1. Auburn (11-1)
They aren’t one of the last few unbeaten teams, but Auburn has done more than enough to defend this reasoning: this is the best team in college basketball. The Tigers have a litany of impressive wins, notably knocking off Houston, Iowa State, North Carolina, and Memphis all away from home. They lost at Duke, a place that’s hard for anyone to play, but this offense just keeps delivering and that was true this week.
Tuesday’s game was a no-brainer, as Auburn won 100-59 over Georgia State, marking their second 100-point performance of the season. Chaney Johnson had 26 points and 8 rebounds off the bench while Chad Baker-Mazara put up 19 points. On Saturday, they were in Birmingham for a matchup with Purdue and delivered in an 87-69 victory over a ranked Boilermakers team. Johni Broome was back in action in a major way with 23 points and 11 rebounds in another resume-enhancing win.
Twelve games into the season Auburn owns the best resume in college basketball. They sit atop nearly all of the analytics and comparative metrics and play efficient offense and powerful defense. This team looks like they’ll make serious noise in the coming months when the games matter even more and we might be seeing them hoisting a trophy or two down the line. We won’t see them until December 30th when they host Monmouth, but their eventual SEC matchups will be must-watch television.
We’ve finished up the exhausting process of another week’s worth of Top 25 rankings while looking closely at each of these teams. With Christmas on the doorstep, these teams will enjoy their holidays, though conference play and major changes to these rankings will come in the following weeks.