14. Kansas State Wildcats
Last Week: No. 11
Kansas State suffered its first loss of the year this week but it was far from a disastrous one. Marquette is a very good basketball team and attempting to beat them on the road is a tall order. Even though the Wildcats fought hard, they just had no answer for Marquette’s Howard in that one as he dropped 46 points. Having said this, K-State does not drop far in these rankings due to the difficulty of that game.
Still, at some point, we have to talk about how K-State does not have a signature win yet this season. I mean, their best win to date is probably a neutral-site victory over Missouri and that is not saying a whole lot. And considering Vanderbilt is injured and George Mason is underachieving, their NCSOS might hurt them down the road.
For now, though, the Wildcats have not really done anything to warrant a huge drop in the power rankings. They are 6-1 and deserve recognition as a top-25 team. A defensive-minded team, K-State is holding opponents to 60.1 points per game so far this season (19th in the nation).