NCAA Basketball top 25 rankings: Gonzaga, Providence rise, Alabama falls

14. Michigan State (9-2)

Michigan State didn’t play any games this past week, giving us extra time to talk about what these Spartans have done in the first month-plus of the season. Double-digit losses to Baylor and Kansas are the two blemishes, but both of those are understandable. Aside from those performances, Michigan State has looked the part of a top 25 team, getting a slew of solid wins, mostly notably over Loyola-Chicago, UConn, and Minnesota, all away from East Lansing.

The Spartans have played impressive defense all year long and their offense is starting to shine in their recent outings. The 3-point shooting has been excellent in each of their wins on their current 4-game winning streak. They get a date with Oakland on Tuesday and have just one more nonconference game before Big Ten play gets going two weeks from now. The Spartans have shown that they are one of the teams that are going to fight for the conference title and represent the Big Ten in the NCAA Tournament three months from now.

13. Ohio State (8-2)

With wins over Duke and Wisconsin in recent weeks, Ohio State is a program on the rise, shaking off the residual results of some early season losses. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes haven’t quite been able to shake off the bad luck, as positive COVID tests cancelled their scheduled game with Kentucky this weekend. As a result, the Buckeyes did not play a game this week and remain at 8-2.

The Buckeyes will hope their COVID pause doesn’t last very long, as this team hopes to get back to playing their last few games before conference play begins. Ohio State already won those first two Big Ten games in early December, but do have three of their first four conference games away from Columbus next month. Wins over Seton Hall and Penn State came away from home, but it’ll be interesting to see if the same team that knocked off #1 Duke can take care of business in some hostile Big Ten environments, especially after this COVID pause.