Reaction to Newly Released College Basketball Top 25

The new Associated Press Top 25 rankings are out after a full weekend of action. Here are the full rankings along with a few takeaways.

College football season is coming to a close at the beginning of next week, which means college basketball is going to get more attention. There was a new ranking released today; here is the full AP Top 25 (first-place votes in parentheses).

1. Gonzaga (63)

2. Baylor (1)

3. Villanova

4. Texas

5. Iowa

6. Kansas

7. Creighton

8. Wisconsin

9. Tennessee

10. Michigan

11. Houston

12. Illinois

13. Missouri

14. West Virginia

15. Rutgers

16. Minnesota

17. Oregon

18. Texas Tech

19. Clemson

19. Virginia Tech

21. Duke

22. Virginia

23. Saint Louis

23. Michigan State

25. Florida State

Texas is a basketball school?

Yes, they are. The Longhorns might have taken some headlines with their new head football coach hiring of Steve Sarkisian, but Texas’ basketball program just won a huge game over Kansas last weekend after running the Jayhawks out of their own building.

It was not just a win, it was a blowout. Texas only allowed the Jayhawks to score 59 points in the 25-point victory where Longhorn Courtney Ramey led his team in scoring with 18 points.

The Big 12 might be stacked but Texas is at the top of the conference along with No. 2 Baylor. Buckle up, it’s going to be a fun ride in the conference this season.

Is there cause for concern in East Lansing?

Michigan State was a top-six team in the country a matter of weeks ago when they beat Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on national television, but they’ve since hit some roadblocks. After being upset by Northwestern and losing to eighth-ranked Wisconsin (who has since been upset by an unranked team), they lost again to Minnesota–a team that didn’t even start the year in the Top 25.

Now, MSU will have their hands full with #15 Rutgers who has their best team in a very long time. A loss to them could knock the Spartans out of the poll altogether.

How about some love for Saint Louis?

The one school that jumps out to a casual college basketball fan in this set of rankings is Saint Louis out of the Atlantic 10 conference. They have earned their spot in the Top 25 after winning seven of their first eight games (including wins over LSU and NC State) while only losing by single digits to a 16th-ranked Minnesota team.

The Billikens now enter conference play, which means they do not play any more quality opponents–Davidson and Richmond are their toughest games–but if they only lose only a couple of more contests this year they could stay in the Top 25 picture.

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