Another week of NCAA basketball is complete and there were once again shifts in my rankings. Ohio State tumbled the most while Baylor rose again.
Baylor-Kansas took center stage during this past weekend as a battle of Big 12 foes and Top 5 teams in the entire nation. While many projected that the Jayhawks would be able to defend their home-court against the upstart Bears, this season once again subverted our expectations. Baylor rolled into Lawrence and took care of business with a very impressive double-digit road victory.
As a result of this performance, there were several movers at the top of my NCAA Basketball Power Rankings for this week. Perhaps most notably, Baylor now joins Duke and Gonzaga to form a trio of squads worthy of consideration for the No. 1 spot.
Additionally, though, 10 teams from my Top 25 last week dropped at least one game during this past week. That is another big number as this season’s parity just continues to strike with more ferocity with each week. Conference play is wreaking havoc on some of the darlings of the non-conference season and teams across the country are struggling mightily to win true road games.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Ohio State is in an absolute tailspin right now. The Buckeyes had previously held down my No. 1 spot earlier this season but have now dropped four consecutive games (and five of seven) to fall near the bottom of the rankings.
With so many fringe Top 25 teams dropping games during this past week, that opened the door for several others previously on the outside-looking-in to climb into the rankings.
Stanford was perhaps the most notable beneficiary as it moved to 14-2 on the season with its only two losses coming to teams ranked in my Top 5. The Cardinal have not played the most challenging schedule to date but they have taken care of business against lesser opponents and not many teams in the country can say they have done that.
Now, without any further ado, let’s find out how my Top 25 NCAA Basketball Power Rankings shook out for this week. As per usual, I have written analysis on each team included in my rankings for this week and all statistics were derived from KenPom or Haslametrics unless otherwise noted.