Rank (Last Week) | Record | Comment |
1. Ohio State (1) | 12-1 | The Buckeyes take on surprise unbeaten Indiana in Bloomington on Saturday; Sullinger vs. Zeller is a whopper matchup. |
2. Syracuse (2) | 13-0 | Only one of the Orange’s victories has been by a margin of fewer than 10 points (six vs. Stanford). |
3. Kentucky (3) | 11-1 | It’s a double-dip of sorts this week for the Wildcats, with the Cardinals (Lamar) on both Wednesday (Lamar) and Saturday (unbeaten Louisville). |
4. Connecticut (4) | 10-1 | The schedule is such that the Huskies shouldn’t be threatened much until February. |
5. Baylor (5) | 12-0 | Wednesday’s game with Mississippi State in Dallas is one that will be of considerable interest to NBA talent evaluators this week. |
6. North Carolina (6) | 11-2 | The Tar Heels will have played nine consecutive games in Chapel Hill before their Jan. 14 ACC game at Florida State. |
7. Duke (7) | 10-1 | Junior center Mason Plumlee has grabbed at least 12 rebounds five times this season. |
| 8. Florida (8) | 10-2 | Bradley Beal (15.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game) certainly is in contention for National Freshman of the Year honors. |
9. Louisville (9) | 12-0 | How really good are the Cardinals? We’ll find out this week, with games with Georgetown on Wednesday and Kentucky on Saturday. |
10. Missouri (11) | 12-0 | Did you know that: the 78-74 victory over Illinois was the first time this season the Tigers have scored fewer than 81 points. |
11. Indiana (13) | 12-0 | Nothing like “easy” their way into Big Ten play for the Hoosiers (who open with Michigan State, Ohio State and Michigan), eh? |
12. Harvard (15) | 10-1 | Tommy Amaker’s club has allowed as many as 70 points just once this season. |
13. Marquette (12) | 11-1 | A game with one of the more dangerous four-loss clubs in the country (Vanderbilt) looms Thursday before Big East opener vs. Villanova on New Year’s Day. |
14.Wisconsin (16) | 11-2 | Opponents have scored as much as 61 points just twice this season. |
15. Creighton (NR) | 10-1 | Blue Jays open Missouri Valley Conference action vs. Missouri State on Wednesday in Omaha. |
10. Kansas (10) | 8-3 | Games with 4-9 Howard and 5-7 North Dakota definitely quality as Big 12 “tune-ups” before conference opener with Kansas State on Jan. 4. |
On the cusp: Mississippi State 12-1, UNLV 13-2, San Diego State 11-2, Virginia 10-1, Saint Louis 11-1, Michigan 10-2, Illinois 11-2, Kansas State 10-1, Michigan State 11-2, Georgetown 10-1, Wichita State 9-2, Murray State 13-0, Gonzaga 9-2 and Oklahoma 9-1.
TOP PERFORMANCES OF DEC. 19-25
TEAMS: Missouri (held on to beat Illinois, 78-74, in St. Louis); Baylor (beat Saint Mary’s and West Virginia in Las Vegas); UNLV (beat Louisiana-Monroe and Cal – the best team in the Pac-12 – by 18 and 17 points, respectively); LSU (handed Marquette its first loss and then beat North Texas by eight points in Denton); Florida (toppled Mississippi Valley State by 28 and Florida State by 18 points); Creighton (beat Tulsa by 19 points and Northwestern by eight).
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Baylor
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Doug McDermott (Creighton/hit a combined 26 of 37 shots from the field while scoring 62 points in his team’s victories over Tulsa and Northwestern).
Frank Burlison has been covering hoops for 30+ years for a variety of publications.
Follow Frank on twitter @FrankieBur. Also make sure to follow his website at www.burlisononbasketball.com. College coaching staffs interested in Burlison’s scouting service should contact him at [email protected].
Can we now say that Kansas
Can we now say that Kansas coach Bill Self is among the top 5 coaches in the country? For the past few years no matter how many All Americans they lose to the nba,they’ve remained competitive….
Cuse
Well, Florida by 4 and Marshall by 6, but who’s counting?
Bill Self is an awesome coach, Rudeboy, but I want to wait and see what happens with Kansas in Big 12 play. Self has been a great recruiter and kept Kansas at a high level, but his getting knocked off by Northern Iowa and Virginia Commonwealth the past two years is a tad disheartening. Not to mention, they just lost to Davidson. Beating Ohio State was nice, but would have been a whole lot nicer if Sullinger had actually played.
I like the list for the most part, Frank. I think it is refreshing have a list of who the best teams are regardless of how many wins or losses they have had in the early season. More along the lines of who one actually thinks would win the NCAA championship if they had this moment in time as a reference point. I for one would definitely choose Ohio State in front of Cuse as far as NCAA Tournament odds go. Still think that North Carolina and Kentucky might be the teams to beat when March rolls around.