College Basketball Rankings 2016-17: Bleacher Report's Week 16 Top 25

With two more blowouts of West Coast Conference foes, Gonzaga remains the unanimous No. 1 team in Bleacher Report's college basketball Top 25.

But the Big 12 was where the action was at this week.

Kansas trailed West Virginia by 14 in the final three minutes before making one of the greatest comebacks ever for an overtime win. A few days later, the Jayhawks overcame a 12-point first-half deficit in a road win over Baylor—effectively putting a bow on their 13th consecutive Big 12 regular-season championship.

Elsewhere, Texas Tech upset Baylor before pushing West Virginia to two overtimes. Oklahoma State went 2-0 against TCU and Oklahoma to jump into our Top 25. And Iowa State beat Kansas State and TCU to pick up a few votes for the first time in months. 

Conference tournament play is just around the corner. For Top 25 teams Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and Wichita State, the regular season draws to a close this coming weekend. Here's how we view the nation's 25 best teams heading into that home stretch.

Rank	Team	Record	Last Week
1	Gonzaga	28-0	1
2	Villanova	26-2	2
3	Kansas	24-3	3
4	North Carolina	23-5	7
5	Oregon	24-4	5
6	Louisville	22-5	8
7	Arizona	25-3	6
8	UCLA	24-3	8
9	Duke	22-5	11
10	Baylor	22-5	4
11	Kentucky	22-5	12
12	Purdue	22-5	13
13	Florida	22-5	15
14	SMU	24-4	17
15	West Virginia	21-6	16
16	Cincinnati	24-3	18
17	Saint Mary's	24-3	20
18	Wisconsin	22-5	14
19	Notre Dame	21-7	21
20	Virginia	18-8	10
21	Maryland	22-5	25
22 (tie)	Wichita State	25-4	24
22 (tie)	Oklahoma State	18-9	Not Ranked
24	Florida State	21-6	19
25	Dayton	21-5	Not Ranked

Others Receiving Votes: Butler, VCU, Creighton, Iowa State

Moving Up: Oklahoma State Cowboys

Brody Schmidt/Associated Press

Bouncing back from an 0-6 start in conference play is a tall order, but Oklahoma State was up to the task.

Following a three-point win at TCU and a four-point home win over rival Oklahoma, the Cowboys have now won eight of their last nine games—including a 28-point win over Arkansas in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge—to get back to .500 in Big 12 play. During that stretch, they swept both the Horned Frogs and the Sooners, won at West Virginia and dominated a road game against a Texas Tech team that is otherwise 15-1 at home with a one-point loss to Kansas.

Jeffery Carroll (40 points, 12 rebounds) had another fantastic week as possibly the most under-appreciated player in the entire country, but Jawun Evans remains the straw that stirs Oklahoma State's drink. The sophomore point guard had 16 points and 12 assists in the win over TCU and had an even more impressive 27 points, nine assists, four steals and one turnover against Oklahoma.

Over the last eight games, Evans has averaged 19.5 points and 7.3 assists with just 2.5 turnovers. His three-point stroke (2-of-14 in February) hasn't been there lately, but he's still making a huge, positive impact for the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State doesn't do much on the defensive end, but it is now No. 2 in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom. Only the Lonzo Ball-fueled UCLA offense has been more efficient than this one.

It won't be easy the rest of the way. The Cowboys still play at Kansas State and Iowa State before finishing the season at home against Kansas. But as long as they win the remaining home game against Texas Tech, they should get an invite to the NCAA tournament. They got a couple of votes in our poll last week, but now they're comfortably in the B/R Top 25 at No. 22.

Moving Down: Virginia Cavaliers

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Once upon a time, Virginia was a wildly efficient team that just so happened to play at a snail-like pace.

Lately, though, the Cavaliers have struggled to put points on the board, regardless of tempo. They scored 55 against Duke in a 58-possession game and could only muster 41 points in Saturday's 61-possession loss to North Carolina.

Despite holding each of their last 10 opponents to fewer than 67 points in regulation, they are just 5-5 in those games. In losses to the Blue Devils and Tar Heels this week, Virginia shot a combined 11-of-39 (28.2 percent) from three-point range and wasn't nearly stingy enough on the defensive end to make up for that deficiency.

For as much as the three-point arc has betrayed them, the biggest issue for the Cavaliers has been the free-throw line. Even including the 24 free throws they attempted in last week's double-overtime loss to Virginia Tech, UVA has averaged just 9.4 free-throw attempts in its eight losses. In the OT loss to Pittsburgh in January, the Wahoos attempted five freebies while allowing a season-high 28 attempts.

It's an unfortunate side effect of their slow tempo, but the lack of trips to the free-throw line seems to be killing the Cavaliers lately, as they have scored 71 regulation points or fewer in 10 consecutive games. Their free-throw rate has consistently been low under Tony Bennett, but this is significantly worse than in any previous season.

With four games left to play, Virginia has already suffered more ACC regular-season losses (six) than in any of the previous three years. The Cavaliers are still in great shape for a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament, but their dreams of competing for the ACC title are dead and buried. They plummeted 10 spots to No. 20 in our poll.

Worth Noting: Florida State is Crashing, Too

Joe Skipper/Associated Press

It was only four weeks ago that Florida State was a strong candidate for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Seminoles emerged from their gauntlet of six consecutive games against AP Top 25 opponents with a 5-1 record. In late January, they were 18-2 with quality wins over Louisville, Virginia, Duke and Florida and were on the fast track to the ACC regular-season title.

But that fast track was evidently riddled with speed bumps.

Following Saturday's 14-point loss to Pittsburgh—in which Dwayne Bacon was held scoreless after 35 consecutive games scoring in double figures—Florida State has now lost four of its last seven games. Worse, each of those Ls came by a double-digit margin. Following losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse, FSU seemed to get back on the right path with three consecutive wins over Miami, Clemson and North Carolina State by an average margin of 30.0 points per game.

Since then, though, they have lost two more games to Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, falling to 2-5 in true road games. In fact, Leonard Hamilton's bunch is 16-0 at home and 5-6 in all other environments, including a neutral-court loss to 14-13 Temple.

The ACC still has serious title contenders in Duke, Louisville and North Carolina, but the conference isn't nearly as top-heavy as it seemed one month ago. Between the recent struggles of Virginia and Florida State and Notre Dame's four-game losing streak from a few weeks ago, it has become a three-horse race for the ACC crown.

The Seminoles still cling to a spot in our Top 25, but they dropped five spots to No. 24.

On the Radar: VCU Rams

Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

There are 100 teams in the nation's top eight conferences (Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, American and A-10). In the past 30 days, 98 of those teams have suffered at least one loss. The two exceptions to that rule are SMU and VCU.

Despite trailing Tulane by 15 and Houston by 13, SMU extended its winning streak to 10 games this week, climbing into the Top 15 of our poll. The Mustangs are getting plenty of love for their winning ways.

For some reason, though, people seem to be ignoring the eight-game winning streak VCU is on.

Granted, the Atlantic 10 isn't what it used to be, but it's not like the Rams have been beating up on opponents with no business competing against tournament teams. Six of their eight wins during this run have come against teams in the RPI Top 105, according to WarrenNolan.com, including one win over A-10 favorite, Dayton. Only one of those eight opponents (10-16 Saint Joseph's) has a losing record.

The dual-combo guard starting lineup of JeQuan Lewis and Samir Doughty has been sensational. The senior (Lewis) is leading the way during the winning streak, averaging 17.5 points and 4.0 assists. But the freshman (Doughty) hasn't been far behind at 10.8 points and 4.3 assists per game. With Doughty in the starting lineup, VCU is 12-0 this season, including his near triple-double (10 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds) in this week's win over Saint Joseph's.

Can the Rams keep it going for the roughest two-game stretch of their season? They host Saint Louis on Wednesday before back-to-back road games against Rhode Island and Dayton. The game against the Flyers will likely determine which one wins the A-10 regular-season title and becomes the No. 6 seed nobody wants to draw in the NCAA tournament.

What to Watch for This Week:

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

—No. 6 Louisville at No. 4 North Carolina (9 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN)

—Butler at No. 2 Villanova (9 p.m. ET Wednesday on FS1)

—No. 13 Florida at No. 11 Kentucky (2 p.m. ET Saturday on CBS)

—Creighton at No. 2 Villanova (3 p.m. ET Saturday on Fox)

—No. 8 UCLA at No. 7 Arizona (8:15 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN)

For the most part, this next week is the calm before the storm. There's plenty of intriguing bubble action, but there are only a couple of ranked vs. ranked showdowns.

But at least those games are doozies.

Louisville vs. North Carolina on Wednesday night should determine who wins the ACC regular-season title to enter the driver's seat for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Duke will still have a say in how that race ends, but this is the long-awaited battle between the two highest ranked ACC teams in our poll.

The race for the Big East title isn't anywhere near as intriguing, as Villanova holds a three-game lead over the rest of the league. Moreover, with Butler, Creighton and Xavier all falling out of our Top 25 in the past few weeks, the Wildcats are the only ranked team remaining from the Big East. They have won five consecutive games by a margin of at least 11 points, including consecutive road games against Xavier, DePaul and Seton Hall. If they get by Butler and Creighton with similar ease, it might be time to accept that Villanova is the singular favorite to win the national championship.

There will also be a pair of blue bloods looking to avenge an embarrassing loss.

UCLA gave up 96 points to Arizona in the first battle between the Pac-12 titans, exposing the Bruins defense as a weakness. But UCLA has been better on that end of the floor thus far in February and could re-brand itself as a title contender with a good defensive showing in round No. 2 against the Wildcats.

And in the SEC, Florida is on an eight-game winning streak, which includes a 22-point blowout of Kentucky earlier this month. If the Gators can win at Rupp Arena, it will move them into the conversation for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Voters in the poll are C.J. Moore, Brian Pedersen and Kerry Miller. Our experts participate in weekly voting for B/R's Top 25. Once a vote is cast for a specific team, it's assigned a value—25 points for the No. 1 team in the rankings, 24 points for the second spot and so on. The point totals are then added up to create the Top 25.

Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of KenPom.com and Sports-Reference.com. 

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.