We know UConn has bombed out of the top 10, but how much else is going to change?
Well, Feast Week is (mostly) over now, and hoooooooboy, it’s been a whole heck of a lot in terms of results on the court. #10 ranked Marquette men’s basketball had two relatively not-newsworthy wins over Stonehill and Western Carolina — Zaide Lowery’s late injury on Saturday notwithstanding — so let’s take a peek around the country to see what everyone else in the top 10 was up to over the past six days. Should we be expecting a big jump in the rankings for the Golden Eagles?
#1 Kansas (51 first place votes): Beat #11 Duke in Las Vegas; beat Furman at home
Okay, so they’re probably staying #1.
#2 UConn (6 first place votes): Lost to RV Memphis, Colorado, and Dayton in Maui; beat Maryland Eastern Shore at home
Serious question: Should UConn be getting top 25 votes at all right now? Seth Davis was their lowest voter last week with the Huskies at #12. Should the other voters drop them completely out when they had them in the top 10 before that?
#3 Gonzaga (2 first place votes): Lost to West Virginia in overtime at Battle 4 Atlantis; beat a flailing #14 Indiana by 16 and then Davidson in the consolation bracket.
Due for a drop after that WVU loss, although maybe the overtime part helps them salvage a few spots.
#4 Auburn (3 first place votes): Beat #5 Iowa State, #12 North Carolina, and RV Memphis to win Maui and move to 7-0 on the year.
Okay, so they’re probably #2 now and if they absorb UConn and Gonzaga’s first place votes, things might get interesting for Kansas at the top.
#5 Iowa State: Lost to #4 Auburn in Maui, beat Dayton and Colorado in the consolation bracket.
There’s an argument for them to move up, since the loss to Auburn was by two points.
#6 Houston: Lost to #9 Alabama in overtime at Players Era Festival; beat Notre Dame in their other Players Era pool game, lost in overtime to San Diego State in their last game in Vegas
They’ll still be ranked, but there’s an argument for Marquette passing them by here, just because the Aztecs weren’t even earning votes this past week.
#7 Tennessee: Beat Tennessee Martin at home by 43 points.
#8 Kentucky: Beat Western Kentucky at home by 19; beat Georgia State at home by 29.
#9 Alabama: Beat #6 Houston in overtime and Rutgers in their pool play games at the Players Era Festival, lost their final game to RV Oregon
The Houston win and the Oregon loss probably cancel each other out in terms of movement in the poll. There is an argument for the loss being more meaningful, as the Tide blew a 74-69 lead with four minutes to play after putting up a 15-2 run to take a 67-62 lead. We can’t ignore the fact that Alabama’s coin toss of a win over a team ranked in front of them is marred by Houston losing to SDSU as well.
So that’s everyone in front of Marquette. The other question to ask is whether or not anyone behind MU won a very notable game, because the Golden Eagles didn’t do that this week.
The closest we come there, at least amongst the next five teams, is #13 Purdue beating #23 Ole Miss, but Marquette has that win over Purdue. Even if that pushes the Boilermakers up the rankings, they probably shouldn’t be passing MU here.
I think it’s safe to say that Kansas, Auburn, Iowa State, Tennessee, and Kentucky are all staying in front of Marquette for sure. That means a best case scenario ranking on Monday is #6. I can see arguments for Gonzaga staying in the top 10 for sure, so MU moving up to #7 is possible if Gonzaga stays in the top six.
From there we get into how much the voters want to take one week’s worth of games into account, and specifically a compacted week of action against quality opponents. I can understand if the voters don’t want to knock Houston or Alabama too hard for losing when it was their third game in five days. With that in mind, it’s possible that Marquette only gets a one spot bump up to #9 as a result of UConn tumbling out of the top 10 and maaaaaybe even completely out of the top 25.
No matter what, it will be Marquette’s 36th consecutive week in the AP top 25, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Al McGuire ran off 166 straight rankings. Things are good in Golden Eagle Land, even if there’s not much of a poll bump on Monday.