NCAA Basketball: BYU, Seton Hall rise, Michigan falls in latest top-25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
24. North Carolina (3-1)
In their first year without Roy Williams, the Tar Heels had a few hiccups early in the year and have now suffered their first loss. They won a true road game at Charleston to begin the week, though that was no means a solid victory, with the Tar Heels trailing at times in the second half. At Mohegan Sun, the Tar Heels dropped a 93-84 game to a very good Purdue team.
North Carolina has scored at least 83 points in their first four games and do have a very solid offense, but the defense could get them in trouble in Hubert Davis’s first campaign as head coach. Purdue had their way on offense, especially with their talented frontcourt, and the Tar Heels’ defense was abysmal last week against Brown. We’ll have to see if they get things figured out before a date with Michigan just a week and a half away.
23. Tennessee (2-1)
The Volunteers got their shot to make a big statement on Saturday but failed at the assignment. This past Sunday, they got an impressive 32-point win against a talented East Tennessee State team, but their game against Villanova at the Mohegan Sun wasn’t supposed to unravel like this. Tennessee fell 71-53 to the Wildcats, despite a 23-point effort from Santiago Vescovi, who was doing the brunt of the work.
While the effort was upsetting, Tennessee should still be a team to watch in the SEC. They’ll get several more chances to prove themselves in the coming weeks, with Colorado, Texas Tech, Memphis, and Arizona all ahead on the nonconference schedule. They aren’t going to shoot 18% from long-range every game, but need their offense to take a bit of a step forward after being smothered by that Villanova defense.
22. Oregon (2-1)
After a solid start to the season, this past week was a complete disaster for the Ducks. There have been some struggles for a number of Pac-12 teams early in the season, but none such had such a butt-whooping as Oregon faced on Tuesday night. The Ducks dropped an 81-49 game to BYU, a night in which the Oregon offense was nonexistent and the defense struggled to slow down the Cougars’ high-octane offense.
The good news is that the season is not lost in one day, and Oregon will certainly bounce back, starting next week in the Maui Invitational. The Ducks will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves as the season goes along, but they’ll need a solid performance at Maui to get that bad taste out of their mouth. Will Richardson and Eric Williams Jr. have been decent to start the season, but it’s clear the Ducks will need a bit more out of the supporting cast on this team.