The 2-time defending nationwide champs are rising up the rankings once more. After Purdue took down earlier No. 2 Alabama 87-78 on Friday night time in West Lafayette, UConn took the Crimson Tide’s place at No. 2 within the newest AP Prime 25 unveiled Monday.
Dan Hurley’s Huskies have dealt with three low-major opponents (Sacred Coronary heart, New Hampshire and Le Moyne) with little drama to date, they usually have yet one more tune-up towards East Texas A&M on Tuesday night time earlier than heading to the Maui Invitational, the place they’ll open towards Memphis.
No. 6 Purdue, in the meantime, joins Kentucky in vaulting from the kids into the highest 10 after a giant nonconference win. The Wildcats jumped 10 spots from No. 19 to No. 9 after an exhilarating win over Duke final Tuesday on the Champions Traditional.
Right here’s the second males’s basketball AP Prime 25 of the 2024-25 season, together with C.J. Moore’s poll and evaluation of the brand new rankings.
AP Prime 25: Nov. 18
1
4-0
1
4
2
3-0
3
7
3
3-0
4
2
4
3-0
5
1
5
2-0
7
6
6
4-0
13
11
7
2-1
8
3
8
3-1
2
5
9
3-0
19
9
10
2-1
10
15
11
4-0
11
8
12
3-1
6
10
13
3-1
12
16
14
4-0
14
23
15
4-0
15
14
16
3-0
16
17
17
2-1
9
13
18
3-0
17
20
19
4-0
NR
22
20
2-1
18
NR
21
4-0
20
18
22
4-0
22
19
23
3-1
23
21
24
3-0
24
NR
25
3-0
NR
24
NR
3-0
NR
12
NR
2-1
NR
25
How far ought to Alabama and Arizona fall?
Alabama dropped from No. 2 to No. 8 and Arizona from No. 9 to No. 17 after the 2 preseason top-10 groups took highway losses at historically troublesome locations to win. I attempted to not penalize both crew an excessive amount of as a result of I nonetheless imagine in each and most coaches will let you know {that a} crew’s first highway sport is at all times troublesome. When a crew loses on the highway or on a impartial courtroom early, it’s finest to keep away from dramatic drops except you assume that crew is actually flawed. Listed here are a couple of examples from latest years:
Final season, the computer systems have been excessive on Alabama — No. 5 in KenPom’s adjusted effectivity margin after a 4-0 begin — however the highest Alabama bought within the AP ballot in November was No. 17. After a loss on a impartial courtroom to Ohio State, Alabama fell out of the rankings. The Crimson Tide completed No. 14 at KenPom and made the Last 4.
Final season after Purdue misplaced its first highway sport on the highway, to Northwestern in extra time, the Boilermakers went from No. 1 to No. 4, regardless of staying No. 2 at KenPom. There have been three clear finest groups a yr in the past: UConn, Purdue and Houston. In hindsight, the Boilermakers shouldn’t have ever dropped beneath No. 3, which is lowest they bought at KenPom.
In November 2022, Gonzaga misplaced at Texas after which to Purdue in a neutral-site sport, dropping from No. 2 to No. 14 in two weeks. The Zags went to the Elite Eight and completed No. 8 on KenPom.
In 2020-21, Illinois misplaced a neutral-court sport to eventual nationwide champion Baylor and a highway sport at Missouri and went from No. 5 to No. 13 within the span of two weeks. The Illini ended up a No. 1 seed and completed No. 4 at KenPom.
GO DEEPER
Males’s school basketball Prime 25: Is it too early to overreact to at least one sport?
C.J. Moore’s arrivals and departures
After high quality wins over the weekend, Texas A&M made it again into my Prime 25 following a one-week absence and Wisconsin joined for the primary time. I felt like I didn’t observe my very own recommendation above, overreacting by bumping the Aggies after they misplaced on the highway with out Zhuric Phelps, arguably certainly one of their finest two gamers. (It was laborious to foretell how the SMU switch would match, but it surely seems the reply may be very nicely. He’s main the Aggies in scoring, they usually have a top-10 offense within the nation since his debut.)
This meant that two groups needed to get bounced from my Prime 25, and one that will have felt undeserving was Arkansas (now at No. 20), which didn’t lose final week. My reasoning: I used to be low on Arkansas to start the season after which began to rethink my stance after the Razorbacks crushed Kansas in a charity exhibition. However Kansas was with out two starters that day— Hunter Dickinson and Rylan Griffen — and Arkansas hasn’t precisely earned the rating in its three video games to this point, a neutral-court loss to Baylor and two margins of victory within the teenagers at dwelling towards Lipscomb and Troy.
New AP No. 25 Illinois was the opposite crew I thought of dropping from my poll, and the tiebreaker was the pc rankings. Illinois is No. 25 at KenPom, No. 22 at Torvik and No. 32 at Evan Miya. Arkansas is No. 31, No. 38 and No. 34 at these three locations. The Razorbacks have potential, however they’re not enjoying on the degree of a ranked crew to date.
GO DEEPER
A sport day with Wisconsin basketball: Inside Badgers’ ‘new-school,’ pro-driven method
The Purdue predicament
The opposite crew I struggled making a choice on this week was Purdue, now as much as No. 6. The Boilers are No. 12/15/15 on the three laptop rankings talked about above and had one of the vital spectacular wins of the weekend over my earlier No. 1 Alabama. Purdue performed brilliantly in that sport, and I ended up shifting them up just one spot to No. 11. Had the sport been on a impartial flooring or on the highway, I might have bumped Purdue increased. Some voters favor to easily rank the crew who received the head-to-head matchup one spot above the opposite — as I did with Kentucky over Duke — however I nonetheless like Alabama extra long-term.
After watching all of Kentucky’s video games to date, I believe the Wildcats are significantly better than I believed they might be. Matt Painter’s crew seems to be barely higher than the place I had it pegged within the preseason (No. 14). Therefore, I saved the Boilermakers simply outdoors the highest 10. With a highway sport at Marquette after which a matchup towards both BYU or Ole Miss in San Diego over the following two weeks — the Cougars and Rebels are are proper on the perimeter of my Prime 25 proper now — Purdue can have a chance to leap into the highest 10 quickly.
(Picture: Justin Casterline / Getty Photographs)
