NCAA - Men and women's rankings

College hoops are officially underway, meaning the rankings and comparisons have begun.

You likely know by know how we feel about rankings. No matter the algorithms to determine the strength of schedule, no ranking list holds up for long. The eye test remains as valid as anything else, though it is filtered through biases and knowledge of the sport. So can any ranking list truly be trusted in the sports world? No. Do sports fans, including ourselves, still appreciate a good ranking list? Of course.

There is nothing quite like a healthy hoops discussion to decide who is the best of the best. So we indulge in rankings ourselves, whether local prep players or the teams on the biggest stage in the NBA.

Below are the rankings as of December 6th for men’s NCAA hoops per ESPN. Check for yourself to see if they got it right and draw your own conclusions! (First-place votes in parenthesis)

Can Purdue keep up the good work? Will Memphis continue to implode, keeping them off this list all year? There is still plenty of basketball left to be played, and we are excited to find out all of the answers.

On the women’s side, also as of Dec. 6th, ESPN rightly has the 9-0 South Carolina Gamecocks at number one.

NC State, UConn, Louisville, Tennessee, Baylor, Arizona, Stanford, Texas, and Maryland round out the top ten.

UConn superstar Paige Buekers was injured this week and will miss 6-8 weeks. The Huskies will be hard-pressed to keep their March Madness hopes alive without the most electric player in women’s college hoops.

There is quite a bit of overlap on the top 25 lists between men's and women’s squads so far. The most notable case is Baylor, with the number two men’s team and number six women’s. It will be interesting to see which basketball powerhouse schools remain near the top of both lists.

Stay tuned for more NCAA news as well as a little bit of everything else from the world of hoops!

NCAA: Year-end update

As 2020 comes to a close, The Basketball Movement gives a quick rundown of the state of NCAA hoops.

College basketball is in full swing, despite a year of uncertainty amidst the national COVID-19 pandemic. Conferences and teams set out on the paths they deemed best and, for the most part, things have been sailing fairly smoothly to this point.

Top teams around the country have started testing their mettle against one another, so we are able to draw some early conclusions. Meaningful games mean standings and rankings are popping up. Below is the AP rankings for men’s hoops as of December 8th:

1. Gonzaga
2. Baylor
3. Kansas
4. Villanova
5. Houston
6. Wisconsin
7. Tennessee
8. Texas
9. West Virginia
10. Iowa
11. Creighton
12. Missouri
13. Texas Tech
14. Rutgers
15. Illinois
16. Michigan
17. Michigan State
18. Florida State
19. Northwestern
20. Duke
21. Oregon
22. Minnesota
23. Virginia
24. Virginia Tech
25. Ohio State

Gonzaga is the runaway leader so far. Baylor is the only team other than the Bulldogs to have garnered any first-place votes from the Associated Press. It is early, but to have such a clear standout at any point in the NCAA season is a bit unusual. They have easily handled some great squads so far this season and will remain an interesting team to watch for the remainder.

The Big 10 boasts nine teams in the top 25, which is wild as well. While that number is staggering, the Big 12’s five teams on the poll may represent the most impressive collection of talent with Baylor, Kansas, Texas, West Virginia, and Texas Tech all in the top 13.

Missouri is not going anywhere, hanging just outside the top ten while their SEC rival, Tennessee sits at seven. Duke is currently number 20, while North Carolina has been removed following a loss to NC State.

NCAAW

In women’s college hoops, the top headline recently was Duke canceling their season. These are strange times and it will be interesting to see if any other schools follow suit.

The top five teams early are Stanford, Louisville, NC State, UCONN, and South Carolina. So, no real surprises early. Several conferences have yet to begin interconference play, so expect full rankings soon. The Pac-12 has started and is looking strong with Arizona and Oregon joining Stanford in the top 10, with UCLA knocking on the door.

The Missouri State Lady Bears are currently ranked number 24 and will start their conference play early in 2021.

That is as brief as we can keep an update about a nation’s worth of college hoops! Keep checking back for updates on the NCAA, professional ball, local stuff, and all the basketball movement around the world.

NCAA: Men's and women's update 11-2019

Several undefeated teams are left standing early in the 2019-20 NCAA hoops season.

Few teams are more than seven games into their 2019-20 NCAA regular seasons, but we still have some teams separating themselves from the field and/or remaining undefeated. For the most part, any pre-season power rankings are holding mostly true, though several top teams have faced “lesser” opponents to this point.

On the men’s side of things, Michigan State was lauded as a popular number one pick. So far so good for the Spartans, who have looked good despite dropping their first game to Kentucky. The Wildcats are 5-1, largely thanks to Ashton Hagans, whose two-way prowess is putting him on the radar as a quality NBA guard.

Duke boasts a 6-0 record, having kicked off their season with a nice win against Kansas. The Jayhawks have picked it up since, winning their next three and playing at an elite level.

Some other noteworthy undefeated teams are Louisville, Oregon, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Ohio State, Maryland, Texas Tech, Arizona, Tennessee, and reigning NCAA champs, Virginia. The Utah State Aggies have been a pleasant surprise, going 7-0 themselves, including a nice win over LSU in the Jamaica classic. The VCU Rams and Auburn Tigers are 5-0 to start the season as well.

Locally, the Missouri State Bears are 3-4, though they have had some tough calls and very close games. They dropped those four games by a combined nine points.

NCAA women’s update

Like things on the men’s side, many of the pre-season speculations is holding true in the early going for the women. Oregon is the team to beat, with Baylor looking strong as they have for the last several years. Stanford, South Carolina, and of course UCONN are off to brilliant starts as well.

Plenty of talent returned from deep tourney runs for the five teams mentioned above. Multiple undefeated teams remain, including six from the ACC - Florida State, Louisville, NC State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina. The Big 12 is sporting six undefeated squads as well: Kansas, Oklahoma State, TCU, West Virginia, Texas Tech, and the aforementioned Baylor Bears.

The Missouri State Lady Bears are 5-1, with their lone loss coming at the hands of seventh-ranked Oregon State. They will battle major conference opponents for rankings all year long. We’ll be rooting for them!

Stick with us for more NCAA updates, local hoops stuff, and our Around the NBA segment as we track as much basketball movement as possible!

Happy International Women's Day from The Basketball Movement!

In sports, school, business, well… everywhere, there are female figures both prominent and unnoticed that are deserving of appreciation.

Basketball offers an incredible platform for women at every level of the sport. We are seeing more female coaches, referees, and sponsored athletes than ever before. Naturally, society still has room for improvement in terms of acknowledgment and appreciation of women, but we are getting there!

In thinking of the most touted accomplishments by women at the height of the sport, things have been unfortunately stagnant. The NBA is on only its third female referee since Violet Palmer broke that barrier in 1997. Becky Hammon broke barriers as the first female assistant coach, but she has already been at it for five years. It would be nice to see more movement on this front in the Association.

It would not be difficult to imagine Hammon stepping into a head coaching position in the NBA after such a successful tenure under legendary coach, Gregg Popovich. We’ll see.

The WNBA is currently as talented if not more so than it has ever been. All-time leading scorer, Diana Taurasi is still doing her thing in Phoenix, as well as the legendary Sue Bird for Seattle Storm. There is also plenty of young talent such as Elena Delle Donne, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore… you get it.

Unfortunately, despite the enormous talent in the league, revenue streams are not strong enough to support player salaries that rival their male counterparts. Basketball purists can appreciate the talent, but without increased support, many of the top players may start venturing overseas to make more money. Let’s keep these ladies here, shall we?

The NCAAW scene is thriving. March 2018 provided as much madness as we can remember for some time on the lady’s side. The sustained greatness of programs like UCONN mixed with up-and-comers such as Mississippi State has made for some incredibly entertaining basketball.

Locally, women’s basketball is going strong as well. The Missouri State Lady Bears are looking like a contender in the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, currently seeded second with only one game to play. The Drury Lady Panthers? Oh, they can’t lose. 28-0. Crazy.

Ranked at the top, the GLVC tournament is theirs to lose. The first game is tonight at 6:00 PM in Illinois against McKendree, who are winless against the Panthers all-time, including a 17 point loss earlier this season.

Success abounds at the high school level as well, with many of our Yanders Law players and The Basketball Movement athletes showing out all season long. The future of women’s basketball is strong and we hope to help in making it stronger.

Special shoutouts also to all of the mothers, grandmothers, and other guardians of basketball players. Often unsung heroes, we see these special ladies giving so much to their players to put them in the best possible position to succeed. We see you, and we appreciate you.

Happy International Women’s Day again from your friends at The Basketball Movement!

High school girl slams it home - Fran Belibi

An exciting new high school dunker is breaking onto the scene - and her name is Fran.

This is not the first time a high school girl has dunked a basketball. However, Fran Belibi of Regis Jesuit High School, CO is making it look good at just 6’1”. Her first in-game dunk was at age 15. Now, her smooth moves have the senior going viral.

Here is the slam heard ‘round social media:

No question, her height and confidence make this dunk really pop. She has a great wingspan for her stature, but her bounce really shows how women’s basketball is growing. Hooping isn’t all about flash and otherworldly athleticism, but some extra juice certainly won’t hurt the sport.

Fran is committed to Stanford, where she will follow in her parent’s footsteps to become a doctor. She has a 35 ACT score, which is as close to perfection as possible. According to spots reporter Lindsay Joy, she has only been playing basketball since her freshman year.

As a Doctoral prospect, she has a bright future. However, it is looking like she will be able to ride her basketball career about as far as she wants.

We will continue to watch Belibi’s career with great interest, but that isn’t all. Girl’s basketball has always been flooded with incredible talent, but they are still finding ways to take things to the next level.

Fran Belibi is just one shining example of basketball movement in the world of women’s sports. For more on all things basketball, keep hunting around our blog as we track the movement.

Updated NCAA basketball power rankings

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.

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.

For more NCAA, NBA, prep hoops, and everything else, keep scrolling here or follow @BBall_Movement on Twitter to get all the updates.