NCAA Basketball: Alabama, Ohio State rise, Gonzaga, BYU fall in top-25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
12. Arizona (6-0)
With their game against Washington postponed due to COVID protocols, it was an uneventful week for the Wildcats, who haven’t played since last Saturday’s big win over Sacramento State. To this point, Arizona has looked the part of a fantastic team, especially with that 18-point neutral site win over Michigan. Still, it’s hard to know exactly what to think of Arizona at this point, and we’ll hope to see them play some Pac-12 games that aren’t postponed very soon.
Arizona is trending in a great direction under new head coach Tommy Lloyd, and the way their defense is playing should have Wildcats fans excited for the future. That win over Michigan gave this program a lot of momentum, though they’ll get a chance at another big win in the coming week.
These next seven days present three big opportunities, a road game against Oregon State, a home date with Wyoming, and then a tough road game against an Illinois team looking to get back on track. Things are coming together quickly for the Wildcats, but that test next weekend against the Illini will tell us a lot about the state of this team.
11. Texas (6-1)
We’re still learning about Texas, but what we’ve learned so far is that Chris Beard’s new program is doing pretty good in the early going. They’re stockpiling early wins against inferior foes and have played defense at an elite level along the way. This past week saw two more easy victories, starting Monday with a 73-57 win against Sam Houston State. The week concluded on Friday night, knocking off UTRGV by a 30-point margin, with a 17-point effort from Christian Bishop stealing the show.
Looking back, we don’t really know much about these Longhorns, with their marquee game being a rough loss to a very good Gonzaga team nearly a month ago. They’ve taken care of business against a slate of mid-major foes, never yielding more than 58 points in any of the six wins. This next win presents another challenge, as the Longhorns field a tough road game against Seton Hall. This is Texas’s chance to get their first nice win of the season, and any success away from home is a real plus down the line.
10. Arkansas (8-0)
Eric Musselman has done wonders for the Razorbacks since arriving in Fayetteville and this season remains no different, as Arkansas has rattled off eight straight wins to open the season. They weren’t particularly challenged this past week but did pick up three more wins for the resume. They took care of Penn 76-60 on Sunday, knocked out Central Arkansas 97-60 on Wednesday, and got their third win of the week against Little Rock 93-78 on Saturday afternoon.
Even though Arkansas played their worst defensive game against Little Rock this weekend, the defense has been pretty solid for the most part. While it hasn’t really come against top-level competition, the Razorbacks have looked like a great team, though they’ll get plenty of chances to prove it. They have a home date with Charlotte this week, but that’ll be overshadowed by a key matchup with Oklahoma on Saturday, giving this team their first real chance at a top-notch non-conference win.