- Purdue (11-0)
- UConn (12-0)
- Houston (11-1)
- Virginia (8-1)
- Arizona (10-1)
- Kansas (10-1)
- Arkansas (10-1)
- Tennessee (9-2)
- Texas (9-1)
- Baylor (8-2)
- UCLA (10-2)
- Gonzaga (9-3)
- Alabama (9-2)
- Duke (10-2)
- Mississippi St. (11-0)
- Illinois (8-3)
- TCU (9-1)
- Wisconsin (9-2)
- Marquette (9-3)
- Kentucky (7-3)
- Virginia Tech (11-1)
- Miami (11-1)
- New Mexico (11-0)
- Maryland (8-3)
- North Carolina (8-4)
Also considered: West Virginia (9-2), Memphis (9-3), Xavier (9-3).
Dropped out: No. 14 Indiana (8-3) after a 22-point loss at Kansas; No. 19 Auburn (9-2) after loss to USC; No. 23 Ohio State (7-3) is coming off a loss at North Carolina.
Entered: No. 19 Marquette after beating Creighton; No. 23 New Mexico after beating Iona; North Carolina is ranked No. 25 after a neutral-site win over No. 23 Ohio State.
Analysis: Either Purdue or UConn could easily be No. 1. Tough decision. I’m going with Purdue because the Boilers have three top-20 Kenpom wins (all on the road) compared to one for UConn, and it would take a huge win in a given week to get past the undefeated #1… Gonna drop New Mexico bone after Sunday’s win over Iona; The Lobos are one of four undefeated and have a high-quality road win at Saint Mary’s… the big riser this week is UCLA, which moved up five spots after beating Maryland and Kentucky by double digits.
According to the conference: SEC (5), ACC (5), Big 12 (4), Big Ten (4), Big East (2), Pac-12 (2), American (1), West Coast (1), Mountain West ( 1).
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and college basketball since 2003. He is a top 25 pick by the Associated Press. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
