Read The Athletic’s latest college basketball power rankings.
After almost a month of games — including some absolute doozies already — we’ve seen enough to offer up The Athletic’s first Power Rankings of the college basketball season. Something to keep in mind as you read these every week: They likely won’t mirror more traditional rankings as the season goes along, because they won’t necessarily reflect teams’ entire body of work. If the polls are meant to be like a full-body physical, in which the bigger picture is evaluated, consider these rankings like a real-time temperature check. Who’s heating up? Staying hot? Cooling down?
Advertisement
We’ll pick 16 teams that have earned our attention each week and write a few words about why they’re interesting. We’ll always save the last spot for a wild card — an overachieving mid-major or maybe a team that was left for dead and is suddenly making a move to save its season. Basically, this is a space for us to have a conversation about teams we think belong in the conversation.
This week’s theme? Let’s overreact to some November basketball.
1. Purdue (7-0)
Overreaction: These Boilermakers might not lose a game. I mean, yes, they almost certainly will. But … in a nine-day span, they beat Xavier by a dozen, then Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette, a trio of top-10 teams, at the Maui Invitational. Their 7-foot-4 reigning national player of the year, Zach Edey, averaged 26 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in those four consecutive quality wins. It was just an absurd level of domination and the reason there’s no close second in the Ken Pomeroy Player of the Year rankings. As of Wednesday afternoon, Edey had a 2.377 rating; the next closest high-major player, Hunter Dickinson, was at 1.658. Silly stuff.
GO DEEPER
Hawaii 3-0: Purdue's November title raises hopes for a longer March run
The question for Purdue, as it tries to shake the notion that it is built for November but not March, is whether the guard play around Edey is good enough to reach the program’s first Final Four since 1980. Early returns are encouraging, as sophomore Braden Smith has taken his game to a new level, averaging 13 points, 6.7 assists, 5.9 boards and 1.9 steals while shooting 50 percent from 3-point range. He’s one of four Boilermakers who’ve made at least 10 3s through seven games, and the team ranks third nationally at 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Purdue is the only team in the country with a top-five offensive and defensive efficiency rating. The other top-five offenses — Alabama, Baylor, Kentucky and Texas A&M — have defenses ranked 45th or worse. Which is to say, this sure looks like a complete team. — Kyle Tucker
Advertisement
2. Connecticut (7-0)
Overreaction: Danny Hurley ain’t played nobody. Heh. Tongue firmly in cheek here. The Huskies beat five teams ranked 235th or worse in KenPom by 43, 40, 34, 30 and 20. They also smoked Indiana by 20 and handled Texas by 10 at Madison Square Garden, but are those teams even any good? Well, we’re about to see the defending national champs try to pick on somebody their own size. What an upcoming slate: at Kansas on Friday, North Carolina at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 5, Gonzaga in Seattle on Dec. 15. We’ll know soon enough whether UConn is a legit threat to repeat, but it sure looks like it so far.
Former East Carolina transfer Tristen Newton, star of last season’s national championship game, has become a full-time star this year, averaging 15.6 points, 8.1 boards, 6.9 assists and 1.7 steals. He flirted with a triple-double against Indiana, then got one against Manhattan, his school-record third triple-double in just 45 games with the Huskies. Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer has been a perfect plug-and-play addition, leading UConn in points (16.3) and made 3s (22 in seven games) while shooting a Big East-best 47.8 percent from deep. He leads the nation in free-throw percentage, having hit all 20 of his attempts.
Hurley is pushing all the right buttons — Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan are thriving in their larger roles — and he hasn’t even gotten much out of injured five-star freshman Stephon Castle. Here’s hoping he is ready to make his return, as has been rumored, at Allen Fieldhouse. Because we still don’t even know how good these Huskies can be yet, and that’s a mind-boggling thought. — Tucker
3. Arizona (6-0)
Overreaction: Arizona’s Week 1 win over Duke is the best nonconference dub any team will earn all season. Let’s be honest: Few things are tougher (or more satisfying to the masses) in college hoops than strutting into Cameron Indoor Stadium, beating up on a Blue Devils team with legitimate national title ambitions, and inciting tears from the Cameron Crazies. Oh, those delicious tears.
Between that win and a neutral-site victory over Michigan State — which should age like fine wine, given the talent Tom Izzo’s working with — the Wildcats are firmly in the sport’s way-too-early top tier, alongside Purdue and Connecticut. How? Well, kudos to Tommy Lloyd — who won more games his first two seasons than any Division I men’s coach in history, in case you didn’t know — for adding one of the sneaky-best transfer portal hauls in the country. That starts with the well-documented Caleb Love Experiment; the North Carolina transfer is still prone to, uh, questionable shot selection — he only has one game this season shooting better than 38 percent from the field, and is 3-of-16 from 3 the last two games — but he’s at least seemingly bought into being a cog in Arizona’s larger machinery, showing effort on defense (gasp!) and averaging a career-best and team-high 4.7 assists per game.
GO DEEPER
In Arizona, will Caleb Love see the light?
But the real star of Arizona’s transfer class has been San Diego State import Keshad Johnson. A 6-foot-7 action figure of a forward, Johnson’s a key reason why Zona is arguably the best rebounding team in the country; the Wildcats are the only team nationally, per KenPom, with a top-5 offensive and defensive rebounding percentage. Between those two, do-it-all wing Pelle Larsson making his star turn, and the steady contributions of Oumar Ballo, Kylan Boswell, and Jaden Bradley, Lloyd’s Wildcats are as overwhelming as ever. — Brendan Marks
Advertisement
4. Marquette (6-1)
Overreaction: Marquette’s triplets — Tyler Kolek, Kam Jones, and Oso Ighodoro — are the best trio in America, but they’ll have to be historically good offensively to compensate for their team’s larger rebounding woes. But first, the good news: Marquette’s offense is magnificent, the closest thing to a League Pass team in college hoops. The Golden Eagles are seventh in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency rankings, as well as EyanMiya’s offensive BPR (Bayesian Performance Rating).
The sum is something, but the parts are pretty special, too. Kolek? Probably the best point guard in the country. He’s averaging an absurd 13.9 points, 5.1 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game, all while shooting 52.4 percent from 3 (!!) and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line. The crazy thing is that Jones, who was on the All-Big East second team last season, is in full-on breakout mode — sacrilegious as it sounds, he might even be hotter than Kolek right now. Per CBB Analytics, Jones is straddling a near-impossible line; the 6-foot-5 junior is in the 99th percentile nationally in assist-to-turnover rate, the 98th percentile in points per 40 minutes, and the 97th percentile in turnover percentage. So, yeah. Not a shocker that Shaka Smart’s squad is so solid. (Say that 10 times fast…)
GO DEEPER
Now it's Shaka Smart's turn to be the bully against Kansas
Now the less-good news: Marquette is currently sub-240 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding rate, per KenPom; they’re the 15th-worst high-major team in America in terms of defensive boards. That is … not great. You have to go back a decade to find a championship team that struggled with rebounding to a similar extent: 2014 UConn. Those Huskies were also sub-200 in both categories — finishing 210th in offensive rebounding rate and 248th in the defensive equivalent, per KenPom — but made it for it with human supernova Shabazz Napier. One of Kolek or Jones may have to go on a similar postseason heater for Marquette to meet its lofty potential — but not many teams have two dudes capable of that. — Marks
5. Kansas (6-1)
Overreaction: There might not be a team with a better four-man collection than Hunter Dickinson, Kevin McCullar Jr., Dajuan Harris Jr. and KJ Adams, but the Jayhawks just don’t have enough else to win big this year. Nobody else can shoot or score enough to help, and that’s going to be a problem. Elmarko Jackson, Johnny Furphy, Nicolas Timberlake and Parker Braun just don’t strike fear in anybody’s heart.
Dickinson is having the kind of season so far that gets you in the national Player of the Year discussion: 21.7 points, 12.7 boards, 2.1 assists, 1.6 steals, shooting 67 percent from the field and 8 of 13 from 3 as a playmaking, 7-foot-2 center. McCullar is a constant triple-double threat (18.1 points, 7.3 boards, 5.7 assists). Harris leads the Big 12 in assists (7.4) and Adams leads the world in calf density. Kansas leads the nation in assist percentage, with a ridiculous 169 assists on 218 made baskets, but also ranks 212th in turnover percentage.
That makes this team, wily and patient and good at sharing, well suited to win a slugfest with an offensively challenged team like Tennessee, as it did in Hawaii, but maybe not against pace-pushing opponents like Marquette and Kentucky. The Golden Eagles beat KU by 14, and the Wildcats led by 14 in the second half before the Jayhawks’ experience — and Kentucky’s lack of a center — wore them down. Will Connecticut take the fast and furious approach when they visit Lawrence for a thrilling collision of the last two national champs? (By the way: more on-campus heavyweight matchups, please, but less burying the sport’s best product on Friday nights.) — Tucker
6. Baylor (7-0)
Overreaction: The Bears have the second-best collection of newcomers in the country, behind only Kentucky. Five-star freshman Ja’Kobe Walter, top-50 freshman Yves Missi and transfers RayJ Dennis and Jayden Nunn are driving a very good Baylor team right now. Scott Drew’s retooled squad leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.487) and ranks second in offensive efficiency, eighth in effective field-goal percentage and 12th in offensive rebound percentage. They’ve already won neutral-site shootouts with quality SEC teams Auburn and Florida, although the biggest non-conference tests remain: at Michigan State and a neutral-court meeting with Duke before Christmas.
Advertisement
Walter has been one of the nation’s most impactful freshmen, dropping 28 points in his college debut against Bruce Pearl’s Tigers. That was one of three games already in which he’s had at least 23 points and four made 3s. Walter, Nunn and returners Langston Love and Jalen Bridges all have nine-plus made 3s on 40-plus percent shooting beyond the arc. Dennis, the 2023 MAC Player of the Year at Toledo, is the team’s second-leading scorer (13.9) and its leader in assists (6.6) and steals (1.7). The biggest surprise, though, might be the rapid rise of Missi.
The 6-foot-10 freshman is long and bouncy and high-impact in limited minutes. He had 14 and 14 in 25 minutes against Oregon State. He made a flurry of momentum-swinging plays — swatting shots, posterizing defenders at the rim – in his college debut against Auburn. He’s averaging 20 points, 12.8 boards, 4.7 blocks and 2.2 steals per 40 minutes. If we’re projecting Baylor’s ceiling, it’s hard not to salivate about what Walter and Missi could become by March. — Tucker
7. Houston (7-0)
Overreaction: Jamal Shead is the best defensive guard in the country, and the key to maybe the best defense Kelvin Sampson has ever assembled at Houston. Bold statement, we know — but with Shead as the team’s tone-setter (again), it’s not unreasonable. Just cue up some clips of the 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, and you’ll see just what Houston’s poor opponents have: that the dude is an absolute menace to play against. He’s a shadow with what seems like eight hands, all poking away at the ball and your patience. Per Synergy, in Shead’s 58 primary defensive possessions this season, opponents are scoring just 0.638 points per possession (PPP), which ranks in the 82nd percentile nationally. As a primary defender, he’s only allowed 12 made baskets against him all season … while also generating 11 turnovers. Like we said, menace.
No surprise, then, with Shead as the head of the snake, that Houston is allowing the fewest points per game in the country (49.0), while simultaneously earning KenPom’s No. 2 adjusted defensive efficiency ranking. (Yes, it’s too early to lean heavily on KenPom’s data — the algorithm hasn’t factored out last season’s results, and won’t until January — but still.)
The thing is, as good as Shead is, he doesn’t have to carry Houston alone. Junior forward Ja’Vier Francis — Houston’s tallest player, a 6-foot-8 stonewall who’s currently 13th amongst high-major players in block percentage — is playing more minutes than ever, but without sacrificing much efficiency. Meanwhile, Baylor transfer LJ Cryer has eagerly taken on the role of leading scorer, and in addition to making at least three 3-pointers in each of Houston’s last five games, he’s cut his turnover percentage by almost two-thirds since last season. Houston hasn’t really played anyone yet, but Friday’s matchup at Xavier should give us more insight into just how good Sampson’s team is. — Marks
8. Kentucky (6-1)
Overreaction: The Wildcats have the most unstoppable offense in college basketball. But is that really an overreaction at this point? Credit to John Calipari for what has been a truly shocking shift in style, from a plodding, lane-clogging, 3-point-hating approach to … this: After shredding eighth-ranked Miami, 95-73, on Tuesday night, Kentucky now ranks No. 1 nationally in lowest turnover percentage, No. 3 in offensive efficiency, No. 4 in 3-point percentage and effective field-goal percentage, and the Cats have scored 621 of their 661 points on either 3s, points in the paint or free throws. Calipari’s beloved mid-range and long 2-point shots? Eradicated. They get 37.7 percent of their points beyond the arc and 42.5 percent on layups and dunks. Look at this heat map from CBB Analytics:
It is preposterous to consider that UK has 87 made 3-pointers and only 57 turnovers through seven games. The pace, space and ball movement we’ve seen from this team is a thing of beauty, and the 146 assists are the Wildcats’ most through seven games since the electric 2016-17 team featuring De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo. That was the last time Kentucky was this fun to watch, and this group has something that one didn’t: a homegrown superstar. Freshman Reed Sheppard, son of two former UK stars, is a certified sensation. He leads the nation in true shooting percentage (.872), 3-point percentage (.633) and box plus/minus (plus-17.4 per game), while ranking fifth in steal percentage. He doesn’t even start for the Cats, but every time he checks into a game, something good happens.
GO DEEPER
Kentucky basketball is fun again — and Reed Sheppard has a lot to do with it
John Wall keeps popping up at Kentucky games lately, and we get it: Calipari’s revenge tour has turned into a must-see show. — Tucker
9. North Carolina (6-1)
Overreaction: The Tar Heels have the most balanced offense in the country. For the first time since becoming head coach, Hubert Davis has a roster of mostly players he recruited — either via high school or the transfer portal — and the results are impossible to ignore. Just ask Tennessee, which entered Wednesday’s game in Chapel Hill with KenPom’s No. 1 adjusted defensive efficiency — and then promptly ceded 61 first-half points. That, uh, doesn’t usually happen.
Advertisement
North Carolina doesn’t have an offensive weakness right now. UNC is currently making 38 percent of its 3s (16th-best among high-major teams) … but also takes 25 free-throws per game (7th among high-major teams) … but also doesn’t turn the ball over (ninth among high-major teams in turnover rate) … and then if all else fails, oh right, there’s All-America big man Armando Bacot causing mayhem around the basket. Stanford transfer Harrison Ingram has been a revelation as a supersized wing, and senior guard R.J. Davis is more than carrying the scoring mantle otherwise.
Plus, for the first time in Davis’ tenure, you know what else he finally has? A bench. After ranking 348th and 360th in bench minutes the last two seasons, per KenPom, the Tar Heels are 193rd this season. Davis is liable to go eight, even occasionally nine, deep into his bench; it not only gives his starters a breather, but it gives Davis more lineup combinations than he’s ever had before. — Marks
10. Gonzaga (5-1)
Overreaction: The pieces are there for Mark Few, but getting them all to fit will take his best coaching job in a decade. Because, yes, wild as it seems, it’s been that long since Few entered December without a slam-dunk national player of the year candidate. You remember Drew Timme, obviously, but Filip Petrusev? How about Rui Hachimura, or Nigel Williams-Goss? And then there are the way-back guys, ballers like Kyle Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis. All of them were, at one point, in the conversation for All-America honors, for being among the best players in this entire stinkin’ sport. Then you scan the Gonzaga roster this year, and … crickets.
Good players, yes. Plenty of ’em. Some great ones even, potentially: Anton Watson, or Graham Ike, or Ryan Nembhard. But it’s no coincidence that Gonzaga’s eight-year stretch of Sweet 16 appearances began after 2014 — the last year Few was lacking a truly elite offensive option. Which brings us full circle.
The thing is, despite not having a singular talent of that ilk, Few does have plenty of dudes. Before he got into foul trouble against Purdue — and who doesn’t against Edey — Ike, the Wyoming transfer, looked like a bona fide stud; he finished with 14 points (including two 3-pointers), seven rebounds, and a block in 22 minutes, and would’ve been more productive if not playing against the best foul-drawer in the sport. The guy who really needs to get going, though, is Nembhard, the Creighton transfer. It’s early, but after shooting 40 percent from 3 in the Big East last season, the junior guard has only made four of his 20 deep attempts so far this season — and that’s without mentioning that his free-throw percentage, overall offensive rating, and rebounding rates have all dipped, too. Give Nembhard some time to adjust to his new role, though, and there’s no reason Gonzaga can’t keep its postseason streak intact. — Marks
Back in Paradise with a new 🏆#WinningInParadise pic.twitter.com/MWGXHN0slM
— No. 13 Florida Atlantic Men’s Basketball (@FAUMBB) November 28, 2023
11. Florida Atlantic (5-1)
Overreaction: As it gets back to full health, there’s no reason Florida Atlantic can’t make a second straight Final Four appearance. The Owls are that good, and led by a coach, Dusty May, who clearly keeps the main thing the main thing. I can already hear the grumbling in the comments section. “bUt tHey lOsT tO bRyAnT!” That is correct. Bad loss. But context does matter, and against Bryant — KenPom’s 212th-ranked team, which has losses this season to *checks notes, squeezes nostrils* Manhattan and Boston University — one of FAU’s best players, Alijah Martin, was still very much working his way back from a preseason stress fracture in his foot. (The same injury held him out of the Owls’ “secret” scrimmage against North Carolina.) To that point: Martin went 2-of-10 against Bryant, with three turnovers to one assist.
Once Martin got healthy? Or at least healthier?
Advertisement
Well, then you saw what FAU can be at its best. All the Owls have done since that wakeup call of a game is reel off three straight wins, each more impressive than the last: a five-point defense-negotiable game against Butler; another track meet against Texas A&M, decided by seven points; and then the closer — a 34-point beatdown of Virginia Tech, the worst loss Mike Young has had in five seasons in Blacksburg. With Martin back, buoyed by backcourt mate Johnell Davis and 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin, FAU is starting to look more like the team that stormed through the NCAA Tournament. It’s early, but per CBB Analytics, the Owls are in the 95th percentile in offensive efficiency. The AAC won’t provide too many challenges once conference play hits, but boy do those December neutral-site games against Illinois and Arizona look tasty. — Marks
12. Duke (5-2)
Overreaction: Kyle Filipowski is (still) one of the best players in the nation, but he’s not a center — and Duke’s upside is limited without a conventional big next to him. After offseason hip surgery, the 7-foot Filipowski has done just about everything Duke’s needed offensively — just look at what he did against Arkansas on Wednesday, when he dropped a game-high 26 points (on 9-of-20 shooting) while also chipping in 10 of the Blue Devils’ 34 total rebounds. He’s top-five in KenPom’s way-too-early national player of the year rankings, and deservedly so.
But through Duke’s first seven games, Jon Scheyer has been starting Filipowski at center — not the power forward spot he occupied last season en route to winning ACC Rookie of the Year honors. But with defensive anchor Dereck Lively II off to the NBA, Scheyer only has so many options at the five, so he’s been rolling with his best player. It’s not a bad strategy, but the results haven’t exactly been conducive to Duke reaching its ceiling. The Blue Devils were out-rebounded again against the Razorbacks, 40-34, in what has quickly become a troubling trend. Filipowski’s best asset is his versatility — that he can post up, drive, and shoot the 3 — but a rugged rebounder he is not, even if he’s Duke’s best option on the glass.
Which is how — a year after being ninth in offensive rebounding rate, per KenPom — the Blue Devils find themselves outside of the top-200 nationally in the same metric. Scheyer intentionally has started three guards all season, a stylistic choice predicated on his glut of sharpshooting guards, and that makes sense. If Duke’s 3s were falling at a higher rate — or at least, more than their current 34.2 percent — then Duke’s lack of a rebounding, rim-protecting center would be less obvious. But it’s hard to win games without perimeter makes and a legitimate inside presence — and it’s equally as difficult to know which of those issues Duke is closer to remedying. — Marks
13. Colorado State (7-0)
Overreaction: The Rams will supplant San Diego State as kings of the Mountain West this season. Niko Medved is a helluva coach and he’s got a helluva team again. Last week’s 69-48 thumping of Creighton, which returned a strong core from the group that nearly made last year’s Final Four, was a major statement. CSU backed it up with a wire-to-wire win over rival Colorado, a KenPom top-40 team, on Wednesday night.
Isaiah Stevens, a 6-foot-tall guard, is a lot smaller than David Roddy, who led the Rams to a 25-win season and NCAA Tournament invite in 2022, but his impact is similarly huge. Stevens, a super senior with 123 career starts, is well on his way to becoming a five-time All-MWC selection. He’s averaging 17.7 points and an NCAA-best 8.3 assists, shooting 50 percent (11 of 22) from 3-point range. Stevens dropped 20, 7 and 6 — with just one turnover — on Creighton, then hung 20 and 11 on the Buffaloes. He took over the national lead in assists.
The Rams rank third nationally in effective field-goal percentage and top-25 in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw percentage. They have a top-five assist percentage (66.9) and take great care of the basketball with 144 assists to just 69 turnovers. It’s a fun brand of basketball, and the fans in Fort Collins are all-in on it. They stormed the court after the win over Colorado, and we think there will be still bigger things for this team to celebrate. — Tucker
Advertisement
14. BYU (6-0)
Overreaction: BYU is going to be 14-0 heading to Baylor on Jan. 9, and might just pull off the upset. The computers love Mark Pope’s Cougars, in part because they handled last year’s national runner-up, San Diego State, smacked Arizona State by 28 and won a neutral-site shootout with NC State already. But mostly because they’re good to great at all the important stuff. They rank top-25 nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency, top-10 in offensive and defensive rebound percentage, and they’re among the best 3-point shooting and defending teams in the country. BYU, which has scored at least 90 points four times in six games, is fun to watch. Half its field-goal attempts are from beyond the arc and 42 percent of its points come from 3s. Opponents shoot just 22.5 percent from deep.
Texas A&M/Arkansas transfer Jaxson Robinson leads the team in scoring and made 3s, and he’s one of three Cougars who’ve made 14-plus 3s at a clip of 38 percent or better. Robinson, Noah Waterman, Trevin Knell and Dallin Hall have combined to make 55 of 127 3s (43 percent). Pope has a deep bench and uses it, with 10 guys averaging 12-plus minutes, nine of them logging 15-plus. Seven different players average at least four rebounds per game for BYU, whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. — Tucker
15. Clemson (6-0)
Overreaction: This is Brad Brownell’s best Clemson team — and P.J. Hall is possibly the most dominant player he’s ever had. Now 14 years deep into his Tigers tenure, Brownell’s had several solid squads — his 2017-18 group, which won 25 games and made the Sweet 16, is likely atop that list — and while it’s early, his current team is the highest-scoring of them all, dropping 80.5 points per game. Key to that? Hall, the literal and figurative center of everything Clemson does offensively. He’s been the team’s MVP in five of its first six games, per KenPom, and he’s as versatile a big as there is in the country.
Case in point: He’s currently shooting 40.7 percent from 3 — on 4.5 attempts per game, at that — while simultaneously being second on the team in rebounds per game, with 7.2. At Alabama this week, in Clemson’s marquee win of the season so far, all Hall did was drop 21 points, hit three 3-pointers, grab eight rebounds, and block four shots. — Marks
16. James Madison (7-0)
Overreaction: The Dukes are going 30-0. Again, probably not … but maybe? After overtime road wins at Michigan State and Kent State to open the season, the schedule has opened up to all possibilities. There’s not a single KenPom top-100 opponent left for JMU, and 20 of 23 remaining games are against teams ranked 168th or worse. So why not dream big for this program that has made just one NCAA Tournament since 1994, when legend Lefty Driesell was the coach? What a time to be alive in Harrisonburg, Va., where the Dukes are ranked in both basketball and football. In the latter, JMU is 11-1, recently hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” and headed to its first bowl game. That all seemed unfathomable not so long ago, so who’s to say the dunkin’ Dukes can’t run the table? We’d certainly love to see it. — Tucker
Also thinking about: Villanova, which somehow managed to beat Maryland by 17, Texas Tech by 16, UNC in OT and Memphis by 16 in the span of eight days — bookended by losses to Big 5 Philly rivals Penn and Saint Joseph’s … Creighton, which looked great until that drubbing by Colorado State … Alabama, if there was even a hint of defense to go with that No. 1-ranked offense … San Diego State, whose Jaedon LeDee has gone from four-year backup to super-senior star turn, averaging 24 and 10 … Auburn, which has pounded Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure and Virginia Tech since dropping an opening thriller against Baylor … Texas A&M, where Wade Taylor led the Aggies to wins away from home against Ohio State, SMU, Penn State and Iowa State, but also losses to FAU and Virginia.
(Top photo of Justin Edwards: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)