Projected college basketball rankings after Florida trounces Tennessee, Georgia stuns Kentucky
By Quinn Everts
Every college basketball season holds endless twists, and Tuesday night saw its fair share of shocks unfold across the nation. If you didn't know before, you know now; the SEC isn't just a football conference. Georgia knocked off Kentucky while Mississippi State kept rolling to improve to 14-1 and Florida stomped previously undefeated Tennessee.
Out West, Utah State continued to be the surprise of the season and Michigan's redemption arc continued as the Wolverines try to forget the disaster of last season. Here's how we think the newest AP Top 25 would look, if it were released today.
Projected AP Top 25 college basketball rankings
1. Auburn Tigers
2. Iowa State Cyclones
3. Duke Blue Devils
4. Florida Gators
5. Tennessee Volunteers
6. Alabama Crimson Tide
7. Marquette Golden Eagles
8. UCONN Huskies
9. Kentucky Wildcats
10. Texas A&M Aggies
11. Kansas Jayhawks
12. Houston Cougars
13. Mississippi State Bulldogs
14. Illinois Fighting Illini
15. Oregon Ducks
16. Michigan State Spartans
17. Oklahoma Sooners
18. Michigan Wolverines
19. Gonzaga Bulldogs
20. Memphis Tigers
21. Purdue Boilermakers
22. West Virginia Mountaineers
23. Ole Miss Rebels
24. Utah State Aggies
25. Georgia Bulldogs
Auburn slides up to No. 1
The Tigers have the best player in the country, Johni Broome, and now the top spot in the country, too. A close road loss to Duke is Auburn's only blemish so far; wins against Iowa State, Purdue, and Memphis are plenty to earn this team the No. 1 ranking.
They win by an average of 21 points per game, have five players scoring at least ten points per game and score the fifth-most points in the country as a team. Knocking Auburn out of this spot will be a tall task, even for the deep SEC.
Florida hops to No. 4, Tennessee slips to No. 5
Well, that was ugly. Did Florida's 73-43 thrashing of Tennessee say more about the Gators or the Volunteers? Yes. Florida made a statement, bouncing back after falling to Kentucky to open SEC play. The Gators defense is for real and they have enough offensive weapons to keep defenses guessing. Craziest part? UF's leading scorer Walker Clayton Jr. went 3-10 in this game.
Tennessee should probably burn the tape of this game and move on; everything went wrong. But it also showed exactly where this team struggles: where does the offense come from if Chaz Lanier isn't scorching hot? When the Vols star struggles, the offense gets stagnant. The defense should be good enough to carry this team to a high seed in March regardless, but some valid questions remain.
Michigan leaps to No. 18 after upending UCLA
Coming off one of the worst seasons in program history, Michigan entered this season with moderate expectations and a new head man in Dusty May, who came to Ann Arbor after turning Florida Atlantic into a quality program. May has been an immediate success at UM, winning his first four Big Ten games, including at UCLA on Tuesday night. A couple of nice non-conference wins against Wisconsin and Iowa drew some more eyes to this team, and now a hot start in conference play vaults this team into the top 20.
Meanwhile, UCLA drops from the rankings as the Bruins followed up a monster win against Gonzaga with two clunkers to start Big Ten play. They'll have plenty of chances to leap back into the rankings as conference play gets into full swing.
Georgia cracks top 25 for first time
Mike White is working some miracles in Athens right now. The Bulldogs head coach has completely revitalized this program; being a tournament hopeful would have been a successful season to UGA, but about halfway through the season, this team looks like a tournament shoe-in, and a dangerous team once it gets there. Now 13-2, this team didn't just look good in non-conference action against lesser opponents — they might be a real threat in the SEC.
Wins against St. Johns and now Kentucky — who UGA beat 82-69 on Tuesday — boost this team's resume is rock solid right now, with its only two losses coming to Marquette and Ole Miss. The SEC schedule is hell, so there's no rest for Georgia after its biggest program win in a while; Oklahoma, Tennessee and Auburn are next up for this team. Good heavens.