Subscribe
Follow Us
Monday marks Week 13 of the college basketball season, and it brings the newest edition of the AP Top 25 men's basketball poll. Four weeks of conference play are complete, and we are finally getting a sense of which teams are legitimate contenders and which squads coasted through their easy non-conference slate.
While there was no movement in the top five, Iowa State rose 11 spots, Auburn dropped eight places, Oklahoma fell 12 spots, and Memphis is now outside the rankings altogether.
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 three big takeaways from the latest AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll.
Big movement in the Big 12
The Big 12 has proven to be the deepest conference in college basketball this season, with 11 teams having a legitimate shot at an NCAA Tournament bid. The league now has eight teams in the AP Top 25 poll thanks to TCU's addition — four more than any other conference.
TCU won a tight game at Oklahoma State before taking down Baylor on the road in double-overtime to earn a spot in the top 25 (at #25) for the second time this season. There was also notable fluctuation between the Big 12 teams already ranked. Iowa State rose from 23rd to 12th after wins over Kansas State and Kansas, while Oklahoma fell 12 spots to 23rd thanks to home defeats to Texas and Texas Tech.
Tech's road win over the Sooners helped the team jump five spots to 15th while also earning the Red Raiders first place in the conference with a 5-1 record in Big 12 play.
Wisconsin's rise continues
Article Continues Below
After starting 1-2, the Wisconsin Badgers have been one of the best teams in the country since then. Wisconsin is 14-2 during that stretch, with its only loss coming on the road to highly-ranked Arizona and on a trip to Penn State when the Nittany Lions decided to shoot 40% from three. The Badgers are up to sixth in the latest AP Top 25 Poll — their highest ranking since Week 6 of the 2020-21 campaign.
Wisconsin has picked up six Quad I wins, including a recent home victory against a tough Michigan State team to complete the season sweep over the Spartans. This week, the Badgers face a tricky road trip to Nebraska before an all-important showdown against #2 Purdue at the Kohl Center. The Cornhuskers are undefeated at home in conference play, taking down the likes of Purdue and Michigan State, and Wisconsin will need to make sure it is not looking ahead to the colossal tussle against the Boilermakers.
The Revolving door of the Mountain West
A six-bid Mountain West was a realistic possibility at one point this season. Now, the league will be fighting to get five teams in after the latest week of games. Boise State lost a key game at home to Utah State, losing in overtime in a contest that would have gone down as an important Quad I win for the Broncos. The Aggies' win gives the visitors their first Quad I victory of the season as they maintained their spot at the top of the conference.
Elsewhere Colorado State dented its tourney chances with road losses to Nevada and Wyoming. The Nevada game is more a chance lost than anything, but the Quad III defeat to Wyoming — in a game where the Rams led by 11 with one minute left and had a 99.9% chance to win — is the type of game that can make or break a resume. Not only did CSU drop out of the top 25, but the Rams are now 3-4 in MWC play and have yet to pick up a conference road win.
In the final college basketball game of the weekend, New Mexico made a statement with a 34-point home win against Nevada. The Lobos rose six spots in the AP Top 25 Poll to 19th while Nevada continues to see its at-large chances shrink after its fourth defeat in five games.
