top team on KenPom (in rarified air with a +35.22 efficiency rating through seven games), and Michigan State has already scored three wins over power conference foes in Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina.
The conference is also very deep with Illinois, Indiana and USC also in the polls this week, while Iowa, UCLA and Nebraska are knocking on the Top 25 doorstep. Wisconsin was ranked earlier this season as well, so there is a good possibility the Big Ten will have double digit bids this season and a trio of legitimate Final Four contenders.
Kansas Jayhawks
One of the big winners of the Player's Era Festival was Kansas, which went to Las Vegas sans Darryn Peterson and emerged with a third place finish. The Jayhawks earned a spot in the consolation game after double-digit wins over Syracuse and Notre Dame, but their most impressive work was a second-half rally to topple No. 17 Tennessee, which had just come off an upset of Houston the day before.
A 3-win week helped the Jayhawks get back into the polls after a one-week absence and helped build some confidence in the team's secondary stars, who showed they can beat top competition without Peterson. While Kansas was again without Peterson again for a clash with No. 5 UCONN on Tuesday, they will be much better off in the long run for their experience in Las Vegas.
Seton Hall Pirates
It felt like the bar was on the floor for Seton Hall this season, as Shaheen Holloway's unheralded group was projected to finish dead last in the league's preseason poll. The Pirates have showed that they have been underestimated thanks to a strong showing in Maui, where they upset No. 23 NC State and took USC to the wire before topping Washington State to finish in third place.
Those results have Seton Hall off to a 7-1 start, giving them a chance to establish themselves as a tournament-worthy team in a Big East conference that appears to be a land of tremendous opportunity for schools not named UConn or St. John's. Banking a win over the Wolfpack should be very helpful for the Pirates' resume and they can set themselves up for an at-large consideration by closing out non-conference play with three more victories over Central Connecticut State, Kansas State (on the road) and Rutgers.
Spotlight Games
Feast Week marked a welcome return of important non-conference games as we saw plenty of key results emerge from high quality matchups. That trend continues in Week 5, as the ACC/SEC Men's Challenge and the start of Big Ten play provide a slew of high caliber matchups for the first week of December.
Things get even spicier over the weekend, with No. 11 Gonzaga traveling to No. 18 Kentucky to continue their six-year series on Friday night while there are a whopping five games pairing ranked teams on Saturday, including a pair of Top 10 matchups at high noon between No. 10 Iowa State and No. 1 Purdue as well as No. 4 Duke traveling to East Lansing to take on No. 7 Michigan State.
College Basketball Week 5 stock watch: Fallers
St. John's Red Storm
The biggest loser from the Player's Era Festival was St. John's, who lost by a point to Iowa State before dropping the finale of their Vegas trip against another ranked foe in Auburn. A win over Baylor on Day 2 helped salvage the event for the Red Storm but Rick Pitino is far from happy with a 4-3 start to the season.
Advanced metrics show that St. John's is a Top 20 team but they haven't been up to the challenge of dealing with more physical teams from the Big 12 and SEC, going 1-3 against those teams so far this season. Another SEC school is on tap as Ole Miss comes to Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, offering the Red Storm a chance at testing themselves against more rugged competition.
Houston Cougars
We officially have a problem in Houston. After narrowly sneaking by Auburn by a point two weeks ago, the Cougars' level of play has continued to be inconsistent, resulting in a loss to No. 17 Tennessee at the Player's Era Festival that followed a four-point win over a mediocre Syracuse side to kick off their stay in Las Vegas.
A 10-point win over Notre Dame on Day 3 helped the Cougars leave town with only one loss, but the bar is significantly higher for a team that was No. 1 in the polls just a few weeks ago. Things calm down a bit for the Cougars in terms of their non-conference schedule, with three winnable games ahead of a matchup with Arkansas on the Saturday before Christmas.
The Player's Era Festival format
It feels like interlopers into established spaces try to buck conventional trends and the Player's Era Festival was no exception. While established MTEs tend to rely on the bracketed format to set up their matchups, the Player's Era group decided they were better than that, setting two days of matchups in advance and then using point differential from the first two games to determine the final matchups on Day 3.
The end result was extremely confusing, leading college coaches to debate whether or not to blow out their opponents for a chance at higher payouts and Iowa State, which looked very good in its two wins, finishing outside the Top 4 on point differential and landing a matchup against Syracuse that was not much of a reward for their non-conference schedule. To make matters worse, the Day 3 matchups weren't assigned until after midnight, making it very unfriendly for ticket holders to try and plan their activities on a holiday week.
The SEC
The SEC was the most dominant conference in college basketball last season, making an early mark by winning non-conference games and culminating its year with a record 14 NCAA Tournament bids before Florida won the national title. The script has seemingly flipped this season, with few SEC teams making big statements as the Gators, Kentucky and Arkansas have underwhelmed despite lofty preseason expectations.
The conference as a whole has done decently, with Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn picking up quality wins outside the league, but this group is nowhere near as dominant as it was last season. This week's ACC-SEC Men's Challenge will be a key measuring stick for the conference as it tries to stack wins against an improving ACC, and the SEC got off to a bad start by dropping six of the first nine matchups on Tuesday.