NCAA Basketball top 25 power rankings: Tennessee and Villanova rise, Alabama falls

11. Houston (11-2)

Merry Christmas to fans of the AAC, a league that has really struggled outside of the top teams in recent years. Unfortunately, despite a great start for the Cougars, things may get rough in the coming months. Houston has looked like the best team in the conference and a favorite to win it again, but the program lost Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark this past week and will play without two of their best for the rest of the season.

The Cougars have dropped one-score games to Wisconsin and Alabama, two pretty solid programs, and have picked up a slew of wins against the rest of their schedule. They’ve picked up double-digit wins over Virginia, Butler, Oregon, and Oklahoma State, though most of that programs aren’t playing their best basketball this season. Simply put, Houston has taken their schedule and played some impressive basketball, proving that they belong amongst the best teams in the nation.

We don’t know what this Houston team is going to look like in the coming months, especially without Sasser leading the charge, but the Cougars currently rank in the top 7 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They scored some big wins over those previously mentioned opponents and still look like the class of an AAC that has struggled mightily. Before they depart for the Big 12, Houston another chance to rack up a conference title against a weak league, but is that even possible without those key players?