With several top NCAA Basketball teams having tough games, how do the top-25 look heading into the holidays?
The NCAA Basketball season continues to move on, with a positive note of fewer teams currently on “pause” due to positive Covid-19 cases. The hope is that everyone remains safe and healthy and that we can get this season completed.
A number of high-profile matchups occurred, including No. 1 Gonzaga taking on No. 3 Iowa. The winner of that game would’ve had a case for being No. 1 overall in the country, considering that No. 2 Baylor were on the sidelines. But the Bulldogs prevailed, keeping the status quo.
But how far should the Hawkeyes have fallen after that effort? And what about the other programs that lost this week? For Busting Brackets’ own weekly rankings, nine of us contributors came together and combined our polls for this top-25 list. There were 31 programs that received votes, including Purdue, Clemson, Duke, and Indiana. Here are the writers who participated in this week’s ranking, as well as the top runner-ups.
Tristan Freeman – @hoopsnut351
Adam Bernstein – @AdamBernstein18
Benjamin Zacher – @beezacher
Joe Casey – @Joe_Casey1
Chris Thedinga – @CThedinga
Jacob Zinkula -@1Perfectbracket
Andrew Tineo – @D_Tineo4
Will Cash – @willcash21
Karl Heiser – @karlheiser17
27. Oregon
It was a bittersweet past week for the Ducks. They’ve won six straight games since the opening loss to Missouri, including a pair of wins this week against WCC programs, Portland and San Francisco. But it came at a major cost, with center N’Faly Dante now out for the season with a torn ACL. The Ducks will need transfers Eric Williams and Eugene Omoruyi to continue playing well in order for them to remain near the top of the Pac-12 standings.
26. Michigan
The Wolverines remain unbeaten to start out the season, including winning their first Big Ten clash against Penn State this past week. It was a defensive struggle for the most part but freshman big man Hunter Dickinson led all scorers with 20 points to lead Michigan to the win. They’ll be on the road this week for a Christmas Day matchup against Nebraska, arguably the worst team in the conference. A win there could finally get them into the top-25 polls.