18. Texas (7-2)
Before the season began, there was hype around Texas, with Chris Beard arriving from Texas Tech, looking to finally take the Longhorns back to the Promised Land. To this point, the Longhorns haven’t exactly been a disappointment, but they’ve failed to stand out either, losing road games to Gonzaga and Seton Hall. This past week, they won another laugher at home, handling Arkansas Pine Bluff 63-31, playing a fantastic defensive game and getting 14 points from Tre Mitchell in the win.
Texas has seven wins and their defense looks elite, but none of those wins have come over good opponents. All seven wins have come at home against mid-major programs, with Northern Colorado possibly the best of the bunch. A game with Stanford on Sunday is another shot for their first decent win. Nevertheless, when Big 12 play begins after New Year’s we will see plenty of tests for this Longhorns program. Unfortunately, they’ve got two more uninspiring home games before then, including Rice on Wednesday.
17. Xavier (11-1)
The Big East looks like a pretty deep conference this season and the early play of Xavier is one of the reasons why. Their sole loss came to unbeaten Iowa State, and they’ve picked up some pretty nice victories, including a home win over Ohio State back in mid-November. This week, the Musketeers picked up two more wins, knocking off Morehead State pretty easily on Wednesday before knocking off Marquette 80-71 on Saturday afternoon, with Dwon Odom’s 19-point effort really standing out in the win.
Xavier opened conference play with a nice win this past weekend, but this is only the beginning. The team has been shooting the ball a lot better in recent weeks, and the defense has carried them to some lopsided wins in nonconference play. Next week brings a tough game at Villanova, but that’s just what Big East play is going to be like this season. Xavier has proved that they deserve to be one of the top teams in this conference, but can they keep proving it on a nightly basis?