By Josh Cochran and Joel Steiner
NCAA Power 16: January 11th
It’s not March, but there was plenty of madness this week with nine of last week’s Power 16 teams falling. The biggest lesson learned: it’s tough to win on the road. Kansas, Purdue, Duke, West Virginia, Kansas State, North Carolina, Georgetown, Wisconsin and New Mexico all lost tough road games. We definitely have a shakeup in the rankings as a result, but it’s tough to penalize these teams too much for difficult road losses.
Rank (Last Week) | Record | Comment |
1. Texas (2) | 15-0 | This week Texas was pushed by pesky Arkansas Tuesday then pounded Colorado on Saturday. Avery Bradley showed everybody his potential against Colorado with 29 points and 9 rebounds. Texas will face their first tough conference opponent when they play Texas A&M this coming Saturday. |
2. Kentucky (3) | 16-0 | Georgia was trying to have a monster week after beating rival Georgia Tech, but the big three of Wall, Cousins and Patterson were just too much for the Bulldogs. This week the young Wildcats go to Gainesville for their first major road test against an NCAA Tournament caliber team. They might not want to shoot 14.3% from behind the arc for the 3rd game in the row or they will end up with a loss. |
3. Syracuse (6) | 15-1 | The Orange bounced back from the loss to Pitt with solid home wins against Memphis and South Florida. Syracuse hasn’t played many road games, but they do have two solid wins against Florida and Seton Hall away from the Carrier Dome. They’ll have an opportunity to notch another quality road win by playing at WVU this Saturday. |
4. Kansas (1) | 12-1 | Even after a close home win against Cornell, who honestly thought Kansas would fall to an undermanned Tennessee team? The Jayhawks shot 37.2% in their two games this week. One reason is Cole Aldrich isn’t getting enough touches. He took 13 shots and 8 free throws in the two games combined. His overall field goal attempts are down by 2.3 per game this season. KU needs to get their All-American center the ball. |
5. Purdue (4) | 14-1 | You can’t kill the Boilermakers for losing to Wisconsin on the road after they thrashed Minnesota at home this week. The upcoming week will be a little easier with Ohio State at home and Northwestern on the road. Robbie Hummel needs to improve his three point shooting or limit his shots from behind the arc because his 30.1% is not acceptable. |
6. Villanova (8) | 14-1 | Jay Wright’s club just knows how to win games as they pulled out a nice win over Marquette on Saturday. This team is very unselfish with five players averaging double figures. Nova probably has the biggest upcoming week in college basketball with a trip to Freedom Hall to visit Louisville and a home game against Georgetown. |
7. Tennessee (12) | 12-2 | We’re still not sure how they did it, but give Bruce Pearl’s squad a ton of credit for knocking off Kansas despite the dismissal of Tyler Smith and the suspension of three key contributors. Bobby Maze and Scotty Hopson have to continue playing at a high level if the Volunteers plan to compete in the SEC. They have a tough home game this Saturday against Ole Miss. |
| 8. Michigan State (13) | 13-3 | When you open up Big Ten play with 4 out of 5 at home, and the one road game is Iowa, you have to feel confident about getting out to a good start. After winning a grinder against Wisconsin and beating Iowa this week, Sparty has the next three at home before a tough road trip to Minnesota. Useless fact of the week is that Sparty’s average height is 170th out of 347 teams in Division I, but they rank 6th overall in shots blocked per possession according to kenpom.com. |
9. Georgetown (11) | 12-2 | What a great character-building win the Hoyas had on Saturday coming back from a 19 point deficit to beat UCONN after falling to Marquette earlier in the week. The best part about the Big East is that teams need to move on quickly and put wins and losses behind them as evidenced by the Hoyas schedule this week of Seton Hall and Syracuse. |
10. Duke (5) | 13-2 | Duke dominated Iowa State at a neutral site and dropped a hard fought game to a talented Georgia Tech squad this week. Even though Duke had a rough game making only 6 of 28 3PA the concerning part was the dominance Gani Lawal showed against the Duke frontcourt. |
11. Kansas State (7) | 13-2 | The theme of January 9th was highly ranked teams losing on the road to quality opponents. Missouri did this to Kansas State, as they were able to go to the line 43 times against KSU and notch the win. The strange part of the game was Frank Martin smacking Chris Merriewether on his arm during the close loss. He might not want to do that again because those types of things tend to take on a life of their own. |
12. BYU (NR) | 16-1 | Outside of Provo, unless you get Versus, you probably don’t know much about BYU. Well this team can really shoot as they make 41.8% of their shots from behind the arc and lead the nation in FT%. By the way they had a monster week with a home win over UNLV and a road win against a really good UTEP team. The UTEP win was even better, because BYU’s best player, Jimmer Fredette, sat out due to illness. |
13. Wisconsin (14) | 13-3 | The Badgers had the toughest schedule of the week with Michigan State on the road and Purdue at home. They went 1-1 but now face two interesting road games this week against Northwestern and Ohio State. Northwestern is a sneaky place to play because it is like a high school gym and Evan Turner is back for Ohio State. A contender for the Big Ten title wins these games. |
14. West Virginia (9) | 12-2 | Since January 1st a lot of people are questioning this team. They are 1-2 since winning the Marquette game on a Da’Sean Butler buzzer beater. This week they get Syracuse at home and South Florida on the road. There is no doubt that quality big men are giving this team problems because WVU lacks a true low post player. |
15. Pitt (NR) | 13-2 | The theme this week is road wins and no one has a better one than Pitt’s victory at Syracuse. They picked up another good one this week with a win at Cincinnati. The problem for Jamie Dixon’s team is that the schedule doesn’t get any easier with a trip to Connecticut and a home game against Louisville this week. We should mention Ashton Gibbs’ strong start to Big East play, as he’s averaging 22 pts and 5.3 rebs per game while shooting 64.3% from the field. |
16. Gonzaga (NR) | 12-3 | We struggled with the #16 ranking this week, as there are probably ten teams that could make a case. We decided to stick with the road warrior theme and reward the Zags. No top 25 team has taken on a road schedule like Gonzaga. They have solid neutral court wins over Wisconsin and Cincy, and good road wins over Illinois and Portland. Those wins combined with a close loss at Michigan State offset the 35-point drubbing against Duke in NYC. Mark Few’s club hits the road again this week at St. Mary’s. |
The Next Five: North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Clemson, UCONN, Temple
Games to Watch:
Monday January 11th
Villanova at Louisville – Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher against Pitino’s full court pressure defense is always fun to watch. The Big East has three undefeated teams and two of them play in this game, so it’s an important early conference showdown. Nova has a balanced offensive attack with too many guards that can handle the ball, so expect Jay Wright’s club to get a big road win.
Tuesday January 12th
Texas A&M at Kansas State – Since Derrick Roland went out A&M has not faced a top tier squad. This will be a good chance to see how they will look on the road in Manhattan. Kansas State is ranked first in the country at getting to the line and making them will be the key to a Kansas State victory.
Kentucky at Florida – Kentucky will face a major road test as Gainesville will be rocking to see Cal’s young guns. They key to this game will be Kentucky’s ability to convert three point shots as many pundits feel their jump shooting is a weakness. Then again they have Cousins and Patterson to dominate down low, so jump shots are not as important as one might think. I like how John Wall takes over big games so watch out for a big night from him as Kentucky wins.
Wednesday January 13th
Pitt at UCONN – Pittsburgh may have the best true road win to date as they went to the Carrier Dome and won. However, Pitt does not do anything great and UCONN’s long athletic team should be able to impose their will and get the home win.
North Carolina at Clemson – Trevor Booker against Ed Davis should be all you need to watch this game.
Texas at Iowa St. – Texas breezed through their first conference test and is sure to get a Cyclone team that will be up for them.
Thursday January 14th
Gonzaga at St. Mary’s – Just because Patty Mills left the Gaels does not mean this game is not important. The winner of this one will have an upper hand for the conference title.
Saturday January 16th
Syracuse at West Virginia – I would like to see the list of scouts on hand to watch Wesley Johnson square off against Devin Ebanks. The talent in this game will be off the charts and Syarcuse’s size advantage will lead to a major road win for the Orange.
Georgia Tech at North Carolina – A lot of young talent will be on the court, as Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors will look to match-up with Deon Thompson and Ed Davis. Mfon Udofia and Iman Shumpert give the Yellow Jackets the backcourt edge, but will it be enough to topple the Heels in the Dean Dome?
Sunday January 17th
Georgetown at Villanova – This will be a tough road test for the Hoyas as they travel to Philly. Nova has consistent guard play, while Georgetown’s guards have been inconsistent, meaning Nova comes out with the big win.
Follow Joel and Josh on Twitter at NBADRAFTNETJJ.
Next to fall?
So who’s the next undefeated to fall? My money is on Texas – the Big 12 is real tough this year.
Jeff Fox
http://www.hoopsmanifesto.com
Kentucky Number 2?
Thankfully ratings aren’t as important in college basketball as they are in football, but they are interesting conversation starters.
In my opinion, I don’t know how any team can be ranked higher than Kentucky. Even though they’re extremely young and inexperienced, they have both NBA size and talent that overwhelms their opponents. I don’t like the way Calipari recruits because I prefer real students, however, based on their talent level and the way they dominate, they have to be number one.
Thankfully ratings aren’t as
Thankfully ratings aren’t as important in college basketball as they are in football, but they are interesting conversation starters.
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