In Purdue’s long college basketball history, they never earned the top spot in the AP poll. Until this week. With wins over Florida State and Iowa this week, and an upset win for Ohio State over #1 Duke, the Boilermakers are on top of college basketball for the first time in program history. The only question now is how will they handle this pressure and the target on their back in the best conference in the nation?
1. Purdue (8-0)
Matt Painter’s squad was a preseason favorite to make the jump to national championship contenders and they are living up to that designation thus far. Few players are as fascinating as Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey and there is plenty of depth and talent aside from these two superstars.
2. Duke (7-1)
Losing to Ohio State on the road is nothing to hold your head about, but the manner in which the Blue Devils did it turned some heads. They were unable to score any points in the final 4:29 and squandered a 13-point halftime lead despite the Buckeyes giving them every chance to win by shooting 50% at the charity stripe. This team still beat Gonzaga so there is no reason to panic after one non-conference loss.
3. Baylor (8-0)
The Bears earned their long break after running through the Battle 4 Atlantis, so they stayed put in these rankings after only playing once this week against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and taking care of business as expected.
4. Gonzaga (7-2)
The Zags are challenging themselves more than ever before this season and with great wins also come bad losses when you play stiff competition every week. The last two weeks brought those bad losses. Alabama became the second team to knock off the Bulldogs and they did so convincingly. This team needs to learn to defend or the WCC will not be a cakewalk as teams continue to catch up to Mark Few and the Zags.
5. UCLA (7-1)
The Bruins are finally back to looking like the Final Four team from a season ago after a dominating victory over Colorado without Jaime Jaquez Jr. He went down with a head injury early, but Cronin has his team playing tough right now and they look every part of the preseason #2 team in the country.
6. Villanova (6-2)
Nova will travel to MSG to take on Syracuse and Waco, Texas to take on the Baylor Bears next week before conference play opens up and both will be must-watch games as their brutal non-conference slate comes to a close.
7. Alabama (7-1)
What a win it was on Saturday night for Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide. There may not be a better backcourt in America than the one that was on full display against the Preseason #1 Bulldogs. Their prolific offense runs into the frustrating Houston Cougars defense next weekend in what should be an entirely different game with as big of a contrast in styles as we can possibly see in our sport.
8. Kentucky (7-1)
Kentucky has one of the easiest non-conference schedules in the entire country excluding their first matchup with Duke. That is changing quickly as Notre Dame, Ohio State and Louisville will face the Cats in three of the next four, so we will finally see how Big Blue stacks up against real competition soon enough.
9. Kansas (6-1)
The Jayhawks found their offense this past week after putting up 95 and 96 points against Iona and St. John’s. Big 12 play doesn’t start until the new year, so we won’t see another true test for the Jayhawks until then.
10. Auburn (7-1)
Jabari Smith and the Tigers continue to dominate pretty much anyone in their path. Smith looks every part of a top-three pick in the draft and the Tigers, who only lost a double-OT thriller against UConn look like true title contenders.
11. Arizona (7-0)
The Wildcats hot start to the season continued with a 25-point win against Oregon State in their first conference matchup. A trip to Champaign is on the schedule this Saturday in arguably the biggest game of the season so far for the Cats.
12. Arkansas (8-0)
Kansas State is the only power-five team the Razorbacks played so far, but Oklahoma will prove to be a fascinating matchup of offense vs. defense and could be the first team to knock off the Hogs.
13. Wisconsin (7-1)
The Maui Invitational champions continued their run of success this week with two quality wins against Georgia Tech and Marquette. Ever since they went down 26-10 early on against Texas A&M, something started clicking and the Badgers look unstoppable at the moment.
14. Houston (7-1)
The Cougars loss to Wisconsin becomes more and more forgivable every day and their performances since that defeat are dominant to say the least. They are giving up 50 points per game over their last three and averaged 105 points in the latter two this week. ‘Bama vs. Houston will be must watch TV Saturday night.
15. Tennessee (6-1)
The Vols are the fifth SEC team featured on this list after another impressive victory on the road against Colorado Saturday afternoon. They also posted a 17-point victory over North Carolina earlier in the season and Villanova is almost as far from a bad loss as you can have.
16. Ohio State (6-2)
The Buckeyes knocked off #1 Duke and followed it up with a road win to start off Big Ten play in State College. The backcourt is finally starting to gel and the experienced frontcourt is as dominant as expected.
Next 5: Iowa State, Michigan State, UConn, Texas, USC
Players of the Week:
Jaden Ivey, SG, Purdue Boilermakers
The main man leading the way for Purdue’s stellar season is the projected top-five pick Jaden Ivey. The sophomore guard is electric on the fast break, long and disruptive defensively, and seemingly improving every game from beyond the arc. If he continues to knock down outside jumpers, there will be no holes to his game and he will be a lock for a top-five pick.
Collin Gillespie, PG, Villanova Wildcats
As far as basketball injuries go, torn ACLs are among the hardest to return from, especially for a point guard who uses speed and quickness to take over games. Gillespie is not just returning to his form before the injury, he is playing better than ever before. 26 and 23-point showings against Big 5 competition propelled Gillespie to a player of the week here in early December.
Trayce Jackson-Davis, PF, Indiana Hoosiers
The Big Ten has some of the best big men in the country, but Trayce Jackson-Davis is playing the best over the last three games. The junior forward posted 43 points against Marshall last week and totaled 31 points and 16 rebounds in a double-OT loss to Syracuse on Tuesday.
Kofi Cockburn, C, Illinois Fighting Illini
Jackson-Davis was not the only big man in the Big Ten who shined this week. Since returning from his three-game suspension to start the year, Cockburn is averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Illini. We are in for some fascinating post matchups in Big Ten conference play and Cockburn will be at the center of a lot of them.
JD Davison and Jaden Shackelford, PG/SG, Alabama Crimson Tide
I mentioned earlier how lethal the Alabama backcourt is and these two led the way this week. Shackelford couldn’t seem to miss against Gonzaga and helped the Tide build a 15-point halftime lead and Davison did the rest in the second half scoring 20 points of his own to complete the upset. The freshman guard has 33 points and 13 assists in his last two games as he is starting to find his groove at the collegiate level.
Play of the Week:
Norfolk State was leading Hampton by two with five seconds remaining. The Pirates rushed up the floor and as Russel Dean escaped a half-court trap, he heaved up a one-handed prayer that nobody in the building believed had a chance of going in. They were all wrong. Dean’s buzzer-beater will be on the shortlist for most improbable shot of the year and it gave his squad an unforgettable game-winning basket. Check it out!
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/32790486
