A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
By the time you read this, the Super Bowl will be over, and the sports world will finally be able to turn more of its attention to college hoops.
A terrific Kansas-Missouri game on Saturday night provided a springboard into “Rivalry Week,” which features a number of intriguing matchups.
Before that tips off though, here are this week’s power rankings.
It sounds a bit odd to say this, but last week was relatively tame in the college hoops world since “only” nine teams in the Top 25 lost. Even so, there are no new teams in this week’s edition of my power rankings, just some jostling of positions.
Saturday was arguably the best day of college basketball so far this season, as a pair of Top Five sqauds squared off, the top-ranked team went down, and a buzzer-beater ended a lengthy home winning streak just to name a few of the notable happenings.
And as usual, that led to plenty of shakeups in this week’s Top 25.
After yet another week where nearly half of the Top 25 suffered at least one loss, the exercise of putting together my latest power rankings has proven to be challenging once again.
The middle of the list has proven to be a complete mess, but since road wins have been so tough to come by, there are some teams that actually stayed put or even moved up despite losing.
On Sunday at 4:30 ET, the #8-ranked Indiana Hoosiers (15-2, 3-2) travel to Columbus to take on the #5-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (15-3, 3-2) on CBS.
As always, Jerod, Andy, and Ryan will be here with another episode of The Assembly Call as soon as the game ends with instant analysis and fan reaction.
Since we’ve reached the halfway point of the season, I wanted to break down the contenders for Big Ten Player of the Year. I think it’s fair to say this list has some significant changes compared to what I would have put together prior to the season.
Full disclosure: I really like Ohio State’s basketball team this year.
Fuller disclosure: Coming from me, that means a lot…because in general, I absolutely hate Ohio State.
It continues to be an exciting, albeit unpredictable, season in college hoops. Twelve teams ranked in the Top 25 lost last week, with many of those defeats coming on the road. Consequently, putting together this week’s power rankings proved to be pretty challenging once I got past the first 12 teams.
A number of college basketball bracketologists released updated projections on Tuesday, and while it’s easy to argue the merits of doing this so early, it certainly makes for some interesting discussion and helps gauge where teams stand as conference play gets rolling.
I’ll be releasing my own projections starting next week, but for now I thought it would be worthwhile to look at how Big Ten teams are shaping up with as many as nine of them in some of these mock brackets.
It’s been a couple weeks since the last edition of my power ratings, and a whole lot has changed since then thanks to some surprising results from early conference play, meltdowns from Pitt and Xavier, and a couple more teams falling from the ranks of the unbeaten.
What a win for Indiana.
Just a few weeks after beating #1 ranked Kentucky in Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers toppled #2 ranked Ohio State 74-70 tonight. Every starter was in double figures, led by Jordan Hulls’ 17, and the three guys I said needed to step up after the Michigan State game – Hulls, Cody Zeller, and Tom Crean – all did just that tonight.
As Ohio State superstar Jared Sullinger tweeted soon after the game ended, “Give credit when credit is due. IU basketball is back everybody…. Tough basketball team.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Since last week’s installment of the power rankings, Illinois, Marquette, and Xavier have fallen from the ranks of the unbeaten, leaving just six teams with an unblemished record. One of those teams, Murray State, makes their debut in the Bottoms Line College Basketball Power Rankings this week.
I’m a couple days late on the power rankings this week, but there is no truth to the rumor that I went on a five-day bender following IU’s win over Kentucky. In case you forgot what happened, here’s the video. And in case you want to see a complete moron preview the game, here’s another one.
Now that the college basketball season is about a month old, it’s time for the first installment of the Bottoms Line College Basketball Power Rankings.
Putting these together is my attempt at balancing how teams are playing as well as who they are playing (and ideally beating) to rank the top teams in the nation. So before you get bent out of shape and call me an idiot for having North Carolina at number four, make an argument that they aren’t among the four best teams in the country based on how they played against Kentucky.
That’s what I thought.
The 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge tips of on Tuesday, and after 10 years of disappointment the Big Ten is looking to extend its own winning streak to three.
For the first time, both leagues have the same number of teams, so there are 12 games on this year’s slate. (In the event of a 6-6 tie, the Big Ten will retain the Commissioner’s Cup in case you were wondering. Spoiler alert: That shouldn’t be an issue.)
