Each week, Jameson Fleming publishes a weekly college basketball top 25, featuring a variety of voters from throughout the Bleacher Report community.
But great minds do not always think alike, and I have a tendency to disagree with the general consensus. Below, I explain my picks, particularly those which could be considered a bit controversial. My actual top 25 can be found in the comments section.
The ACC tops the Big East… for now
The top-five is almost a toss up right now, but when push comes to shove the top three ACC teams all have better résumés than their Big East counterparts.
Duke and UNC have slightly better non-conference wins than Pittsburgh and UConn, and only Lousville’s victory over Pitt can match Wake Forest’s win over UNC.
But even though Louisville has been hot of late, they must pay for their three losses—at least until some of the teams ahead of them start to slip up.
The recent poor play of Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Villanova has hurt the top Big East clubs, who are seeing the value of some of their victories begin to dwindle.
The winner of Wednesday’s Duke-Wake Forest game will likely earn my No. 1 ranking next week.
Purdue is Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
When so many teams have winless weeks, four straight wins is suddenly enough to vault a team to the cusp of the top-10—and that’s exactly what the Boilermakers have been able to put together since a disappointing loss to Penn State January 6.
Purdue has been solid, if unspectacular—it’s important to remember that two of the Boilermakers’ four losses were to Duke and Oklahoma—whereas teams such as Syracuse and Clemson can’t seem to get out of their own way. Thus, Purdue jumps five spots to No. 11 in this week’s poll.
10 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete