NCAA Basketball: BYU, Seton Hall rise, Michigan falls in latest top-25 power rankings

3. Kansas (3-0)

Last year, Kansas saw Baylor steal their thunder, going all the way to their first national championship, but it’s a brand new season. The Jayhawks have a very talented team and have pulled out three wins to start the year, an unblemished 3-0 mark. Bill Self’s team wasn’t particularly challenged this past week, scoring a 29-point home win over Stony Brook, a third straight 25-point performance from Ochai Agbaji.

The Jayhawks are an elite program and sit near the top of the rankings, though a decent win over Michigan State remains their only test early in the season. There’s no question that Agbaji is emerging as a potential national player of the year, but their November schedule consists mostly of home games over mid-majors. It’ll be interesting to see how the Jayhawks fare later in the season, especially on the road against St. John’s, Colorado, and their Big 12 slate.

2. UCLA (4-0)

Last week, the Bruins got the season off to a great start with that overtime win over a very talented Villanova squad, but this week they merely held serve. UCLA got two very firm victories over inferior mid-major programs at home, knocking off Long Beach State by 21 points and North Florida by 35. Any questions about this team not being for real this season may have been quickly extinguished.

The offense has been outstanding for the Bruins, with Johnny Juzang (25 points against Long Beach State) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (20 points against UNF) both causing havoc yet again. Next week presents a much bigger challenge, with Tuesday’s Final Four rematch against Gonzaga. Early on, UCLA has answered every test in their first four games, but those were all at home, even that big one against Villanova. Can this defense do enough against the Bulldogs next week?

1. Gonzaga (4-0)

The favorite both last year and this year, Gonzaga is living up to the billing four games into this season. While Chet Holmgren is still finding his footing at the collegiate level, Drew Timme continues to be a star on the national level, having put up 37 points in last week’s win over #5 Texas. This week, Gonzaga wasn’t quite as challenged, though he did help lead the Bulldogs to easy wins over Alcorn State and Bellarmine.

Gonzaga’s offense remains the best in the nation, and that has certainly been evident already this season, as the program has scored 84 points or more in each of their first four games. They’ve held serve atop the rankings, though the difficulty level will sharply rise to maintain that ranking.

In the next week alone they’ll face tough neutral site games against UCLA and Duke, two games in which they’ll be the favorite but have a legitimate shot at their first regular season loss in two seasons.