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Monday marks Week 9 of the college basketball season, and it brings the newest edition of the AP Top 25 men's basketball poll.
Last week marked the beginning of league play for many conferences, which led to considerable movement in the AP Poll. Auburn jumped nine spots to #16 after its emphatic road win over Arkansas while Wisconsin improved six spots to #15 after a pair of surprisingly strong offensive showings. Teams that dropped in the poll included BYU (nine spots) — which had a rude introduction to the Big 12 at the hands of Cincinnati — while Florida Atlantic moved down seven spots after a shocking road defeat to Charlotte.
While the AP Poll is by no means the be-all and end-all for determining how good a college basketball team is, it is an important capsule for determining who is playing the best basketball at any given week. Here are the biggest snubs, overrated teams, and other notes from the latest AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll.
Overrated
Florida Atlantic
No team in the country has a more confusing resume than Florida Atlantic. The Owls' win over Arizona in Las Vegas might be the best victory by any team in college basketball this year and they also have neutral site wins against power conference foes Butler, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech. Then there are the losses; versus Bryant at home, at Florida Gulf Coast, and most recently at Charlotte.
The Charlotte loss, on paper, is forgivable. The 49ers are a borderline top-100 team in the NET Rankings, making this loss a Quad II defeat. But Bryant is 166th in the NET and FGCU is 282nd. Florida Gulf Coast got taken to overtime by NAIA school Florida Memorial. Those aren't just bad losses, they are terrible losses that should have knocked FAU out of the rankings. Instead, they still sit at #24.
Texas
One of the themes of the AP Poll this season has been that teams without quality wins are not finding their way into the top 25. Iowa State and Auburn are perfect examples of teams with great metrics but are outside the top 25 because they don't have a Quad I win. And then there is Texas.
The Longhorns are coming off an Elite Eight run in head coach Rodney Terry's first season and entered this year at #18. Yet two months into the season, the team does not have a quality win to speak of. Texas doesn't have a Quad I victory, and its only Quad II win is against an LSU team that is barely top-100 in the NET. Nine of their 11 wins are in Quad IV games — the worst of the worst.
They are well outside the top 25 in every conceivable metric yet are still #25 in the AP Men's Top 25 poll following a loss at home to Texas Tech.
Underrated
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Dayton
Looking for a more deserving team to be in the top 25 ahead of Florida Atlantic and Texas? Look no further than Dayton. The Flyers have neutral site wins over Cincinnati and St. John's (both top-35 in the NET) as well as a road win at SMU. Their only losses came at Northwestern and against Houston. Dayton may be a mid-major, but the Flyers played a high-major non-conference schedule and came out with numerous quality wins and two respectable losses. Simply put, Dayton is one of the 25 best college basketball teams in the country.
Auburn
While quality wins are important, at some point, metrics have to count for something. Auburn is fifth in KenPom and eighth in the NET yet finds itself at #16 in the AP Top 25. While the Tigers do not have a Quad I win yet, Bruce Pearl's team has four Quad II victories by an average margin of 23 points. The most recent came on the road against Arkansas — a 32-point win against a Razorbacks team picked to finish third in the SEC. With a top-10 offense and defense according to KenPom, the Tigers deserve more than their #16 ranking.
Other Notes
Another good week for the Mountain West Conference
Utah State jumps into the poll for the first time this season following its home win over Colorado State. The Aggies are 12-1 on the year with a well-constructed schedule that pitted them against quality mid-major opponents. USU has a pair of Quad II wins over Akron (neutral) and Santa Clara (road) as well as a Quad I victory in a neutral site game against San Francisco. With plenty of tough conference games ahead, the Aggies will have to fight to maintain their spot in the poll alongside fellow Mountain West contenders San Diego State and Colorado State.
Another unbeaten goes down
Mississippi entered last week at 13-0 and #22 in the AP poll but knew that their toughest test of the season lay ahead in their upcoming road game against #6 Tennessee. The Rebels did not lead after the first media timeout and the game became a blowout in the second half, eventually resulting in a 26-point Ole Miss loss. Chris Beard's team is 88th in KenPom and 67th in the NET Rankings, which should keep them outside of the AP poll for the foreseeable future.
