College basketball is cool because if you miss one night, the entire landscape may have shifted when you return.
The lesson here? Just watch college basketball every night. Neglect your job, your responsibilities, your family, friends, loved ones, bills. Just. Watch. College. Basketball.
Okay, please don't actually follow that advice — the CBB season has been nuts though, and Tuesday night was no different. Four AP top 25 teams fell, two to unranked opponents (and one in very ugly fashion, which we'll discuss later.)
Of course, AP rankings don't come out midweek in college hoops, and we won't get another official ranking until next Monday. So while most of these teams will take the court again before we get a ranking and these projections are subject to change, here's where things would stand if we got an AP poll today.
Projected AP Top 25 rankings as of February 19
- Auburn Tigers
- Florida Gators
- Duke Blue Devils
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Houston Cougars
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Iowa State Cyclones
- St. John's Red Storm
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Michigan State Spartans
- Wisconsin Bagers
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- Michigan Wolverines
- Missouri Tigers
- Marquette Golden Eagles
- Mississippi State Bulldogs
- Purdue Boilermakers
- Arizona Wildcats
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Clemson Tigers
- Maryland Terrapins
- Memphis Tigers
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Louisville Cardinals
- New Mexico Lobos
Auburn maintains firm grasp on top spot
Any questions here? The Tigers are rolling through SEC play, with losses against Florida and Duke the only blemishes on their schedule — if those can even be considered blemishes.
With games against Ole Miss, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama all looming in the next three weeks, Bruce Pearl's' team is surely not out of the woods in the SEC, but as it stands, this team has the best resume in college hoops. It has top-end talent, experience, and plenty of weapons to pick up the slack if its go-to guys have an off night. So many things have to go wrong for this team to lose one game.
New Mexico enters the fray at No. 25 as Kansas falls out
A loss to BYU isn't the worst thing that can happen; a 34-point loss to BYU in a game that would have instilled confidence back in your fans is... close to the worst thing that can happen.
Kansas is now 17-10 on the season and completely falls out of our projected AP ranking. The Jayhawks are now 1-3 in their last 4 games, and 5-6 in their last 11.
Is this a complete death rattle for Bill Self's team? Not yet. Wins against Iowa State, Duke and Michigan State show us this team still has the talent to compete. Plus, a late-season surge and a run in the Big 12 tourney could change the favors of this team... but it's not pretty right now.
In their place come the New Mexico Lobos, who are stomping their way through a very good Mountain West. Winners of eight straight, the Lobos have wins over UCLA, USC and Utah State, and have been crushing opponents on this current winning streak.
Mississippi State makes big jump after upsetting Texas A&M
From No. 21 all the way to No. 16, a convincing win on Tuesday over Texas A&M was exactly the rebound this team needed after falling to SEC giant Florida last week.
Plenty of teams in the SEC looked promising in non-conference play, and Chris Jans' team has proved that it can compete in the gauntlet of SEC play, too. A couple of blowouts to the upper echelon of teams in the conference might give fans pause about how high this team can fly in March, but they've more than proven to be a legit pest in the SEC.
Michigan State re-enters top 10 after knocking off Purdue
A werid stretch where Michigan State lost to UCLA, Oregon and Indiana within a week seems to be behind Tom Izzo, as he and the Spartans responded with wins against Illinois on Saturday and Purdue on Tuesday.
Eight players scored at least 7 points and zero scored over 12 in the win, showing how Michigan State can be scary; there's not one way to stop them, because there's not a singular standout scorer.