NCAA Basketball top-25 rankings: Arizona, Ohio State rise, Kentucky, Texas fall
By Joey Loose
6. Villanova (7-2)
As has been mentioned before, it’s a bit weird to see a 2-loss team this high up in the rankings, but that’s just how things are going this season, especially when you consider Villanova’s schedule. They’ve lost close games to UCLA and Purdue, two of the best teams in the country, but have looked pretty fantastic, winning every other game by double-digits. This past week, they took on Syracuse at Madison Square Garden and took care of business down the stretch, pounding out a 67-53 win, led by Justin Moore’s 18 point effort.
When you look deep at the analytics, Villanova’s offense was really efficient to start the season, but now it’s been defense that’s carrying them throughout this current four-game winning streak. The Wildcat put up points in those two losses, but have been leaning more on defense in the weeks since, giving up no more than 56 points during this streak.
As if things hadn’t been hard enough, the Wildcats travel to Baylor on Sunday in one of their toughest games of the year. They follow that up on Friday, beginning Big East play with a road trip to Creighton and an always tough matchup with the Bluejays.
5. Purdue (8-1)
Unfortunately for the Boilermakers, their time at the top of the college basketball world was short-lived. With the way this season has started, it figures that Purdue would look fantastically unstoppable only to drop their first game as the #1 team in the nation. Their only game this week was that loss at Rutgers, losing 70-68 on that legendary buzzer-beater by the Scarlet Knights and handing Purdue their first loss of the season.
To this point, Purdue had played fantastic offense and solid defense in taking care of their first eight opponents, but their first true road game proved difficult against a resilient Rutgers team. Nonetheless, Purdue still looks like one of the nation’s best teams, especially with the play of Zach Edey and others on this roster.
The Boilermakers get two neutral site games this upcoming week to bounce back and will be favored both Sunday against NC State and next weekend against Butler. Two big wins away from home will certainly return favor back towards this Boilermakers team.