College Basketball Week 16 Rankings

 Week 16



  1.  Alabama |Prev: 1 | Lost to Tennessee, beat Georgia |

You may be wondering why Alabama didn’t drop at all following their loss to Tennessee, but the reasoning is how they followed up that loss. They beat a decent Georgia team by 49, and shot 47% from 3 and 62% from the field. If those numbers aren’t enough to convince you, i’m sure that my reasoning as to why Houston isn’t first will.

  1.  Houston |Prev: 2 | Beat SMU, Memphis |

There are two things that are currently holding Houston back, the first being their wins. They’ve only beaten two currently ranked teams in Virginia and Saint Mary’s, and though those are 2 of the only 3 ranked teams they’ve played, they haven’t exactly dominated a weak AAC this season either, losing to Temple as well as playing a couple of other teams first. They also don’t look like the best team in the country, and I feel like if they were to play Alabama again, they’d lose again.

  1.  Kansas |Prev: 7 | Beat Oklahoma State, Baylor |

Kansas had one of the most impressive comebacks of the season on Saturday, coming back from being down 13 at half to winning by 16. Baylor was obliterating them in the first half while looking like the best team in the country, but everything fell apart for them in the second half. Kansas played very good defense, as well as shooting far better in the second half. They’re still 1-1 against Baylor, so if they meet again at a neutral site, it’ll be one of the best games of the season.

  1.  Virginia  |Prev: 5| Beat Louisville, Notre Dame |

I was very tempted to drop my Virginia Cavaliers because of how they looked in games against Louisville and Notre Dame, but they still showed their resilience and experience to get the job done late, so they’ll jump Purdue for now. However, this is not the same team that dominated a very good NC State team. Virginia’s gone through many ups and downs, and they’ll need to be up against a desperate UNC team when they visit Chapel Hill on Saturday

  1.  Purdue |Prev: 3 | Lost to Maryland, beat Ohio State |

Despite looking good and playing like they needed to play (good efficiency from guards) against Ohio State, we can’t ignore the fact that Purdue has lost 3 of their last 5. Teams have been holding Edey under 40, and though that may not seem crazy, it’s been enough considering Purdue’s abysmal guard play recently. They’ll need to figure that aspect of their game out before a tough 3-game stretch to close out the season.

  1.  UCLA |Prev: 6 | Beat Stanford, Cal |

UCLA likely won’t move too much until the Arizona game. They’ve yet to beat a currently ranked team, and with 4 losses, it’ll be difficult for UCLA to advance their resume until they play Arizona near the end of the season. Right now, they’re trying to avoid a bad loss that would likely drop them out of the top 10.

  1.  Arizona |Prev: 8 | Beat Utah, Colorado |

Though Arizona has some very impressive wins, it’s all balanced out by their bad losses. They have more going for them than UCLA, but they’ve lost 4 against non-tournament teams. It’ll all come down to the UCLA game and the Pac-12 tournament, but until them, they’ll try to avoid another bad loss.

  1.  Texas |Prev: 4 | Lost to Texas Tech, beat Oklahoma |

Texas is a team specifically that has not passed the eye test, similarly to Virginia. Like Virginia, they played the two worst teams in their respective conferences very close, but unlike Virginia, they lost one of these games. The rest of their season is ranked teams, so they have a lot of opportunities to bounce back before March.

  1.  Marquette |Prev: 11 | Beat Xavier |

Despite looking terrible in the first half against Xavier (scored 24 on terrible efficiency) , Marquette’s defense stood tall and gave them an opportunity to fight back against Marquette, which they took. Like most other Big East teams coming off a loss, Marquette bounced back by beating a ranked team. They’re climbing back up the rankings, and if they can get past Creighton on Tuesday, the rest of their schedule will be a cakewalk.

  1. Baylor |Prev: 10 | Beat West Virginia, lost to Kansas |

I can’t describe how good Baylor looked in the first half of that Kansas game. They were hitting everything, dominating on defense, and looked like a top 3 team in the country. However, it didn’t last. They got obliterated in the second half, their offense completely getting shut down. They still beat Kansas at home earlier in the season, but this second hald performance was very concerning.

  1.  Tennessee |Prev: 12 | Beat Alabama, lost to Kentucky |

  2.  Miami |Prev: 16 | Beat North Carolina, Wake Forest |

  3.  Gonzaga |Prev: 14 | Beat Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine |

  4.  Kansas State |Prev: 9 | Lost to Oklahoma, beat Iowa State |

  5.  Xavier |Prev: 13 | Lost to Marquette, beat DePaul |

  6.  Indiana |Prev: 15 | Lost to Northwestern, beat Illinois |

  7.  Creighton |Prev: 17 | Lost to Providence, beat St. John’s |

  8.  Northwestern |Prev: NR | Beat Indiana |

  9.  UConn |Prev: 20 | Beat Seton Hall |

  10.  Saint Mary’s |Prev: 19 | Beat San Diego, BYU |

  11.  Providence |Prev: NR | Beat Creighton, Villanova |

  12.  TCU |Prev: 21 | Lost to Iowa State, beat Oklahoma State |

  13.  San Diego State |Prev: 24 | Beat Fresno State |

  14. Maryland |Prev: NR | Beat Purdue |

  15. NC State | Prev: 23 | Beat North Carolina, lost to Syracuse |


Next up - Illinois, Iowa State, Texas A&M

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