Week of 12/18/23
We are well into the swing of things when it comes to the college basketball season, and with some major games shaking up the top 15.
No game was bigger than Arizona-Purdue. Arizona came into the game at number 1, while Purdue was at 4 in my rankings. Purdue eventually pulled it out, winning 92-84. And for once, Zach Edey didn’t led the team in points. He’s averaging 24.5 points per game this year as well, so it comes as a surprise. Edey wasn’t even second. Although he still had a good game, with 22 points and 9 rebounds. He also had the most assists in a game, with 5. Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith led the way, combining for 53 points. If Edey is shut down against the other team, Loyer and Smith could possibly slip through the cracks and come up big for the Boilermakers. As for Arizona, transfer Caleb Love had the biggest game of his season. He dropped 29 points, the most in a game for him since UNC took on Alabama last year. That game also went into 4 overtime’s. Purdue doesn’t move back into number one, as that title goes to Kansas, who I’ll get to later. Purdue does move up to 2, just one spot over Arizona. Zona’s tough December continues with both Alabama and FAU this week, while Purdue plays Jacksonville, a team out of the ASUN. As for Kansas, they survived Indiana on Saturday, 75-71. With about 4 minutes left, the game was a one possession game, and although Kansas started to pull ahead after that, it was still a close game. Kansas only had 6 bench points against Indiana, something that could be their downfall come Big 12 play. The Big 12 is also the strongest conference this season, and another example of that is Houston. They’re sitting at 5 after a win over Texas A&M. Houston held a big lead in the second half, and although they started to squander it, they still won, 70-66. They move down 2 spots because of UConn’s win over Gonzaga Friday night. UConn now has one of the best resumes in the country, with wins over Texas, North Carolina, and Gonzaga. Their only loss came to Kansas, who struggled against Indiana. UConn also beat Indiana by 20.
Following those teams are Marquette, Creighton, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Gonzaga. 6 and 7 both went undefeated this week, with Marquette blowing out Saint Thomas, while Creighton beat Alabama by 3. Marquette takes on Providence and Georgetown this week, and both are pretty good. As for Creighton, they take Villanova, who aren’t a bad team either. If both teams can win their games this week, that would set up a big game between these two on December 30th. They would both have one loss at that point. I doubt both can come in with just 1 loss, as Providence, Georgetown, and Villanova have a shot at a deep run in the Big East. Then comes two Big 12 teams, Baylor and Oklahoma. I’ll start with the good, which is Oklahoma. Oklahoma is now undefeated, with wins over Arkansas, Providence, and USC. They obviously destroyed Green Bay last week, and now take on North Carolina this week. As for the bad, Baylor got destroyed by Michigan State, 88-64. Baylor was down 45-17 at halftime, and never led the entire game. It can’t really get much worse than that, but they take on Duke this week. Hopefully they can get back on track. Gonzaga rounds out the top 10, as they lost to UConn, 76-63. They did also beat Miss Valley State this week as well, so they’re now 8-3, with previous losses to Purdue and Washington.
Then come North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, FAU, and Clemson. North Carolina lost this week to Kentucky, but they are ranked over the Wildcats because of Duke’s previous losses. Tennessee and FAU both went undefeated this week, with Tennessee beating NC State by 9. FAU had 2 easy games against FIU and Saint Bonaventure. As for Clemson, their undefeated season ended Saturday with a 79-77 loss to Memphis. In that game, Clemson turned the ball over 15 times to Memphis’ 6. Clemson has a really good chance to win the ACC this year, and it all starts with key games against Miami and North Carolina.
The next 5 are Illinois, BYU, Colorado State, James Madison, and Texas. I’ll start with the pair of Big 12 schools, BYU and Texas. BYU blew out Denver and Georgia State this week after a loss to Utah. They have 2 easy games the rest of the month before starting Big 12 play against Cincinnati. As for Texas, they got a big win over LSU this week, shooting 50% from three. Texas also has some easy games this month before starting conference play against Texas Tech. As for the other 3, they all went undefeated, all playing just one game. James Madison is now 1 of 4 teams ranked that are undefeated, while Colorado State has just 1 loss. Illinois has 2. CSU and JMU have easy games to end the month, while Illinois has Missouri next.
The teams at the end of the Top 25 are Duke, Wisconsin, Virginia, Memphis, and Ole Miss. Duke went undefeated this week with a win over Hofstra, and they take on Baylor this week. Wisconsin beat Jacksonville State this week after their loss to Arizona a week prior. They open conference play against Iowa on January 2. As for Virginia and Memphis, they both won their only games this week, although they were close. Virginia beat Northeastern by just 2, while Memphis did the same to Clemson. These two teams next games are against each other. As for Ole Miss, they are also 1 of the 4 teams that are undefeated and ranked. In their only game, they beat Cal by 10.