The Basketball Movement

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Updated NCAA basketball power rankings

Wil Harrington

As things are beginning to take shape in the college basketball landscape, ESPN has released updated power rankings. Any surprises?

ESPN provides one of the most comprehensive power ranking systems available. It does typically favor “power conferences”, but with smaller schools making noise year after year, these types of rankings are slowly becoming more inclusive.

Kansas, Gonzaga, and Duke are all right around where they were expected to be at this stage in the NCAA basketball season. Duke’s freshman are looking more polished than many expected however.

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The other top-four team that many expected to see for the year is Kentucky, who is listed on ESPN’s list at number nine. A lack of perimeter defense has proved to be a vulnerable point for the Wildcats, though they currently only have one loss.

After a strong start to the year, Michigan is more than deserving of the number four spot.

The full list from ESPN is shown below:

  1. Kansas

  2. Gonzaga

  3. Duke

  4. Michigan

  5. Nevada

  6. Virginia

  7. Auburn

  8. Tennessee

  9. Kentucky

  10. Texas Tech

  11. Wisconsin

  12. Virginia Tech

  13. Florida State

  14. North Carolina

  15. Michigan State

  16. Arizona State

Reigning NCAA basketball champions, Villanova is absent from the top 16 at this point. The Wildcats dropped a pair of games early; One to Michigan and another to Furman (South Carolina). They do appear to be back on track somewhat.

NCAA Women’s rankings

At the top: Guess who? The rankings on the lady’s side of things may be even more predictable than the men’s at this point in the year.

If you follow women’s college hoops or even just watched the bracket unfold during March Madness this past season, you will recognize most of the teams toward the top this list as perennial basketball powers.

Full list per ESPN:

  1. UCONN

  2. Notre Dame

  3. Oregon

  4. Baylor

  5. Louisville

  6. Mississippi State

  7. Maryland

  8. Oregon State

  9. Tennessee

  10. NC State

  11. Stanford

  12. Texas

  13. California

  14. Minnesota

  15. Syracuse

  16. Iowa

Will we ever see one of these power rankings that does not have UCONN at the top? Well, yes, eventually. Probably.

In the meantime though, UCONN continues to draw top talent with it’s stellar program and reputation. Notre Dame appeared to threaten for the top spot, but lost to the Huskies in a head-to-head matchup. Tough to argue with results.

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