NCAA Basketball top 25 power rankings: Marquette rises, UCLA and Wisconsin fall

With each and every week, the NCAA Tournament gets closer, bringing us nearer and nearer to one of the greatest weekends in American sports. With this passing week, we’ve sprung into February, even if the groundhog refuses to see his shadow, and we’re pressing onwards towards another fantastic finish to the NCAA Basketball season. No amount of injuries, illnesses, or weather postponements can slow down all the amazing things that have happened and will continue to transpire.

We’re moving forward, and many teams in the college basketball world have seemed to realize that February has dawned. We’ve seen a great number of programs winning a ton of games, while other seem to be tumbling, trending in the opposite direction. Some conferences, like the Big 12 or SEC, are jam-packed with talented teams and it’s understandable that somebody has to be having a hard time with these challenging schedules. On the other hand, there’s still nine teams unbeaten in conference play, making easy work of their own conference foes.

With teams trending upwards or downwards, it’s made our weekly task even trickier, but we’ve still managed to put together this week’s top 25 rankings. There’s no shortage of exciting and impactful games, especially during conference play, and nailing down the 25 best teams in the nation is always a difficult task.

Once more, these are my own rankings and I’ve considered a number of teams, with many very solid teams not included this week. Without wasting any more time, let’s get right into the rankings, starting with a surprising new team at the bottom and progressing towards the familiar powers at the top.