Basketball Power 16 and Big Ten Rankings: Week 2

Last week saw some very interesting results in the College Basketball world that are going to reflect significantly in our rankings.

First and foremost – the Tennessee Volunteers.  Three straight losses to Oakland, Charlotte and Southern California have them plummeting out of our polls – and I didn’t even need the loss to USC to do that.  They’re flat out.  Talk about a quick turn-around on a promising start to the season.

Secondly, the Buckeyes have really begun to turn on their game in the last couple weeks.  They’ve finally started to look like the #2 team in the country, especially in their wins against South Carolina and last night against UNC-Asheville.  They’ve even managed to earn a first place vote in the AP – stealing it away from Duke.  It won’t move them up very far in the rankings, but they are going to move.

Last but not least, lots of the teams in the rankings dropped easy games to lower quality opponents.  That has cause a big shake-up at the bottom of the poll.

This week’s profiled game will be Memphis at Georgetown on December 23rd.  Look for Jay’s analysis for that game on Thursday!

Today’s rankings reflect games as of Tuesday night.  Read on for our Power 16!

College Basketball Power 16

1. Duke – No reason to change anything here.  The Dukies beat Elon after a nine day break, and are on another nine day break until the 29th.  They’ll remain until we see something surprising.
2. Syracuse – A close win over Iona should keep them from jumping UConn, but they made up for it in blowing out Morgan State.
3. Connecticut – A close win over Coppin State by Connecticut is enough to allow Syracuse to jump the Huskies.
4. Ohio State – The Buckeyes are clearly good, but having only played Florida and Florida State, it’s tough to judge them fairly against the rest of the field.  We may have to wait until Big Ten play to get a better idea.  They’ve also struggled against a few weaker opponents.  Maybe they just struggle to get up for the lower teams?
5. Michigan State – A single win in the last week over Prairie View.  It was an impressive win, so they’ll stay high, but with the Buckeye’s peaking, it’s tough to keep Michigan State above them with 3 losses.  We’ll know a lot more Wednesday night when the Spartan’s play Texas in East Lansing.
6. Kansas – Escaped USC at home a couple nights ago.  They won’t stay up here for very long if they keep playing like that.
7. San Diego State – Continued to look impressive until they ended up in a dogfight with San Fransisco Tuesday night.
8. Baylor – The loss to Gonzaga hurt, especially at home.  Gonzaga is still a strong team, however, so the Bears will hang on for now.
9. Missouri – Looking good so far, though they didn’t play anyone of note this week.  Of course, winning those games seems to be impossible for teams that were ranked last week, so that helps a lot.
10. Georgetown – Their three point loss to Temple kept them out last week, but a solid rebound brings them back into the fold.
11. Villanova – Nova gets penalized for their loss to Tennessee, plus playing no-one else of note.
12. Kansas State – We now know a lot more about this KSU team.  A loss to Florida drops them hard, especially with Florida losing to the Dolphins of Jacksonville
13. Pittsburgh – Pitt falls like a brick as well, with their loss to Tennessee acting like a ball and chain.
14. Purdue – The Boilermakers are doing ok this season without Robbie Hummel.  They’re sitting on a single loss, but have taken care of business well.
15. Kentucky – Only their loss to UNC is keeping them down.  Surprising that we can say that.  Their next big test will come at Louisville on New Year’s Eve.
16. Memphis – Rebounded well after a loss to Kansas.  The overtime win over Austin Peay isn’t great, but with everyone else losing those games, the Tigers will crawl in.

Big Ten Power Rankings

Last week’s rankings only change slightly.  Illinois’ loss hurts them significantly.

1. Ohio State – The Buckeyes are playing like the best team in the conference right now.  The overriding question is, however, are they peaking too soon?
2. Michigan State – As mentioned above, Michigan State took care of business.  Let’s see if they can do it again tonight against Texas.
3. Purdue – Looking good so far, but will it last into conference season?  I suspect the Boilers will be really missing Hummel come late January.
4. Wisconsin – A win against Green Bay doesn’t change much for the Badgers this week, except to allow them to benefit from Illinois’ failures.
5. Illinois – Losses happen, but a loss to Illinois-Chicago really shouldn’t.  Illinois suffered from a complete lack of offense in the game, proving that they can be taken out of their preferred style of play.
6. Minnesota – Had to play tough to survive a scrappy Akron team.  That’s not going to go far in keeping you highly ranked.
7. Michigan – Managed to take care of Oakland, which other teams seem to be unable to do right now.  They may move up in the coming weeks.
8. Indiana – Hoosiers are looking good so far.  They’re playing good basketball for the first time in years, and may surprise a couple Big Ten teams this year.
9. Northwestern – Struggling against the St. John Red Storm, even if they’re a decent team, won’t keep you above Indiana for long – at least not this season.
10. Iowa – Congratulations to the Hawkeyes for escaping the basement!  Granted they did it simply by winning their games this week and allowing Penn State to do their work for them.
11. Penn State – The loss to Maine is pathetic.  The Nits should be ashamed of themselves