(Kansas' Dajuan Harris spins by Kentucky's Reed Sheppard during the Jayhawks' 89-84 win over the Wildcats in Tuesday's Champions Classic. Harris, Hunter Dickinson, and Kevin McCullar all were spectacular for the victorious Jayhawks, who next take the court in the vaunted Maui Invitational.)
The Tommy 25, Nov. 20, 2023
Ranking | Team | Preseason |
1 | Purdue | 1 |
2 | UConn | 2 |
3 | Kansas | 3 |
4 | Arizona | 4 |
5 | Creighton | 5 |
6 | Tennessee | 6 |
7 | Marquette | 7 |
8 | Duke | 8 |
9 | Miami | 13 |
10 | Houston | 12 |
11 | Texas A&M | 10 |
12 | Gonzaga | 16 |
13 | Baylor | 17 |
14 | Alabama | 21 |
15 | Kentucky | NR |
16 | Colorado | 20 |
17 | Memphis | 22 |
18 | USC | 15 |
19 | Arkansas | 9 |
20 | Virginia | 24 |
21 | Mississippi State | NR |
22 | Iowa State | NR |
23 | Texas | 14 |
24 | BYU | NR |
25 | North Carolina | NR |
Dropped out: FAU (11), Villanova (18), Michigan State (19), St. John's (23), James Madison (25)
Just out: FAU, James Madison, Oregon, Auburn, Pitt, TCU, San Diego State, Michigan State, Illinois, Florida, Liberty
Quick Hits
The top eight remains the same as last week as each team held serve. This will certainly change next week with four(!) of our top seven participating in the Maui Invitational. More on that later.
Brutal losses from USC (3-1), Arkansas (3-1), FAU (2-1), and Villanova (3-1) along with a two-loss week from St. John's (3-2) has us very confused about the bottom half of these rankings. Teams like Colorado (3-0) create a Schrödinger's college basketball team that we simultaneously have as the 16th-ranked team even though we aren't sure they're good at all. Anarchy? Nope, just college basketball.
#1 Purdue (3-0) is our only ranked Big Ten team. The conference has been highly disappointing. Preseason frontrunner Michigan State (3-2) has stumbled out of the gate, Maryland (1-3)'s three early losses have put a cloud on preseason optimism, while Illinois (3-1) is still unproven. Michigan (3-1) looked like they'd be joining the ranking this week before losing at home to Long Beach State (2-2). Don't even get us started on Indiana (3-1). Yikes.
Looking Ahead
It's Feast Week! The Maui Invitational, Battle 4 Atlantis, and the ESPN Events Invitational highlight a super fun week of non-conference hoops.
Speaking of the Maui Invitational: this field is absolutely loaded! Four of our top seven and five of our top 12 are participating in the event. There is no better opportunity this college basketball season to accumulate extremely high-quality wins in a three-day span. The winner of this tournament will be #1 next week, whether that's a current top team like Purdue and Kansas, or a team on the outside like Syracuse or even Chaminade.
Though November regular-season rankings aren't largely important in the long-run, it's still fun to see a low number next to your team. This week presents a unique opportunity for teams to fly up in the rankings through these early-season tournaments. We're talking about teams like Purdue last year (who jumped from #24 to #5) and 2019-20 Michigan (who rose from unranked to #4 in a week). Conversely, top teams should beware the tale of 2017-18 Arizona, who fell from #2 to out of the Top 25 entirely.
You can follow me on Twitter @tommy_marq for more analysis during the week!