The second full week of college hoops is a thing of the past, and here are where the local teams sit.
Record and last week’s ranking in parenthesis.
- Boston College (4-1, 2) – Eagles continue to climb after racking up two more wins last week. BC is coming off perhaps what was its most impressive victory of the season, an 82-61 rout of a solid La Salle squad. BC seems as it’s on a mission to get more players involved in the offense and its showed as five Eagles are pumping in 10.4 points per game or more. Colgate (Wednesday at 4 p.m.) and Providence (Saturday at 8 p.m.) await over the next seven days.
- Harvard (2-2, 1) – Crimson lose the top spot for the first time this season. Losses to Holy Cross and Manhattan will do that, though. Albeit both were by 73-69 finals, they still won’t look to well come March if the Crimson are vying for an at-large bid. It’s still too early to hit the panic button on them just yet, as last season fall they began with a 1-4 mark, before finishing the season at 18-10, nearly winning the Ivy League. A vicory in an enormous bout against No. 21 St. Mary’s on Thursday at 4 p.m. would get Harvard back on track.
- UMass Lowell (3-1, 5) – Another solid week of action advanced the River Hawks up two spots. UML is pumping in 86.3 points per game through four games, and could easily be undefeated if it wasn’t for a five-point loss sans Jahad Thomas to UMass in its season opener. With games against LIU Brooklyn (Wednesday at 3 p.m.) and Loyola (MD) (Sunday at 2 p.m.) this week, UML could find itself at 5-1, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves quite yet.
- UMass (2-1, 3) – Minutemen took care of business in their only game last week by routing Niagara, 101-76, behind 15 3-pointers. UMass is shooting 74.1 percent from beyond the arc – a number that seems unsustainable, so it’s going to have to develop more of a low-post game fairly soon. It will have its hands full this week with games against West Carolina (Tuesday at 7 p.m.), No. 14 Minnesota (Friday at 12 p.m.) and BYU (Saturday at 2:30 p.m.) as the Barclays Center Classic rolls on.
- Northeastern (2-2, 4) – Huskies showed some life in the second half of a loss to Stanford, but were just embarrassed in their next contest, an 80-55 defeat against Ohio State. Northeastern scored just 17 first-half points. Scoring is a serious issue for Northeastern – which ranks 311th in the nation with 65.6 points per game. Utah State (Friday at 4 p.m.) and Furman (Saturday at 3 p.m.) are next up for Bill Coen’s club.
- Holy Cross (2-1, 7) – Holy Cross jumps one spot after a 1-1 week. It was a week that began with a 73-69 win over Harvard, but ended with an 88-66 loss to Rhode Island. The Crusaders, who were minus their top player in Karl Charles, trailed by three in their defeat against the Rams, and their youth showed in the second half as they just unraveled. Over the next seven days, Holy Cross will visit Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday at 2 p.m. before returning home to host Albany on Saturday at 1:05 p.m.
- Boston University (0-3, 6) – Terriers are still in search of win No. 1. If there is a week to capture it, it has arrived. BU will travel to Maine on Wednesday at 2 p.m. and play host to Wheaton (MA) on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Power rankings are decided with the help of several factors: record, strength of schedule, and record against top-tier opponents. The colleges in our coverage area include: Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Holy Cross, Northeastern, UMass and UMass Lowell. Power rankings will be published on Mondays, with the exception of the first and last game of the year, throughout the season.
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