The Most Important Fake Top-25 College Basketball Rankings On The Internet

So every Monday I’ll be putting these together. But, what I want to do each week, besides rack up hopeful pageviews by people getting mad about where their team is, is address some of the biggest questions of the previous week. Now, the way I plan on doing these rankings is a combo of looking forward and looking behind. So take some of the results that we’ve seen, but also try to predict who will be the best teams going forward.

Top 25
1. Duke (1)
2. Tennessee (4)
3. Virginia (3)
4. Gonzaga (5)
5. Michigan (2)
6. Michigan State (6)
7. Kentucky (11)
8. Virginia Tech (8)
9. Nevada (10)
10. Kansas (9)
11. Texas Tech (8)
12. Marquette (12)
13. Maryland (18)
14. UNC (17)
15. Ole Miss (13)
16. Villanova (19)
17. Buffalo (20)
18. Auburn (17)
19. NC State (14)
20. Louisville (23)
21. LSU (25)
22. Houston (21)
23. Iowa State (NR)
24. Kansas State (NR)
25. Iowa (NR)

Dropped Out: Florida State (16), Oklahoma (22), Mississippi State (24)

Alright, let’s talk about the top of the rankings here since that’s what people tend to look at right away. Yes, I still think Duke is the best team in the country despite the loss to Syracuse. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do here. The Tre Jones injury isn’t serious according to reports so we can factor him coming back. They also followed up the Syracuse loss with a home win over Virginia. That’s the best win at the top of the rankings this week. Also, let’s not forget what Duke has done so far this season. Their four best wins come over Kentucky, Texas Tech, Virginia and Auburn. That’s pretty good! So that’s why I’m keeping Duke at No. 1 in the country as of right now. If you have Tennessee, Virginia or Gonzaga at No. 1, I get it. But, these are my fake important rankings.

It was a wild week in college hoops and I think that’s going to be the norm going forward. We saw a bunch of top-10 teams lose, so you can’t just drop teams all willy nilly. On the flip side two teams that had big wins and fairly big jumps were both Kentucky and Maryland. Kentucky went down to Auburn, which is probably the toughest place to play in the SEC and led for pretty much the entire game. Maryland meanwhile keeps winning. Both will have big weeks ahead of them that can really show just how good they are. Maryland has Michigan State while Kentucky has Mississippi State and Kansas.

Speaking of SEC teams, LSU is flying a bit under the radar. They were one of my favorite teams coming into the season with Tremont Waters as a guy who I thought could be an All-American. They didn’t have a great nonconference without a notable win. But, now they are undefeated in conference play with a win at Ole Miss. They have Georgia and Missouri this week – two games they’ll likely be favored in. Winning those and we’re looking at LSU at 6-0 in conference play with just 1 game against Kentucky, Auburn and Tennessee.

Scheduled Top-25 Games this week:
No. 8 Virginia Tech at No. 14 UNC – Monday, 7pm, ESPN
No. 23 Iowa State at No. 10 Kansas – Monday, 9pm, ESPN
No. 13 Maryland at No. 6 Michigan State – Monday, 6:30, ESPN
No. 9 Texas Tech at No. 24 Kansas State – Tuesday, 7pm
No. 6 Michigan State at No. 25 Iowa – Thursday, 7pm, FS1
No. 19 NC State at No. 20 Louisville – Thursday, 8pm
No. 23 Iowa State at No. 15 Ole Miss – Saturday, Noon
No. 10 Kansas at No. 7 Kentucky – Saturday, 6:00pm ESPN