NCAA Basketball: Purdue, Virginia falls, Marquette and Gonzaga rise in top 25 power rankings

23. FAU Owls -26-3 (16-2 CUSA)

After losing on the road at Middle Tennessee over a week ago, the Owls had slid out of the top-25 NCAA basketball rankings. But with so many teams losing in the past 10 days, it’s only right to get the regular-season Conference USA champions back up.

Their first game was at home against the worst team in the conference, Texas-San Antonio. The end result looked that way, with Florida Atlantic scoring 61 second-half points to get the 106-66 blowout win. A whopping seven players were in double figures for the team, led by 19 points off the bench from Michael Forrest.

The Owls didn’t score as much on Saturday against UTEP, just 75 total. But the defense stepped up in a big way, holding the Miners to just 49 points in another convincing win. Alijah Martin had 17 of his 21 points in the second half to push the game out of reach.

These two wins all ut likely secured Florida Atlantic a spot in the NCAA Tournament, assuming they don’t lose each of the next two games left in the regular season. But both could be tough since they’re on the road, as Rice and Louisiana Tech each look to pull off the upset.