One of the few consensus opinions you could find in college basketball this season was that Auburn and Duke were a cut above everyone else. The Tigers and Blue Devils entered Week 14 of the season with three combined losses (one of which came when Duke beat Auburn in the ACC/SEC Men’s Basketball Challenge back in December). Both had looked like potential title contenders, making Saturday’s results a shock to the system as both teams fell within hours of each other.
How will those upsets, along with another chaotic week in college basketball, impact the upcoming Top 25 poll? Read on for a look at the projected rankings ahead of Monday’s afternoon poll drop.
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
2. Auburn Tigers
3. Tennessee Volunteers
4. Florida Gators
5. Houston Cougars
6. Duke Blue Devils
7. Purdue Boilermakers
8. St. John’s Red Storm
9. Texas A&M Aggies
10. Iowa State Cyclones
11. Michigan State Spartans
12. Arizona Wildcats
13. Memphis Tigers
14. Texas Tech Red Raiders
15. Kentucky Wildcats
16. Wisconsin Badgers
17. Ole Miss Rebels
18. Michigan Wolverines
19. Kansas Jayhawks
20. UCONN Huskies
21. Mississippi State Bulldogs
22. Marquette Golden Eagles
23. Maryland Terrapins
24. Missouri Tigers
25. Clemson Tigers
The top team in the land, the No. 1 Auburn Tigers have shown a level of excellence that other teams have trouble matching, but the weight of the top spot in the polls has started to weigh on them. Other teams have given Auburn their best shot, and it has resulted in a slew of close wins, a trend that broke on Saturday when No. 6 Florida came into Neville Arena and beat them by nine.
Gators’ star Walter Clayton Jr. led the way with 19 points as Florida eviscerated Auburn’s defense by shooting 48.4 percent from the floor. Losing at home to a top 10 SEC outfit won’t do too much damage to Auburn’s ranking, but it will help Bruce Pearl remind his team that they can’t just show up and win in a league as deep as the SEC this season.
The college basketball world got to enjoy the return of Dick Vitale to the ESPN airwaves for the first time in two years — and he got to call a thriller that saw Clemson hand No. 2 Duke its first ACC loss of the season at Littlejohn Coliseum. While the weak nature of the ACC led some to speculate that the Blue Devils could run the table for the remainder of the regular season, their most dangerous game left was at Clemson, and the Tigers made them pay.
The Tigers stifled Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, who did score 18 points but shot just 6-of-17 from the floor to get there. The Blue Devils’ defense also was uncharacteristically poor against Clemson, which hit 58.8 percent of its field goal attempts and shot 40 percent from beyond the arc, leading to the court storm of the day after the final whistle. The end result here should put Clemson back in the poll while Duke slides out of the Top 5.
It feels like the 1980s again in New York City as St. John’s is in firm command of the Big East. Madison Square Garden was rocking on Tuesday night as the Red Storm took down No. 11 Marquette 70-64 before delivering an even more impressive result on Friday night going on the road to take down No. 19 UConn 68-62.
Slaying both of the Big East’s big dogs should help Rick Pitino’s team move into the Top 10 this week and bring attention to them as a potential title contender. While no one has considered the Red Storm in the top tier of teams like Auburn and Duke, they are red hot and have a Hall of Fame coach on their sideline, giving them as good a shot as anyone in March.
Week 14 qualified as a step forward followed by two steps back for Kansas, which can’t seem to get out of its own way this season. Monday night’s massive win against No. 8 Iowa State looked like a statement for the preseason No. 1 as the Jayhawks dominated in a 17-point victory, but that team was nowhere to be found on Saturday as they lost 81-73 at Kansas State to surrender all the momentum they gained from the Cyclone game.
While the Wildcats are red hot and have won five games in a row, a team with designs on national title contention cannot lose that game (even on the road) against an opponent who entered the day at 11-11 overall. Kansas is firmly out of Big 12 regular season title contention with a 7-5 record and has some work to do to avoid tumbling towards a 5-seed when the NCAA Tournament hits.
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