As it’s now an annual occurrence, the NCAA Basketball NET rankings have been released one month into the season, using various data points to rank everyone from 1-363, as well as providing what is a Quad 1-4 victory. There are some obvious winners and losers from this, with Sam Houston State (7 overall) as an early beneficiary.
Of course, there are not many results to work with, so expect massive changes in the coming season. But this is a nice starting point to work with when it comes to which teams have work to do and who is in a quality position. Here are the top 10 takeaways I had from the initial release.
1. TCU last in the Big 12
The Big 12 has probably been the conference to look the best from top to bottom, with only about a dozen losses between the ten programs in the league. Texas, Kansas, and Baylor are all still top-level programs, while a few others have picked up nice wins or flirted with the rankings already this year. TCU began the year as a ranked squad and has fallen from grace a bit due to their slow start and now sit last in the conference in the NET.
Things got off to a dreadful start as TCU struggled mightily with Arkansas Pine Bluff before losing to Northwestern State. The Horned Frogs have played better in recent weeks, getting nice wins over Iowa and Providence in their last two games, but they dug themselves quite the hole early. Now, that slow start may have been rust that they’ve shaken off, but it’s going to hurt TCU this entire season. The key is whether they learn from that and get some nice wins when Big 12 play begins in four weeks.
2. Louisville at #361
You wouldn’t think it would be possible to have a power conference team this low, but it’s no ordinary team sitting at #361. Louisville hired new head coach Kenny Payne and this team has been dreadful, dropping the first eight games of his head coaching career. The Cardinals lost their first three games at home, each by one point to mid-majors in dramatic contests, but have just been getting absolutely blown out in their games since then.
Seeing an ACC team (and one that cut down the nets less than a decade ago) down this low on the NET is mind-blowing, but it’s hard to say it’s undeserved. The Cardinals went to Maui and lost three games by an average margin of nearly 26, then got creamed by Maryland and Miami back home. What’s scary is that the Cardinals are 0-8 and haven’t even played a road game yet; ACC play is not going to be pretty for this team that doesn’t have any guards.